• Love Hina uses this when the roommates discover that Keitaro is not a Tokyo U student early on. This leads to their already fairly low attitude toward him sinking even lower.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena: When Utena and Akio go stargazing during their date in "The One to Revolutionize the World", Akio casually admits to her that the stars actually don't interest him at all. One of the things that they initially bonded over was his apparent passion for astronomy. She doesn't outwardly react to this implicit admission that he was leading her on, but as she reconsiders what she wants for herself over the course of the episode, she rejects the path he wanted for her.

• The plot of 36 Questions gets into motion when Natalie is forced to admit that everything she's told her husband for the past two years, including her name, is a lie.

• The story of Peanut revolves around a girl faking an allergy and the drama that ensues from trying to keep her secret. Ultimately, Sadie reveals the truth to her teachers and friends after she's believed to have eaten a peanut and paramedics are called.
• Played with in Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW). During Phantom Riders, thanks to Surge ripping off the cloaking device on his arm, Sonic ends up being revealed as the Phantom Rider to the world live on air. However, not only did most of Sonic's friends already deduce that he was the Phantom Rider, but him being outed also played a part in Clean Sweep Inc. being exposed as an illegitimate business and Clutch's evil being revealed, meaning that the citizens of Sonic's world ended up not taking umbrage with him specifically. The only one who ended up being angry with Sonic for putting up the Phantom Rider façade is Lanolin, both because she never put two and two together, and she sees the Phantom Rider as a dangerous criminal.

• This occurs in a months-long storyline for Retail. In an effort to get a raise, Josh fabricates a story to his bosses that a competing retail store offered him a job with a bigger salary. Much to Marla's protest, their district manager Stuart authorizes the raise. Weeks later, Marla finds out that the store never offered him a job. She promptly tells Stuart, and while he warns against firing him, it's pretty evident that he's pissed at the whole thing, judging by a later strip that showed Josh calling him. Josh, realizing he was going to get fired, got a new job and gave a two weeks' notice to Marla, who ended up firing him anyway without working out the notice after he bragged about how he got away with lying.

Crossovers

• Aura of the Azure: Cinder reveals to Yang and Weiss that Ragna had been secretly suspicious about her for months. In order to further twist the knife, she shows them a video of Ragna threatening her, editing out the part where she threatened his family in order to make the pair feel even more betrayed by him.
• Bridges Burned (Mama Always Told Me That I Should Play Nice. But She Never Met You): Throughout the whole story, Marinette's classmates comfort themselves with the notion that Lila's celebrity connections are even better than Marinette's, even though their former friend is revealing that she knows big names that turn this into a Massive Multiplayer Crossover. Then Jagged Stone swings by the school and reacts poorly upon hearing how she supposedly rescued a cat he never owned in the first place, while Penny informs the class that he's allergic. This causes Alya and the others to break down as they realize they'd effectively abandoned Marinette for no good reason, as Lila was never going to deliver on any of her promises.
• Child of the Storm: in the sequel, Harry, among others, is revealed as a liar by a furious Hermione when she figures out the truth about her ancestry (in short, she's the daughter of Wanda Maximoff, secretly adopted to protect her from her family's many, many enemies) and it becomes obvious that he knew.
• In Equestria Ninja Girls: Spy Racers, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles use cloaking devices to hide their true appearances. Shashi uses Skelton Key to shut down those devices in front of the Crew, Layla, and his henchmen.
• Ladybug: A Young Avenger: The Tuesday before spring break, Lila spins a tale about knowing Tony Stark and Jagged Stone. When Tony and Jagged separately enter the class to grab Marinette, Alya asks them about Lila, which leads to them being confused and subsequently her getting exposed.
• Maribat AU: A common plot point in various Recursive Fanfics is Lila claiming to be close to the Waynes, only for the Waynes to promptly prove otherwise. This frequently includes Lila pretending she's "secretly engaged" to Damian, prompting him to reveal his relationship with Marinette.
  • For extra hilarity, sometimes Lila will fail to recognize the person calling her out, leading to her digging herself deeper without realizing she's arguing with somebody she claimed to know. Including her own supposed 'fiance'.
• Raise Your Voice Against Liars: While Marinette's class is visiting Japan, they run into Akira and his friends, who point out the flaws in Lila's claims that Jagged Stone wrote a love song about her. (Namely that she's a teenager young enough to be his child, meaning any such "love song" would be scandalous if it existed.) Later, Lila is the first Parisian target of the Phantom Thieves.

Amphibia

• In The Plantar Family Pet, King Andrias forces Marcy to admit to her friends that she'd known about the music box's magical powers and intentionally used it to transport them all to another world in order to escape her parents' plans to move away.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

• Wikibending notes that the only thing keeping the Equalists together was Amon's leadership, as they had no real unifying beliefs beyond being opposed to bending. Amon transformed the movement into a Cult of Personality, but once he was revealed to be a waterbender, the Equalists completely fell apart, eventually reforming into three smaller groups.

The Bad Guys (2022)

• The Bad Life of Billy the Kid revolves around The Bad Guys taking in a baby, whom they name Billy, and raising him as their own. However, the issue is that they more or less kidnapped the child, snatching him from an unattended minivan out of worry that his parents wouldn't return. So, to prevent Billy from potentially turning on them, the Bad Guys lie and claim the kid was left abandoned in a dumpster. Unfortunately, the truth finally comes fourth in Chapter 15, which retells the stealing of the love meteorite from canon; Marmalade discovers the true identity of Billy's parents and reveals it to the child, forcing Wolf to confess everything. Billy, who had already grown to dislike living a life of crime, feels betrayed and disowns the animal crooks right on the spot.

Disney Animated Canon

• Pride Lands Generations: Jahili spends a good portion of the story hiding his heritage and other secrets from everyone, with three moments where he's exposed:
  • Firstly, his father Kuchinja learns from Ukware's Exact Eavesdropping that Jahili had hidden the truth about Dhahabu's cubs from him, along with how he'd fallen in love with Taraji. Kuchinja then uses this information to craft the plan that leads to Mfalme's death.
  • The second time comes when Jahihi himself confesses to Taraji that he's been serving as The Mole. She takes the news poorly but gradually comes to understand why he lied and that it doesn't change who he is at heart or how she feels about him.
  • Finally, Kuchinja exposes his son during the confrontation in the gorge in an attempt to turn Dhahabu against his sister (either for getting involved with one of the Wahamiji, or for standing by Jahili even after learning the truth).

Fairy Tail

• In Wonderland, Gray learns from Jellal that he's been living a lie that was painstakingly crafted by his mother and that in reality, his family isn't really royalty.

Harry Potter

• In Harry Is A Dragon, And That's Okay, Lockhart is confronted by Michael Freeman, who was actually the real Wagga Wagga werewolf. Lupin tracked him down, wanting to learn whether the Homorphus Charm could also work on him, and Michael is outraged that some "poncy blond pom" is Stealing the Credit from the warlock who helped stop him.

Hellaverse

• Striker Strikes Back: Angel Dust and Moxxie pretend that they're already in a relationship in an attempt to protect each other from Valentino. Eventually, he learns the truth and promptly confronts Angel Dust.

Hilda

• Hilda the Witch: At one point, Bran asks Johanna if she's told Hilda about Rikard; she claims to have done so. Later on, in The Stone Forest, Bran learns that Hilda has been privately investigating that very same topic, causing him to realize that Johanna lied. This leads in turn to Hilda learning the real reason why she doesn't have any memories about her father.

Merlin (2008)

• The Albion Cycle: The second book, The King's Shadow, has Merlin reveal to Arthur that he's Emrys the warlock. A few chapters later, Cornelius Sigan exposes him to a party of guards, which leads to all of Camelot finding out.

Miraculous Ladybug

• Canon presents Lila Rossi as a Compulsive Liar and Manipulative Bitch who routinely evades all consequences for her actions. As a result, it's a very common Fandom-Specific Plot for her deception to finally be exposed.
  • Individual examples can be found here.

My Hero Academia

• Throughout Cain, Katsuki repeatedly tries to ruin Izuku's life and reputation by spreading Malicious Slander, only for these stories to fall apart in the face of reality. The more he does this, the more he erodes his own reputation. Ironically, it's implied that the only one who truly believes any of his claims is Katsuki himself.
• Reality Check: One of the many lies Shinsou tells himself is that he's a hard worker; in fact, he insists that he's the only member of the Hero Course who knows how to fight for his dreams. However, he refuses to adjust his study habits or training to meet the higher demands of his new track; when it becomes clear that he's lagging behind academically, he attempts to compensate by hypnotizing Momo and stealing her research assignment, intending to pass it off as his own. When this plot gets exposed, it completely destroys his reputation; most of his classmates were already wary due to his standoffish, disdainful attitude, but learning how he lied about Momo's essay ensures that everyone's pissed off at him.
• Think Before You Speak is driven by Aizawa's decision to lie to Tensei about how his younger brother was injured during a training exercise. By falsely claiming that Midoriya was responsible, he hopes to force the poor kid out of U.A. by having him Convicted by Public Opinion. By the time Tensei learns the truth, the damage has already been done — to both his and Aizawa's reputations, along with any regard he once held for the other man.

Pokémon

• Operation GEAR: When Nekou has to call Rosalie for help dealing with Olivia's illness, it forces the fact that she's a member of Team Rocket out into the open.

RWBY

• A Monster's Marriage: Upon encountering Cinder during one of Watts' assassination missions, Neo ends up teleporting her back home. Her sudden appearance covered in blood leads Jaune to discover that Cinder is an assassin. After a heated argument, she tries to tell him where to hide with her family, assuming they're basically over, only for Jaune to assure her that, despite all the lies, she's still his wife and he's not going to let her suffer alone.

Sing

• In One Way Left To Go, Buster worries that if Meena impresses Florence and successfully manages to launch a solo career, that will lead to the whole troupe going their separate ways. So he convinces Porsha to sabotage her run-through. Afterwards, Porsha is ridden with guilt and soon reveals what happened to Ash and Rosita. Ash then furiously confronts Buster about this in front of everyone else, spurring an argument between Buster and Meena that results in the stage collapsing.

Trollhunters

• By the end of Chapter 30 of Becoming The Mask, Jim's troll allies, adoptive mother, and human friends have all found out that he's a Changeling.

• Aladdin (1992, Disney): Played with. Street rat Aladdin uses a wish granted by a genie to impersonate a prince so he can court Princess Jasmine. Aladdin and the genie argue about whether to tell Jasmine the truth. Later on, Jafar reveals Aladdin's true identity, but Jasmine isn't angry with Aladdin for lying, mainly because the princely exterior was a fancy cover for the street rat she first met and fell in love with, and there was a law that she HAD to marry a prince at the time.
• In Back to the Outback, after being pressured several times into chasing after the protagonists after it is discovered they escaped the zoo, Chaz admits to his son that he's not actually a cool wildlife expert and only wanted to be like those sort of people because he saw it on TV.
• A Bug's Life is an interesting example because it manages to both play it straight and deconstruct it at the same time. Flik supposedly finds "warrior bugs" to save his colony after misconstruing a situation, and when he realizes his mistake (that they're circus performers rather than trained warriors), he's forced to keep the lie going in order to not cause panic among the other ants, especially because the plan to use a decoy bird to scare the villainous grasshoppers away has a lot of merit in its own right. Once the colony finds out after their owner comes to the colony to get them back, it inevitably results in the colony, outraged by the deception, exiling Flik and the circus bugs — but this leaves them without a backup plan and no time to build a new offering for Hopper, resulting in the grasshoppers taking over the colony. Later on, the fake bird scare not only almost works but also directly leads up to Hopper's death in the climax, and the colony concedes that condemning Flik just because he lied about one part of their plan probably wasn't the best idea.
• Chicken Run: Rocky's been building himself up as being a rooster who can fly to the hens, slowly ingratiating himself into the flock despite initial wariness and giving them hope that they can escape the farm through his flight lessons. However, Rocky eventually gets cold feet and realizes that the danger of the situation is only getting worse, and that he's in way over his head. The situation differs from typical versions of this trope is that he's never confronted about the subject, since he abandons the farm before anyone else finds out, but not before leaving the other half of his poster for Ginger to find, revealing his "flight" was merely him being shot out of a cannon. The scene is portrayed extremely soberly and with everyone more or less in stunned shock at the depths of this betrayal. It's once again also played with in a refreshing spin, since when Rocky returns, nobody holds it against him, the worst he gets is a slap on the face from Ginger, who tries to kiss him afterwards anyway. Admittedly, it also helps that he actually did return to help, and that the situation was too dire and dangerous to be wasting time being angry at him.
• Averted in DC League of Super-Pets. Ace tells of a nonexistent farm to boost the other shelter animal's spirits on multiple occasions. Although he concedes this lie to Krypto, the reveal of the truth to the shelter pets never happens, at least on screen.
• Elio:
  • When Other Elio's hair comes to life and leads Ogla into his room, she discovers he's not the real Elio by lifting his eyepatch to reveal nothing but skin underneath.
  • Grigon isn't fooled by Other Glordon for long because he's far too euthanistic about being a Proud Warrior Race Guy, which he knows full well the real Glordon doesn't actually want.
  • When Grigon forces Questa to read Elio's mind in order to learn where Glordon is, she also discovers that Elio was lying about being Earth's "leader".
• Gulliver's Travels (1939): Gulliver must eventually reveal that he is not a ruler, nor does anyone respect him or even like him.
• Hotel Transylvania:
  • Hotel Transylvania (2012): Dracula spends the majority of the movie trying to hide a human named Johnny from the other monsters at his hotel and he has to make up a bunch of lies in order to do so. It ends up all for naught as the film's Plot-Irrelevant Villain exposes him.
  • In the fourth film, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, Dracula manipulates Johnny into believing that he can't own the hotel due to a real estate clause (When in actuality, Dracula simply found Johnny to be annoying), but once he ends up revealing the truth when confronted by the rest of the characters, Johnny becomes enraged with Dracula and storms off while becoming much bigger and angrier due to Dracula's manipulation.
• How to Train Your Dragon: Hiccup pretends to be a dragon-slaying protege, while simply subduing them via peaceful methods he learned from Toothless, a dragon he managed to tame and befriend. In this case, it's justified since the other vikings would have killed Toothless if they'd known about his existence and Hiccup's attempt to willingly give up the charade in order to demonstrate violence isn't always the answer ends with his father disowning him for tricking him and sympathizing with the dragons.
• Played painfully straight in the film Klaus when the villains forcibly reveal that Jesper initially only set up his kids' toy-ordering scheme with Klaus because he wanted to mail enough letters to be allowed to leave Smeerensburg and resume his life of luxury. Jesper's friends all react very negatively to the facade and Jesper comes close to leaving the island before ultimately deciding to stay in order to earn forgiveness.
• The LEGO Movie applies this trope for less than a minute. When the protagonist is assumed to be the Special by his rescuer, Wyldstyle, he rather uneasily agrees (he does want to believe it but is unsure about it). Luckily, she figures out he isn't quite the fitting Special easily and this promptly upsets her.
• Luca surprisingly averts this. After his and Alberto's falling out, Guilia discovers the truth that Luca is (also) a sea monster. But she's not mad at either of them for deceiving her, but more at the fact that of all places to explore, they chose a town that actively hunts sea monsters, putting their lives at risk.
  Giulia: "Sleeping under the fish"! Now I get it!!
  Luca: [stammering]) I-I can explain...
  Giulia: Of all the places for sea monsters to visit, Portorosso?! Have you seen this town?! My dad hunts sea monsters!
• Luck (2022) has two instances, as both Sam's disguise as a leprechaun and Bob's replacement of a lucky penny with a button utilize this trope to some extent.
• Near the end of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, Captain DuBois confronts the Zoosters backstage at a circus act^note  The lie in this case was that the Zoosters wanted to get back to New York, but the only way to do that was to say that they were circus animals, pursuing them and revealing that they were from the zoo all along, forcing them to give up the act.
• Happens before the third act of The Mitchells vs. the Machines, where PAL manipulates the Mitchells as she reveals footage of Katie telling Aaron back in the Dino Stop cafe earlier, where she tells Aaron in secret that she lied about convincing her father and putting faith in him that they need to save the world, saying that she only said it so that she would be able to abandon her family for the sake of her own future. This breaks Rick's heart after watching this (as well as Aaron's), emotionally hurt and betrayed by his daughter's words.
  Katie Mitchell: [in footage] Oh, I'm just telling him what he wants to hear. I didn’t mean a word of that. I just wanna get my future back and get away forever.
• In Open Season, Elliot tries to be friends with Boog by leading him in circles.
• In Over the Hedge the trope is expressed by RJ's plan to pillage suburban food to feed Vincent the bear, whose food pile he accidentally destroyed. He finds Verne and the woodland animals and decides to use them to help him collect food for Vincent while lying that he's helping them collect food for the winter. Later, while arguing with Verne over a can of Spuddies in Gladys' pantry, RJ snaps and angrily and accidentally exposes his ruse to Verne and the others.
  Verne: What's going on RJ?
  RJ: NOTHING!
  Verne: Well then, let's get out of here because we have what we need!
  RJ: No, we don't!
  Verne: What are you talking about? We have more than enough!
  RJ: Hey, listen! I've got about this long to hand over that wagon load of food to a homicidal bear! AND IF THESE SPUDDIES AREN'T ON THE MENU, I WILL BE! NOW, LET GO OF MY TAIL!
  Verne: What?
  RJ: LET GO!
• This is the basic setup for the main character's identity in Rango. When Rango arrives in Dirt, he uses it to live out his dream of being a legendary gunslinger (helped by some accidental shenanigans which seemed to back up his claims) and even slowly grows into being an actual sheriff and justice fighter who works to uncover the conspiracy behind the town's drought, until the Mayor realizes that Rango's become the mask a little too well and has his minions call his deadly enforcer, the feared mercenary, Rattlesnake Jake who reveals to the townsfolk that he made it all up and forces him out unless he wants to be killed like past sheriffs. Unlike most examples of the trope, the reactions of the townsfolk are not shown much in favor of having Rango himself be the harshest critic of his lies and pretenses of being a sheriff with the whole town back on his side very quickly once he chooses to return to truly become the legend that he claims he was, implying they never lost much of the respect for him.
• In Return to Never Land, Jane gets thrown under the bus by Captain Hook once he revealed to Peter and the Lost Boys that she originally was going to sell them out to Hook as her way back to London, which of course, Peter's not all that happy about. Unlike most examples, however, neither Peter nor the Lost Boys hold it against her when she comes to the rescue since it was probably redeeming enough that she even bothered. And when Tinker Bell shows up alive and well, that probably destroyed any doubt they had if they did.
• Refreshingly averted in Rock-A-Doodle. After Pinkie tells Chanticleer that Goldie was supposed to keep him from finding out about his friends trying to get him to return home, you'd expect Chanticleer to get angry or reject her. But he quickly takes it in stride, instead focusing on how they can both rescue them.
• In Shark Tale, Oscar reveals he's not the Shark Slayer at the end of the movie. In contrast with most examples of this trope, Oscar reveals his lie to the world of his own volition and, for the most part, does not face any negative consequences for it. Since it’s after the climax when the reveal comes, it makes the effect the truth would have on the others moot at that point.
• The Tigger Movie applies this trope when Tigger mistakenly believes that his family is coming to visit him (after having gotten a letter from his friends who were trying to cheer him up). It's zigzagged with several failed attempts to reveal who had written the letter to a very busy Tigger, then Roo and the others decide to disguise themselves as Tigger's family to cheer him up, and Tigger accidentally learns the truth much to his great disappointment, therefore playing this trope straight.
  Tigger: [angry and heartbroken] Oh... oh, now I understand; it was all a big joke. Well... that's alright. 'Cause somewhere out there, there's a tigger family tree, full of my real tigger family! I've got a letter to prove it! [steps out of the door into a snowstorm] And I'm gonna find them. So... TTFE. Ta-ta... FOREVER! [leaves, slamming the door behind him]
• In Turning Red, this is subverted. After Ming finds out that Mei has been secretly hustling the panda for money, Ming finds her at Tyler's birthday party, where Mei grimaces as she expects to be chastised by her mother... but Ming walks past her without saying a word. Instead, Ming goes to chastise Mei's friends, as Ming is still holding onto the self-imposed image of Mei being a sweet innocent victim of exploitation.
• The Wild Robot (2024): Fink advises Roz not to tell Brightbill how she accidentally killed his birth family, which ends up backfiring horribly when he finds out from the other geese as a teenager.
• Mercifully downplayed in Wish Dragon with Din. After making his second wish and being exposed to "high society" at Li Na's birthday party, his insecurity caused him to lean more into the facade of "Dan". However, the instant his second wish ends and his trappings of wealth vanish, Din comes clean to Li Na, even admitting that he was afraid their friendship would end once she found out.
• The titular character of Yellowbird, who had been keeping a secret the entire film, finally spills the beans near the film's end. Karl, not him, was meant to lead the flock to Africa, per the instructions of the flock's late leader Darius. Not only did he have no clue where Africa was, they weren't aware he didn't either. He tried to defend himself by stating that was the first time he'd ever been part of a flock and felt appreciated, and that all the misfortune that befell them was his fault. The other flock members are shocked and disheartened, most of all Delf, who'd come to view him as a good friend.

• In Airheads There's two unique takes on this trope. The first is when Chazz is forced to reveal he was a Dungeons and Dragons playing geek in High School. But that leads to an "I am Spartacus" moment as other rockers reveal they too were also geeks, and his popularity is maintained. The second occurs when one of the Lone Rangers' guns is broken by a shutting door, resulting in their ruse being revealed, as they were merely toy guns. Thankfully this doesn't last long, as they immediately end up with a real machine gun, thanks to one of the supporting characters, thus maintaining the siege.
• In Andhadhun, Sophie finds out that Akash was only feigning blindness from the kid living next door to him. In an ironic twist, this happens at the same time as Simi blinds him for real.
• In About Elly, Sepideh's lies all come out one by one after Elly disappears.
• Bandslam: It's revealed that Will made up stories about his father, who's really in prison for killing a twelve-year-old while driving drunk.
• Big Fat Liar is an inversion of the typical story, as it tells the story of a sleazy Hollywood producer who steals a movie idea from an essay written by a middle school student. Rather than focusing on the producer's efforts to maintain the lie, the focus is on the kid (who happens to be a compulsive liar who no one will believe without proof) unraveling the producer's life until he admits the truth.
• The third act of Camp Rock kicks off with Tess snooping and overhearing Mitchie say she lied about her mother being a big-time television executive instead of the camp cook, as that was the only way she would be able to afford to attend the camp; Tess then confronts Mitchie shortly after Beach Jam and goads her into revealing her secret, resulting in everyone but Caitlyn resenting her and Shane breaking his trust.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Film Series): In Dog Days, Greg tells his dad Frank that he has a job working at a country club, in reality it’s a lie he made up just to spend time with his best friend Rowly and try to impress a girl named Holly Hills. When taking his dad there, Greg encounters Rowly’s dad who tells Frank he doesn't have a job at the country club. Frank is disappointed that his own son had lied to him.
• Downplayed in The Force Awakens. Finn lies about being a Resistance fighter when he meets Rey. When he does admit about his past, she's more upset that he plans to run away than that he lied to her.
• In Galaxy Quest, a race of aliens abduct the washed-up actors of an old sci-fi show. They quickly learn that the aliens—having no concept of fiction—believe that the show is real, calling the episodes "historical documents," and see their characters as heroes. When they're captured by the Big Bad, who realizes what's going on, they're forced by him to explain the true nature of the show; it's like watching a kid's heart break as he learns there's no Santa Claus. Partly subverted as after the crew saves the day, the alien laughs at their "clever ruse" of pretending they weren't really heroes.
• In Housesitter, Gwen claims that she's Newton's to get away with squatting in his empty house, resulting in a Snowball Lie that involves the entire town. Gavin ends up going along with the lie because it makes an old girlfriend jealous. Averted when it looks like the lie is finally going to be revealed, but it isn't. The relationship ends up becoming real, and they never bother to reveal that it was originally made up.
• Oz the Great and Powerful plays with this. When he comes to Oz, Oscar is believed by everyone to be a great and powerful wizard destined to save them all, which he just runs with so he can become king. As early as the second act he outright tells the truth to Finley, who's stuck with him because of a life debt, and briefly frets over the repercussions. Glinda and the rest of his friends figure it out on their own, but they're all fairly accepting because he still gets things done, and because they know he's truly good at heart^note Otherwise he wouldn't have passed, albeit with great difficulty, Glinda's barrier that wards off all who are corrupt. The rest of Oz never learns the truth, while the Wicked Witches are ultimately fooled by his lies.
• In Pokémon Detective Pikachu, this is Inverted in the second act, which ends with Pikachu seemingly getting revealed to have been Mewtwo's accomplice before losing his memories. But Tim and Pikachu only saw a portion of the recreation of events before being cut off, and while Pikachu believes that he himself is to blame for Harry's supposed death, Tim reasonably believes that there must be more to the story than that. Turns out he's right, as Harry and Pikachu were trying to rescue Mewtwo from Howard after learning they had been tricked into tracking him down for the villain, and Mewtwo had placed Harry's consciousness inside Pikachu's body to allow the mortally wounded human to heal, as gratitude for rescuing him.
• In Saw 3D:
  • Bobby is abducted by Hoffman and put through a trial previously planned by Jigsaw because he made up a story about surviving a Jigsaw trap to gain money and fame. After a trap of his own, Bobby is confronted with several tests in which he has to save his relevant staff and loved ones, including his best friend and wife. In the test with his wife, Joyce, he's forced to confess the truth to her (since she wasn't aware of what his false story was about), and, as an ironic shout to him, to try and recreate the trap he made up to hit a switch that will save Joyce from the trap she's in. While he survives, he fails to save everyone else in the trial, and it's likely that he was publicly exposed as a liar afterwards.
  • In the opening trap, Brad and Ryan are bound to a double-bladed bandsaw and Dina is above a second saw jutting upwards. At first, both men try to kill the other by pushing the blade into the other one in order to save themselves and Dina... until Dina essentially exposes through an Opinion Flip-Flop that she's been playing both of them for money and comfort at the same time, thus cheating on both of them. Brad and Ryan decide to stop fighting in response, resulting in Dina's death.
• About halfway through Valentine, Dorothy admits she framed Jeremy Melton for sexually assaulting her, meaning she got him locked up because she was embarrassed for being around him and now he's coming to kill her and her friends because they corroborated her.
  Paige: Dorothy... he did attack you, right?
  Dorothy: [Beat] No, he didn't. I just said that he did.
• A variation of this occurs in The Waterboy, where the Cougars crash the Mud Dogs' victory party to announce that Bobby's high school transcript was fabricated. This causes the entire Mud Dog team to abruptly turn their backs on him, in spite of everything he did for them. Not long after, it's revealed that Coach Klein was actually the person responsible for the fake transcript, leading everybody to later come out and apologize to Bobby as he takes care of his "sick" mother in the hospital.
• In Where the Wild Things Are, Max lies about having psychic powers and being a king even though all the monsters are much stronger than him. They could probably accidentally kill him! When the lie is revealed, one of the monsters goes so far as to try to eat him and rip off the arm of another monster protecting him.
• In Yes-Man, Carl reveals that he has only been doing adventurous things with his new girlfriend Allison because of a self-empowerment seminar that told him to say 'yes' to every opportunity.

• The Empirium Trilogy: During the reception for Rielle's wedding, Corien shows everyone a vision that exposes the truth behind their previous king's death as well as his commander's: afraid that Corien would kill them, Rielle unleashed a ton of power that did end up burning Corien, but also killed the king and his commander. When Audric found her shortly thereafter, she lied to him, too scared of losing him and his love to tell him the truth. The effect this reveal has on Audric momentarily turns him against Rielle, leading the two to argue which culminates in Rielle running away from Baingarde to seek out Corien.
• The Iron Stove: The princess promises to a stranger trapped in a stove to marry him in order to find her home. The princess' father sends substitutes in her place to the stranger, first a miller's daughter then a pigherd's daughter, but both betray their origins accidentally, so the stranger sends them back and demands the real princess to return.
• Miranda July's short story "The Sister" is built around this. The protagonist's friend, Victor Caesar-Sanchez, creates the character of his sister, who becomes the love interest of the protagonist. He keeps the lie up by mentioning that she was at certain events that the main character was at, and claiming that they keep missing each other. Eventually, the protagonist becomes enamoured with her imagined being, at which point Victor seduces him and reveals his attraction. Basically, Victor created the character of his sister to deal with his feelings of attraction to the main character.
• In the third part of Skippy Dies, after he starts acting out in school as a response to Skippy's death, Ruprecht's parents come to visit the school. This reveals that nearly all of Ruprecht's grandiose claims about himself were false— his parents are plumbers, not famous explorers, and he transferred schools due to a embarrassing gym class incident. This cascades into a reveal that Dennis faked the success of Ruprecht's portal and that nearly all Ruprecht's brilliant inventions were likely fake as well.
• Worm: After the Leviathan battle, Armsmaster reveals to the Undersiders that the protagonist Taylor was only pretending to be on their side in order to betray them to the heroes. It turns out Tattletale already knew this, though, and thought correctly she could get her on their side for real anyway, though the other Undersiders feel appropriately shocked and betrayed.

• ABO Desire: Hua Yong is an Enigma (the strongest Omegaverse gender), but pretends to be an Omega (the weakest) because that's what Sheng Shaoyou prefers. When the building they're in collapses during an earthquake, Hua has no choice but to use his superior abilities to save their lives. Sheng is furious at being deceived and tries to break up, but Hua is obsessed and gradually wins Sheng back.
• Doctor Who: In "Gridlock", the Doctor is forced to admit at the end that he had been lying by omission to Martha by not admitting that he's the Last of His Kind.
• iCarly:
  • Done when Sam changes Carly's grade.
  • She does it again during a web convention about Carly and Fred dating just to mess with the crowd at an iCarly panel. She attempts to fix it but seeing how they're dealing with geeks and fanboys, it doesn't work.
• In Season 2 of Orange Is the New Black, Piper manages to get furlough and promises Red that she'll visit her family's restaurant. However, when she gets there, she finds that it has actually been closed for years, but assures her that it was amazing. The following season, Red's family comes to visit and are unconvincing when they say that the restaurant is fine.
• Supergirl: The character Mon-El says he is the last survivor of a race of Metahumans like Kryptonians called Daxamites, and he was a bodyguard to the prince of their kingdom. However, in a later episode, it is revealed that Mon-El's parents are alive and searching for their son and Mon-El never was a bodyguard, but the real prince of the kingdom, meaning his parents were the rulers of the Daxamites and currently last survivors. This infuriates Kara, who had slowly begun a relationship with him and believed his initial story, to the point where she breaks up with him and he nearly leaves Planet Earth. Fortunately, they make up in a crossover episode of The Flash, and in the next episode, have begun dating again, and Kara then defends Mon-El from the Daxamite army when they try to destroy Earth and take back Mon-El by force.
• Star Trek: Discovery sees Michael Burnham forced to eat meat of Saru's species to maintain her cover in the Terran Empire. While updating Saru on her status, Michael opts to lie and say she hasn't seen any Kelpians, a lie that is exposed after Michael captures the Emperor, who freely admits to dining on Saru's kind to his face.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has Sauron, known as the great deceiver, as the Villain Protagonist. At the end of Season 1, Galadriel realizes her ally and friend Halbrand is not who he claims to be. He reveals himself to be Sauron with a soft, evil smile and proceeds to Mind Rape her. In the second season, he transforms into the angelic-looking elf Annatar and traps the kindly elven smith Celebrimbor into an illusion. When Celebrimbor breaks free of the spell, he realizes Annatar is Sauron. Played with because Sauron rarely if ever outright lies, instead preferring Lying by Omission.
• The first episode of Toby Terrier and His Video Pals revolves around Toby pretending to know everything about working at a TV station because he doesn't want to let anyone down, but he finally admits that he doesn't know what he's doing after his lack of experience wrecks the control room when he's left to run it alone.

• The Book of Mormon: Mormon missionary Elder Cunningham, who has only skimmed the Book of Mormon, resorts to making up stories mixing Mormon theology with situations and characters from Star Wars, Star Trek, and The Lord of the Rings that also speak to the problems of modern-day Ugandans. When the mission's president realizes what Cunningham has been teaching, he denounces the newly-baptized flock as not real Mormons. As it turns out, the Ugandans don't care; aside from one overly naive girl, they understand that Cunningham's stories weren't meant to be taken literally but still appreciate the way the lessons of the stories improve their lives.
• In Cactus Flower, Stephanie finally takes it upon herself to inform Toni in no uncertain terms that, despite earlier pretenses, she's not Mrs. Winston and Julian doesn't even have a wife. Toni doesn't take it well.
• Dear Evan Hansen: Connor Murphy's family believes that he wrote his suicide note to Evan Hansen, while in reality, it was a misunderstanding; Evan had written the note himself as a therapy exercise. Not wanting to break the truth to Connor's family that he had no friends, and feeling incredibly lonely himself, he maintains the façade that he and Connor were best friends. Once the note is leaked online and the lie starts to unravel, he tearfully confesses the truth to Connor's family, who are completely speechless, but nevertheless do not reveal Evan's lie to the public.
• This occurs in The Importance of Being Earnest when both Jack and Algernon reveal that neither of them is named Ernest.
  Cecily: Are you called Algernon?
  Algernon: I cannot deny it.
  Cecily: Oh!
  Gwendolen: Is your name really John?
  Jack: I could deny it if I liked. I could deny anything if I liked. But my name certainly is John. It has been John for years.
  Cecily: A gross deception has been practiced on both of us!
  Gwendolen: My poor wounded Cecily!
  Cecily: My sweet wronged Gwendolen!
• Something Rotten!: Nick Bottom hires soothsayer Thomas Nostradamus to see what the next big thing in theatre will be, who says it's musicals. Nick excitedly tells his younger brother Nigel about the musical idea, only to shrug off Nigel's question of how he came up with it. After Nick and Nigel can't think of a good musical idea, Nick discreetly goes back to Nostradamus to tell him what William Shakespeare's big hit will be, and Nostradamus sees Hamlet but mistakes it as "Omelette". Nick decides to make this, and he and Nigel hire "Toby Belch", actually Shakespeare in disguise after Shakespeare found out about Nick's plot. During the opening night of "Omelette: The Musical", Shakespeare takes off his disguise and reveals that Nostradamus is a soothsayer and that Nick wanted to steal his big hit. Nigel and the actors are horrified.
• In "Starship", Bug is a bug living on Bug-World who wants to be a Starship Ranger. After meeting one, February, while she's blinded by bug mucus, she thinks he's a Starship Ranger and he rescues her. They fall in love before she gets taken back to the ship. After the Overqueen bans Bug from interacting with humans, Bug meets Pincer, an outcast bug who offers to turn Bug into a human so he can be a Starship Ranger and be with February as long as he brings the humans to him "for dinner". Bug eagerly agrees, not knowing Pincer wants to eat them all, and Bug joins the rangers, only to leave with them. When Pincer finds out, he goes onto the ship and forces Bug to reveal the truth, causing February to be heartbroken.

• This occurs in BioShock Infinite when Booker is told to tell Elizabeth whatever she wants to hear in order to convince her to go with him. Booker tells Elizabeth that they are heading to Paris, as it is a city she has dreamed of visiting. Elizabeth's knowledge of navigation allows her to deduce that Booker is not taking her to Paris, but instead to New York. Elizabeth runs away from Booker; however, they ultimately decide to stick together.
• Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days: Over the course of the game, Roxas and Xion come to realize that their best friend, Axel, has been lying to them about not knowing where they came from. In Roxas' case, this reveal plays a major role in his decision to leave Organization XIII. Unlike some other examples of this trope, he does give Axel one last chance to come clean and tell him the truth. But Axel refuses, most likely out of fear that if Roxas learned the truth about being Sora's Nobody, he'd just leave anyway.
• The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince: The wolf, who took on the form of a princess to avoid scaring the blind prince and escort him to the witch's home so she can heal his eyes, has her secret revealed at the worst possible moment when the moon shines down and forces her into her true form while she's holding the prince's hand. Recognizing the claws that scarred his face and realizing the princess is the monster that attacked him, the prince angrily calls her a liar and a monster, though he does regret it and apologizes to her when she still goes out of her way to save his life.
• In Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Nathan Drake's brother Sam—long believed to have died in a Panamanian prison escape—returns, claiming that he needs Nate's help to find Henry Avery's pirate treasure in order to pay off a debt owed to drug lord Hector Alcázar. However, Nate learns from the Big Bad, Rafe Adler, that Alcázar had already died in an Argentina shootout six months before, and that Rafe bribed the prison warden to get Sam out, knowing that Sam had information on the treasure's whereabouts. This angers Nate, who was putting his own life and personal relationships on the line for what he thought was rescuing his brother.

• In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations, it's revealed that Phoenix once dated a woman, Dahlia Hawthorne, who only pretended to love him in order to get back a bottle of poison that she'd planted on him. But even after that truth comes out, Phoenix insists that the woman he dated could never have said or done the things that Dahlia did. In the final case of the game, her twin sister, Iris, confesses that she was the person he dated and that she posed as Dahlia to get the evidence back. And she did love him. Out of shame, she'd decided to disappear from his life after Dahlia's arrest rather than confess what she did. Rather than get angry, Phoenix seems more relieved to know the truth than anything else.
• Downplayed with the protagonist of Double Homework when Dennis reveals his video game addiction to the world. It doesn't have the effect that Dennis hopes for, and the summer school class is firmly on the protagonist's side.

• Though the trope itself is Older Than Dirt, the trope title is at least partly cemented here vis a vis The Nostalgia Critic and other videos by Doug Walker, where Doug lists it as number 2 on his "Top Ten Worst Clichés". In other videos, he notes that he absolutely hates this type of plot for creating weak drama and very rarely sees a movie where he thinks it works (Aladdin, Klaus, How to Train Your Dragon and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted being notable exceptions). He has acknowledged that the trope can work if executed well, as noted in the above exceptions.
• Pops up a lot in Marble Hornets, but especially in season 3. Entry #59 has Tim calling out Jay for not only stalking him but inadvertently making the situation with Alex and the Operator worse with no progress to show for it. And then it gets flipped on its head in Entry #75 when Jay calls out Tim for hiding a tape from him when Tim specifically told Jay to not keep any more secrets.

• Played straight, and then Subverted in the American Dad! episode "Chimdale". Stan reveals to Steve that he's actually bald and has been wearing a wig the entire series, and then is caught wearing the wig at work after lying to Steve that he wouldn't wear it. The drama culminates in Stan revealing to the rest of the family. Turns out they all already knew and didn't tell Steve or Stan because they (correctly) assumed the two would overreact.
• Used to heartbreaking effect in the season 2 finale of Amphibia, "True Colors". In it, Marcy has her own secret sadistically weaponized by King Andrias, who reveals to Anne and Sasha that Marcy never intended for the group to ever get home. She only helped them reassemble the incredibly powerful, incredibly dangerous Dismantled MacGuffin for newly-revealed Big Bad King Andrias, so she could continue to go on otherworldly adventures with her friends, "forever and ever". Needless to say, considering the hellish environment Amphibia tends to be, as well as holding their lives in her hands without consent, neither of them took it very well.
  Marcy: I just... didn't want to be alone.
  Andrias: Well, I guess that's what you get for pouring your heart out to me over Flipwart.
• In the Danny Phantom episode "Reality Trip", Freak Show reveals to everyone that Danny Fenton is the ghost hero Phantom. His parents are confused as to why he would hide this from them and are shocked when they discover that Jazz was fully aware of this (though she admits Danny never actually told her either), questioning why he'd hide something so important from his own family. Jazz immediately points out that they are ghost hunters and researchers who constantly talk about wanting to destroy the undead spirits "molecule by molecule".
• DuckTales (2017):
  • Tragically played straight in "The Secrets of Castle McDuck!", where Dewey is forced to confess that he had been searching for the triplet's mother since the start of the series, having left them out of the loop specifically because he didn't want to get their hopes up if he hit a dead end. Huey and especially Louie are utterly devastated that their brother had any information about their mother and would keep such a secret from them.
  • "The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!" subverts this when Donald reunites with his old college band, The Three Caballeros. Both Jose Carioca and Panchito Pistoles are filthy rich, whereas Donald (after years of failed jobs due to being Born Unlucky) is currently a squatter at his uncle's mansion. So, he convinces a reluctant Scrooge to act as if HE's the owner of McDuck Enterprises for a time, but he eventually fesses up that he's flat broke. The others are initially prepared to goad him over this... until it's revealed they too are still losers, with Jose being stuck as a flight attendant and Panchito playing at children's birthday parties (and not very successfully it seems). The three then quickly realize they're still very much the same kids from college.
  • "Let's Get Dangerous!" actually turns this trope on the villain, Bradford Buzzard, the head of Scrooge's own Board of Directors and the chairman of F.O.W.L.. After getting kidnapped and betrayed by Taurus Bulba, Bradford tries to hide an attempted extraction from the triplets, only to go on a Motive Rant about why he feels the McDuck family's adventures are putting the world into too much chaos and make the kids suspicious of him. He just keeps digging himself deeper until the kids find out exactly who he is, leading him to toss them into another dimension, and reveal what kind of a frightening force the McDucks will be forced to deal with.
• The Fairly OddParents!:
  • Timmy wishes to be popular and spends the episode that way until he reveals himself at the end.
  • Subverted in another episode where Cosmo lied to everyone in his high school class that he was rich and successful. After attending a reunion and claiming that Timmy and Wanda were his servants, the truth is ultimately revealed but nobody minds because they all lied about what they did after high school (e.g. the sports jock is actually a ballet dancer).
• Hazbin Hotel: Charlie learns in Episode 6 that Vaggie is a former Exorcist, which drives a wedge in their relationship as Charlie begins to wonder what else she's been keeping a secret and starts to feel horrible for distrusting them just for keeping one secret from her. It takes Charlie discussing it with Rosie before they can patch things up, as Rosie points out that not only has Vaggie never lied to Charlie and only kept it a secret out of shame, but that she has always been nothing less than supportive towards Charlie no matter what.
  Rosie: If there's anything I've learned, it's that words are cheap. But actions, they speak the truth.
• The Loud House and its spin-off The Casagrandes are both notable for frequently utilizing this trope in some way, shape, or form, so much so it might as well fit as a Drinking Game entry. A lot of episodes involve one or more characters doing something contentious, and once the gig is up, they have no choice but to admit.
  • Subverted in "Steeling Thunder". Chandler attempts to expose Lincoln for faking a stunt, but his incriminating video gets switched with an embarrassing video of him. Then when Chandler challenges Lincoln to do the stunt live, Lincoln ends up accidentally doing the stunt for real just as he's attempting to come clean. Though he still learns his lesson and vows not to embellish again.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Subverted in the episode "Sweet and Elite", where it looks like this is being set up when Rarity lies about Opal being sick, so she won't immediately have to travel back to Ponyville for Twilight's birthday and miss an exclusive garden party with Canterlot's high society. However, the truth is never discovered and the Aesop is about something else entirely (loving and not being ashamed of your friends even if they aren't as sophisticated as others think they should be). Rarity also lies to people at the party about her friend Dash being the Wonderbolts' trainer, yet this is never brought up again even after all her friends, including Rainbow Dash, show up and then eventually join the party.
  • Played straight in the climax of "Leap of Faith", when Applejack has her "Eureka!" Moment which in turn gives her the confidence to reveal the tonic created by the Flim Flam Brothers was a fake.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In "Squilliam Returns", Squidward lies to Squilliam that he owns a five-star restaurant, but Squilliam calls his bluff by inviting himself and his friends to dine at said restaurant that very night. With considerable help from Spongebob, Squidward successfully disguises the Krusty Krab as a five-star restaurant, but the ruse is ultimately rumbled and Squidward is forced to admit he's just a cashier. There then follows a Double Subversion: Squilliam claims that he's been lying about his success and that he's also just a cashier, but immediately admits he was joking: "Of course not! I'm filthy stinkin' rich!"
  • In "SpongeGuard on Duty", after SpongeBob is mistaken for a lifeguard and rolls with it for the popularity, he then goes to overprotective lengths to hide that he can't swim, only to end up exposed when his attempts to save Patrick result in him drowning alongside him. Parodied in that the beach-goers don't even act upset and just walk off uninterested in saving them (one of them is even heard saying they're simply done with the beach), and Larry reveals they weren't deep enough in the water anyway.
  • Subverted in "Shell of a Man" where Mr. Krabs is invited by his old Navy buddies to a reunion party, but he moults his shell just beforehand. Too embarrassed to attend without it, as his tough shell was his most famous trait, he has Spongebob wear his discarded shell and pretend to be him. When the ruse is eventually rumbled, Krabs appears and reveals the truth - at which point his Navy buddies admit they've also been lying about their traits (for example, one who had a torpedo embedded in his stomach has since had it removed).
• Subverted in Star vs. the Forces of Evil. In an earlier episode, Marco helped depose Miss Heinous as headmaster of St Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses while disguised as a princess and he maintains the charade when visiting the school later on to avoid disappointing the other students who all look up to "Princess Turdina". However, when Miss Heinous exposes the truth — fully expecting it to cause everyone to turn on Marco and allow her to return as headmaster—the princesses are surprised, but in the end, they admit they don't care. Partially out of appreciation for everything Marco has done for them and partially because they all really hate Miss Heinous.