I Believe That You Believe It
"I believe that you believe it" is a Stock Phrase that can occur in several different contexts. For example:
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Alice: "Bob, I've been keeping this from you from you for long enough; it's time you knew the whole truth. Ninja Pirate Zombie Robots are real, and I am the one tasked with slaying them. They'll do anything to get at me, including attacking my friends -- you could be in grave danger. I know, it sounds crazy, but... you do believe me, don't you?" |
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Or...
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Alice: "Fine, that's it! I'm out of your life -- forever!" |
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Either way, Bob's not accusing Alice of lying, but he's still not quite as understanding as Alice might hope. He's implying (in the former case) that she's over-imaginative, paranoid, even crazy, or (in the latter) that she doesn't know herself as well as he does or that she lacks follow-through. In any case, Alice usually finds it pretty insulting, even though in most cases Bob means well by it. Related to Damned By Faint Praise Trivially Obvious, Theory Before Phenomenon. Not related to believing in someone who believes in you.
Film
- Something Evil
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Marjorie Worden: Can you believe that I believe that the devil's in my house? |
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- In Ghostbusters, Dana is hooked up to one of the group's special machines while she gives her account of a supernatural experience. When she's finished, Egon reports, "She's telling the truth, or at least she thinks she is." They then clarify that they do this to weed out people who are lying in order to get attention.
Literature
- Mount Misery by Samuel Shem.
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Cherokee Putnam: You think I'm crazy? |
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- Star Trek: New Frontier: Treason. Kalinda believes her dead brother is talking to her.
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Xyon: Kalinda, this is insanity. |
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- The Death of Grass by John Christopher. Roger tells Pirrie about a defensible farm in a valley.
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"And now?" John pressed him. "Do you believe us?" |
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- Black Out by Lisa Unger
- Though the Stock Phrase isn't used in so many words, Wataru in Brave Story characterizes his uncle's reaction to Wataru telling him he met a wizard this way.
- in The Feathered Serpent by Chris Heimerdinger, King Jacob says this to Melody after she tells him her Uncle Garth doesn't know the information he wants. Still convinced that Garth has the info, he threatens Melody's life and starts to slowly murder her before the helpless man's eyes.
- In the Sword of Truth, this happens all over the place.
- There's a spell that Lunetta uses that lets her know if others believe what they're saying. However, she says this to the people asking the questions, though.
- When the Chainfire spell was unleashed, Richard had this exchange with more than half of the ten most dangerous people in the world. They believed that he believed it.
- Sister Verna to Richard. He was completely right.
Live Action TV
- Joan of Arcadia episode "Silence"
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Joan: [explains about her talks with God] You have to believe me. If you believe me, then... I know it's not crazy, but if you don't... you promised. |
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- Grey's Anatomy episode "Dream a Little Dream of Me"
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Meredith: So what, you didn't believe that I would let you move in, in the first place? |
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- Supernatural episode "Hunted"
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Scott: I have this ability. When I touch something, I can electrocute it if I want. |
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- Liz on Roswell got this reaction from another character when trying to tell them about the aliens.
- In one episode of That '70s Show, Eric fixes a lawnmower all by himself, but it gets destroyed after Kelso accidentally drives into it. Red walks away, muttering "Well, it was broken anyway", but Eric insists he fixed the mower on his own, and asks Kitty if she believes him. She answers "I believe that you believe you fixed it.".
- Melinda's friend, Delia, in Ghost Whisperer is an egregious example of this. She spends at least one season/year trying hard to fit this trope into her life, and for an episode Taking A Level In Stupidity by not believing anymore.
- Xander overhears Buffy talking about being the Slayer in the pilot episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and confronts her with exactly these words. Getting attacked by actual vampires quickly clears up his misconception.
- Buffy says this about Spike's declaration of love for her, as she refuses to believe that you can love without a soul.
Newspaper Comics
- In Peanuts, Linus got this reaction from Peppermint Patty after he told her about the Great Pumpkin.
Tabletop Games
- In Dungeons & Dragons, a successful use of the Bluff skill is used to make someone believe you're being genuine even when you're not. A particularly sadistic DM (or simply a reasonable one trying to curb Munchkinism through Bothering by the Book) can use this trope to make people believe characters aren't lying without actually buying into their bluffs. Given how easily it is to turn the bluff skill into a Game Breaker if you do not employ this trope, this may be justified.
Video Games
- In Dragon Age: Origins, the PC can say this about Leliana's vision.
- In Mass Effect 2, if you try to convince the Council about the giant killer robots from deep space, they say they believe that you believe this but they still think Sovereign was just a Geth ship.
- In Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Cybil tells Harry toward the end that she believes that he believes he's Harry Mason, even though the real Harry Mason is on record as having died 18 years ago.
Western Animation
- There was one episode of The Smurfs about a daydreaming smurf meeting an alien, and while Papa Smurf did not just believe him he said that at least he thought that it was possible. This got its reward in the end of the episode, when he also would see the alien's spaceship leaving (with the rest of the smurfs still believing the other smurf to be crazy).
- Kyle uses this line on Cartman in the South Park episode "Fishsticks", where Cartman is concerned that Jimmy is going to take all the credit for a joke they "co-wrote." Kyle tells Cartman that he believes Cartman thinks he helped write the joke because his ego won't let him think otherwise. Later in the episode, Cartman remembers what Kyle said and applies it to Jimmy, thinking this is what Kyle really meant.
- A Running Gag on Freakazoid! had Dexter's Jerk Jock older brother trying to convince their parents about the big blue-and-red fairy tormenting him (actually Dexter's eponymous Alter Ego exacting some revenge). After one plea, Mom replies cheerily, "Oh, we believe that you believe it, dear, but you believe it because you're an incurable nutcase."
- From the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode Bible Fruit:
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Bert Banana: You've read the Bible, haven't you? |
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Real Life
- Medieval heretics didn't like to be caught by the Inquisitions but a lot of them also didn't like to lie, since that was frequently one of those things that they found so reprehensible about mainstream religion that they would bother to be heretics with the associated risks and effort, so Inquisitors' manuals are full of warnings of their trying tricks based on this. Especially in the form:
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Inquisitor: Do you believe in the one true faith? |
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- With notes emphasizing that what the heretic means in this case is "I believe that you believe this, though I do not."
- Jay Leno's interview on the Oprah Winfrey show. Oprah was talking about her decision to stop doing her show.
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Jay: I'm not going anywhere; neither are you. [snip] |
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