Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Difference between revisions
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When a character who is alive is mistakenly believed to be dead. Quite often includes the character being shown his own death certificate. Often includes being declared [[Legally Dead]], but isn't necessarily restricted to that.
Named after a statement that Mark Twain [[Beam Me Up, Scotty|didn't actually say]]
{{deathtrope}}
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[Anime]] & [[Manga]] ==
* Madara Uchiha/Tobi, in ''[[Naruto]]'', since everyone in the story thought that he died a long time ago. Some fans theorize that he actually IS dead; the story proper hasn't yet revealed exactly what's going on with him.
** {{spoiler|Turns out to be [[Averted Trope]] in the Chapter 559-560 now that the real Madara has been brought [[Back
== [[Film]] ==
* In the ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' [[In Name Only|movie]], Johnny Rico's friends bring him a copy of his own death certificate, while he's still in the hospital recovering from his wounds. They all have a big laugh over it, except for Rico's [[Love Interest]], who doesn't know the report was incorrect.
* In ''[[Batman Begins]]'', Bruce Wayne goes on a multi-year incognito journey to find himself, and when he gets back Alfred tells him he's been thought dead. It's mostly played as a throwaway joke, though, and is sorted out between scenes with no lasting complications. Alfred mentions that there have been moves to have him declared legally dead, and Bruce says it's a good thing he left everything to Alfred then.
* Everybody in ''[[Escape
** Plissken mutters to the Girl in the coffee store, "I ''am'' dead."
* The same thing was done previously to John Wayne's character in "Big Jake". Eventually, Big Jake gets so annoyed, he promises to kill the next person to say it to him.
* In ''[[Cast Away]]'', Chuck Noland is declared dead after being stranded on a deserted island for years. They even held a funeral for him.
{{quote|
* Played with in ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]''. "Reports of my assimilation are greatly exaggerated."
* In the fourth ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' film, Jack Sparrow relates the ([[Real Life]]) myth of how the body of Blackbeard swam three times around a navy vessel after it'd been decapitated. As he relates this story ''to'' Blackbeard, who's alive and intact, this trope presumably applies within the PotC Verse.
* [[Tekken: Blood Vengeance|Heihachi Mishima]] [[The Reveal|is not as dead as most people think.]] [[Melee a Trois|He shows up for the three-way brawl between himself, his son and grandson.]]
{{quote|
'''Kazuya:''' I thought I've thrown you into the depths of Hell.
'''Heihachi:''' Ha! If you thought that was enough to kill me, you are gravely mistaken. }}
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* In ''The Satanic Verses'', by Salman Rushdie, Saladin Chamcha has trouble with red tape and getting his career back in order after being presumed dead in the plane crash.
* ''[[Romeo and Juliet]].'' Romeo's actions are all based on hearing that Juliet is dead. Of course, she's only [[Faking the Dead|faking it]], but he doesn't know that.
* Doc Daneeka from ''[[Catch
* In [[
* Nicoma Cosca in the ''Joe Abercrombie'' novels has this happen many times over the course of his life, and declares it "wishful thinking on the part of my enemies."
* In [[John Steakley]]'s ''Armor'', the protagonist is the only survivor of a military unit that gets wiped out. The confusion of circumstances results in parts of the computerized record-keeping system thinking he's also dead, while other parts are aware he's alive; this, to put it mildly, does not make his life any easier.
* [[
* In [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Sylvie and Bruno]]'', the Vice-Warden arranges for a false report of his brother's death.
{{quote|
"Well, it's supposed so: but, mind you, I don't believe it! The evidence is very weak—mere hear-say. A wandering Jester, with a Dancing-Bear (they found their way into the Palace, one day) has been telling people he comes from Fairyland, and that the Warden died there. I wanted the Vice-Warden to question him, but, most unluckily, he and my Lady were always out walking when the Jester came round. Yes, the Warden's supposed to be dead!" And more tears trickled down the old man's cheeks.'' }}
* A footnote in one of the [[Ciaphas Cain]], '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!!!''' books reveals that Cain was listed as "killed in action" and then showed up alive (and typically saving the day) so many times that the Munitorum finally gave up trying to keep track and kept him on the payroll
* Possibly as a [[Shout
* In the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], Corran Horn has been reported dead and turned up alive again so often (3 times in the five [[Star Wars: X-Wing]] novels he features in alone) that it has been joked that when he really dies, nobody will believe it and will assume he's just in hiding and will turn up again sooner or later.
* ''[[The Curious Incident of the Dog
* In ''[[Temeraire|Victory of Eagles]]'', Laurence is presumed dead after the ship he was supposed to be on is sunk by the French.
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* There's an episode of ''[[The Golden Girls]]'' in which Blanche's spurned boyfriend, an obituary editor, runs her obituary to get back at her. Blanche is more upset that he claimed she was 68 than being listed as dead.
* One ''[[My Two Dads]]'' episode has a typo in an obituary causing everyone to think Joey was dead. He goes along with it for a while to sell art, because [[Dead Artists Are Better]].
* The ''[[
* In the ''[[
* In ''[[Coronation Street]]'' Jerry's father put his own obituary in the newspaper.
* The eventually-[[Back
** Of course, he differs from most of these examples in that most of the time he ''actually was'' dead. Later on, though, his teammates get [[Genre Savvy]] about it, and O'Neill outright ''refuses'' to hold a memorial service one of the
* Archie Bunker was misreported as dead by the Veterans Administration for one episode of ''[[All in The Family]].''
* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'', John Sheridan was thought to be dead. "I was. I got better." He spends a long time cleaning up the consequences of this.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' episode "The Death of the Doctor"...well, [[Exactly What It Says
{{quote|
* ''[[
* Happens on more than one occasion in ''[[
** The Series 2 two-part finale [[Doctor Who
** In the Series 5 finale [[Doctor Who
* Jonathan Doors is shot by a sniper in the pilot of ''[[Earth The Final Conflict]]'', protecting the Taelon ambassador Da'an. Turns out, it was all a setup. The sniper was working for Doors and was shooting blanks, as was the doctor who confirmed his death. The goal was to set up [[La Résistance]] to figure out the real reason the Taelons came to Earth. A few episodes later, Doors publicly outs himself, using a similar line to this trope.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Escape
{{quote|
'''Guybrush Threepwood''': Won't that make you a flesh-eating zombie? }}
* In ''[[Mass Effect]] 2'', Shepard was dead for two years, which leads to trouble when (s)he returns to the Citadel and is picked up by the security scanners as being dead. Fortunately, a [[Reasonable Authority Figure|friendly C-Sec officer]] changes the records without making him/her jump through all the hoops (s)he would normally have to go through.
** You can also have them keep you out of the system, so to security you don't exist. This may have benefits in the third game, as Cerberus is listed as a terrorist organization, which doesn't normally help people stay out of the eyes of the law, Spectre or not.
* In the first chapter of ''[[Disgaea]] 2'' Dark Hero Axel is reported as dead (Adell and Rozalin just knocked him out), and he spends several chapters trying to convince people he's not. His own mother goes into mourning and then chews him out when he calls to reassure her, because she thinks he's an unusually cruel prankster; even after he
* Doctor Halsey quotes this trope in ''[[Halo: Reach]]''. The casualty reports had listed her as K.I.A., or so Noble Team thought.
** Near the beginning of the level "Uprising" in ''[[Halo 2]]'', the Arbiter runs into some friendly forces. He's greeted with "The Arbiter! I thought he was dead!"
* In [[Spyro: Year of the Dragon]], Spyro goes through a portal and ends up in a faraway land where dragons were thought to be extinct. He replies with "Rumors of our extinction were greatly exaggerated."
* The ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' add-on, ''Lonesome Road'' adds a perk, "Thought You Died", which is basically this.
* [[Resident Evil|Albert Wesker and later, Jill Valentine]] both fall under this trope; Wesker in Code: Veronica and Jill in Resident Evil 5.
* In the Original Trilogy, [[Ninja Gaiden|Irene Lew]] is thought to have been killed in the opening of the third game. She shows up later on and she is not very happy with her former boss trying to kill her.
{{quote|
==
* ''[[Freefall]]'' has Mr. Ishiguro (Clippy's proper owner). When he left the planet as an official overseer for an important mission, his uncle told Clippy he died [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2900/fc02867.htm "in a tragic microgravity toothpaste squeezing accident"]. He, of course, didn't. Nor was he happy to learn about this when he returned.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''Mickey's April Fools'', has Mickey Mouse pretending to die in front of Mortimer as an April Fools prank. Mickey then gets a letter declaring he's inherited a million dollars, but he can't get it because he's supposed to be dead.
* In one episode of ''[[Hey Arnold
* [[The Simpsons (
** Lisa was also presumed dead at one point, owing the fact that she was supposed to be camping an ancient redwood when it got hit by lightning (which, as it turns out, [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|was caused by the bucket she had in the tree]]). She refused to come clean because her "death" was inspiring the people, but finally did when it was twisted by the rich Texan guy ([[His Name Really Is "Barkeep"|whose name is actually Rich Texan]]) into publicity for his new amusement park.
** And Bart also once had Milhouse help him fake his death on some cliff.
* On ''[[
** The third time also involved the [[Grim Reaper]], but he was just there, he didn't harvest. Peter, Cleveland, Joe and Quagmire all get stranded on a deserted island for quite some time, and are declared dead. Peter has to save his marriage since Brian married Lois during that time.
* In ''[[
{{quote|
* [[Dilbert (
* An episode of [[South Park]] featured a guy being frozen for almost three years. He comes back to his wife who says that she assumed he was dead and married someone else and now had two kids, aged 8 and 15. After awhile, the guy says, "Wait, 8 and 15?".
* In ''Megamind'', Metro Man goes so far as to fake his death before {{spoiler|retiring to live alone}}. He makes a return for the finale {{spoiler|in a spiritual sense, as it's actually Megamind using a hologram disguise}}, and quotes the trope name word-for-word.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* The [[Trope Namer]] is Samuel "[[Mark Twain]]" Clemens, who gave the trope title as a statement in response to hearing that his obituary had been published in the New York Journal. The Journal had mistakenly reported the illness of his cousin James Ross Clemens (who [[Not Quite Dead|wasn't actually dead]], either) as Twain's own death. The original quote was:
{{quote|
* On August 27, 2008, Bloomberg accidentally published a 17 page obituary regarding Steve Jobs' death. In a subsequent public appearance Jobs joked about the accident by displaying on screen, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
* A newspaper mistakenly published an obituary for Alfred Nobel, instead of his deceased brother. Nobel was shocked to see himself called "merchant of death" for his invention of dynamite, and was inspired to start the Nobel Prize so that he would be remembered for something else. It worked.
* Britney Spears' Myspace page was recently{{when}} hacked (or so they claim) with a fake death announcement.
* In India, it's popular to bribe an official to declare a relative dead so that you can inherit his property. It has all the advantages of murder without the unpleasant messiness.
** [http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/24/world/24INDI.html?ex=1083211200&en=3394201d75ddfea1&ei=5070 Lal Bihari] had this happen to him and it took him years to literally get his life back. He was awarded an [https://web.archive.org/web/20190604012502/http://improbable.com/ig/ Ignobel Prize] for his foundation of the Association of Dead People. One tactic of Association members is to get arrested at protests, leaving the authorities to explain how dead people can be arrested.
* On June
* In the aftermath of the [[Velvet Revolution|17th November 1989 demonstration]], a rumor has spread that a student named Martin Šmíd was killed during the event. This turned to be a misinformation; a student of that name was at the demonstration, but left before the police intervention began. He was interviewed in the television, presumably to dispel the rumor...and the transmission started at just the wrong moment when he was saying, referring to the events of the day: "Death touched me." (In case this figure of speech doesn't translate well to English, he meant: "I was horrified.")
* Some accidental premature publishings on cnn.com revealed that CNN at least has outlines and some graphics prepared for obituaries of famous people, like Dick Cheney and Queen Elizabeth, who have yet to die in anticipation of eventually having to get one up on short notice.
* In 1964, news bulletins widely broadcast a report that [[Nikita Khrushchev]] had died of "hecaphylphocatirosisus". Apparently, this went out when someone did not notice the notation "Can you confirm this?"
* For a complete list of premature obituaries, check out [
* Although he was never officially declared to be dead, a very popular meme in the late 1960s suggested that [[Paul McCartney]] had died in a car accident around the mid 1960s and was replaced by a lookalike, which really took off in the underground media. The fact that the 'evidence' for this theory largely seemed to stem from a number of obscure and oblique 'references' on [[Beatles]] album covers and in song lyrics suggested that large quantities of drugs being ingested probably had something to do with it, but the rumours bedeviled McCartney for years no matter how many times he denied them, including a variation on the Mark Twain 'quote' above: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. If I were dead I'd be the last to know."
{{quote|
* A few years ago, there were a number of rumors that actress [[Natasha Lyonne]] was at death's door, due to various drug addictions. According to [[
* A popular rumor in the 70's and 80's was that Jerry Mathers (of ''[[Leave It to Beaver]]'' fame) had been killed in Vietnam. Not only is he quite alive and still acting, he never even served in Vietnam.
* At the Battle of Hastings in 1066, a rumour suddenly swept through [[William The Conqueror]]'s army that Duke William had been killed. The Duke heard of this and took his helmet off so that his army could recognise his red hair. He proceeded to win the battle and complete the [[Norman Conquest]].
* When [[Queen Victoria]] was in her final years, it was frequently reported that she had died and implied that they were just pretending she was still alive to keep her son off the throne.
* In 2008, an internet [[Troll]] began circulating reports that voice actor Jerry Jewell had died in a car accident. Jewell remarks on it in the DVD commentary for ''[[Baccano
* [[Lulz Sec]] recently{{when}} placed a false story on The Sun's website claiming that Rupert Murdoch had died from a drug overdose. It was quickly removed, but still managed to be reprinted by The Times and a number of other news sites.
* Steve from [[
* In describing the assessments of his medical condition once given to him by various doctors, composer Frederic Chopin commented "I have been sick as a dog during these past two weeks. Three doctors have visited me. The first said I was going to die; the second said I was breathing my last; and the third said I was already dead."
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[[Category:Older Than Radio]]
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