Bobby: He was just, um... selling drugs.
Hank: [sighs] That was an awful lie, son. Terrible.
A Frustrating Lie is when a character shows frustration towards another character for a lie they told because they either delay telling the truth when presented the opportunity, they tell a lie that's obviously false, or the lie makes their situation complicated. But despite them being frustrated by their lies, they still choose to play along with it either because they're waiting for them to come clean or they're caught up in the lie and they need to help maintain it. Alternatively, if a character is demanding the truth from them and they tell an obvious lie, they won't just be mad that they're being lied to, but also because of how awful it is.
At first, they'll be shocked that another character is telling a lie or that the lie they told is bad and/or complicated, but afterwards, depending on the situation, they'll express negative emotions about it.
When dealing with characters who refuse to tell the truth, they might express anger or disappointment towards them because they have the opportunity to come clean but they're too scared or stubborn to do it. They might have to play along so they can continue to try to convince them to tell the truth or they trust them to tell the truth eventually. When the other character finally decides to tell the truth, but instead of the main truth, they confess to a lesser truth or they change their mind and continue to lie, this will increase the other character's frustration.
When dealing with characters who can't lie to save themselves, they might express anger, disbelief, or annoyance because of how bad it is and chances are they'll react with a Facepalm. If by luck their awful lie is believed by someone, they'll express disbelief that their lie actually works or say the person believing the lie is an idiot.
Their lie may also make things more complicated because now they need to work quickly to make their lie believable and they have to work extra hard to maintain it.
When a character is demanding the truth from them and they get an awful lie in return, while they'll be disappointed in their dishonesty, they're more disappointed that the lie they give is so blatantly false, they might tell them to tell a better lie. They might also show anger if they keep lying to them even after they call them out on it.
The character might be okay with them lying, but they won't tolerate a lie that's really bad or complicates their situation. If they keep telling more bad lies, expect the character to try to stop them from making it worse or blowing their cover.
When lying to a group of people, the character must try not to show their frustrated reaction because other people will figure out the lie. But sometimes if the lie is that bad, they just can't help expressing it in front of others.
Eventually, if the lying keeps continuing and it gets worse with each lie, they'll reach their Rage Breaking Point. If they hear another lie again, they'll give up where they'll either abandon their colleague so they can deal with their lies on their own, force them to come clean, or straight up tell the truth for them because they are done with their lies. They might even call them out on it.
The lies may also be the cause (or result) of Poor Communication Kills, which will only add to the character's frustration when they hit their Rage Breaking Point or call everyone out.
It should be noted that the character isn't showing their frustration after learning about the lie later on, but they're frustrated the moment they hear the lie. If they're going to show their frustration, they need to show it immediately after the lie is told. The examples need to mention the lie the character is frustrated about.
Examples that involve Cassandra Truth don't count since the character is actually telling the truth. The example has to be about a lie.
This type of reaction usually occurs when dealing with a Bad Liar or a Compulsive Liar. Commonly seen in "Fawlty Towers" Plot, Maintain the Lie, Snowball Lie when it involves two or more people to maintain the lie and one of them will act frustrated when the other lies. Typical reactions will include Death Glare, Disapproving Look, and Facepalm. Could overlap with Will Not Tell a Lie if the reason they're frustrated is because they hate lies in general. Will typically lead to a Honesty Aesop. Some examples might overlap with Do Wrong, Right ("I'm not upset you lied; I'm upset that you couldn't tell a believable one!").
Examples:
- Total Drama World Tour Deluxe: At one point, Heather slaps Courtney for lying to her, although not because Courtney lied. Rather, Heather found the lie to be so blatant that she thought Courtney was insulting her intelligence by telling it to her.
- Aladdin: When Aladdin tries to pretend to be a prince to impress Jasmine, Genie is annoyed by this and keeps insisting that Aladdin tell the truth.
- Furious 7: Early on in the film, after a long day at the DSS office, Elena Neves decides to go home for the night, but her partner Luke Hobbs decides to stay behind and do a check. When he claims that he's not doing it out of paranoia, Elena tells Hobbs, "You're a terrible liar," but in an affectionate way, and she lets it slide. When Hobbs goes back inside the building, though, he finds Deckard Shaw hacking into his computer, and his attempt at bluffing the villain goes just as poorly:
Shaw: I'm not interested in your computer. I'm looking for the team that crippled my brother. [His brother, in this case, being Owen Shaw, the Big Bad of the previous film]
Hobbs: There ain't no goddamn team. It was just one man. And he's standing right in front of you.
Shaw: [finishes downloading the information he needs onto his USB stick and turns his chair around to face Hobbs] The lady was right. You are a terrible liar. [kicks the desk in front of him over and starts attacking Hobbs] - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: After finally coming face to face with Smaug (and being forced to take off the One Ring thanks to some Mind Rape), Bilbo resorts to using flattery to stroke the dragon's ego and convince him that he came to Erebor to admire Smaug's magnificence, not to steal from his Dragon Hoard. Sadly, while Smaug is a Faux Affably Evil Narcissist, he's also an Ax-Crazy Mood-Swinger with a Hair-Trigger Temper, and it doesn't take long before he starts losing patience with Bilbo's transparently thin lies:
Smaug: And what about your little Dwarf friends? Where are they hiding?
Bilbo: D... Dwarves? No, no, there's no Dwarves here. You've got that all wrong.
Smaug: No, I don't think so, "Barrel-Rider"! They sent you in here to do their dirty work while they skulk about outside!
Bilbo: Truly, you are mistaken, oh Smaug... Chiefest and Greatest of all Calamities.
Smaug: You have nice manners... for a thief, and a LIAR!! I know the smell and taste of Dwarf. No one better! [...] It's Oakenshield, isn't it? That filthy Dwarvish usurper! He sent you in here for the Arkenstone, didn't he?!
Bilbo: No, no, I've no idea what you're talking about! [he says while running directly towards the Arkenstone while Smaug's back is turned]
Smaug: [wheeling around to glare at Bilbo] Don't bother denying it!! [Bilbo runs back into hiding] I guessed his foul purpose some time ago. - In the Loop: As with his TV incarnation, Malcolm Tucker is easily Enraged by Idiocy, especially from overambitious government employees trying to be cunning. As such, when he finally realizes it's Toby who's been undermining his work by leaking everything to the press, Malcolm is actually pretty sanguine about it, if only because it gives him the perfect opportunity to blackmail Toby into becoming his "Kunta Kinte." What really brings out Malcom's Tranquil Fury is Toby's pathetic denial.
Malcolm: I know it was you who leaked Linton's war committee.
Toby: Oh. Right. Erm... It wasn't?
Malcolm: "It wasn't?" That's what you'll say when they slip a hood over your head, when they fly you to Diego Garcia and carry out a cavity search?
Toby: I don't actually recall, it was a very busy time.
Malcolm: That's better. - My Father the Hero: When Niki is abroad with her father André, she tells her love interest Ben that André is her lover, rather than her father. At first, André goes along with this, but Niki's lies become more and more outrageous, including that she cannot leave him because he is dying of an incurable disease. Again, André plays along and pretends to be ill, but he finally snaps and demands that Niki tell Ben the truth. She still fails to do so, until her lies finally come crashing down in a spectacular fashion.
- Star Wars: In the opening scene of A New Hope, the Rebel Alliance has just stolen the complete plans for the Death Star, and Darth Vader tracks those stolen plans to the blockade runner Tantive IV. Princess Leia entrusts the plans to the droid R2-D2 and tells him to flee the ship—then when she's captured by Darth Vader minutes later, she denies all knowledge of the Rebels and the plans, and tries to invoke diplomatic immunity. Vader gets so frustrated with this lie that he loses composure and cuts the interrogation short. The prequel Rogue One retroactively gives more context to Vader's annoyance and makes Leia's lies even more blatant: at the Battle of Scarif, Darth Vader himself came within a hair's breadth of recapturing the stolen plans, and he saw the soldier with the plans board the Tantive IV just before it fled the battle.
Princess Leia: Darth Vader. Only you could be so bold. The Imperial Senate will not sit still for this. When they hear you've attacked a diplomatic—
Darth Vader: Don't act so surprised, Your Highness, you weren't on any mercy mission this time. Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by Rebel spies. I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you.
Princess Leia: I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan.
Darth Vader: [audibly angry] You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor! [to the troopers holding Leia] Take her away!
- His Dark Materials: After Lyra tells her hosts in the City of the Dead her fanciful tales about her adventures with her friends, Chevalier Thyalis tells Lyra that he's fed up with her numerous lies and that she should follow him to Lord Asriel's fortress at once. Afterward, her Death appears, allowing her to go to the World of the Dead.
- Blackadder: Played with in "The Foretelling". Queen Gertrude comes to Edmund's room while he's hiding the wounded Henry Tudor and realizes there's someone else in the room with him—or possibly something: "Is it a woman?" "No." "Is it a man?" "No." "It's not a sheep, is it?" Near the end of the conversation, Henry trolls Edmund by bleating like a sheep from the bed, and Gertrude complains about him lying to her.
"Oh, Edmund. It's the lying I find so hurtful." [leaves]
- Son of a Critch: In "Old Friends, New Friends", Mark and Ritchie are selected for a regional science fair based on a project that Ritchie's dad built for them, which also leads to them befriending (and becoming smitten with) a pair of Protestant girls from another school, which in turn leads to them pretending to be socially-conscious Protestant boys in an attempt to impress the girls. Fox gets increasingly irritated by her friends' bullshitting and eventually exposes their lies in front of the Protestant girls.
- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: In "Have a Nice Trip", Zack, Cody, Maddie, and Carey are trying to expose a father and daughter con artist, Harry and Holly, who got free room service after Harry faked an injury by slipping on Zack's skateboard. While Maddie and Carey are trying to make Harry reveal he faked his injury in his room, Zack and Cody try to stall Moseby and Holly from interfering. When Moseby asks why they're standing in front of Harry's room, Zack lets Cody lie for them, but we don't hear what Cody tells them because it cuts back to Maddie and Carey trying to expose Harry. When we cut back to the twins, Cody just finished telling his lie, but not only do Moseby and Holly don't believe him, but they look absolutely bored because Cody's lie went on for too long, and Zack isn't impressed either.
Zack: No wonder you never lie, you stink at it.
- The Walking Dead (2010): In "Hearts Still Beating", after Rosita failed to kill Negan after she fired Eugene's homemade bullet at him and missed and hit his baseball bat Lucille instead, Rosita is shoved to the ground at knifepoint, and Negan demands to know who made the bullet. To protect Eugene, she lies and claims she made it, but not only does Negan not believe her, but it makes him even more furious that she has the nerve to lie to him despite the situation she's in. When Rosita still doubles down on her lie, Negan punishes her by having someone in her community killed in her place. Not wanting more people to suffer, Eugene comes clean about making the bullet, and Negan takes him hostage for his skills.
- Baldur's Gate III: Gale easily comes to terms with Astarion being a vampire, but if Astarion persistently denies it to him after the whole party already knows, his approval takes a massive hit because "You're a dishonest vampire, and that's far worse."
- Genshin Impact: During the Fontaine Archon Quest, nearly every character who speaks with Furina gets frustrated at her blatant lies about having a plan to deal with an upcoming prophecy, that threatens to destroy their entire nation in a giant flood. This reaches a boiling point after Poisson gets flooded (with several deaths), leading several characters to lose all patience with Furina and orchestrate a trial to force her to be honest about what she knows.
- Kingdom Hearts II: Roxas' idyllic life in Twilight Town is interrupted by the onset of various phenomena, creepy monsters, and ominous dreams of another boy's life; compounded by the appearance of strange people who not only claim to know him personally but absolutely refuse to articulate what's happening and why he's being targeted.note Namine tries to explain some of what's happening, but DiZ interrupts her before she can tell Roxas everything and purposely dangles vague knowledge over the boy's head without an ounce of sympathy, causing Roxas to emit a Skyward Scream and finally go berserk.
Roxas: WHAT'S GOING ON!? [tosses the Keyblade. It returns to him]
- Sam & Max: Freelance Police: In "The Mole, The Mob, and The Meatball", Sam and Max meet a lying cheat named Leonard Steakcharmer who challenges them to "Indian Poker" in which he cheats by looking at a mirror to see his card. After being beaten, Leonard steals the Toy Mafia's meatball sub which Sam and Max become tasked to find, running into Leonard who threatens to shoot the two of them if they move. Of course, they only show to be slightly annoyed with his bluff after Max points out that Leonard is threatening them with a cap gun before tying him up.
Max: Excuse me. Are you chance holding us at gunpoint with a harmless cap gun?
Sam: Once a cheat, always a cheat. Eh, Leonard? - You Don't Know Jack 2011: In Episode 25, Cookie tries to send out e-vites to a party, with everyone giving him ridiculous excuses why they can't go such as Donny getting a hysterectomy and two other staff members getting a two-for-one lobotomy. In his frustration, he turns it into a question, asking which of the excuses he heard makes any medical sense. How fed-up he is with the situation shows even if you get the question right.
"An otolaryngologist is an ear, nose, and throat doctor. All the rest of you are f**king bad liars."
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: In "The Boiling Rock, Part 1", when Sokka is explaining their prison escape with Zuko and Suki, Chit-Sang overhears them, and says he heard them say they're hatching an escape plan. While Zuko denies it, Sokka adds that the only thing they're hatching is an egg, causing Zuko to lower his head and Suki to facepalm while they both sigh in annoyance.
- DuckTales (2017):
- In "Woo-oo!", before Donald leaves for his job interview and he hears his houseboat starting up, he asks Huey and Louie where Dewey is. Louie says he's sleeping, but Huey asks, "Who's Dewey?", making Louie slowly turn his head towards Huey to glare at him. After Donald leaves to go find Dewey, Louie yells at Huey for his weak lie.
- In "The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!", when Donald wants to make himself look impressive to his friends, José and Panchito, by lying about how successful he is, Huey and Scrooge agree to help him, with Huey telling Donald to keep his lie small and simple. But of course, Donald's small and simple lie is telling them he's in charge of McDuck Enterprises and he's a billionaire, which naturally causes Huey and Scrooge to facepalm at the same time. With the damage done, Huey adds that Donald is taking over the family business so Scrooge can retire, and Donald adds that it's because Scrooge is very, very old, which angers Scrooge, but he plays along so he doesn't have to pay for their trip. Donald ends up making it more complicated when he and his friends decide to bring back their old band, the Three Caballeros, and he agrees to pay for their expenses using Scrooge's money, which upsets Scrooge even more, and Huey tries to talk Donald out of it and come clean to his friends.
- The Great North: In "Sister Pact Too Adventure", when Beef's former classmate from high school, Zelda, drops by his house to fulfill their high school marriage pact and he tells her he can't marry her, she gets upset, which causes her bones to stop working, and she lays on the ground and won't leave until she feels better. In order to get Zelda to leave his house, Beef lies and tells her he just got remarried and he'll introduce his wife to her, which frustrates Wolf, Ham, and Moon, who now have to play along in order to get Zelda to leave, and at one point, Ham tells Beef to stop talking to avoid making their situation more complicated. While Wolf is trying to contact Alyssa to help pretend to be Beef's wife, Beef ends up making the situation worse by claiming his wife is currently in his bedroom resting, adding more frustration to the Tobin boys because now they have to rush to get someone in Beef's bedroom before Zelda finds out.
- King of the Hill: In "When Joseph Met Lori, and Made Out with Her in the Janitor's Closet", when Bobby tries to cover for Joseph when he's caught making out in the janitor's closet with his girlfriend and lies by saying Joseph was just selling drugs, not only does Hank not believe him, but he admonishes him for telling such an awful lie.
- The Loud House: In "House of Lies", the Louds, with the exception of Lisa, keep telling one another white lies, which Lisa disapproves of. But after the family secretly disposes of Lynn Sr.'s cabbage casserole because they hate it and they lie about eating it to him, Lisa decides to take action by building lie detectors to make them stop lying. However, when this leads to them using Brutal Honesty and getting angry, she realises that sometimes it's okay to lie.
- My Adventures with Superman: In "You Will Believe a Man Can Lie", after Lois learns that Clark is Superman from the previous episode, she tries to have him admit his secret to no success. She ends up frustrated with his lying, but when she sees a nasty laser injury on his neck and he tells her he got it while shaving, at that point, she gets fed up with Clark's lies and finally forces him to come clean by purposely falling off a building, forcing him to fly down and save her.
- The Simpsons:
- In "Kamp Krusty", when Homer promises Bart he can go to summer camp if he gets good grades, Bart tries to change his report card.
Homer: A+!? You really don't think much of me do you?
Bart: No, sir.
Homer: You know, a "D" turns into a "B" so easily. You just got greedy. - In "Last Exit to Springfield", Ralph tries to lie to the dentist Dr Wolfe about brushing his teeth three times a day. Dr Wolfe picks up on the lie immediately and asks him, "Why must you turn my office into a house of lies?", causing Ralph to break down and sob, "I don't brush! I don't brush!"
- In "Goo Goo Gai Pan", the Simpsons and Selma go to China so Selma can adopt a baby while Homer poses as her husband in front of the Chinese adoption agent, Madam Wu. When Madame Wu asks what Homer does for a living, Homer was going to say he works in a nuclear power plant but realizes that since they don't know him, he can be whatever he wants. When he sees an acrobatic performance display in the street, he claims he's a Chinese acrobat, which causes Marge and Selma to gasp at his lie, with Marge facepalming and shaking her head. This ends up backfiring on Homer when Madam Wu asks him to substitute for a performer in a Chinese acrobatics display, and Selma forces him to do it so their cover isn't blown.
- In "He Loves to Fly and He D'ohs", after Bart discovers that Homer failed to get his dream job and kept it a secret from the family, he convinces Homer to tell the truth to Marge because she started buying expensive groceries. When Homer calls Marge to tell her the bad news, he hears how sad she is and delays telling her the truth, causing Bart to facepalm and shake his head. He plans to tell her on a private jet to lessen the impact of the truth.
- In "Kamp Krusty", when Homer promises Bart he can go to summer camp if he gets good grades, Bart tries to change his report card.
- Steven Universe: Throughout the entire first half of the series, Steven increasingly builds up frustration at the Gems keeping secrets about the past from him, until he erupts in "Steven's Dream" when he asks about a blue palanquin in his dream and the Gems refuses to come clean about it.
Steven: I'm sick of everyone lying to me!
