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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Emily:'''
'''Ash:'''
|''[[Misfile]]''}}
A [[Stock Phrase]]. [[Alice and Bob|Alice]] has just done something/been somewhere/went on a crazy adventure, and Bob asks her about it, usually with "Where Were You?" Rather than boring the audience with the story, or using a quick Fade Out-Fade In to skip it, Alice simply says "You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You..."
And [[
A common variation (or addition) is: "I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't seen/lived/heard/witnessed/experienced it." And as the examples show, there are several permutations of this sentiment.
The opposite is [[Cassandra Truth]], where Alice ''does'' tell Bob, and Bob doesn't buy it. Related is [[Sarcastic Confession]], where Alice tells Bob in a sarcastic manner to prevent him from taking it seriously. Contrast [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]].
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Anime & Manga ==▼
* While never actually said in ''[[Code Geass]]'', this trope is the likely reason why Lelouch never explains to Suzaku that his Geassing of {{spoiler|Euphemia}} was an accident.
* A major plot of ''[[Mobile Fighter
==
* In ''[[Kyon
{{quote|
▲* In ''[[Kyon Big Damn Hero (Fanfic)|Kyon Big Damn Hero]]'', after [[Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni|Rika Fuurude]] convinces Kyon, {{spoiler|her nephew}}, to trust her and tell her his story about the supernatural by her telling him her [[Anyone Can Die|own]] [[Groundhog Day Loop|supernatural]] [[Everybody Lives|experiences]] he explains that his adventures, while true, are still difficult to believe.
* In ''[[Insomnia (
▲{{quote| '''Kyon:''' (through [[Manly Tears]]) I...it's... It's nothing nearly that bad. I wouldn't... You may still think I'm crazy, and... Well, parts of this are secrets I don't really tell anyone else, but... }}
▲* In ''[[Insomnia (Fanfic)|Insomnia]]'', Link acts on this trope's principle whenever he shrugs off Tatl's attempts of uncovering his backstory.
== Film ==▼
* IMDb [http://www.imdb.com/search/text?realm=title&field=quotes&q=You+wouldn%27t+believe+me+if+I+told+you Search Quotes for "You wouldn't believe me if I told you".] The phrase (or a reasonable variation thereof) appears in (among others):
** ''Good Will Hunting''
** ''[[
** ''[[Dick Tracy]] vs. Cueball'' (1946)
** ''The Enforcer''
Line 33 ⟶ 31:
** ''Today You Die''
** ''Pure Country''
* Played with in ''[[The Lion, the Witch
* ''[[The Final Countdown]]'' uses the, "They're never going to believe it," variation as the USS ''Nimitz'' is returning to Pearl Harbor, having just spent about a week in 1941 thanks to [[Time Travel]].
== [[Live
* In ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'', Chuck tells Ned that Olive wouldn't believe that Ned had brought Chuck back to life even if she told her. Ned asks her how she knows that, and she says, "because I told her and she wouldn't believe me."
* ''[[
* ''[[Doug]]'' episode "Doug Takes the Case/Doug's Secret Song"
* ''[[War of the Worlds (TV series)|War
* Used in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* At the end of the classic ''[[
** It's also a common reply by the Doctor himself in regards to questions like "How did you get here?", "How do you know that?", "What makes you think our benevolent leader (who is actually The Master) is up to something bad?" and so on. The few times he does tell, people predictably don't believe him.
* Used by Richard in the ''[[Lost]]'' episode "Dr. Linus"; like the Professor above, Jack responds "Try me," as a) he has been through an awful lot of weird shit, and b) he is getting a bit sick of people dodging questions.
* In an episode of ''[[Full House]]'', Jessie receives some timely advice from a man who looks like (though hinted it might be) [[Elvis Presley]], and when Jessie mentions he looks familiar, the stranger says people mistake him for Wayne Newton. When Jessie is telling everyone else about the stranger, he realizes that being a huge Elvis fan, it was just too weird that he got advice from a man who looked like Elvis, so he said the man looked like Wayne Newton.
* ''[[
== Literature ==▼
▲== [[Literature]] ==
* A variation: In [[The Bible]], Luke 22, the arrested Jesus is interrogated and asked to confirm that he claims to be the Christ. He answers with pretty much this phrase. If Our Lord being a [[Deadpan Snarker]] distresses you, wait 'til you find the puns.
* A slight variation is said by Shay Bourne to Father Michael in Jodi Picoult's ''Change of Heart'':
{{quote|
"Are you okay?"
"You wouldn't believe it if I told you."
"Oh, try me." }}
* Happens in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' novel ''Changes'', where the [[Good Cop, Bad Cop|Good Cop]] is questioning Harry about a building that was bombed. Harry delivers this line when asked if he knows who did it, then the two change subject and talk a while before the cop decides he's innocent and lets him go. Before Harry leaves, the cop asks who really did it, to which he responds "Vampires," adding "I told you you wouldn't believe me" a minute later when the cop goes through surprise and disbelief.
* In ''[[Ravirn|WebMage]]'', Ravirn is placed under a "Cassandra Curse" that prevents people from believing anything he says about the [[Big Bad]]. When Eris tries to question him about a related matter, he tells her that she wouldn't believe him if he told her -- [[Cassandra Truth|which she naturally doesn't believe]].
==
* ''[[Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas]]''▼
* ''[[Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King]]''. At the end of the
▲* ''Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas''
* In the ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' episode "Double Date", Green Arrow asks [[Cloudcuckoolander|The Question]] why he's helping [[Vigilante Man|Huntress]] track down the man who killed her parents. Question responds with this, and everyone just assumes he says it because his motives are something insane. (It turns out he's just trying to impress Huntress.)▼
▲* Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King. At the end of the episode, the {{spoiler|benevolent}} Goblin King casts a spell that erases memory of the night's events from everyone but Shaggy and Scooby. When the rest of the gang asks what happened, they use the trope.
▲* In the [[Justice League Unlimited]] episode "Double Date", Green Arrow asks [[Cloudcuckoolander|The Question]] why he's helping [[Vigilante Man|Huntress]] track down the man who killed her parents. Question responds with this, and everyone just assumes he says it because his motives are something insane. (It turns out he's just trying to impress Huntress.)
== Video Games ==▼
* At the end of ''[[
* The player can invoke this in the game ''[[Mission
{{quote|'''
'''Tran''': Try me.
''*
'''Tran''': That is the most ridiculous story I've heard since I graduated from the naval academy. }}
* At the beginning of the ''Warden's Keep'' DLC for ''[[Dragon Age
* In ''[[King's Quest]] 5'', Graham gets carried away by a giant Roc and is only barely rescued from being eaten by its young by a friendly eagle, who deposits him on a beach. When Cedric asks where Graham went, he responds with the trope name.
* During the final level of ''[[Crysis]]'', Nomad finally meets with Psycho again, who had been supporting him throughout the game up until they were separated, and sees that he has secured an alien life-form for the U.S Navy to study. Nomad asks Psycho how he got the alien off the island and onto a Naval vessel Psycho responds saying, "Long story. You wouldn't believe me if I told you." However there was a DLC for the original PC version where we do in fact see how Psycho got it.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Stock Phrases]]
[[Category:Alice and Bob]]
[[Category:You
|