Recruiters Always Lie/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Military recruiters lie about what a new recruit will experience in order to get them to sign up.

  • Straight: Dave's recruiter tells him that after he signs up, he'll be able to get a good job and will likely be stationed somewhere nice and/or exotic. After shipping out to Basic, however, Dave quickly discovers that the conditions at camp aren't quite as nice as he was told, and that he's very unlikely to end up somewhere he actually wants to be.
  • Exaggerated: The recruiter claims that Dave will end up in one of the best ranked training camps, with stern but fair instructors, cutting-edge faculties, and top-notch training, with a very low chance of actually seeing combat. Once he's signed on, Dave ends up in the armpit of nowhere with Drill Sergeant Nasty, filthy barracks infested with bugs that are actually more edible than the 'food', and is considered a New Meat Red Shirt.
  • Justified: The recruiters know that military life is harsh; telling it like it is might scare away some potential recruits who'd make very good soldiers. Therefore, they have to stretch the truth a little to get the best recruits into the military.
    • World events change drastically and rapidly, making the recruiter's truthful statements ("We are only supporting the Allies with funds and food.") completely outdated by the time the recruit finishes training ("Welcome to Omaha beach!")
  • Inverted: The recruiter makes the military sound even worse, painting it like an unforgiving New Meat grinder in order to discourage anyone from thinking they'll be able to coast on through.
    • Dave lies to the completely honest recruiter about his skills, thinking that his fibs will pay his way into an ideal position in the military.
    • The recruiter promises exciting battles. Dave never gets to fire a shot any place except a military range at paper targets due to the war ending by the time he gets out of basic training.
  • Subverted: The recruiter is straightforward and honest about how difficult Basic will be.
    • The recruiter made promises about peace time conditions. When war breaks out things change.
  • Double Subverted: ...However, he then lies about what Dave can expect after getting through Basic, making it sound like he's practically guaranteed a condo in some tropical paradise far from any fighting.
    • The recruiter knew in advance that international situations were going south, but he keeps it to himself.
  • Parodied: The recruiter makes several incredibly ludicrous claims about the military...and they all turn out to be true, due to the nature of the universe in which the story takes place.
  • Deconstructed: The military struggles to bring in new recruits because fewer and fewer civilians are actually willing to put their lives on the line for their country. Some recruiters respond to this by stretching the truth about what the newbies can expect; in the long run, this severely damages the military's reputation and makes it even harder to convince people to sign up. Desertion also starts occurs more often.
  • Reconstructed: The lying turns out to be something of a Secret Test of Character. The military expects that they'll get a few losers and whiners when the recruiters lie, but they also realize that the best soldiers are the ones who will stick around when things turn bad, because that means they'd be likely to do the same in a combat situation.
  • Zig Zagged: The recruiter is honest about basic training, but makes the experience after basic training seem overly easy. However, he's honest with Dave about the difficulty of actual combat.
  • Averted: The recruiter is honest with Dave throughout.
  • Enforced: The writer is trying for a distinctly anti-military feel.
  • Lampshaded: "Alright, I'm here at basic training! Where are the bikini girls and the margarita machines?" "Lemme guess, your recruiter was one of those guys who promised you a tropical paradise."
  • Invoked: The recruiter's Jerkass boss tells him to lie to potential candidates.
  • Exploited: Enemy agents keep an eye out for any young soldiers frustrated with being stuck in an army that's nothing like what the recruiter claimed, and play on that dissatisfaction to lure them into deserting, defecting or betraying the military (since, after all, it "already betrayed them", right...?)
  • Defied: "I'm not gonna lie to you, boy. This is the army. It's tough. Are you?"
  • Discussed: "Is it just me, or is the actual camp nothing like the brochure?"
  • Conversed: "And this is the part of the movie where the new recruit finds out his recruiter was an absolute liar, right?"
  • Played For Laughs: The recruiter is a Bad Liar who tries to paint the military as sleep-away camp; the Idiot Hero is completely fooled and never catches on, even after going through Training from Hell. He finally figures out years later at his own parade, during which he tries to go find and beat up the recruiter.
  • Played For Drama: The shady recruiter exploits the naivete of Country Mouse Chris and his friends to get them to sign on, then has them shipped directly to the front lines without any hint of remorse.

Now, I'm gonna level with you. Recruiters Always Lie might be the best page in the whole wiki. You go there, you can make it anywhere.

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