What a trustworthy fellow. Chalmers: [spots fire in kitchen] Good Lord! What is happening in there?! Skinner: Aurora Borealis? Chalmers: A-Aurora Borealis?! At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localized entirely within your kitchen?! Skinner: Yes! This page is empty! There's nothing to see! Definitely nothing, especially a page describing lies! So one of the characters has a secret, one that they do not want leaking out. Unfortunately, Clark Kenting doesn't always cut it, and some aspect of the secret is going to be glaringly obvious no matter what.
So they have to come up with an excuse for their situation, and tell a lie. Similar to A Wizard Did It , but instead of hand-waving some implausible aspect of the series, the character is the one doing the hand-waving to another character.
In the ideal version of the trope, most people accept this because of their built-in Weirdness Censor , or because it's executed as a Seamless Spontaneous Lie. May or may not involve hesitation. Often delivered by a Bad Liar. Suspiciously Specific Denial is a subtrope. See also Metaphorically True and Insistent Terminology.
Some statements that are true " from a certain point of view " may be blatant lies. May or may not result in Deliberately Accepting the Lie. In Real Life , this is the most offensive form of turd polish. But Real Life examples are welcome anyways. We swear, trust us! Not to Be Confused with Sarcasm Mode. Contrast with I Lied , which is when a character outright lies, but the lying is not blatant.
Refuge in Audacity covers the cases when this ploy actually works. Obviously Not Fine is a subtrope. Compare Confession Deferred , telling the truth only when it's convenient. Also see Photo Identification Denial , especially when someone denies knowing a person after being shown their photograph, but it's clear they're lying. There are no examples. No Anime or Manga here. Live-Action Films? Not here. Wrong Literature. Live-Action TV isn't available.
