Phony Psychic: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''Gus''': [[Follow the Leader|Exactly the same]].<br />

'''Shawn''': [[Take That|A virtual carbon copy]].|''[[Psych]]'', "Extradition: British Columbia"}}

* ''[[The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin]]'', of all franchises, subverted this trope with a wizard character who claims to be psychic and can show visitors magical images of anything they want to see. The catch is that, while the wizard doesn't actually have any powers, the images he shows are ''real''. What the wizard's customers are actually seeing are films taken by the wizard's assistant, who spends a lot of time flying around Grundo taping interesting sights and places, which are then projected onto a screen. The whole "magic powers" schtick is just a way to attract customers, and otherwise the wizard isn't actually conning anyone.

* Parodied in the [[Home Movies]] episode "Temporary Blindness", in which Coach McGuirk is believed to be psychic after going blind, and attempts to give a demonstration to an audience:

* In the ''[[Powerpuff Girls]]'' episode "I See A Funny Cartoon In Your Future," the girls try to catch a fake psychic who uses her tricks to distract victims while her assistant picks their pockets.

* An episode of South Park has Stan trying to debunk phony psychics after Kyle is convinced by one that his dead grandmother is disappointed in him. This being South Park, all of the [[Adults Are Useless|idiot adults]] he tries to reveal the tricks to just think he has become psychic and encourage him to pursue this newfound "power." This leads as far as getting him his own (unwanted) TV show where he continues to try to demonstrate why all the psychics on TV are phony.