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Unreliable Voiceover: Difference between revisions
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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.UnreliableVoiceover 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.UnreliableVoiceover, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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{{trope}}
{{quote|"I am ''so'' glad I was unconscious for all of this.."|'''Kuzco''', "narrating" ''[[The
So Joe Suspect is explaining to the cops where he was last night. As he speaks, we get a [[Flash Back]] showing us the events.
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Related to [[Rashomon Style]], except that instead of someone else's version of events clashing, it's the cold, unvarnished truth. Unlike [[Unreliable Narrator]], we're led to believe that the visuals tell us what really happened. Unless there's a [[Mind Screw]] going on.
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
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== Comic Books ==
* ''[[
** A similar sequence occurs in ''[[The Dark Knight Returns]]'', when a businessman describes the harrowing ordeals he went through during Gotham's blackout. The panel-images make it clear that his own every-man-for-himself callousness ''caused'' much of the violence he's complaining about.
* A really horrific example is in the first issue of Vertigo's ''[[House of Mystery]]'' series. The narration is a rather uneventful story about a girl who moves back to her hometown after her parents died, becomes a wife and mother, but doesn't love her children. None of this is actually untrue, but the art fills in minor gaps like the fact that {{spoiler|the other residents of the city are all [[Big Creepy Crawlies]], and her children were loads of maggots that left a huge hole in her back that she still has}}.
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* Used in ''[[Supernatural (TV)|Supernatural]]'' in the episode "The Usual Suspects" (ironically, not a trope from the film, ''[[The Usual Suspects]]'').
* ''[[The Last Detective]]'' uses this on ocassion, as suspects will give accounts of happenings to Dangerous and co. In one episode, dealing with a murder at a college reunion, one character describes the interaction between the chief suspect and the eventual victim as heated but not really violent, but the audience sees a very vindictive interaction on the brink of coming to blows.
* Used for comedic effect in the TV series ''[[Police Squad!]]'', where the show would open with a Quinn Martin [[Police Procedural]] style title card: "Tonight's Episode," followed by some title, only the title that was announced was a totally different title from what was shown on the screen.
* Trivial and mildly amusing instance in ''[[Flash Forward 2009|Flash Forward]]'': Wedeck (the FBI boss) claims his vision of the future had him in a meeting (at 10pm?), while the visual was an overhead shot of him sitting in a restroom stall, pants down, reading the newspaper (apparently the sports section, from later dialogue). He later confessed the real story to Benford, adding that he'd emerged from his blackout to find another agent drowning in the urinal and in need of resuscitation (which Wedeck found embarrassing to admit having done).
* A favorite comic device on ''[[Top Gear]]'': Jeremy Clarkson's narration frequently contradicts events on screen, usually to deny responsibility for what he did or to claim responsibility for what he didn't do.
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Batman the Animated Series]]'' episode "P.O.V." plays out this way. One of the best episodes of the series, it starts with Officers Willkes and Renee Montoya driving to meet Detective Harvey Bullock for a planned sting against a local crime lord. When they arrive at the location, however, Bullock is unconscious outside and the building is on fire. With most members of the gang escaping, along with the two million dollars that the police department had planted as part of the sting, [[Internal Affairs]] believes that the three cops were either grossly incompetent or [[Dirty Cop|in cahoots with the criminals]]. The three officers then each explain what they did during the lead-up to and aftermath of the botched sting. Officer Willkes is honest, but [[New Meat|being new to the force]] he had never before seen Batman and he misunderstood many of the feats he saw Batman perform, ascribing him superhuman powers. Detective Bullock is perfectly aware of what happened, but [[Cowboy Cop|deliberately alters his rendition to cover up his own mistakes]]. Of the three, only Renee Montoya [[By
* ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' used this in the episode where he posed as a gangster. Jack describes how he set up the hit and blew up the target's house, while visuals show him quietly evacuating the inhabitants.
** Made even better by the fact that the words he chose actually were true [[From a Certain Point of View]].
* The Monarch of ''[[The Venture Bros]].'' once had to narrate his first use of his super villain persona because it turned out his tribunal didn't have "[[Surveillance As the Plot Demands|a magic window to the past]]" and didn't have [[Sinister Surveillance|videos of everything]]. The Monarch says he was defeated only because Venture hired a squad of [[Ninja Zombie Pirate Robot|ex-Navy SEAL ninja gorilla witches]] and had a tank, while he was really taken out quite brutally by his one female guard with minor help from his lame robot.
** Before that, when on trial, he lied about his reaction to a tell-all book about him also containing various things about Dr. Girlfriend, claiming he reacted calmly, forgave the henchman that wrote it, and amicably broke up with Dr. Girlfriend when he really was in inconsolable rage, killed the one blamed for writing the book [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|in an incredibly over the top manner]], and kicked Dr. Girlfiend out loudly right before crying into his pillow.
* As indicated by the page quote, Kuzco in ''[[The
* On ''[[King of the Hill]]'', Lucky is telling the guys about buried treasure in a forest, and how his grandfather left it there in his youth. He talks about how his grandfather, a pastor found the treasure while on a church trip and "went on to be with the Lord" before he could recover it. The flashbacks show that his grandfather was a criminal who found the treasure while fleeing from [[Working On the Chain Gang]] and was executed in the electric chair. Unlike many examples, the implication isn't that Lucky is lying but that this is the version of the story he was told himself.
* Waspinator explains how he left [[Beast Wars (Animation)|the Earth]] for [[Beast Machines (Animation)|Cybertron]], tearing himself away from his prehistoric worshippers. The video footage shows the contrary.
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