Basic Trope: A character claims to be another character's relative to justify them being around.
- Straight: Alex encounters Brigit, a Heartwarming Orphan, and somehow gets saddled with her. When his friends ask about his new ward, he tells them that she's his niece—the daughter of his recently deceased (and totally non-existent) sister.
- Exaggerated: Alex has adopted ten down-on-their-luck orphans and even some homeless adults. He claims that they're all his various distant long lost relatives.
- Downplayed: Alex is Brigit's much older brother and their parents just died, meaning that Brigit now has to live with him. In order to not have anyone question the age gap, Alex tells his friends that Brigit is his niece.
- Justified: Alex knows that Brigit will be taken by the Department of Child Disservices if they knew she was an orphan, so he has to pretend to be her relative to gain custody of her.
- Inverted:
- Alex refuses to acknowledge Alice as his sister, and when people come to him to complain about her behaviour, he would always claim that he doesn't know her.
- Alex gains custody of his illegitimate daughter Brigit, but when asked about his new ward, he claims that she is an orphaned girl he adopted.
- Subverted: After being officially adopted, Brigit reveals that she really is Alex's relative. She's his Kid from the Future, in fact.
- Double Subverted: Except not really. She just have a very active imagination and is making things up.
- Parodied: Alex adopts a Little Green Man and claims that it's his deformed younger sibling. Nobody raises an eyebrow.
- Zig Zagged: While Brigit is not actually Alex's Kid from the Future, a DNA test reveals that she's actually his cousin once removed.
- Averted: Alex honestly tells his friends that Brigit is not actually related to him.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "I didn't know you have a sister Alex, let alone a niece."
- Invoked: See Justified.
- Exploited: Delilah, Brigit's biological mother and a Struggling Single Mother who had left the city for a few days for work, returns to find Brigit "adopted" by Alex. Since Delilah never wanted to raise Brigit to begin with, she happily takes the chance to wash her hands clean of her daughter to pursue her own goals.
- Defied: When Alex tells his friends that Brigit is his niece, Brigit denies any familial connection and blabs the whole story about how they met and their exact (lack of) familial relationship.
- Discussed: "Alright, alright, Brigit is not actually my niece. I only said she was because I didn't think anyone would believe that I'd adopt some random orphan I met at the park."
- Conversed: "Why did Alex claim that Brigit is his niece again?" "Probably because it's less of a mouthful than saying, 'Some random orphan I happen to take pity on and decide to adopt'."
- Played For Laughs: Alex is a Bad Liar, and while trying to explain Brigit's presence, he keeps on forgetting whether she's supposed to be his cousin, niece or his sister, and Brigit has to keep correcting him. Then they start brainstorming on ideas for a suitable backstory for their circumstances in front of the people they're attempting to fool, even asking them for ideas and suggestions.
- Played For Drama: Alex is a Villain with Good Publicity who claims that Brigit is his niece so that he can gain custody on her while planning to use her for evil purposes. When Brigit's biological mother, a poor and uneducated woman, tries to get her daughter back, most people (who bought Alex's lies) dismiss her as a raving lunatic.
Back to Relatively Flimsy Excuse.
