I Have This Friend: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''Denise:''' ''Dad, I have a friend that wants to talk to you about something important.''

 

So you have a... problem. Maybe you just wrapped dad's car around a tree, maybe you've been snorting coke, [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|maybe you just opened a dimensional rift that endangers the future of humanity]], whatever, but nobody knows about it. Still, you can't resist the urge to find out what would happen to someone who, say, for instance, hypothetically, did something really really ''really'' bad. Sometimes your mom/dad/friend/boss/superior officer will catch on right away, sometimes they're going to unwittingly scare you out of telling them what happened until the situation is much, ''much'' worse. Either way, [[Hilarity Ensues|hilarity is likely to ensue]].

 

See [[Comic Role Play]] for a similar trope. See also [[And That Little Girl Was Me]], for a similar deception regarding someone's backstory. [[The Confidant]] can usually be told the non-hypothetical version without freaking out.

 

== Advertising ==

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

 

* In ''[[Vision of Escaflowne]]'', both Hitomi and Millerna engage in I Have This Friend conversations with each other that describe their feelings and concerns about Allen. It takes both of them an ''astonishingly'' long time to realize just whom they are both, in fact, talking about.

** Which the ditzy Catgirl Merle calls them both on.

'''Robin:''' My friend is ''pregnant''.

'''Oracle:''' Oh. }}

{{quote|'''Green Arrow''': Oh, dear God! You ''are'' on drugs! You're really a junkie?

'''Speedy''': Who ''else'' did you think I was talking about? }}

* In ''[[Young Justice (comics)|Young Justice]]'', Secret lays out the situation involving a (male) friend whose mother is about to be executed for murder to all her friends to get their opinions on whether it would be wrong to break her out of jail. Robin understands right away that she's talking about her own father, and so does (surprisingly) Slobo.

 

 

* In ''[[Hunting the Unicorn]],'' this is [[Played for Drama]] in "The Butterfly" ([[Thirteen Is Unlucky|chapter thirteen]]). David goes to a counselor, claiming that a friend of his might be in trouble. He literally ''does'' have a friend in trouble. It's Blaine, who has no idea that {{spoiler|he has a stalker.}}

* In ''[[All You Need Is Love]]'', [[Death Note|Light]] calls an informal meeting with L and Naomi Misora to tell them that [[Secret Identity|Kira]] texted him for advice in the case of say he might have uh, "misplaced" [[Artifact of Doom|a Death Note]]... [[Hilarity Ensues|so what should we do about it?]]

{{quote|'''L:''' Light-kun, it's already obvious that you're Kira.

'''Light:''' No, I'm not Kira... And you look like a meth addict so no one will ever believe you. }}

 

== Film ==

* Used to some extent in ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]] 2'' to his doctor. Who is most certainly not a psychiatrist, or for that matter a psychologist. What's worse, Peter started out talking about his actual experiences as, "I've had these dreams where I'm Spider-Man". And then says that it was actually his ''friend's'' dream. The doctor clearly catches on that the "friend" is really Peter (though he doesn't say anything), but mistakes the ''reason'' for why he's doing the routine. Peter is trying to hide the fact that he ''is'' Spider-Man; the doctor thinks he's embarrassed about the dreams.

* Parodied in ''[[Analyze This]]'', where Paul Vitti attempts to use this to describe his problem to Dr. Ben Sobel, who immediately sees through this. When he calls Paul out, Paul is impressed thinking that it showed that he was a skilled psychologist, and not that he was paper transparent.

* Used in ''[[50 First Dates]]'':

{{quote|'''Doug:''' Listen, doctor, this...friend of mine's been experimenting a little with steroids. He's been having a lot of wet dreams. Could there be a connection between them?

'''Dr. Keats:''' Douglas, get off the juice. As for the nocturnal emissions, why don't you take a swim, buy a shirt with no holes, find a wahine and take her to dinner?

'''Doug:''' I'll tell my friend you said so. }}

{{quote|'''Sigerson''': Now then, precisely what is it that you want of me?

'''Jenny''': Well, I have this friend--

'''Sigerson''': LIAR!

'''Jenny''': I'm being blackmailed. }}

{{quote|'''Father Tim''': Are you Catholic?

'''Howard''': I have a friend who is...but he's very busy. }}

* In ''[[The Three Musketeers (novel)|The Three Musketeers]]'' Athos (already a pseudonym!) describes his marriage as that of "a friend of mine". Then the [[Drowning My Sorrows|hundred fifty-odd bottles of wine he drank over the last two weeks]] catch up with him and he slips into the first-person at the end.

* Tom Holt's ''Falling Sideways'' ([[Mind Screw|which can seem aptly named on the first read-through]]) features an ancient cosmic being who tries to narrate an important bit of history in this style, before getting fed up with it and just blabbing it straight.

* In ''[[The Mayor Of Casterbridge]]'', Lucetta describes her love problem to Elizabeth-Jane this way, Liz sees through it but doesn't know who the other parties are till later.

* Similarly to the Wodehouse books, ''[[Point of Honour]]'' by Madeleine Robins begins when the heroine is hired by a nobleman to find a fan, on behalf of his friend. She assumes that he's invoking the trope; in reality, he's telling the truth.

* In ''[[Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures]]'', the protagonist asks [[The Mentor]] what his friend Urs is supposed to do after falling in love with a girl. He's a [[Bad Liar]] and sometimes says "I" instead of "Urs".

{{quote|"Doctor Manette," said Mr. Lorry, touching him affectionately on the arm, "the case is the case of a particularly dear friend of mine. Pray give your mind to it, and advise me well for his sake -- and above all, for his daughter's -- his daughter's, my dear Manette."

"If I understand," said the Doctor, in a subdued tone, "some mental shock -- ?"

Salesman: Ah, of course you are Sir. You'd be surprised, we're quite used to men buying for their... friends. }}

* ''[[The Cosby Show]]'' used this with Denise asking Cliff if he could examine "a friend" for a possible STD (it provides one of the above page quotes). Turns out there really was a friend (who only had a minor urinary tract infection)

* Apparently Fez from ''[[That '70s Show]]'' has a friend named... Johnny Table.

** They also used the stock subversion when Donna was trying to get advice from her mother about Jackie's pregnancy only for her mother to repeatedly and insistently assume she was talking about herself.

** Played with in one episode when Bob and Midge thought Kitty was having an affair with Hyde (she was really teaching him how to dance). Midge went to talk with Kitty and said she had a friend that was a married mother who was thinking about leaving her family because she was in love with a much younger man. Kitty at first thought it was a neighbor but after Midge denied it she assumed it was really Midge going to her for advice. She told her to stick with her husband and not think about the other man, and they both agreed that the friend would do that not realizing that they thought the other was having an affair.

* Cleverly subverted in an episode of ''[[Randall and Hopkirk Deceased]]''. Marty Hopkirk (a ghost) is suffering from unexplained feelings of nausea and fading. Unable to work out what this could be, his still-living partner Jeff Randall goes to the doctor and describes Marty's symptoms as if they were his own. The doctor then says, "These aren't your symptoms, Mr. Randall, are they? They're of a friend." Jeff congratulates him on his deduction, only for the doctor to follow up with "Tell your friend that she's pregnant."

{{quote|'''Seth''': When people are burned, they become vigilant. Really! My friend once brought a girl home who turned out to be a dude, so every time he meets a girl, you can bet he checks for an Adam's apple.

'''Amy''': Really.

{{quote|'''Brian''': (''after finding out that his new mechanic, Budd, is hiding something about his past'') Hey, Roy, let me ask you something. If you knew somebody who had some sort of incident in their past, what would you-

'''Roy''': (''becoming nervous'') What are you looking at me like that for? What did you find out? Damn it, those records were supposed to be sealed! Don't you believe in a fresh start? (''walks away, leaving Brian dumbfounded'') }}

* ''[[Frasier]]'' uses this several times, such as the following example:

{{quote|'''Frasier''': A man from my building approached me with a very intriguing problem. Seems he's been having a recurring dream.

* ''[[The Listener]]'': Oz is trying to figure out what's going on with Toby, but not wanting to bring Toby's name into it, he tells his supervisor that he has a friend who's been acting strangely, getting distracted on the job, etc. The supervisor at first thinks Oz is talking about himself, but later, when Oz mentions that it's as if his friend can tell what he's thinking, the supervisor jumps to the conclusion that Oz is talking about ''him''.

* ''[[The Famous Jett Jackson]]'' doubled up on this, with both of Jett's boy and girl friends being asked by a boy and a girl, respectively, for advice about their feelings for the other advice seeker. When Jett's friends go to him for help, he, [[Genre Savvy|naturally]] assumes his friends are talking about each other, but keeps up the "charade".

* In an episode of ''[[New Tricks]]'', Brian is attempting to time the distance between a suspect's place of work and a murder scene to determine whether the suspect could have killed the victim. Having reached an inconclusive result after running the course, he corners a nearby policeman and hypothetically asks whether he thinks it'd be possible to leave the workplace, beat someone to death, dump their body in a BMW and leave it in the carpark where the body was originally found. Unfortunately for Brian, he looks a bit crazy at the best of times, and the policeman notices that there happens to be a BMW parked nearby... and Jack is thus forced to call the arresting officer and inform him that while he acknowledges that Brian is a bit weird, he probably wasn't ''actually'' planning on killing someone in this fashion.

* ''[[Drop the Dead Donkey]]'': Helen, planning to come out to her parents, asks around the office for a purely hypothetical way to admit a personal secret to a close relative. No-one is fooled:

* ''[[The Muppet Show]]'':

{{quote|'''Miss Piggy''': I have this friend, who is absolutely devastating. But she has this itty-bitty weight problem...}}

* "[[Will and Grace]]": Karen does this to Grace when she's pretending to be a maid to woo a hot maintenance man (of course, Karen's grip on reality is tenuous at best anyway):

{{quote|'''Karen:''' Listen. I have this friend who lives at The Palace Hotel. And she and her maid Ro--[[Last-Second Word Swap|Mosario]]...switched places so that my friend could pose as a poor, but honest chambermaid to woo a hunky maintenance man. Now my friend's fallen in love with him, and she's afraid that if she tells him the truth, he'll leave her. ''(Grace reaches to steal mints from Karen's chambermaid cart)'' Hey, hands off my friend's cart!

* To quote ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'':

{{quote|'''Leslie:''' "Say you had a friend who wanted to do something good but a little risky and she was kind of nervous about it and this friend is me."}}

 

== Music ==

 

* Clay Walker's "This Woman and This Man". He uses the chorus to try and get through to a lover:

* The Civil Wars' "I've Got This Friend". A man and a woman sing a duet in which each one assures the other they know the perfect "friend" to fix the other person up with. The implication is that both of them are actually talking about themselves.

 

== Theater ==

 

* Played both ways in Chekhov's ''[[Uncle Vanya]]'', where Sonia, in love with Astrov, asks him "Tell me, doctor, if I had a friend or a younger sister, and if you knew that she, well--loved you, what would you do?", he says he couldn't love her because he doesn't love anyone; later when Yelena tells him outright that Sonia is in love with him, he assumes she's making use of this trope, and confesses how much he loves Yelena.

* In ''[[Avenue Q]]'', [[Gay Conservative|Rod]] combines this with the [[Trial Balloon Question]], wondering if it is okay for "his friend" to be gay.

* ''[[Queen of Wands]]'' subverted this when [http://www.queenofwands.net/d/20031231.html Kestrel asked her friend Shannon for advice]. The [[DVD Commentary|commentary track]] points out that [http://www.queenofwands.net/d/20051008.html this happens a fair bit].

** A similar scenario played out on [[That '70s Show]] when Kelso saw Hyde cheat on Jackie, and went to Donna for advice.

** It's actually part of an existing arc where Draco sees Hermione at the Yule Ball and falls for her, as referenced by the author underneath the comic (and can be seen [http://ktshy.deviantart.com/art/Simply-Potterific-14-28325563?q=gallery%3Aktshy%2F642792&qo=13 here] and [http://ktshy.deviantart.com/art/Simply-Potterific-15-28644730?q=gallery%3Aktshy%2F642792&qo=14 here]). So the question Draco was going to ask would be 'what if his hypothetical brother fell for a muggleborn girl'. That said, the [http://ktshy.deviantart.com/art/Simply-Potterific-20-32407999 follow up comic] already mentioned could be taken to read either way (of Lucius suspecting Draco of being gay or of being a muggle lover).

* In "[[Misfile]]", after [[Bedmate Reveal|waking up in bed with]] Vashiel, a hangover, and no memories of the previous night, Ash asks her dad (a gynecologist) how one could hypothetically tell if a woman was a virgin. For a "friend" at school who was curious.

{{quote|'''Ari:''' I have a hypothetical question for you.

'''Sherry:''' Shoot.

'''Ari:''' ''[Incredibly detailed summary of her most recent character arc.]'' }}

* In [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1229 one strip] of ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]'', T-Rex does this ''retroactively'' - after saying something embarrassing, he later claims that he was "pretending to be a friend of his" when he said it.

* Max in ''[[Scandal Sheet]]!'' asks Andrea for advice to give his friend Phil about how to explain his feelings to a girl. Andrea assumes Max meant he wanted to know how he (Max) could explain his feelings to Andrea. He realises this later and is upset:

{{quote|"And now she thinks I'm in love with her!"

"Oh. Yeah, that does make it seem like a bit less of a disaster." }}

 

== Web Original ==

 

* Inverted on ''[[The Guild]]''. Codex, trying to find out why [[Stalker with a Crush|Zaboo]] and [[Serious Business|Vork]] act the way they do, calls up her therapists and pretends that ''she'''s the one with their problems.

{{quote|'''Krillin:''' So, Chi-Chi, hypothetically: what would you do if you were told that your husband was dead and your son was kidnapped by his worst enemy?

'''Chi-Chi:''' I'd castrate the messenger in his sleep with a rusty carving knife! }}

* Inverted in [[Rhett and Link]]'s ''The Surrogate Sharers'' series, in which they confess having done something themselves on another's behalf.

{{quote|"If somebody sent you this video, maybe you should sit down."}}

 

== Western Animation ==

* On ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'', the chimps Mason and Phil get a female named Lulu staying in her habitat. Phil falls in love with her and asks Mason to speak on his behalf. Lulu thinks Mason is speaking of himself when he talks about his "friend", and the rest of the episode is spent trying to get her to fall in love with Phil instead, with disastrous results.

* In one episode of ''[[Rugrats]]'', Angelica does this with Tommy after her parents tell her they'll be having another baby, causing her to worry that she won't get as much attention. Tommy's reply: [[Completely Missing the Point|"Well, at least it's happening to your friend and not to you!"]]

 

== Real Life ==