History Main / NotaryNonsense

* Notarizing something blatantly illegal turns it into a legally-binding contract.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'': Lucy invites Charlie Brown to kick a football, which he refuses because she [[RunningGag always pulls it away and he falls on his back]]. Lucy then presents to Charlie Brown a document stating that she won't pull it away, so Charlie Brown runs over to kick the ball. When she pulls it away anyway, she notes that [[NeverFilledOutOfficialPaperwork the document wasn't notarized]].[[/folder]]

* The kidnapping and extortion in ''Film/PainAndGain'' almost falls apart after they force Victor Kershaw to sign over his life savings and all business holdings, since they didn't get the paperwork notarized. [[TooCleverByHalf "Mastermind"]] Daniel Lugo, who never quite figures out what a notary actually is, eventually gets the owner of his gym, who got his notary license years ago for an unrelated matter, to sign the paperwork, which gets ''him'' arrested along with all of the rest when the scam is exposed.

[[folder:Web Original]]

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS28E9TheLastTractionHero The Last Traction Hero]]," Smithers thinks that eating a cake with a waiver written on it counts as signing a waiver as long as it's done in front of a notary. ScatterbrainedSenior Abe Simpson being that notary doesn't help the situation.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' episode "[[Recap/TheVentureBrosS5E1WhatColorIsYourCleansuit What Color is Your Cleansuit]]", Hank (a teenager of uncertain legal age due to [[spoiler:being a clone]]) claims to offer notary services to an inquiring Dr. Orpheus (who needs to change the terms on his child support). Considering that Hank's "company" is basically a LemonadeStandPlot after Rusty forced him to get a job that he runs in the garage selling items he swipes from the compound, serving crappy food, and offering a variety of services (tailoring, printing, etc.) with his only "employees" being Sgt. Hatred (a recovering supervillain) and Dermott (also a teenager), it is highly unlikely that any of them are actually qualified notaries.

[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'': Lucy invites Charlie Brown to kick a football, which he refuses because she always pulls it away and he falls on his back. Lucy then presents to Charlie Brown a document stating that she won't pull it away, so Charlie Brown runs over to kick the ball. When she pulls it away anyway, she notes that [[NeverFilledOutOfficialPaperwork the document wasn't notarized]].

* Don Martin's ''Lance Parkertip, Noted Notary Public'' is technically a notary public, but his day-to-day work consists of absurd HardboiledDetective adventures involving dangerous criminals and gunplay. He also stamps things almost as a CharacterTic and even uses his stamp in lieu of a ticket when investigating aboard a cruise ship.

* The kidnapping and extortion in ''Film/PainAndGain'' almost falls apart after they force Victor Kershaw to sign over his life savings and all business holdings, since they didn't get the paperwork notarized. 'Mastermind' Daniel Lugo never quite figures out what a Notary is, either. He eventually gets the owner of his gym, who got his notary license years ago for an unrelated matter, to sign the paperwork, which gets ''him'' arrested along with all of the rest when the scam is exposed.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': Peggy Hill is a notary public. When Buck Strickland needs to hide assets from his wife ahead of her filing for divorce, he sells his barbecue restaurant to Hank and scribbles the transaction on a beer coaster, which Peggy promptly notarizes. (Notaries are generally supposed to be ''impartial'' witnesses, making the situation even more legally murky.)

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

** Donizetti's ''Don Pasquale'' -- Don Pasquale is an old man whose nephew Ernesto refuses to marry the rich fiancee he's arranged, so as punishment, he decides to find a young wife for ''himself''. He asks the advice of a doctor, who is Ernesto's friend, and gets Ernesto's girlfriend Norina to pretend to be an innocent former nun, and "marry" Ernesto's uncle to turn his plan on its head. The notary is the doctor's cousin in disguise.
** Mozart and Da Ponte's ''Theatre/CosiFanTutte'' -- Despina, the maid who encouraged the two female leads to embrace the same freedom men have and leave their old lovers as presumed dead and get with these new foreign suitors (actually the old lovers in disguise, seducing each other's girlfriends) dresses up as a notary to officiate once the women fall for the "new" men.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': Dr. Doofenshmirtz's evil scheme in "Magic Carpet Ride" is to enact a "solemn vow" he made to make his brother pay for ruining his painting back when they were young adults. The day after he made the solemn vow, he had it notarized.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': Peggy Hill is a notary public. When Buck Strickland needs to hide assets from his wife ahead of her filing for divorce, he sells his barbecue restaurant to Hank and scribbles the transaction on a beer coaster, which Peggy promptly notarizes. (Notaries are generally supposed to be ''impartial'' witnesses, making the situation even more legally murky.)

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': Peggy Hill is a notary public. When Buck Strickland needs to hide assets from his wife ahead of her filing for divorce, he sells his barbecue restaurant to Hank and scribbles the transaction on a beer coaster, which Peggy promptly notarizes.

* On ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', Peggy Hill is a notary public. When Buck Strickland needs to hide assets from his wife ahead of her filing for divorce, he sells his barbecue restaurant to Hank and scribbles the transaction on a beer coaster, which Peggy promptly notarizes.

* In ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'', Amy Santiago is a ByTheBookCop who loves doing paperwork and is very proud about being a notary. When Jake Peralta [[spoiler:by this point her husband and father to her child]] uses a different notary for something she reacts like he had an affair.

-->'''Amy:''' ''Just'' embossed? What else are you gonna tell me? Did you just put your thumbprint in his log book?

* ''Series/{{Floricienta}}'': After Sofía leaves for Brazil and Floricienta refuses to take the money of her biological father, Santillán, because she does not need it to be happy, the widow Malala and his SpoiledBrat daughter Delfina are set to be declared the only heirs to Santillán's fortune. Floricienta, however, has a change of heart when she realizes she could use the money to become the foster mother of the Fritzenwalden kids and save them from Delfina, their WickedStepmother. According to Santillán's will, Malala and Delfina must wait until an 8:00pm deadline before they are declared the heirs. Floricienta must [[RaceAgainstTheClock race to the last notary office open that evening]] to claim her inheritence... which is an odd situation for a notary to be in. A notary could have validated the will back when Santillán was alive, but it would be up to something more like an estate lawyer to oversee and settle the actual ''terms'' of the will.
* ''Series/HudsonAndRex'': In "[[Recap/HudsonAndRexS3E13MansionOnAHill Mansion on a Hill]]", Grace intends to infiltrate a party Sarah's friend, Fiona, is hosting to murder Sarah. She [[AccidentalMurder accidentally murders]] a notary in attendance, Jamie, who caught he trying to sneak in, but then uses Jamie's notary stamp to gain entrance while pretending to be her. Notary stamps are a tool of the trade, but using one as a form of ID definitely qualfies as nonsense.

* ''Series/{{Witse}}'': A PlayedForDrama example in the episode [[Recap/WitseS5E3MrCash Mr. Cash]]". After a notary is murdered, the investigation reveals that he was running a {{Ponzi}} scheme using under-the-table cash from his clients. While not impossible, it would be an odd scheme for a notary, something more suited for an professional investor or accountant as notaries generally don't handle client money like that.

* ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'': For the Notaries Public, paperwork is a sacred ritual, as they're an ancient ObstructiveBureaucrat monastic order. Unity's induction to the order involves transfusing her brain into various wild animals to learn the wisdom of bird and beast, all of which turn out to have their own bureaucracies. (This is an alternate certification path, though. Non-prophesied notaries just submit an application and pass a gauntlet of deadly trials.)

[[folder:Theatre]]
* Opera comedies involving a fake notary witnessing a fake wedding that some main character is supposed to believe is real include:
** Donizetti's ''Don Pasquale'' -- Don Pasquale is an old man whose nephew Ernesto refuses to marry the rich fiancee he's arranged, so as punishment, he decides to find a young wife for ''himself''. He asks the advice of a doctor, who is Ernesto's friend, and gets Ernesto's girlfriend Norina to pretend to be an innocent former nun, and "marry" Ernesto's uncle to turn his plan on its head. The notary is the doctor's cousin in disguise.
** Mozart and Da Ponte's ''Theatre/CosiFanTutte'' -- Despina, the maid who encouraged the two female leads to embrace the same freedom men have and leave their old lovers as presumed dead and get with these new foreign suitors (actually the old lovers in disguise, seducing each other's girlfriends) dresses up as a notary to officiate once the women fall for the "new" men.
[[/folder]]

-->'''Narrator:''' There is no doubt as to its authenticity. Testimony of people participating in the experiment, sworn to by a notary public, preclude the possibility of any fraud.\\

[[folder:Web Originals]]

Sub-trope of ArtisticLicenseLaw. Can also be a form of HollywoodLaw. Compare FantasticalSocialServices, which may cross over if the notary in question is in some way supernatural. Notarization may be done with a {{Personal Seal|s}} depending on the locale. Notaries exist to help avert tropes like ForgingTheWill, APlotInDeed, and sometimes NeverFilledOutOfficialPaperwork in real life. WhereTheresAWillTheresAStickyNote isn't likely to be notarized, part of why it is so legally dicey. May be involved to give legitimacy to a SillyWill or SpitefulWill.