"Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Difference between revisions

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== Comic Books ==
* 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!"
 
== Film ==
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* "I am not making this up" is a [[Catch Phrase]] of humor writer [[Dave Barry]]; he even named one of his books ''Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up''. Although sometimes [[Blatant Lies|he is anyway]]. On occasion, when he's reporting something genuine but really ridiculous, he'll say something like "I'm pretty sure I must have made this up."
* In [https://web.archive.org/web/20110319220609/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cache-and-carry one column], Steve Mirsky uses the phrase "I'm not kidding, that's the actual plot." after summarizing ''[[Relentless]]''.
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** 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."
* Inverted in ''[[Complete World Knowledge]]''. Each books starts with a reminder that John Hodgman ''is'' making this up. Although he has insisted that one blurb on the back of [[The Areas of My Expertise|the first book]], a letter of praise from a magus of the Church of Satan, is, in fact, genuine, although Hodgman himself is not a Satanist.
* [[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.
* In the "Caveat, and Warning for Travelers" that opens the novel ''[[American Gods]]'', [[Neil Gaiman]] states the following: "Furthermore, it goes without saying that all of the people, living, dead, and otherwise in this story are fictional or used in a fictional context. Only the gods are real."
** Of course, at least one of the main ones was completely made up for the book.
* The opening of ''[[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.
* Neil Strauss does this at the beginning of [[The Game (novel)|The Game]]. He would have to because no one would believe the crazy events and people that he wrote about in the book.
* In the ''Orphanage / Jason Wander'' series by Robert Buettner, in the second book ''Orphan's Destiny'', the main character quotes "I am not making this up". It almost has to be a deliberate nod to [[Dave Barry]], as it occurs in Florida and is in reference to orange juice and space-industry politics.
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* ''[[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.
* After the second ''[[Tom Stranger]]'' book mocks [[Bill Nye]] for having made "My Sex Junk", a secondary character [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|leans on the fourth wall]] to note that, [[Who Would Want to Watch Us?|if this were made into an audiobook like Tom Stranger's previous adventure]], the listeners might not realize "My Sex Junk" is an actual thing Bill Nye made, and that it's just [[Brown Note|as horrible as the characters imply]] instead of exaggerated for comedic effect.
 
=== Periodicals ===
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* This is done in-universe on ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]''. Ted is an [[Unreliable Narrator]] who is telling his teenage children the story of the many events leading up to him meeting their mother for the first time. Every so often the events he describes are so ridiculous that he has to emphasize to his children that things really happened that way.
** ''[[Memetic Mutation|True story.]]'' - Barney Stinson
* After the second ''[[Tom Stranger]]'' book mocks [[Bill Nye]] for having made "My Sex Junk", a secondary character [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|leans on the fourth wall]] to note that, [[Who Would Want to Watch Us?|if this were made into an audiobook like Tom Stranger's previous adventure]], the listeners might not realize "My Sex Junk" is an actual thing Bill Nye made, and that it's just [[Brown Note|as horrible as the characters imply]] instead of exaggerated for comedic effect.
 
== Music ==
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* Among the snippets used by Rage Comic there 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.
* Did the 10:10 Movement really make a video which showed people, including children, being apathetic about climate change being blown up? Was it really introduced by Mr. Pauchuri in his official capacity as the head of the UN IPCC? Seriously, the UN didn't officially state that anyone doubting climate change should be murdered brutally? "No Pressure".
* Occasionally seen on [[This Very Wiki]]: sometimes an article will make a claim or describe something that sounds outlandish, and immediately follow it up with the parenthetical "(No, really.)".
 
== Western Animation ==