History Main / SarcasticConfession

* Arcade Gannon from ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' will joke with you that he used to be a militant fascist if you ask about his past. [[spoiler:He used to be a member of the Enclave.]]

Troper General's Warning: It is not recommended you try this in RealLife, particularly if you are being questioned by authorities. The world can be more GenreSavvy than TV seems to think.

* ''NewAmsterdam'' is shaping up to be this way (paraphrase):
-->'''Main Character:''' I can read lips.\\

'''Main Character:''' Was for a while. Back in Normandy. A shell exploded too close for comfort.
** He does that a LOT. He tells anyone who asks that he's an immortal 400-year-old.

* This was how the Metans operated in Dikto's version of ''ShadeTheChangingMan'': their outpost on Earth was disguised as a conspiracy theory insisting Metans were amongst us.

* On one episode of ''FawltyTowers'' wherein Basil is putting on a painted smile and a false air of jollity in front of one of the old ladies who have permanent residence at the hotel because he's trying to pretend like nothing's wrong when a guest had (unknown to most everyone) died in his sleep, she says, "''You're'' very cheerful this morning, Mr. Fawlty!" to which he replies with just enough faux merriment so she'll think he's kidding, "Yes, well one of the guests has just died!!"

* In the ''HarryPotter'' PeggySue fanfiction ''FanFic/OhGodNotAgain'', Harry constantly tells the truth about how he knows certain things, stating specifically that no one would believe the truth anyway.

* In ''HarryPotter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'', Dumbledore tells Snape, "unless you are suggesting that Harry and Hermione are able to be in two places at once, I'm afraid I don't see any point in troubling them further." Harry and Hermione had, in fact, been in two places at once.

** PlayedWith when Boomer (who hadn't yet discovered she was a cylon) sarcastically says that she is.

'''Clark:''' Well, Lois, the truth is, I'm actually Superman in disguise and I only pretend to be a journalist in order to hear about disasters as they happen, and then squeeze you out of the byline.\\

'''Lois:''' You're a sick man, Kent. ''**Walks off**''\\
'''Clark:''' You asked...

* {{Batman}}, as Bruce Wayne, was once called for JuryDuty and stated that he would not be a suitable juror because he was Batman, and helped apprehend the criminal. No-one believes him, because everyone knows [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob Bruce Wayne is a fop and an utter dope]] (he later told Robin that, since he was under oath, he had no choice but to admit that he was Batman).
* In an issue of ''[[JusticeLeague JLA]]'', white Martians start controlling the minds of people in an attempt to ruin the lives of the Justice League. They force Dick Grayson to cut the Bat-Rope while Batman is dangling from it, send an angry mob after Jimmy Olsen, etc. One of their tricks is to briefly take control of Lois Lane while she and Clark are at the Daily Planet, and have her rip open Clark's suit and expose him as {{Superman}}. Immediately afterward she comes to her senses and tries to fix it via this trope. With Clark's super-speedy help she is able to make it look like a prank by ripping open an intern's suit as well, revealing that he suddenly has a {{Batman}} shirt underneath. However, when she attempts to continue the gag by ripping open her own shirt and exposing herself as WonderWoman Clark isn't fast enough and she ends up just... exposing herself.

** Made even funnier by the fact that Clark ''[[PaperThinDisguise lowers his glasses]]'' before telling her.

* In ''The Goat'' Martin flat out confesses to his wife that he's been sleeping with the title character. She laughs it off.

* Subverted in Creator/GKChesterton's short story "The Worst Crime in the World", in which FatherBrown accompanies a lawyer to visit the father of Captain Musgrave. The priest's niece is considering marriage with the captain, while the lawyer's firm is considering lending him money, so they're interested in his character (and whether his father is on good enough terms with him to leave him money). The father says that while he will leave his son the estate, he will never speak to him again, because his son committed "the worst crime in the world". [[spoiler:In fact, the captain had murdered his father just before they arrived, and was passing himself off as his father during the conversation.]]

* In ''WebOriginal/MotherOfLearning'', going backwards in time is widely known to be completely and utterly impossible -- so when [[http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2961893/16/Mother-of-Learning Taiven asks Zorian how]] [[spoiler:Zach, a third-year student like Zorian, managed to slay a dragon]], he goes ahead and tells her about the GroundhogDayLoop, knowing she won't believe him. [[spoiler:Unfortunately -- or perhaps fortunately -- his sister and his roommate ''do'']].

Note that a SarcasticConfession is one which the confessing party INTENDS will not be taken seriously. Otherwise, it's an IgnoredConfession.

* Cormor from ''[[ComicBook/DungeonTheEarlyYears The Dungeon Series]]'' is an automaton and therefore cannot lie. At the beginning of his life, it gets him into all sort of trouble. After a few centuries, he's gotten good enough in SarcasticConfession to build a whole life as an undercover automaton.

* Dominique uses this twice in ''TheFountainhead'' to keep her relationship with Roark a secret when her admirer-then-husband Peter Keating asks her who else she's slept with. The first time, she tells him it was a worker in the granite quarry, and he laughs it off. The second time, she simply says, "Howard Roark," and he sulkily answers, "Fine -- you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

* Cormor from ''[[DungeonTheEarlyYears The Dungeon Series]]'' is an automaton and therefore cannot lie. At the beginning of his life, it gets him into all sort of trouble. After a few centuries, he's gotten good enough in SarcasticConfession to build a whole life as an undercover automaton.

* On the ''{{Taxi}}'' episode "Crime and Punishment", Louie has been embezzling money from the company, and when this money is discovered to be missing, he attempts to frame Jeff in hopes that the whole thing will blow over without incident. Alex, who all along suspected that Louie was covering his own crime, threatened to turn him in if he didn't himself. Louie confesses in private with their manager, who immediately breaks down laughing in disbelief, and even drops charges against Jeff because of how ridiculous he find the idea of Louie committing this theft. When Alex arrives to ensure that Louie confessed, they both partake in hilarity over his "alleged" dishonesty, with Louie even pretending to steal a piece of office equipment on the way out.

** In ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'', Twyla's parents asked her governess Susan why she's leaving the basement with a poker in hand. Susan answered that Twyla thought she heard a monster in the basement. The parents assumed that Susan had gone there to pretend to beat up a monster, in order to assure Twyla that it was safe. They thought the bent poker was a nice touch.

* In DouglasHulick's first novel, AmongThieves, Kell ends up with a priceless and extremely powerful book of magic, and after much deliberation decides to do something completely unthinkable and sell it to the Emperor. He's then caught by Shadow (who he had promised under duress to deliver the book to). Shadow figures Kell was planning to sell it to someone, and asks who. Kell answers truthfully, and as expected, his answer is treated as a hilarious joke.

* In the first episode of Wolfblood, Maddy goes to school in wellington boots and is asked why. She comments that her shoes were eaten by a werewolf. The real reason: her wolfblood mother had used the shoe as a chew toy while transformed under the full moon.

* In ''NightHawks'', the BigBad is flirting with a girl when she asks him what he does for a living.

* Horribly subverted in the story of Samson and Delilah. After lying about what his AchillesHeel is three times, he tells the truth the fourth time, apparently expecting her not to believe him. He really should've seen it coming, though, since she ''did'' try all the other things he claimed would weaken him; there's really no reason to think she wouldn't give it a shot ''this'' time, too.