The Munchausen: Difference between revisions

Line 3:

'''Baron Münchhausen:''' Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash, and I am delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever!|''[[The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Film)|The Adventures of Baron Munchausen]]''}}

He's been everywhere, seen everything, done it all and more. Given any chance, he'll tell you all about it, whether you want him to or not. His adventures may be [[Tall Tale|blatantly impossible]], or simply impossible to believe, but he rarely shuts up about them, and generally reacts badly to anyone openly doubting him. This character may be crazy, [[Self Serving Memory|deluded]], a [[Con Man]], or a compulsive liar. The most common [[Subverted Trope|subversion]] of this is for the listener to dismiss his tales, and then find out that [[The Munchausen]] was [[Cassandra Truth|telling the truth all along]].

He's been everywhere, seen everything, done it all and more. Given any chance, he'll tell you all about it, whether you want him to or not. His adventures may be [[Tall Tale|blatantly impossible]], or simply impossible to believe, but he rarely shuts up about them, and generally reacts badly to anyone openly doubting him. This character may be crazy, [[Self-Serving Memory|deluded]], a [[Con Man]], or a compulsive liar. The most common [[Subverted Trope|subversion]] of this is for the listener to dismiss his tales, and then find out that [[The Munchausen]] was [[Cassandra Truth|telling the truth all along]].

Don't confuse this with people who inflict injury on themselves to get attention, which is [[Munchausen Syndrome|Munchausen's Syndrome]], or when someone inflicts injury on someone or something else to get attention, which is [[Munchausens By Proxy|Münchhausen's Syndrome by Proxy]].

Line 68:

* The [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]] novel ''A Caribbean Mystery'' includes an old soldier named Major Palgrave, who tells endless stories about his past that no-one cares about and a few people doubt. The key story, in which he (or someone else) met a murderer is an important plot point {{spoiler|and is true}}.

* Surely Dill Harris from [[To Kill a Mockingbird]] is one. Even though he's just a kid.

* ''[[Tall Tale America]]'' is mostly told from an omniscient point-of-view, but the section on Jim Bridger (a.k.a. Old Gabe) has him relating his adventures and experiences to a young tenderfoot, such as how he rode a horse across a petrified canyon, or the mountain he saw grow up from a hole in the ground, or the time a nine foot tall Indian [[Did You Die|killed him]].

* ''[[Tall Tale America]]'' is mostly told from an omniscient point-of-view, but the section on Jim Bridger (a.k.a. Old Gabe) has him relating his adventures and experiences to a young tenderfoot, such as how he rode a horse across a petrified canyon, or the mountain he saw grow up from a hole in the ground, or the time a nine foot tall Indian [[Did You Die?|killed him]].

* The character Ijon Tichy in ''[[The Star Diaries (Literature)|The Star Diaries]]'' by [[Stanislaw Lem]] is Münchhausen... IN SPACE!

* In [[David Drake]]'s ''Starliner'', Richard Wade sponges off a group of passengers, alleging that he always forgets to carry enough cash to pay for drinks and such. His tall tales are so entertaining, though, that his listeners end up feeling it was worth it. A subversion: the reader sees evidence that at least some of Wade's accounts are true ... and at the end, {{spoiler|he arranges for the people he borrowed from to spend several days in the best suites of their destination planet's best hotel, so the part about him actually being wealthy and influential appears to be true as well}}.

Line 107:

* On ''[[Strangers With Candy]]'', this is an integral part of Jerri's characterization. The stories are usually drug- and/or sex-related. The character was based partly on a real woman named Florrie Fisher, who did a [[Scare'Em Straight]] PSA for high-school students that consisted of her chain-smoking and yelling similarly implausible claims about her life, like that she'd known six different people who were executed by electric chair for "crimes of passion" committed while under the influence of [[G-Rated Drug|pot]].

* ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'': Captain Jack Harkness is a fount of improbable sexual adventures -- all of which seem to be true.

* The Doctor from ''[[~~Doctor Who (TV)|~~Doctor Who]]'' will go on and on about meeting Benjamin Franklin, Einstein, Pablo Picasso and more. To a stranger, he's insane. [[Time Travel|He really isn't.]]

* The Doctor from ''[[Doctor Who]]'' will go on and on about meeting Benjamin Franklin, Einstein, Pablo Picasso and more. To a stranger, he's insane. [[Time Travel|He really isn't.]]

* ''[[Tales of the Gold Monkey]]'': Bon Chance Louie is another Bellisario incarnation of this trope.

* ''[[Top Gear]]'': "...some say, during a driving test, he failed his examiner for screaming. And that he knows precisely two facts about ducks, and both are wrong." Enter, The Stig. Note that the Stig himself never provides the boasts.

Line 183:

== Real Life ==

* [~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/Baron_Münchhausen~~ Baron Münchhausen] (that's the correct German spelling!) himself was a real man who came back from fighting the Turks full of impossible stories. While the first book wasn't published for quite some time, it attempted to reproduce the stories and style found in Münchausen's original boasts. Most famous are probably the story how he rode a cannonball, or how he pulled himself and his horse from a swamp -- on his own hairs.

* [[wikipedia:Baron Münchhausen|Baron Münchhausen]] (that's the correct German spelling!) himself was a real man who came back from fighting the Turks full of impossible stories. While the first book wasn't published for quite some time, it attempted to reproduce the stories and style found in Münchausen's original boasts. Most famous are probably the story how he rode a cannonball, or how he pulled himself and his horse from a swamp -- on his own hairs.

* On Season 12 of ''[[The Amazing Race]]'', one of the racers was Don, a 68-year-old man who had, apparently, done everything before. Masonry, mining, fish-gutting, ''everything''. It got to the point where other racers were cautioning each other to hurry up, "because God knows Don's probably done this before and will be done in five seconds." Nearly invariably, he had and he was.

** Brook, Season 17, according to her teammate Claire, as stated when they were choosing between two Detour choices in Seoul. Apparently, in addition to marathon running, rock climbing, and boxing, Brook was also an accomplished ice skater.

Line 193:

* [[Marco Polo (Creator)|Marco Polo]], nicknamed "Il Milione" ("The Million") at his time. People are still debating how much of his travelogue was personal experience, and how much was hearsay.

* Just about every well-known figure of the [[Wild West]]. If he (or she) didn't Munchausen, some penny dreadful writer did it for them.

* In the seventeenth century, [~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/~~Fern%C3%~~A3o_Mendes_Pinto~~ Fernão Mendes Pinto], a Portuguese traveler and adventurer who spent many years in the Far East, was viewed as an outrageous liar, and the narrative of his travels was dismissed as pure fiction. Later research showed that, despite being heavily fictionalized, Mendes Pinto's book is a unique source on Chinese, Indian, Malay, and Japanese history, with lots of very acute observations and important information. And a jolly good read, to boot.

* In the seventeenth century, [[wikipedia:Fern%C3%A3o Mendes Pinto|Fernão Mendes Pinto]], a Portuguese traveler and adventurer who spent many years in the Far East, was viewed as an outrageous liar, and the narrative of his travels was dismissed as pure fiction. Later research showed that, despite being heavily fictionalized, Mendes Pinto's book is a unique source on Chinese, Indian, Malay, and Japanese history, with lots of very acute observations and important information. And a jolly good read, to boot.

Line 199:

[[Category:Truth and Lies]]

[[Category:The Munchausen]]

[[Category:Trope]]