History Main / UndeadAuthor

* The singer of ''[[Music/TheLonelyIsland Like A Boss]]'' is asked to describe an average day. Apparently an average day consists of chopping his balls off, crashing into the Sun and dying.
** And turning into a jet, bombing the Russians, sucking his own dick, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking eating chicken strips]]
** ''Trouble on Dookie Island'' ends with the {{Villain Protagonist}}s getting killed by the police.
** "Rocky" has Andy get graphically killed in a boxing match by [[Franchise/{{Rocky}} the title character.]]
* The singer of ''[[Music/WeirdAlYankovic Everything You Know Is Wrong]]'' gets his organs removed by aliens, but doesn't even die until the next verse (for different reasons), after which he goes on to narrate what happened after that:
--> "When I got a nasty papercut/And, well, to make a long story short/It got infected and I died/So now I'm up in heaven with St. Peter/By the pearly gates..."

* ''Film/TheManWhoWouldBeKing'': The two AntiHero's are venturing into the unknown, following the records of a mapping expedition some years earlier. They come across a member of that mapping expedition, who says that he was stranded from civilization by a landslide that killed all of the others. This raises the question of how that map that got Daniel and Peachy that far made it back to civilization in the first place. Presumably either someone else did survive but was stranded on the other side of the landslide, or they'd sent back a courier with what they'd mapped already prior to the disaster.

* Gets a LampshadeHanging in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' when [[MrExposition Yue]] talked about the Deep Library after they fell into it during the Library Island Arc.

* PlayedWith in ''[[Manga/ForbiddenScrollery Touhou Suzunaan: Forbidden Scrollery]]''. There's a rumor about a story called "The Bull's Head" that's so scary that anyone who hears it will die. This is happening in conjunction with stories becoming true. [[FantasyKitchenSink More so than usual]], anyway. [[spoiler:The rumor was started by a youkai to make people scared (which strengthens the youkai) without actually hurting anyone due to the logical impossibility of anyone actually knowing and telling the story.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron'' has Jimmy pointing out the FridgeLogic of an urban legend about a theme park, questioning how Nick could know the kids' final words if they were never heard from again.

** It is stated that the Dread Pirate Roberts "never [leaves] captives alive." One wonders why anyone would ever surrender to him. In the book it's made clear this only applies if they fight, if they just hand over the valuables they can go. This was [[PragmaticVillainy the whole point of building the reputation in the first place]]; a technique used sometimes by Real Life pirates.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland'': Teased, but ultimately subverted. Lena tells the gang that the pirates Morgan Moonscar died on the titular island two hundred years ago. Later, the gang find out that pieces of his pirate ship, implying that his ship didn't make it off the island when he died (which is surrounded by man eating alligators) and raising the question of how people know for sure that he died there. [[spoiler:It eventually turns out that Moonscar and his entire crew did in fact die on the island, and that Lena knows this because [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld she's one of the people who killed them]]]].

* Inverted in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'': Carrot assures Gaspode that there have been no reports of wolves attacking humans unprovoked, and Gaspode reasons that this might be because no unprovoking human who did get attacked has ever returned to tell the tale.
** And again in ''Discworld/TheLastHero'': [[spoiler: Cohen and his Silver Horde realize they have been set up]] when the [[NoNameGiven bard]] they dragged along asks who wrote the scrolls guiding them up the mountain of the gods if nobody has survived the journey.

* PlayedWith in ''[[Manga/ForbiddenScrollery Touhou Suzunaan: Forbidden Scrollery]]''. There's a rumor about a story called "The Bull's Head" that's so scary that anyone who hears it will die. This is happening in conjunction with stories becoming true. [[FantasyKitchenSink More so than usual]], anyway. [[spoiler:The rumor was started by a youkai to make people scared (which strengthens the youkai) without actually hurting anyone do to the logical impossibility of anyone actually knowing and telling the story.]]

* Parodied to a very literal extent in the Creepypasta section of "''WebAnimation/WelcomeTo'' Fanfiction.net", with a healthy heaping of TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou ([[CrowningMomentOfFunny from dying of laughter]]):

* PlayedWith in ''[[Manga/ForbiddenScrollery Touhou Suzunaan: Forbidden Scrollery]]''. There's a rumor about a story called "The Bull's Head" that's so scary that anyone who hears it will die. This is happening in conjunction with stories becoming true. [[FantasyKitchenSink Moreso than usual]], anyway. [[spoiler:The rumor was started by a youkai to make people scared (which strengthens the youkai) without actually hurting anyone do to the logical impossibility of anyone actually knowing and telling the story.]]

** [[DisabilityImmunity Their deaf friends.]]
*** 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? Then again, deaf people could deduce quite easily that it's a deadly sound because they're the only ones who survive.
*** Some variants state it's not quite the sound - the mandrake is bloodthirsty, and you can [[BalancingDeathsBooks Balance Death's Books]] by tying a dog nearby.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'': Carrot assures Gaspode that there have been no reports of wolves attacking humans unprovoked, and Gaspode reasons that this might be because no unprovoking human who did get attacked has ever returned to tell the tale.

* Similarly [[InvertedTrope inverted]] in ''[[Literature/{{Spellsinger}} The Paths of the Perambulator]]'', when Jon-Tom narrowly avoids being killed by [[spoiler: an explosive pinecone]]. When he protests that there are no such things on his (our) world, Mudge half convinces him that there ''could'' be, if anyone who encounters one dies and is written off as the victim of a mundane hiking accident.
* Creator/EdgarAllanPoe was usually good about averting UndeadAuthor. He even did it with ''Literature/ThePitAndThePendulum'', though he had to resort to a DeusExMachina.

* Some [[Literature/TheBible biblical]] traditions hold that Moses wrote the entire Torah or Pentateuch... which invokes this trope when you realize that this means he narrated ''his own death'' in Deuteronomy 34.
** Usually waved off by claiming that either this part was written by Joshua, or Moses in a God made trance.

** It's explained that the story resulted from someone asking the denizens what happened to her.

*** Happens again in [[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor "The Time of the Doctor"]], where Tasha Lem berates the Doctor, telling him "I died screaming your name!" only to then realize that oh yeah, she died...

* Averted in ''Franchise/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. In the third game, we meet Javik, the last Prothean, who has survived as a HumanPopsicle.

** Via smartphone, of course!

* Wild Bill Hicock was known for this. He would spin a Tall tale that would result in him facing insurmountable odds. When asked about what happened, he would end it with, "Well son. I died!"

* PlayedWith in TouhouSuzunaanForbiddenScrollery. There's a rumor about a story called "The Bull's Head" that's so scary that anyone who hears it will die. This is happening in conjunction with stories becoming true. [[FantasyKitchenSink Moreso than usual]], anyway. [[spoiler:The rumor was started by a youkai to make people scared (which strengthens the youkai) without actually hurting anyone do to the logical impossibility of anyone actually knowing and telling the story.]]

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' uses a "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...
-->'''The Doctor''': Almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark, but they're wrong, because it's not irrational. It's Vashta Nerada.
** In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks Asylum of the Daleks]]'', one of the survivors tells the story of surviving the crash but realizes he ''didn't'' survive the crash. He explains that he died "and the cold preserved my body". Then things get worse...
*** Happens again in ''The Time of the Doctor'' where Tasha Lem berates the Doctor, telling him "I died screaming your name!" only to then realize that oh yeah, she died...

* In one episode of ''Series/GilligansIsland'' had a gag where Gilligan had a book about poisonous plants. Much to his confusion, however, the author was referred to as 'Late'.

[[folder:RealLife]]
* Wild Bill Hilcock was known for this. He would spin a Tall tale that would result in him facing insurmountable odds. When asked about what happened, he would end it with, "Well son. I died!"

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

Compare DidYouDie. Contrast SpareAMessenger. No relation to DeathOfTheAuthor.

Compare DidYouDie No relation to DeathOfTheAuthor.

This of course raises the question of where the legend came from, if nobody has ever lived to talk about it? Perhaps the author was undead. (Or the monster. Or both.) Or perhaps the author wasn't one of the monster's targets, but observed what happened to its targets -- for example, using the example in the page quote, the author may have observed the ''Black Pearl'' from a safe distance, seen it pulling into a harbour, then found everyone there dead after the ship left. It may also be possible to piece events together after the fact based on circumstances, much like how an investigator can link multiple victims to the same SerialKiller based on a CallingCard or a running {{theme|SerialKiller}}, but figuring out the monster's habits still leaves its identity up in the air. ApocalypticLog and AlmostDeadGuy are more potential explanations.

This of course raises the question of where the legend came from, if nobody has ever lived to talk about it? Perhaps the author was undead. (Or the monster. Or both.) Or perhaps the author wasn't one of the monster's targets, but observed what happened to its targets -- for example, using the example in the page quote, the author may have observed the ship from a safe distance, seen it pulling into a harbour, then found everyone there dead after the ship left. It may also be possible to piece events together after the fact based on circumstances, much like how an investigator can link multiple victims to the same SerialKiller based on a CallingCard or a running {{theme|SerialKiller}} that connects the deaths. ApocalypticLog and AlmostDeadGuy are more potential explanations.

This of course raises the question of where the legend came from, if nobody has ever lived to talk about it? Perhaps the author was undead. (Or the monster. Or both.)

Compare DidYouDie. No relation to DeathOfTheAuthor. ApocalypticLog is another possible explanation.

Contrast SpareAMessenger, where the one who commits an act deliberately leaves survivors to bear witness.

** Their deaf friends.
*** 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?

* Apart from the obvious, literal example of many characters (who do indeed occasionally narrate) being vampires, ''VampireDiaries'' features a somewhat surprising example as Elena reads one of the diaries of her ancestor Jonathan, as he actually states how he saw who killed him. It's explained by the existence of the Gilbert Protection Rings, of which Jonathan was the first wearer, which revive anyone killed by the supernatural.

* Wild Bill Hilcock was known for this. He would spin a Tall tale that would result in him facing insurmountable odds. When asked about what happened he would end it with, "Well son. I died!"

* Jokingly referenced in the video "Every Teen Movie Ending" from CollegeHumor, wherein the narrator describes the eventual fates of every character in the video and then closes with this line:

* Jokingly referenced in the video "Every Teen Movie Ending" from College Humor, wherein the narrator describes what happened to every character in the video and then ends with this line: