History Main / BluffTheImpostor

* ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'' Tails warns Sonic that the Sally at present was an imposter, but he doesn't believe him. Not at first, anyway. Sonic later bluffed Sally with a long and rather complicated handshake that they tended to use. However, he changed the last part from a thumbs-up to a thumbs-down. When Sally followed along and didn't correct him, Sonic realized Tails was right and revealed that she was an robot while the real Sally was captured.

* In ''Literature/RhythmOfWar'', Shallan suspects that one of her Lightweaver apprentices is secretly a spy for the Ghostbloods, but isn't sure which of them to suspect. So while conversing with the suspects, she mentions that she's seen a corrupted spren (telling each of them that it was a different species of spren) and asks them to keep it a secret for now. Sure enough, during her own negotiations with Mraize, he mentions the corrupted spren.

* In ''Film/InvasionUSA1952'', several Soviet paratroopers approach Washington D.C. disguised in U.S. Army uniforms, in the latest phase of the titular invasion. They're stopped by a guard who notices that the troops are "apparently" from Chicago. The guard asks the leader of the troops if he ever saw the Cubs play. The confused leader says, "Cubs? A cub is a small animal, a bear."

** In "Balance of Power", Lister suspects that the Kochanski that visits him during his chefs exam is a fake when she uses the phrase 'up-up-up the ziggurat, lickety split' - something Rimmer has said before onscreen. To test 'her', he brings up them having had sex behind the bins on the snooker, which never happened, and causes Rimmer to blurt out that Lister never told him that.
** In "Psirens", to differentiate between Lister and a shape-shifting, brain-eating Psiren, the rest of the crew got them each to play the guitar. Lister incorrectly believed himself a [[VideoGame/GuitarHero guitar god]], so the Psiren played excellently. The crew then knew which one to blast. Although after hearing [[DreadfulMusician how the real Lister plays]], they wanted to shoot him too.

'''Hopper:''' ''(dry chuckle)'' Yeah, well, that's funny. 'Cause, you know, I know for ''a fact'' that it's run by the Sattler Company.

'''Hopper:''' ''(grimaces)'' Okay. ''(punches the trooper out cold)''
* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "The Great Escapist", ProperlyParanoid Kevin Tran grows suspicious when the apparent Winchester brothers forget the [[TrustPassword secret knock]] and sends them to get him takeout barbecue. When they obey with proper deference to a Prophet of the Lord, Kevin knows that they're Crowley's {{Mook}}s in disguise and sends them into a trap.
** Double subverted in the much earlier episode "Skin". Sam suspects that a shapeshifter they're chasing is posing as Dean. He asks a supposedly casual question that's pretty obviously a test. The shapeshifter has access to Dean's memories and answers correctly, so Sam tosses him the car keys. However, the question was a red herring; the ''real'' test was the keys, which "Dean" caught with his left hand despite the real Dean having an injury to the left shoulder.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'': In "Three of a Kind", this is actually used against the Lone Gunmen when Byers is attempting to pass himself off as a defense contractor. One of the other players at the poker table asks him a question: Langley, who has been providing research and info to support Byers' masquerade, comes up empty and tells Byers to fold. Byers, unfortunately, is feeling too bold for his own good, and exposes himself with a blatant lie.

** In "Mr. Monk Visits a farm" Monk goes undercover as a Mexican worker at the farm of murder suspect Jimmy Belmont. Belmont quickly becomes suspicious of Monk, approaches him and asked him a question in Spanish (which Monk doesn't speak). Monk just replies ''"Si, si"'' at which point the farmer switches to English:
--> '''Belmont:''' I just asked if you got a squirrel in your pants.

* ''Series/{{Batwoman}}'': Kate's father, Jacob, seems to have quickly forgiven her stepmother, Catherine, for a major betrayal. This is out of character enough to make Kate suspicious, so she calls Jacob on the phone and reminisces about the snowstorm on the day he married Catherine. The impostor doesn't know that the wedding was on a hot summer day.

** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E14FaceOfTheEnemy Face of the Enemy]]", Troi is forced to impersonate Major Rakal, a Romulan [[SecretPolice Tal Shiar]] [[ThePoliticalOfficer officer]], aboard a Romulan Warbird. The Warbird's commander, Toreth, [[JurisdictionFriction already distrusting of Tal Shiar officers]], tries to pull this on Troi by asking about Rakal's life story, e.g. where she went to school. Troi gets out of this [[DispenseWithThePleasantries by telling Toreth to just get to her point]].

* ''[[Series/{{Blackadder}} Blackadder Goes Forth]]'': Blackadder does this when hunting a German spy in WWI. He unmasks the spy by asking the suspect if her boyfriend had been to one of the great universities: Oxford, Cambridge, or Hull. Any real Briton would have known that only two of those are great Universities -- as General Melchett remarks, "That's right! Oxford's a complete dump!" Anyway, it goes fine until it's revealed that the suspect wasn't the spy after all.
** Again in [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol Blackadder's Christmas Carol]], when Pigmot asks the future Blackadder if he vanquished the Nibble-Pibblies, and the General replies "No, because you just made them up."

* In the ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "The Shroud Of Rahmon," Angel acts like a FanBoy to an incoming vampire and asks, "What's the password?" When the other guy says, "Password? There is no password." Angel stakes him, muttering, "Good, just checking," and goes on to impersonate him.

** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Face of the Enemy", Troi is forced to impersonate Major Rakal, a Romulan [[SecretPolice Tal Shiar]] [[ThePoliticalOfficer officer]], aboard a Romulan Warbird. The Warbird's commander, Toreth, [[JurisdictionFriction already distrusting of Tal Shiar officers]], tries to pull this on Troi by asking about Rakal's life story, e.g. where she went to school. Troi gets out of this [[DispenseWithThePleasantries by telling Toreth to just get to her point]].
** In the two-part episode ''Time's Arrow'', Data passes himself off in 19th-century San Francisco as a Frenchman. One of the locals knows French, and speaks to Data in it. Data, [[OmniscientDatabase having apparently stored many languages in his neural net]], replies in the same tongue.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode ''Whispers'', Bashir is performing a medical exam on [[spoiler:Replicant O'Brien]], who's quite irritated at the length of the exam. Bashir wraps up by asking if his parents are in good health. Bashir knows that the real man's mother died two years ago and is hoping to goad the imposter into a wrong answer. But the replicant, having all of [[spoiler:O'Brien's]] memories, snaps that Bashir knows full well that his mother is dead.

'''T-800:''' ''[[[VoiceChangeling impersonating John's voice over the phone]]]'' Hey Janelle, what's wrong with Wolfie? I can hear him barking. Is he okay?\\
'''Janelle ([[VoluntaryShapeshifting T-1000]]):''' Wolfie's fine, John. Wolfie's just fine. Where are you?\\

--> '''Sophie:''' I'm so sorry. It was a beautiful ceremony.

* An episode of {{Series/Fringe}} has Peter and Olivia infiltrating a black market biological weapons deal with an NSA agent who's been working the case feeding Olivia information through an ear bud to get around testing questions about people they should know if they are who they say they are. But Peter -- who doesn't have an ear bud -- is eventually asked where he met a particular individual. Olivia, with the agent's help, chimes in that they would have met at Oxford but when asked exactly where the two met neither Olivia nor the agent can help. At which point Peter, being well-traveled and brilliant, [[AssPull completely]] [[IndyPloy improvises]] a description of the scenario using his knowledge of restaurants in the area.

* In the ''''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "The Shroud Of Rahmon," Angel acts like a FanBoy to an incoming vampire and asks, "What's the password?" When the other guy says, "Password? There is no password." Angel stakes him, muttering, "Good, just checking," and goes on to impersonate him.

-->'''Gregory House''': Do you prefer the pop stuff or the Venezuelan stuff?
-->'''Lisa Cuddy''': That's a trick question.
-->'''Gregory House''': Yes, but you don't know ''how'' it's a trick question.

* This has actually been done quite seriously on other [[PoliceProcedural cop shows]] if a person's alibi is that they were attending/watching some kind of event--in an [[Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit SVU]] episode, when a man claims to have been watching a ball game, Stabler starts chatting about how lousy the game was, only for the confused man to tell him that the game went ''well'', thus confirming that he's telling the truth.

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* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' special ''Bender's Game'', Larry, Walt, and Ignur turn up at Planet Express dressed as owl exterminators, in an attempt to steal the Anti-Crystal. [[TooDumbToLive Fry falls for it]], but Farnsworth sees through them immediately and presents them with an owl. They hilariously fail to exterminate it and their cover is blown.
* In the Hub's ''[[WesternAnimation/PoundPuppies2010 Pound Puppies]]'', Squirt trades places with pampered house pet Cuddlesworth in "The Prince and the Pupper", and meets Cuddlesworth's fellow pet, a Persian cat named Madame Pickypuss. Pickypuss manages to confirm that Squirt is an impostor when he accepts a treat that she knows her friend Cuddlesworth hates.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TUFFPuppy'', The Chameleon got into a tussle with Dudley, while disguised as Dudley, Kitty was able to tell who was the real Dudley by getting one of them to spell Dudley's name, the Chameleon got it right and she blasted him. The real Dudley can't spell his own name, let alone write it down.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBeatles'' episode "No Reply" had the boys on vacation in Hawaii where there are suddenly two Pauls. One of them is a criminal master of disguise named Anyface, and nobody can tell who is who until a bevy of fangirls show up. The impostor does not run.

* Spoofed in the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "German Guy": when Chris discovers that his new elderly friend Franz is a former SS officer, Franz holds Peter at gunpoint, but Peter knocks his gun out of his hand, allowing Chris to get it. [[FatIdiot Chris]] suddenly thinks that Franz is Peter's EvilTwin and asks them what's his birthday. Franz answers correctly and Chris shoots Peter and hugs Franz, who takes back the gun. Peter rightfully calls Chris out for his incompetence, [[NeverMyFault but Chris argues that he should've learned his birthday]].

* The Disney Channel Original Movie ''Film/TheFamousJettJackson'' has the titular character swap places with his secret agent ShowWithinAShow character Silverstone. Meanwhile, the show ''Silverstone'' has a new BigBad (Creator/MichaelIronside) with the ability to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting disguise himself as any person]], and Jett (the actor) has to figure out a way to defeat him, while Silverstone has to pretend to be Jett and deal with RealLife problems in a small Southern town. Suspecting that the BigBad has infiltrated the spy agency, Jett demands Silverstone's mentor sing him the song he sang Silverstone as a baby. While the mentor sings "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", Silverstone's partner starts slowly moving towards the dimensional key. Jett catches her hand and has the mentor invoke this trope. The question is about the name of the plant he gave her for her Birthday. She replies that she doesn't have one name for it. Of course, there is no plant, and she is the BigBad in disguise.
* In ''Film/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', Uncle Monty exposes Count Olaf (pretending to be a herpetologist named Stefano) as an imposter by asking him to milk Petunia the snake. "Stefano" starts looking for udders. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, while Monty realizes Stefano is an imposter, he doesn't realize that he's Count Olaf, which leads to his death.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'' had Sonic bluff a robot imposter of Sally with a long and rather complicated handshake that they tended to use. However, he changed the last part from a thumbs-up to a thumbs-down. When Sally followed along and didn't correct him, Sonic knew she was an impostor.

** During an attempt to find an enemy Stand user, Jotaro accuses his suspect of being one, adding that Stand users have blood vessels stand out on their nose when they inhale cigarette smoke. All of his allies reach for their noses... as does the suspect. Then Jotaro adds that he was bluffing, and his suspect drops the innocent act.
** This happens again later in ''Stardust Crusaders'' to a man who used his Stand to replicate Jotaro himself, albeit unintentionally. His plan to kill Jotaro goes horribly awry when Jotaro's friends all force him into their car and, because they're bored, repeatedly request "Jotaro" to perform various stunts of increasing danger (such as swallowing burning objects), each time saying that Jotaro is good at this sort of thing. The impostor pulls them all off and so Jotaro's friends never once suspect he's a fake, but the impostor gets so nervous that he decides it's not worth the risk of self-mutilation and, claiming he needs to take a dump, escapes from the car as fast as he can run.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/WildWestCOWBoysOfMooMesa'' episode "Stolen on the River", Cowlorado Kid infiltrates a luxury riverboat cruise, in an attempt to nab notorious outlaw and gambler Five Card Cud. Five Card asks: if Kid is such an accomplished high roller, surely he knows Snake Eye Smithson? Kid claims he won a bundle off Smithson just last week, confirming Five Card's suspicions. After all, Smithson has been dead for over 10 years -- Five Card killed him himself!

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': In "Mr. Monk and the Airplane," Stefan Chabrol has had his wife killed and replaced with his mistress. Unfortunately, a family friend of Barbara's happens to be on the plane with them, and figures out she's not who she supposedly is.

* ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'': The T-800 asks John Connor's foster mother a question about John's dog, but intentionally gives the wrong name to see if she's actually the shapeshifting T-1000, knowing that if is Janelle, she'll give the correct name. "Janelle" doesn't react to his getting the dog's name wrong, thus confirming it's the T-1000. As the T-1000 leaves the house, it kills the dog and grabs a bloody dog collar, seeing the name on it and realizing that its target knows that it's there and will be avoiding the house.

* In ''Comicbook/OldManLogan'' #25, Logan stops at a diner he frequents. He notices the staff is different, and asks the waitress what happened to Lexi. After the waitress responds by saying Lexi took the day off, Logan grabs her and reveals nobody named Lexi has ever worked there. It's then revealed that the real staff has been [[KillAndReplace killed and replaced]] by members of the Hulk Gang.