Pinocchio Nose: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|There are two kinds of lies, lies with short legs and lies with long noses.|''[[The Adventures of Pinocchio]]''}}

 

The first step to becoming a [[Consummate Liar]] is to make sure you don't have any of these. These are impossible to hide from a [[Living Lie Detector]]. This is how [[You Can Always Tell a Liar]]. Not to be confused with a [[Gag Nose]].

 

 

No relation to [[Pinocchio Syndrome]].

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'', Chrono realizes something's wrong when Rosette is blackmailed by the villain to go off by herself and follows her. When she asks how he knew something was wrong, he responds "When you lie, you start babbling. I've seen you do it for four years. I know at least '''that''' much about you."

** Interestingly enough, this trope comes into play subtly again towards the end of the manga. When Chrono is trying to hide an ally's death that he can sense in another room, he closes his eyes and forces himself to smile, while babbling to Rosette about how they can celebrate their victory every year together (while she questions him about what's wrong). Eight chapters later, he once again closes his eyes and has a strained smile on his face when he tricks Rosette into {{spoiler|taking his hand so he can temporarily "stop" her time and rush off to fight Aion alone}}.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[The Negotiator]]'' has a character use the same logic as the ''[[CSI]]'' example below.

* The creators of ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' have confirmed that whenever Aladdin tells a lie, the feather on his Prince Ali hat falls in his face.

 

== Literature ==

* [[The Adventures of Pinocchio|Pinocchio]]'s nose was both a tell that he was lying (an incredibly obvious tell, in fact), but it was also a [[Cool and Unusual Punishment|a way of punishing him for it]].

* Mentioned and described in [[Mamet]]'s ''House of Games''.

* In one of the ''[[Princess Diaries]]'' books, Mia's grandmother points out that Mia's nostrils flare when she lies.

* In Robert Sawyer's ''Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy'', the titular [[Lizard Folk|tyrannosaurian race]] literally turned blue in the face if they tried to tell a lie. {{spoiler|Most of them, anyway.}}

{{quote|'''Carding:''' My dear Spelter, you blush when you inadvertently tell the truth.

'''Spelter:''' I didn't blush!

** Sam Vimes actually has one in the form of another character. Captain Carrot flinches whenever he hears a direct lie, so when Vimes tries to lie to Vetinari with Carrot in the room, Vetinari just watches Carrot's face.

 

* Ned from ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' is a terrible liar in any case (Ned: "The plane was hijacked!" Coroner: "How'd you know that?" Ned: "DNA... ish."), but also gives himself away with his [[Twitchy Eye]] and [[Motor Mouth|unrelated babbling]]. Olive's tell is that she answers questions with questions when she's hiding something or trying to lie.

* ''[[Lost]]'', "There's No Place Like Home, Part 1": Jack explains that the fact that his stitches are bleeding means his appendectomy is healing. Kate says, "You know how when most people are lying, they can't look you in the eye? You do the exact opposite."

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* Senator Bedfellow's nose actually grows while he's being interviewed on television in one ''[[Bloom County]]'' strip. "Hold it."

* ''[[Hagar the Horrible]]''; The horns on Hagar's helmet fall off if he tells a lie to his wife.

 

== Theater ==

* ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]'': Aluded by Cyrano at Act II Scene III, after he has fought one hundred men, Cyrano has a [[Chekhov's Gun|slight cut on his hand and is talking casually to his friends Ragueneau and Lise:]]

{{quote|'''Ragueneau:''' Have you been in some danger?

monstrous lie that should move it! }}

 

== Video Games ==

* Pointing these out is a vital gameplay elements in ''[[Ace Attorney|Apollo Justice : Ace Attorney]]''. Particularly notable is the instance in which {{spoiler|the killer tenses his hand in such a way that his scar ''looks like a skull''.}} Yikes.

* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'', Colette always giggles when she lies. Lloyd notices this when {{spoiler|she lies that she still eats, sleeps, and feels sensation when she is, in fact, turning into an angel.}} Lloyd even says "You always do that fake giggle when you lie!"

* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', it's been noted that whenever Axel lies or is unsure of what he's saying he breaks eye-contact.

 

== Western Animation ==

* On ''[[Family Guy]]'', Peter says he knows Ted Turner isn't telling the truth when he blinks twice. He first noticed it after watching a Barbara Walters interview, when Ted said he'd be with [[Jane Fonda]] forever.

* On ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force|Ben 10 Alien Force]]'', Kevin claims that Ben's left eyelid twitches whenever he lies. Fortunately, this also applies to an [[Evil Twin]].

* On ''[[Arthur (animation)|Arthur]]'', when the title character begins fidgeting with his glasses, it's almost certain that he's lying.

* The ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode "The Beak" shows Phineas scratches his left ear whenever he lies.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Nose Tropes]]

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth and Lies]]