# Fictional works that are revealed to be fictionally fictional **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2013, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866 "2013-11-26T23:19:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/21 "2013-11-27T01:51:36Z")
_The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari._ ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/22 "2013-11-27T01:56:53Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > Are there any notable works of fiction in which there’s a revelation at the end that the bulk of the work is canonically false? None of it happened, just a lie being told by a character within the world? The version in my head would be, say, a novel with a framing narrative of a character telling a story, but said character revealing at/toward the end that he’s been lying the whole time. > > I don’t want to include “it was all a dream” scenarios (say, the film version of Wizard of Oz) or simple unreliable narrators. Of course “Newhart” falls in the “it was all a dream” category, but how about “St. Elsewhere”? That one was “all the fantasy of an autistic child.” eta: I would suspect that the hard standard of \*‘narrator states at end that it was all a complete lie’ \*is not often met. We humans are fascinated by deception, but deliberate deception on that scale–a claim, in essence, that we’ve been made fools of for the entire length of the work–would meet with so much resentment that the work in question might not find a publisher/filmmaker. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/23 "2013-11-27T02:09:52Z")
St. Elsewhere would’ve been my contribution to this thread if it wasn’t someone else’s already. ---
**Author:** ![Postariti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Postariti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Postariti)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/24 "2013-11-27T02:11:50Z")
[The Big O is](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_O)an anime set in a town where no one can remember the past. In the final episode, it is revealed that the whole thing is actually… a TV show? A movie? I watched it, and it was very weird. Wikipedia claims “…that the universe is a simulated reality created by advanced virtual reality technology by Angel.” Whatever exactly it is, the whole series you’ve just watched wasn’t real. Unfortunately, I found it annoying instead of intriguing. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/25 "2013-11-27T02:27:45Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > eta: I would suspect that the hard standard of \*‘narrator states at end that it was all a complete lie’ \*is not often met. There was [_Train of Life._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_of_Life) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/26 "2013-11-27T02:55:39Z")
Apparently, _Pale Fire_ by Vladimir Nabokov fits that description. Then there’s the Tommy Westfall Universe: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy\_Westphall#The\_Tommy\_Westphall\_Universe\_Hypothesis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Westphall#The_Tommy_Westphall_Universe_Hypothesis) It’s revealed at the end of the series _St. Elsewhere_ that it’s all a dream in the mind of the character Tommy Westphall. There are many TV series that can be connected to _St. Elsewhere_ by cross-overs (where the same actor plays the same character in both series) and are thus in the same universe. So apparently all of those shows were in the mind of Tommy Westphall. One of those those shows in that cross-over universe was _The Bob Newhart Show_. As we learn at the end of the show _Newhart_, it was merely a dream in the mind of Bob Newhart’s character in _The Bob Newhart Show_. So the show _Newhart_ (and several other shows which cross over with it and are thus in the same universe) are just a dream in the mind of Newhart’s character in _The Bob Newhart Show_, which is just a dream in the mind of Tommy Westphall. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/27 "2013-11-27T03:06:02Z")
There’s the movie _Invaders from Mars_, where it’s revealed about a minute from the end of the film that it’s all a dream in the mind of the main character. Then a few seconds from the end of the movie, it’s revealed that all the events of the movie are going to happen to the main character who’s just woken up. Perhaps this means that he’s not really awake, and we can then expect that there will be an endless chain of him waking up after experiencing the events of the movie again to discover that it’s a dream, but it’s not a dream. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/28 "2013-11-27T03:07:40Z")
Sorry, misspelled that name in one sentence of my post. I meant to write: \> Then there’s the Tommy Westphall Universe: ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/29 "2013-11-27T03:08:35Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > How about _The Twilight Zone_? Rod Serling starts and ends each episode with the tacit admission that what we’re watching takes place in some nebulous, fictional reality Even leaving that aside, the pilot episode’s hard-to-explain events – and the mundane ones, too – get this ending: no, our hero didn’t visit a diner before walking up the street to a movie theater; he’s been hallucinating in a little room this whole time. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/30 "2013-11-27T03:19:11Z")
Roseanne. In the final episode, it is revealed that the entire show was a novel written by the real Roseanne, loosely based on “real” events, but with a few things swapped around. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/31 "2013-11-27T03:35:48Z")
_ **Going after Cacciato** _ by Tim O’Brien. A US infantry squad tracks a deserter from Vietnam to Paris, on foot. At least, that’s what you think until you read the last few pages… ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/32 "2013-11-27T03:50:12Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > eta: I would suspect that the hard standard of \*‘narrator states at end that it was all a complete lie’ \*is not often met. We humans are fascinated by deception, but deliberate deception on that scale–a claim, in essence, that we’ve been made fools of for the entire length of the work–would meet with so much resentment that the work in question might not find a publisher/filmmaker. Yep, which is why I asked. Didn’t expect it to be a terribly common trope, but I can imagine a cynical / absurdist / surrealist author getting away with it. It seems like something Vonnegut might have done in a story that was getting away from him. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/33 "2013-11-27T04:16:54Z")
Sounds vaguely Monty Python-ish. “And then, fortunately for our heroes, the illustrator suffered a fatal heart attack.” ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/34 "2013-11-27T04:30:00Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > The beauty of it is that we really don’t know if ANYTHING he told the FBI Agent was true. The only thing we know for sure is that the guys were killed hitting that boat. We don’t know if the story of how they got together was true, we don’t know if the New York’s Finest Taxi Service story ever happened, we don’t know if he actually threatened their loved ones to get them to do the job, we don’t know anything. I believe the New York’s Finest Taxi Service because I’m sure Chazz Palmenteri had Dan Hedaya checking facts as Verbal was telling the story. The stuff that couldn’t be easily corroborated (like Redfoot) was surely made up. But as we see in the ending, Kobayashi was real, so much of the rest of the story was probably real as well. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/35 "2013-11-27T04:46:56Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Apparently, _Pale Fire_ by Vladimir Nabokov fits that description. > > Then there’s the Tommy Westfall Universe: > > [Tommy Westphall - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Westphall#The_Tommy_Westphall_Universe_Hypothesis) > > It’s revealed at the end of the series _St. Elsewhere_ that it’s all a dream in the mind of the character Tommy Westphall. There are many TV series that can be connected to _St. Elsewhere_ by cross-overs (where the same actor plays the same character in both series) and are thus in the same universe. So apparently all of those shows were in the mind of Tommy Westphall. One of those those shows in that cross-over universe was _The Bob Newhart Show_. As we learn at the end of the show _Newhart_, it was merely a dream in the mind of Bob Newhart’s character in _The Bob Newhart Show_. So the show _Newhart_ (and several other shows which cross over with it and are thus in the same universe) are just a dream in the mind of Newhart’s character in _The Bob Newhart Show_, which is just a dream in the mind of Tommy Westphall. Interesting. I’ve never watched _St. Elsewhere_, but immediately thought of _Homicide: Life on the Street_ and Det. Munch. That means all the shows that Munch has appeared on like the _Law and Order_ franchise and the _X-Files_ were in this universe. I clicked on the link and that was the example they listed. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/36 "2013-11-27T05:32:03Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > It’s revealed at the end of the series _St. Elsewhere_ that it’s all a dream in the mind of the character Tommy Westphall. There are many TV series that can be connected to _St. Elsewhere_ by cross-overs (where the same actor plays the same character in both series) and are thus in the same universe. So apparently all of those shows were in the mind of Tommy Westphall. One of those those shows in that cross-over universe was _The Bob Newhart Show_. As we learn at the end of the show _Newhart_, it was merely a dream in the mind of Bob Newhart’s character in _The Bob Newhart Show_. So the show _Newhart_ (and several other shows which cross over with it and are thus in the same universe) are just a dream in the mind of Newhart’s character in _The Bob Newhart Show_, which is just a dream in the mind of Tommy Westphall. Ah, but Tommy didn’t dream it all while he was asleep (he was autistic and lived in his own little world). At the end of _ **Newhart** _, Bob woke up next to Emily in their Chicago bedroom; he HAD been asleep the whole time. Very different! ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/37 "2013-11-27T05:52:31Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > It’s revealed at the end of the series _St. Elsewhere_ that it’s all a dream in the mind of the character Tommy Westphall. There are many TV series that can be connected to _St. Elsewhere_ by cross-overs (where the same actor plays the same character in both series) and are thus in the same universe. So apparently all of those shows were in the mind of Tommy Westphall. One of those those shows in that cross-over universe was _The Bob Newhart Show_. As we learn at the end of the show _Newhart_, it was merely a dream in the mind of Bob Newhart’s character in _The Bob Newhart Show_. So the show _Newhart_ (and several other shows which cross over with it and are thus in the same universe) are just a dream in the mind of Newhart’s character in _The Bob Newhart Show_, which is just a dream in the mind of Tommy Westphall. Daniel J. Travanti guest starred in an episode of _Newhart_ as himself. That means that _Hill Street Blues_ is a television show within a dream of a character within the imagination of Tommy Westphall. ---
**Author:** ![tavalla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tavalla/32/89_2.png) [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/38 "2013-11-27T06:22:36Z")
Would Sophie’s World fit? It’s a novel: the main character is a teenage girl who takes philosophy lessons. She and her teacher are revealed to be fictional characters created by a father teaching his own daughter about philosophy via a story he’s writing. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/39 "2013-11-27T07:28:37Z")
Big Brother, by Wally Lamb. Did not see that coming at all. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/40 "2013-11-27T10:03:13Z")
All the shows that John Munch is in are part of the Tommy Westphall universe. Here’s the definitive guide to (American) television cross-overs. The universe with John Munch and Tommy Westphall is Group 2: [http://www.poobala.com/crossoverlistb.html](http://www.poobala.com/crossoverlistb.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866.md?page=3)