Bad Liar: Difference between revisions

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{{examples|These are not examples:}}

* In ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'', Sōsuke is a ''lousy'' liar. Every time he tries to lie to the other students at school about how he's [[Most Definitely Not a Villain|A PERFECTLY NORMAL BOY WHO LOVES DOING NORMAL, BORING SCHOOL STUDENT THINGS]] [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ARMY]], they're hardly ever shown to be convinced. ''And'' he fails at lying when it goes the other way and tries to convince them that he's actually a big, bad inhuman terrorist that's unreasonable and will kill anyone. Interestingly enough, however, when he's lying to a corrupt policeman who's actually ''trained'' in interrogating people, he actually manages to convince him about his phony background story (wanting to fight in the Yami Battle for money and power, and also to buy back a prostitute in Tokyo).

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' Negi Springfield is a terrible liar. His [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]] in the Kyoto arc didn't fool anybody, and Chisame commented on it in the [[School Festival]] arc. Chachamaru is also incredibly bad at lying when trying to evade answering a question.

* Gohan of [[Dragon Ball]]. He's [[Blatant Lies|totally not Saiyaman!]] Nor is he the Golden-haired Warrior. And he's definitely not the son of Goku!

 

* Elspeth of ''[[Luminosity]]'' is an interesting example: a part of her power is that when she tells the truth, anyone she's talking to knows absolutely that that is the truth. Because she lacks the not-quite-[[Required Secondary Powers]], this makes it glaringly obvious when she's lying because the heavens ''don't'' part to sing that this is true.

* In ''[[Oh God, Not Again|Oh God Not Again]]'', Ginny is specifically portrayed as being this. When Ron wonders where Ginny got the extra money she was spending on school supplies (which she got from her cut of a completely inaccurate book by Lockhart), she freaks out and [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|demands to know if he's implying she stole it]]. Harry thinks to himself that the Weasleys were raised to be honest.

* I once read a DRRR!! fanfic where Izaya and Shizuo where having hate sex and he accidently broke Izaya's hip. When Shinra came round, he said that when he walked in, Izaya tripped over a bucket, which Shizuo then threw out of the window onto another roof, then an eagle that had escaped from Tokyo zoo came and picked it up. Then, when Shinra asked why Izaya was only wearing his boxers, Shizuo said that when he fell over the bucket, his clothes slipped off.

 

* In the teaser trailer for ''[[Arthur Christmas]]'', an elf found in the North Pole by a wildlife documentary filmmaker goes into detail about every single thing that happens in the trailer while saying that they're not, such as how he's "not" an elf, the man in the sweater who pops up and calls Santa his dad is "not" the son of Santa Claus, and that the North Pole is "not" a place where Santa makes test flights so that he can deliver toys to millions of children around the world ''while a giant red flying saucer that serves as Santa's sleigh flies right over them'', Also saying that there is ''no '' movie.

* Jimmy Durante in a scene in ''Jumbo'' attempts to sneak his beloved elephant Jumbo off the circus grounds, only to be confronted by a sheriff, who demands: "Where you going with that elephant?" Caught red-handed, [[Refuge in Audacity|Durante blithely replies "What elephant?"]]

** There's another Jimmy Durante movie in which he's guarding the dressing room of the beautiful young singer played by Kathryn Grayson from a pushy fan. "She's got twelve kids and I'm the youngest!"

* In ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]'', Data is... simply... imitating the behavior of humans when he gets his new arm of flesh slashed during an escape attempt from the Borg Queen's clutches. Queenie then tells him that he has now learned how to lie. Data's fortunately a very quick learner and outgrows being a Bad Liar to pull off the ultimate fakeout on the Queen later in the movie.

 

* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]''. As Snape said, he "has a tendency to wear his heart on his sleeve." He gets better, though. Naturally, the fact that Snape is an accomplished legilimen (telepath) ''does not help'' in this instance.

* In the ''[[Master and Commander]]'' series, Stephen Maturin ponders Sophie Williams' talent for prevarication.

* ''[[Huckleberry Finn]]'': Huck is occasionally brilliant at spinning yarns to get what he wants. More often, however, he forgets his fake identity, where he's supposedly from, and what he claimed his job was. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]''. Harry Dresden admits to being a bad liar (especially in the earlier books), mostly by virtue of just not being able to make his lies sound natural. As the series progresses, he gets somewhat better at being deceptive, mostly by being very selective about what information he imparts.

* In [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''Danny Deever''—some interesting weather:

{{quote|''"What makes the rear-rank breathe so 'ard?" said Files-on-Parade.

* [[King Incognito|Alek]] from ''[[Leviathan]]''. Literally ''every time he opens his mouth'' to try and tell a lie, he effs up. It doesn't really help that the people he tries to lie to are ''really'' sharp.

* Michael from the ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]'' doesn't like to lie, but when he gets into a situation where he's really got no other options, or if he's trying to spare someone's feelings, he'll give it a shot. Since he's so rotten at it though, it makes no difference. However, in a ''really'' desperate situation he can convincingly lie, and because he's known to be so bad at lying no one doubts him in the slightest.

 

* In the ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' episode where they visit the alternative reality, Holly is seen covered in lipstick after meeting Hilly. When asked "What is that lipstick on your face?", his reply is "What face?"

** And in a different episode, Lister has to teach Kryton how to lie.

* ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' had Tommy Flanagan (Jon Lovitz) and his wife, Morgan Fairchild... ''whom'' he's slept with. [[Catch Phrase|Yeah, that's the ticket.]]

* A perennial flaw of the [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]]. Basil Fawlty of ''[[Fawlty Towers]]'' and [[Father Ted]] are two major examples. In their case it's to get out of trying situations, only the explanations become so convoluted, bizarre and obviously fake, they needn't have bothered.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', in the episode "Anne":

{{quote|'''Buffy:''' You know, I just woke up, and I looked in the mirror, and I thought, hey, what's with all the sin? I need to change. I'm dirty. I'm bad with the sex and the envy and that loud music us kids listen to nowadays.... Oh, I just suck at undercover.}}

* On Season 18 of ''[[The Amazing Race]]'', the penultimate leg had Flight Time & Big Easy and Zev & Justin find a flight that would put them in Brazil half a day in front of Kisha & Jen and Gary & Mallory, but when Mallory asked the Globetrotters if they had found a better flight, Flight Time's horrible lie all but gave away that they had, and all four teams got on the same flight, resulting in {{spoiler|Zev & Justin getting eliminated when they struggled on the leg}}.

 

* Arthur in ''Cabin Pressure'' goes a funny colour and falls over when he lies. Even when he's sitting down. See, for instance, this dialogue with one Douglas Richardson.

{{quote|'''Douglas:''' Answer this question with a lie. What's your name?

{{quote|'''John:''' Matter of fact, one of my best friends is Barry's wife. I mean...I'm in love with a West Indian dwarf. }}

 

* The "Easy to Read" disadvantage causes this in ''[[GURPS]]''.

* In ''[[Deadlands]]'', the "Lyin' Eyes" disadvantage represents this.

 

* ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]'': Chatot, and he really doesn't like it when the other Guild members lampshade it.

* ''[[Iji]]'' blatantly stutters when she lies. Fortunately, it matters little when talking to aliens.

** Its funny because ribs DO grow back

 

* ''[[Brawl in the Family]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20101230003021/http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/comic103.html plays with this].

* Thief, Red Mage, and Black Mage from ''[[8-Bit Theater]]'' are prone to this. Thief, however, has the force of personality to succeed in regularly conning people with his bald-faced lies.

* In ''[[Kaspall]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20110305022731/http://kaspall.xepher.net/archive/pg288.html Avril Isaac] is [https://web.archive.org/web/20110305022759/http://kaspall.xepher.net/archive/pg289.html impressively incapable of keeping a story straight.]

 

* In ''[[Red vs. Blue]]: Out of Mind'', this is one of the things that tips the audience off to [[Mauve Shirt|Freelancer New York's]] [[Nice Guy]] status.

 

* Light in the original [[Death Note Abridged]] by TioH and Dargonakis. to the point where he blurts out the fact that he's Kira to his father. His father being [[Cloudcuckoolander|the way he is]] promptly forgets about it.

* [[Rhett and Link|Link]] wanted some time alone, so he lied repeatedly to Rhett in Ultimate Caption Fail 2.

* [[The Nostalgia Chick]] wasn't fooling anyone when she said she would be the last person to fall for a guy whose face she'd never seen.

* [[The Nostalgia Critic]]'s just as bad, stammering and falling into awkwardness when he can't keep a lie going, which is often.

 

* Sokka in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''; when caught hatching a plan to escape from [[The Alcatraz|The Boiling Rock]], he responds that the only thing they were hatching was "... an egg?"

{{quote|'''Zhao:''' ''(looking at Zuko's ship)'' That's quite a bit of damage.

'''Zuko:''' Yes. You wouldn't believe what happened. Uncle! Tell Commander Zhao what happened!

* Artemis in ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]''. She looks away, stutters, and visibly has to fish for ideas when lying. This is made kind of hilarious by the fact that {{spoiler|her father and sister are supervillains, and her mother is a reformed one}}. Which is usually what she's lying about.

* In ''[[She-Ra and the Princesses of Power]]'', Adora’s attempt to infiltrate an enemy stronghold by [[Dressing as the Enemy]] is quickly aborted, as she has no poker face whatsoever. Netossa later claims this is Adora’s inability to bluff a foe is her [[Weaksauce Weakness]].

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