Celebrity Lie: Difference between revisions

 

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* ''[[A Goofy Movie]]'': Max can't go to Roxanne's viewing party for pop star Powerline's concert because his father is taking him on a fishing trip. Naturally, Max tells her he can't come because they're going to be ''at'' the concert because Powerline and Goofy are friends from way back. At the end, Goofy and Max do break into the concert and appear on TV, but Max still feels the need to confess to Roxanne. She forgives him. (What do you expect? It's a Disney movie.)

* [[Zig-Zagging Trope|Played straight, subverted and then played straight again]] with Joey 'The Lips' Fagan in ''[[The Commitments]]''. He claims to have been a session trumpeter who has played with all the greats including Elvis. The trope comes into play when Wilson Pickett comes to Dublin and Jimmy Rabbitte asks Joey if he can get him to play with the Commitments on stage (Joey having claimed with Wilson Pickett on a number of occasions). Joey claims to do so (we never see the meeting) but then Wilson Pickett never turns up to the Commitments' concert so Jimmy Rabbitte assumes that Joey was lying... until later on as he's going home, he's stopped by the driver of a large limousine asking for directions to the club. Then later on Jimmy gets a postcard from Joey saying he's on tour with a musician...who died five years ago.

* The 1965 film ''The Girls on the Beach'' features not [[The Beach Boys]] (who appear and perform in the film) but [[The Beatles (band)|their trans-Atlantic rivals]] (who do not). A beach bum trying to impress sorority sisters promises a Fab Four performance for their fundraising concert, and fails spectacularly to deliver.

* Played with (with a bit of deconstruction) on [[Bollywood]] film ''[[wikipedia:Billu|Billu]]'': when the children of the titular Billu spread the story that their father knows Sahir Khan, the Bollywood star that is filming on their small town, the town folks ask Billu to put therm in contact with the star; but when Billu fails to deliver, the people believe they were duped in the spirit of this trope. The thing is, Billu ''does'' know Sahir, but he believes that the star doesn't remember him after so many years and their reversal of fortunes, and at first he actually tried to ''disuade'' the people from using him to contact the star. When after too much pressure he finally attempts to approach the star, bad luck prevents him from actually doing so. Near the end, {{Spoiler|during a public event in the town, Sahir independently confirms his relationship with Billu by revealing that he misses his friend but he hadn't managed to contact him in years; then the rest of the town secretly arranges a re-encounter between both men}}.

 

* Children's book ''The Fib'' by actor George Layton—apparently autobiographical—tells the story of a young lad who claims that his uncle is famous footballer Bobby Charlton. He is correctly disbelieved, and then the real Bobby Charlton shows up to turn on the Christmas lights. His friends attempt to dob him in, only for Charlton to take it like a real sport and pretend that he is indeed the boy's uncle. Of course, he then gets into trouble because his mother doesn't believe he's late home because he's been having tea with Bobby Charlton and the Lord Mayor...

 

* Appeared repeatedly on ''[[I Love Lucy]]''.

* ''[[Archie Bunker's Place]]'' (the 1979 sequel series to ''[[All in The Family]]'') displayed an early inversion of this trope in the episode "The Return of Sammy", when Archie fails to convince his friends at his bar that he actually knows Sammy Davis Jr. (Which he did, thanks to an episode of ''[[All in The Family]]'' from years earlier—see [[Ignore the Disability]].) Even a call to a live TV show where Archie speaks directly to Sammy seems destined to paint him a liar until Archie gives enough detail about their earlier encounter, prompting Sammy's enthusiastic recognition and subsequent visit to the bar.

* Also used on ''[[Brooklyn Bridge]]''—the grandfather claims to have played ball with Gil Hodges. When they run into Gil Hodges, he plays along with the story so the grandfather doesn't lose face with his grandkid. He's called a ''mensch'' for it.

 

* Pretty much the point of the Aaron Carter song "Oh Aaron". Although Aaron really is Nick Carter's little brother, three thousand tickets are a bit much.

 

* Inverted in [http://www.dorktower.com/2007/12/28/comics-archive-975/ this] ''[[Dork Tower]]'' comic strip with [[Stan Lee]].

 

* An unusual variation appears in ''[[The Zeta Project]]'', where in an attempt to help impress Ro's one-time foster family, Zeta takes on the appearance of fictional celebrity Adam Heat... without telling her beforehand. This goes awry on a variety of levels: Zeta gets roped into a ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' rehearsal, stalling them. Undesirable publicity follows. Then, when the real Adam appears appears in a live interview at the same time, [[Inspector Javert|Agent Bennet]] comes knocking...

* In an episode of ''[[Father of the Pride]]'' Larry the Lion claims to know Donkey from ''[[Shrek]]'' in order to impress his son's classmates. A [[Zany Scheme]] ensues (involving kidnapping what turns out to be Donkey's stunt double), before Donkey decides to play along.

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