History Main / UndeadAuthor

-->-- ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl''

This of course [[FridgeLogic raises the question]] of where the legend came from, if nobody has ever lived to talk about it? Perhaps the author was undead.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* Fans of ''Film/CitizenKane'' have gone to great lengths to reconcile the FridgeLogic of how Kane's last word, spoken as he died all alone, could be known to the man investigating why he'd said "Rosebud".

* In ''TheCartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse'' chapter on ancient India, there appears the Hindu parable of an atheist who spent his entire life inwardly repeating "There is no God" as a mantra. When he died, his soul was instantly unified with God, because, paradoxically, by denying God, he'd managed to keep the deity constantly in mind. The historian-narrator then asks, "Say, how'd anyone know what happened after the guy died?"

-->-- ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl''

* ''SchindlersList'' has an example similar to the one above, with one character arguing the Nazis can't really be killing everyone. The context, though, makes this tragic irony rather than comedic irony.

* Specifically averted by ''NaturalBornKillers'' in which the title characters always leave alive one witness to tell the tale. (This turns into a plot point at one stage of the story.)

* {{Snopes}}.com has expressed bewilderment at people who send them that "My name is so-and-so, I am but three/Tonight my daddy murdered me" poem and ask if it's "real" or not.

Compare DidYouDie No relation to DeathOfTheAuthor.

* AmbroseBierce's ''The Stranger'' plays the trope straight, with deep emphasis on ''undead''. A troop of Union soldiers on an exploration quest through Arizona is approached by a mysterious man who narrates the story of four previous explorers, Ramon Gallegos, William Shaw, George W. Kent, and Berry Davis, who committed suicide while besieged by Apaches in a cave rather than dying of thirst. When a listener scorns and curses him for abandoning his comrades in their death, the stranger does only tell again they were four of them who died, and disappears. With uncanny calm, the troop's Captain acknowledges that years before there had been found and buried the bodies of four men, mutilated by the Indians, and the storyteller had been just whom he said he was, Berry Davis, who even if shot again "couldn't have made him any deader".

** And again in ''Discworld/TheLastHero'': [[spoiler: Cohen and his Silver Horde realize they have been set up]] when the [[TheNameless bard]] they dragged along asks who wrote the scrolls guiding them up the mountain of the gods if nobody has survived the journey.

* In ''MonkeyIsland2'', most of the events of the game are framed by Guybrush telling the story to Elaine, and at one point it appears that Guybrush has died, upon which Elaine remarks that he couldn't have died since he's right there relating it to her.

*** Similar story is told about unrooting mandrakes. THe question remains: How would the deaf person even know there is a sound, let alone that it's the sound that is killing the other people?

* [[ALoonaticsTale Miya]] tells Dr. Qubert the tragic story of her, a young orphan girl, in issue 4: Talking To Myself. After an unkind and high-class vampire (probably one of the Cruors) hits her with a rock and tells her to get a job, her cat dies, then, exhausted and starving, she lays down on the ground, utters her final words ("[[Literature/AChristmasCarol God bless us, everyone]]"), and dies. Forever.

* Two mythological monsters, Medusa and the Basilisk, possessed magical auras that would kill anyone who looked at them (and, in some versions, anyone they looked at). Despite this they were often physically described in great detail in the legends. In the Medusa's case it could be argued that this was because looking at her reflection in a mirror wasn't lethal and someone could have seen only their reflection. But there is really no excuse for the Basilisk, who not only had a lethal reflection, but also breathed poison gas as a backup weapon (JK Rowling tweaked the Basilisk for the HarryPotter series so that indirect looks at it were nonlethal, but induced petrification).
** It also helps in HarryPotter that they have a literal undead author in the case of Moaning Myrtle.

* ''Literature/TheUglyBarnacle''. If [[spoiler:everyone died]], then how did Patrick survive to tell the story? And how did WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob|SquarePants}} survive to hear it?

* ''Literature/TheUglyBarnacle''. * UndeadAuthor: If [[spoiler:everyone died]], then how did Patrick survive to tell the story? And how did WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob|SquarePants}} survive to hear it?

* Parodied in [[http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/gamespyarchive/index.php?date=2001-04-25 this]] ''{{Nodwick}}'' strip.

* Averted in ''MassEffect'' where the last dozen [[BenevolentPrecursors Protheans]] who survived the Reaper genocide dedicated their lives to sabotage the Reaper plans for the next extermination cycle, [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture giving their successors a fighting chance against the next Reaper invasion.]] Their efforts culminated in Vigil, a VI set up to tell the next sentient races about the Prothean's ultimate fate.

** Somebody would also have needed to enter the cave and leave again to ''put the Armor there''. So if you believe the story of the Armor being there, you ''have'' to believe it's possible to return from it.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' uses the "mundane hiking accident" variant in "Silence in the Library" for maximum ParanoiaFuel. The Vashta Nerada exist on ''every'' planet; the reason we never hear about them is because they exist in dark and isolated places, and, well, you know how people go missing in the woods...

* In Sara Shepard's series ''The Lying Game'', (now with a somewhat similar [[Series/TheLyingGame TV adaptation]])), Sutton is literally this, having been murdered at the outset of the first book.

* Averted in ''Film/InglouriousBasterds''; the titular Basterds always leave one [[strike:Nazi]] Nat-zee alive to spread the word about them.[[hottip:*:That's how the story goes, anyhow. The Basterds actually spare the first Nazi willing to betray their side by telling the Basterds what they want to know. Obviously, this cowardice would be punishable by execution if the Nazi's superiors knew about it, to discourage other cowardly Nazis from doing it in the future. Hence, the official reason they're spared is to spread the word, and the Nazi's superiors are content to order them not to tell anyone.]] But not before carving a Swastika into their foreheads, so even if they ''don't'' tell the story, other people will know it.

** And again in ''Discworld/TheLastHero'': [[spoiler: Cohen and his Silver Horde realize they have been set up when the [[TheNameless bard]] they dragged along asks who wrote the scrolls guiding them up the mountain of the gods if nobody has survived the journey.]]