Phony Veteran: Difference between revisions

== [[Film]] -- Animated ==

* Fowler from ''[[Chicken Run]]'' says he belonged to a Royal Air Force squadron. While he was indeed part of a ''human'' squadron, it isn't at all like the other chickens think, so when Ginger tells him to go pilot the airplane they built ...

'''Fowler''': Good heavens, no! I'm a chicken! The Royal Air Force doesn't let chickens behind the controls of a complex aircraft. }}

 

* At one point in the film ''[[Trading Places]]'', Eddie Murphy's character pretends to be a disabled homeless Vietnam veteran.

* The bum harassing D-FENS in ''[[Falling Down]]'' uses this as one of his excuses to get money from him, claiming to be a Vietnam veteran despite only being around 30 at most.

* ''[[The Reluctant Astronaut]]'' has the hometown hero at one point admitting to Don Knotts' character that he was never a soldier like he claimed: he was a librarian, and even his "war wound" was just the result of an on-the-job injury. Since Don Knotts' character has inadvertently been trumped up as an astronaut even though NASA simply hired him on as a janitor, this amounts to [[Oblivious Guilt Slinging]].

* In ''[[Due Date]]'' Peter thinks that a guy they're talking to is one of these. When he comes out from behind his desk, he's in a wheelchair. And proceeds to beat Peter up. Ouch.

* Inverted by Pops, in ''[[Time Gentlemen Please]]'', who "didn't fight in World War II... admittedly".

* The beginning of the very first episode of ''[[Cheers]]'' has a kid trying to using a fake military ID to buy beer. A kid who's ''12 at most'':

'''Kid''': ''[beat]'' This is the thanks we get. }}

* An episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' (the episode after House has gone back to working at Princeton Plainsboro, after recovering from {{spoiler|going insane and then realizing that only diagnostics gives him the constant thrill he needs to keep the pain down, now that Vicodin is no longer an option}}) features a very cranky man with one arm, living in the apartment below Wilson's. Allegedly he served in Vietnam, which is where he lost the arm. Subverted in that he actually did serve - just not in Vietnam. And not in the U.S. Army; he's actually {{spoiler|a Canadian citizen}} who lost the arm during {{spoiler|a peace-keeping mission, while trying to save a kid from a landmine in a country ''near'' Vietnam.}} He's irritable for much the same reasons House is: he's in constant pain, due to phantom limb pain; House {{spoiler|fixes this}} and the guy ''breaks down crying with relief'' because {{spoiler|for the first time in over thirty years, he isn't in agony.}} It's never made clear whether he stopped claiming he was in Nam - it's implied, when he's telling House what really happened to his arm, that he just finds it easier to let people think it was Nam rather than deal with the questions that the truth would spur.

* Richie in ''[[Bottom]]'' frequently tries to pass himself off as a war veteran, but is inevitably undone by his own stupidity and Eddie.

** In "Apocalypse", he claims to have "Hurt my leg in the Falklands Conflict".

'''Eddie''': Oh yeah, he tripped over the coffee table trying to switch channels. }}

** In "Parade", his attempt to cop off with a barmaid by using his Falklands story is ruined by Eddie ("This is all a load of bollocks") and an [[I Am One of Those, Too]] encounter with a real disabled Falklands veteran ("I don't believe a word of this. In fact I don't believe it so much I'm gonna smash your face in!")

** In the second Bottom Live stage show, he claims in a letter to the Queen to be an "Old soldier who during the war fought a desperate rearguard action in Burma."

'''Richie''': I was doing my bit Eddie. I was doing my bit. }}

* Captain Peacock of ''[[Are You Being Served?|Are You Being Served]]'' claims to have fought Rommel in [[World War II]] and (of course) to have been a captain (in the Army, of course); however, he later admits he served in the Royal Army Service Corps--the logistics department.

== [[Music]] ==

* From Tim Wilson's song ''Brother in Law'':

But he wasn't there, he was fifteen in '74 }}