"Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Difference between revisions

Someone working on a show thinks the audience might not believe something being shown or described is real. It's not that [[Viewers are Morons|the writer thinks the audience is stupid]]. It's that the thing being shown [[Refuge in Audacity|actually is ridiculous or silly enough]] that there is ''good reason'' enough to think it's not real. So the writer includes a disclaimer directly to the audience. Sometimes this is [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]], but often it's a non-fiction show. Either way, this is making sure the audience knows this is not a joke, and, in case something seems too exaggerated, that legitimately it's [[Not Hyperbole]].

* Current{{when}}An advertsadvert campaign for UK consumer magazine ''Which?'' relied on this trope, for instance:

** Narator{{quote|'''Narrator:''' Yeah, There really tried to do this people, [http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid{{=}}20110111173430AAS4rX8 Google it]!!}}

* While ''[[The Cartoon History of the Universe]]'' usually makes up quotes for [[Rule of Funny]], occasionally a quote will come with a disclaimer of "Someone actually said this!"

* ''[[Fargo]]'' starts with a title screen saying that it's a true story. (The movie is completely fictional, but the [[Coen Brothers]] claim that some pieces of it came from various real cases.)

* The [[HBO]] TV movie ''[[wikipedia:The Pentagon Wars|The Pentagon Wars]]'' has a title card that goes something like "The [[Dark Comedy|following story]] would be a comedy (beat) if it didn't really happen". Imagine you want to make, essentially, an armored Humvee for fast troop transport but your higher-ups kept adding [[More Dakka]] to the [[Cool Car]] to the point of ''actually endangering the troops'' {{spoiler|and when your idea is finally made in the way you wanted it to be in the first place you're fired and the dakka-obsessed generals get promoted}}.

** In the Author's Note at the end of ''[[Discworld/The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents|The Amazing Maurice and Hishis Educated Rodents]]'', Terry Pratchett points out two plot points from the book that were taken from real life facts or events regarding rats. He also notes, "Most of the true stuff -- or, at least, the stuff that people say is true -- is so unbelievable that I didn't include it in case readers thought I'd made it up."

** In Another Discworld example is in ''[[Discworld/The Truth|The Truth]] when'', he mentions in the beginning his research about how cities dealt with flooding problems that inspired Ahnk-Morpork's method is based on the city Seattle, Washington's methods used towards the end of the 19th century.<ref>"Really. Go and see. Try the clam chowder while you're there."</ref>

** Another example inIn ''[[Nation]]'', whereTerry hePratchett says that, among other things, a cannon made of whatever was lying around has been used several times in real life.

* The author's note/introduction to the [[Stephen King]] story collection ''[[Hearts in Atlantis]]'', in a section that includes the usual "this is a work of fiction" disclaimer, also contains the line "Although it is difficult to believe, the sixties are not fictional; they actually happened."

* [[Mary Renault]] wrote in the novel ''Funeral Games'' that Alexander the Great's body didn't decompose during the 48 hours following his death even though he had died in Babylon during a heat wave. Critics accused Renault of falling prey to the modern Eastern Orthodox myth of the "incorruptible saint". Renault pointed out in an author's note to the second edition that the story of Alexander's incorruptibility is part of the historical record, and was likely the result of his troops mistaking a profound pre-death coma for actual death. This kind of thing happened all the time with Renault's works, with the critics screeching in rage about things ''she got right'' because they weren't in accordance with conventional politically correct (for the '50s) wisdom.

* The opening of ''The [[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' opens with a fictional "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Although Tom Sawyer is not a real person, the book is told from Huck Finn's perspective, and therefore Tom ''is'' real to the narrator (because they are from the same universe). Huck breaks the fourth wall to acknowledge that "[''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer''] was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth . . . Mary, and the Widow Douglas, is all told about in that book -- which is mostly a true book; with some stretchers, as I said before." Given that ''Tom Sawyer'' ends with {{spoiler|Tom and Huck finding buried gold worth $12,000 -- which was enough to live on for the rest of your life, with proper management, in the 1860s -- guarded by a dead "Injun" murderer}}, it's little wonder Huck was at such pains to make sure everybody knew it really happened.

* The [[Mercedes Lackey]] novel ''This Sceptered Isle'' contains one character who moves permanently underhill (elfland) and is replaced by a construct which slowly falls apart in magic-poor england. His "corpse" is then wrapped in lead to hold it together and buried before anyone can look at it. The book's afterward explains that he:

* ''[[1632]]'' ends with a disclaimer about which characters were real, which fictional, and which fictional but based on a real category of people.

* For their novel ''Freedom Bird'', Allan Cole and Chris Bunch inverted this with a disclaimer that "all of the people, places, times and events depicted herein" were '''completely fictional''', "including [[Ronald Reagan]], [[LSD]]25, Haight Street, Ashbury Street, the entire Year of 1967, the City of [[San Francisco]] and the State of [[California]]." It's so comforting to know that 1967 never actually happened....

* In the ''[[Colbert Report]]'', Stephen insists [http://www.cc.com/video-clips/zzgfft/the-colbert-report-wheat-thins-sponsortunity that Nabisco literally sent him a one page memo about how to promote Wheat Thins and what the brand represents [http://www.cc.com/video-clips/zzgfft/the-colbert-report-wheat-thins-sponsortunity].

* During Charlie Murphy's ''True Hollywood Stories'' on ''[[Chappelle's Show]]'', he tells a story about [[Prince]] inviting him, [[Eddie Murphy|his brother]] and some friends to play basketball. After trouncing the Murphys' team, Prince makes them pancakes, at which point the camera cuts back to Charlie Murphy, who assures us, "Really. Pancakes." After that Charlie assures us even further by asking the audience who in their right mind would make this up, and then demands that if we don't believe him to challenge Prince to a game of basketball ourselves and see how talented he is.

** During the ''True Hollywood Stories'' about Rick James, Rick James himself assures the audience that the insanity between him and Charlie Murphy they are about to see actually happened by saying, "Now this is true."

* The [http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/ Kung Fu Monkey blog] frequently acts as a Disclaimer for ''[[Leverage]]''. That's not just for the plots [[Ripped from the Headlines]], either; according to [[Word of God]], when a [[Big Bad]] cuts loose with the [[Evil Speechof EvilGloating]], it's frequently taken from genuine transcripts of crooks and fat cats doing ''exactly that''. Any changes are because Rogers and his writing staff have to ''tone them down''.

* The skit 'Los Caquitos', from the ''[[Chespirito]]'' TV show, has an episode were Botija bets with Chompiras in a poker game based on the "good luck" that his [[Western Zodiac|horoscope]] predicted, yet it ends backfiring. The episode ends with a disclaimer saying that the horoscopes used through the episode were not made up by the writer, but taken verbatim from an actual Mexican newspaper.

== Theater[[Theatre]] ==

* During Anna Russell's synopsis of [[Richard Wagner]]'s ''[[Der Ring Des Nibelungen]]'', she looks at the audience and says "I'm not making this up, you know!" (And she isn't.) Due to the context and delivery, it's one of the biggest laugh lines in her entire ''Ring'' routine. (This phrase became [[Signature Line|so strongly identified with her]] that it is in fact the title of her autobiography.)

* ''[[The Fly-By-Night Club]]'', a comedy revue in Alaska that performed at a (now long-closed) theater, had the running-gag line of "We're not making this up, people; we're not that good,", when talking about epic non-politics failures by US Representative Don Young and Senator Lisa Murkowski (they bet in one of Alaska's only legal pool bets, that the ice at a specific spot on a specific river would break... On April 31).

* In the musical ''[[The Robber Bridegroom]]'', the opening number, "Once Upon the Natchez Trace,", contains repeated assertions that "this is true." Of course, this song talks about things like a man whose brother was only a talking head, and a woman whose beauty was so incredible that her sleeping naked under a full moon caused the moon to burn as hot as the sun.

** In his review of the animated... adaptation... ''[[Titanic: The Legend Goes On]]'', he holds up the DVD case as proof that it actually exists e repeated the gag.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140312213938/http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/The_Curse_of_the_Screaming_Dead_1982.aspx?Page=6 Occurs] [https://web.archive.org/web/20140312171853/http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Mister_T/U_F_O__Mystery.aspx?Page=2 quite] [https://web.archive.org/web/20140312214033/http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Day_of_the_Dead_2__Contagium_2005.aspx?Page=3 a] [https://web.archive.org/web/20140312201944/http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Zoom__Academy_for_Superheroes_2006.aspx?Page=2 lot] in [[The Agony Booth]] recaps. Sometimes there's a [https://web.archive.org/web/20140312184946/http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Superman_IV__The_Quest_for_Peace_1987.aspx?Page=2 screencap] to prove it.

** Even came up in an [httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20190818144807/https://www.agonybooth.com/lloydk2hinterview-with-lloyd-kaufman-part-1-9982 interview] once...

** His live review of the ''[[Spider-Man]]'' Manga, when he mentions it's by the same writer as ''Spider-Man: Reign''.

{{quote|"Not only was her design based on a drag queen..." [shows picture of Divine] "No, ''really''. }}

* Used by [[RedLetterMedia|Mr. Plinkett]] in his review of ''[[Baby's Day Out]]''... [[Subverted Trope|while claiming that the movie spawned a Congressional hearing on whether the federal government should ban the production of Hollywood movies.]]

* ''[[Skippy's List|Skippys List]]'' has examples:

* WithinAmong the pastsnippets year,used by Rage ComicsComic havethere seen the addition of a new Rage Face,is a [[Memetic Mutation]] Linearts of [[How I Met Your Mother|Barney Stinson's]] "True Story" line and pose. Used by authors of Rage Comics to invoke this trope.

*** {{quote|"'''Be very careful, Joey!'''"}}

* The non-fiction book ''The [[Wrestlecrap]] Book Of Lists'' said that [[Professional Wrestling|professional wrestler]] Joanie Laurer ([[Chyna]]) appeared as a judge for a Most Beautiful Transsexual contest, following that statement up with a "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer.

* Part of the reason why The Strangeways Prison riot was able to spread so quickly was because it started on [[April Fools' Day|April 1]], causing several of the upper staff in control of the prison to question the authenticity of the calls for help.

* In the book ''Website Creation In Plain English'', the author says of a certain ASCII character, "it makes a computer go beep." He then explains he's not making this up and links to [[That Other Wiki]]'s article on the [wp:Bell character|Bell Character]. That's the thing to put on an infinite loop in high school computer science.