History Main / EasyImpersonation

* ''[[Anime/DiGiCharat1999 Di Gi Charat]]'': In one episode, Dejiko is accused of various misdeeds by the other members of the cast. Though she insists she's innocent, no-one believes her. She attempts to bribe the other characters into forgiving her with some Dejiko Candy, which happens to draw out her imitator, which is simply a blob with a Dejiko hat.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Team Rocket does that a lot with their PaperThinDisguise schticks and manage to fool the cast most of the time. At one point, as part of a distraction scheme, Team Rocket made their disguises deliberately look forced and fake to let people know that they are just imposters.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys'', this is Mr. Shark's gimmick. Despite being an anthropomorphic great white shark whose disguises consist of a wig, a fake nose and/or facial hair, and a changed pitch in voice, everyone not in on the con falls for it.

* ''Film/{{Help}}'' - while the Beatles are at Scotland Yard, the bad guys telephone for them. The Inspector plays Ringo, bragging at being "a bit of a mimic, you know, James Cagney..." and proceeds with a ludicrous impression peppered with [[TotallyRadical 'gear, fab']]...George smirks "Not a ''bit'' like Cagney!"

* ''Anime/DiGiCharat'': In one episode, Dejiko is accused of various misdeeds by the other members of the cast. Though she insists she's innocent, no-one believes her. She attempts to bribe the other characters into forgiving her with some Dejiko Candy, which happens to draw out her imitator, which is simply a blob with a Dejiko hat.

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney:'' Furio Tigre impersonates Phoenix Wright at one point during ''Trials and Tribulations'', purely because they have similar [[AnimeHair hair]]. Note that Tigre is buff, has a completely different disposition, and is ''orange''. Oh, and [[PaperThinDisguise his attorney's badge is made of cardboard]]. At least the writers had the decency to lampshade [[IdiotPlot the sheer stupidity required on the part of everyone involved in the case]] to not recognize that it wasn't him. According to the defendant, everyone in the courtroom was pretty confused. She implies that no one spoke out because it was all basically an ElephantInTheRoom. That doesn't really explain how no one questioned Furio Tigre's cover story that his skin was orange because he caught a tan while vacationing in Hawaii. It's also lampshaded in a later case, when Edgeworth, upon hearing that a cardboard defense attorney badge fooled the courtroom, wonders how the hell the country's judiciary system fell so far.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': The [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime version]] has the Other Brothers Elric. Though they're not evil, they do cause trouble for Ed and Al. And vice versa, actually. For example, the fake Elrics get arrested when a warrant goes out for the real one. Now, the fake Elrics do look somewhat like the real ones did before they lost or maimed their bodies, but no-one who saw them since would be fooled. Ed has ArtificialLimbs, and Al is AnimatedArmor. Part of this is just that nobody who hasn't seen them before seems to know what they look like, and just assumes it's them based on the height difference and blonde hair. It's part of the same gag for why people mistake Al for Ed.

* ''Series/AmericanVandal'': The season 1 finale heavily implies a fairly {{downplayed|trope}}, realistic version of this.

* The ComicBook/DarkAvengers ComicBook/{{Venom}} posed as ComicBook/SpiderMan, leading Spider-Man to get a bad reputation for murdering people and eating squirrels. Strangely, the new "Spider-Man" is wearing the black suit, while the other one is wearing the ol' red and blue, coupled with the fact that Venom usually has a big toothy mouth and a giant tongue, and is about twice Spidey's size. Suffice to say, New York citizens of Earth-616 tend to be thick-skulled.
* ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse:

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys'', this is Mr. Shark's gimmick. Despite being an anthropomorphic great white shark who's disguises consist of a wig, a fake nose and/or facial hair, and a changed pitch in voice, everyone not in on the con falls for it.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm'': Batman is initially blamed for the Phantasm killings. Justified in that they both use similar stealth tactics, preventing people from getting a good look at either of them and thus making it easy to mistake the newcomer for the (relatively) familiar one.

** Another episode involves Fat Cat's gang kidnapping TV star Flash the Wonder Dog, then engaging in a crime spree while wearing "Flash" masks. Since Fat Cat's gang consists of two cats, a rat, a mole and a lizard, none of them look anything like Flash, even with the masks, and they don't sound like him either. Despite this, Flash still gets blamed for the crime wave, with even the producer of Flash's TV show fooled by the disguises, and the Rangers must [[ClearTheirName clear Flash's name]] and save his reputation.

** Another episode involves Fat Cat's gang kidnapping TV star Flash the Wonder Dog, then engaging in a crime spree while wearing "Flash" masks. Since Fat Cat's gang consists of two cats, a rat and a lizard, none of them look anything like Flash, even with the masks, and they don't sound like him either. Despite this, Flash still gets blamed for the crime wave, with even the producer of Flash's TV show fooled by the disguises, and the Rangers must [[ClearTheirName clear Flash's name]] and save his reputation.

** Amy has also mistaken Silver the Hedgehog for Sonic (again, different spike patterns and color) in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', and in ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' she glomped Sonic himself without noticing that he had been transformed into a [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent hedgehog-werewolf]]. [[WildMassGuessing Theory has it]] that Amy is near-sighted though both examples occurring during the night may also play a role in her confusion.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' had a trio of burglars get into Powerpuff Girls Halloween costumes and claim to be the Powerpuff Girls. Despite their being about three times taller than the girls, with hairier legs, fingers and masculine voices, everyone except Ms. Bellum actually believed that they were the Powerpuff Girls, and the girls got in trouble for everything the crooks did.

* The ''Franchise/ToyStory'' short "Small Fry" has a small happy meal-esque toy of Buzz Lightyear trying to replace the real Buzz. Everyone can see he's an impostor, because he's about three inches tall, has a huge head, a squeaky voice and has wheels on his feet. Everyone, that's it, except for [[TheDitz Rex]].

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' in that the duplicate of Mr. Krabs made by Plankton was horrendously fake and Squidward sees right through it. However, [[TheDitz Spongebob]] still couldn't tell the difference, despite the fake talking in a CreepyMonotone, having an obviously metal body, and ''[[EnergyWeapon shooting lasers]]''.

* In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', Sonic is imprisoned for crimes committed by the recently un-SealedBadassInACan, Shadow the Hedgehog. Where this trope comes into play is the fact that Shadow has a different coloration, different spike patterns, and otherwise only has the slightest of similarities. While an argument can be mounted that Shadow made his attack in the dead of night while moving too quick to get a clear view, later a reporter puts up very clear footage of Shadow and claiming him to be Sonic. This also falls under the "Not even trying to fool anyone" clause; when they finally meet, each claims that the other is their fake.

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* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm'': Batman is initially blamed for the Phantasm killings. Justified in that they both use similar stealth tactics, making it easy to mistake the newcomer for the (relatively) familiar one.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' had Dale picking up a [[GreenRocks meteorite fragment]] that allowed him to turn into a RubberMan; sick and tired of being TheLoad, he adopts the SecretIdentity of "Rubber Bando" and leaves the rest of the Rangers feeling inadequate. Unfortunately, a ''bigger'' chunk of the meteorite fell into the hands of a sleazy travel agent named Seymour, who began abusing its power to ''steal entire monuments''. Naturally, his shenanigans were blamed on Dale, even though Seymour was quite obviously several times ''bigger''. Though that might be just a ''tiny'' bit justified given the nature of their powers.
** Another episode involved Fat Cat's gang framing movie star Flash the Wonder Dog with the trademark bark, HilarityEnsues.

* In one episode of ''Anime/DiGiCharat'', Dejiko is accused of various misdeeds by the other members of the cast. Though she insists she's innocent, no-one believes her. She attempts to bribe the other characters into forgiving her with some Dejiko Candy, which happens to draw out her imitator, which is simply a blob with a Dejiko hat.
* The [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime version]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' has the Other Brothers Elric. Though they're not evil, they do cause trouble for Ed and Al. And vice versa, actually. For example, the fake Elrics get arrested when a warrant goes out for the real one. Now, the fake Elrics do look somewhat like the real ones did before they lost or maimed their bodies, but no-one who saw them since would be fooled. Ed has ArtificialLimbs, and Al is AnimatedArmor. Part of this is just that nobody who hasn't seen them before seems to know what they look like, and just assumes it's them based on the height difference and blonde hair. It's part of the same gag for why people mistake Al for Ed.

** After the TimeSkip, the Straw Hats return to Sabaody to learn that a bunch of imitators are trying to use their reputation to bluff and bully other people. The fakes' disguises are poor, to say the least (for example, Fake Luffy and Sogeking are overweight and ''bearded'', and Fake Chopper is a ''fox''), but everyone assumes the "Straw Hats" appearances must have changed the in the two years they were last seen. The real Straw Hats don't seem to care either way, (except for when the dumber crewmates fall for the ploy), and are willing to let their impersonators suffer the inevitable consequences of pretending to be world-class criminals.
** Duval suffers from this trope by accident as well due to looking like the artist's impression of Sanji on his wanted poster, causing people to mistake him for Sanji despite only vaguely resembling him. This results in Duval constantly having to run from bounty hunters and Marine officers for incidents he didn't cause. All is forgiven, however, when his face gets rearranged so that he doesn't get mistaken for anyone else anymore.

* In the ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse, one-shot villain Perfidus was initially mistaken for the superhero Paperinik. {{Justified}} as their costumes look similar at distance and nobody got a good look at Perfidus until Paperinik's car crashed into his.

* Played to some extent in ''Film/TheDarkKnight''. Batman has to deal with a number of impostors who, upon close examination, barely resemble him (one's overweight). Leads to the "hockey pads" line. Of course, since Batman is essentially an American {{ninja}}, few people ever ''get'' a closer look at him. It's also worth noting that the Scarecrow--the one guy in this scene who ''had'' fought Batman before--recognized that these Batmen were impostors, mostly because [[DoesntLikeGuns they used guns]].
* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides'', the pirate who has been impersonating Captain Jack Sparrow (and very convincingly, at that) turns out to be a [[Creator/PenelopeCruz girl.]]

* ''Series/TheATeam'', "[[Recap/TheATeamS3E9Showdown Showdown]]". All the members of the fake A-Team are distinguishable from the originals, but B.A.'s imposter is especially noteworthy, as he is shorter, skinnier, and has a different haircut than B.A. [[JustifiedTrope However, most people have never actually seen the A-Team, so he can get away with it.]]
* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E18Intervention Intervention]]", when the Scoobies mistake the Buffybot for Buffy she gets very angry that they can not tell the difference. To be fair, the 'Bot does really ''look'' like her....until it opens its mouth, of course.
* In a Superdude skit on ''Series/AllThat'', Superdude (Kenan Thompson) was baffled that an impostor (Amanda Bynes) had all the people fooled. He even lampshaded the fact that a small white girl looks nothing like a larger black guy and that she didn't even have superpowers.

* During the ''Series/{{Mystery Science Theater 3000}}'' episode "Hobgoblins", the Satellite of Love crew creates cardboard cut-outs of themselves and plays a generic tape recording. This fools Pearl and Bobo. Brain Guy can see through the disguise, but has trouble convincing the others until Mike's cut-out falls down and he enters the frame to right it.

* In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E1Rose Rose]]", the first episode of the revived ''Series/DoctorWho'', Mickey is replaced by an Auton duplicate (still played by Noel Clarke, but with very obvious Auton makeup). Rose doesn't notice a thing.
* In the ''Series/BroadCity'' episode "Co-op," Abbi impersonates Ilana to cover her shift at the co-op, even though they look and act nothing alike.

* ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': The Ultimate Imposter is able to perfectly replicate the person they're impersonating, down to copying the person's personality, appearance, voice and even talent. However, when it comes to appearance, the Imposter's [[spoiler:incredibly fat body shape]] doesn't change and it's the most blatant detail to distinguish the Imposter from the original. The Imposter's obsession with food also tends to blend over the real person's personality in some situations. The disguise still works very effectively, since they are able to fool anyone who hasn't seen or met the real person.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' in that the duplicate of Mr. Krabs made by Plankton was horrendously fake and Squidward sees right through it. However, [[TheDitz Spongebob]] still couldn't tell the difference, despite the fake talking in a CreepyMonotone, having an obviously metal body, and ''[[EnergyWeapon shooting lasers]]''.
-->'''[=SpongeBob=]:''' Wow, Mr. Krabs, I didn't know you had heat vision!
* In the 1980s ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon, Shredder sends mutant frogs on a crime spree, and the Turtles get blamed. When the two groups finally confront each other, Donatello [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this]] by saying "I am so insulted. How could they mistake these things for turtles?"
** In an earlier episode, Shredder trains a group of karate students and sends them on a crime spree wearing bad turtle costumes and calling themselves "[[CardCarryingVillain the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang]]". Naturally, Channel 6 News eats it right up, since its boss and one of the reporters hates the turtles anyway.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' had a trio of burglars get into Powerpuff Girls Halloween costumes and claim to be the Powerpuff Girls. Despite their being about three times taller than the girls, with hairier legs, fingers and masculine voices, everyone except Ms. Bellum actually believed that they were the Powerpuff Girls, and the girls got in trouble for everything the crooks did.
** During their climactic showdown ''even the girls and their impersonators'' had trouble telling which was which, until the real Blossom told them all they should only fight their counterparts.
* WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}} was once jailed for crimes committed by Tap-Tap the Chiseler. Despite being a cigar smoker, Tap-Tap fooled everyone with his Underdog costume.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SushiPack'', four members of the Pack are framed for robbing a bus, and are sentenced to house arrest, despite surveillance video showing the real culprits are simply the members of [[EvilCounterpart The Legion of Lowtide]] painted to be the right colors.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' episode, "Game Over for Owlman!", Batman is framed for crimes committed by his evil counterpart from a mirror universe. Said double is wearing a costume with pointier ears and a darker color scheme--admittedly, it's a costume that the real Batman did wear in the past. Still, it's odd that Batman's superhero allies all fall for the ruse, and ''the Joker'' is the only person who figures out it's an impostor.
* Deconstructed in ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan''. When Chameleon impersonates Spider-Man, his impersonation is bad enough that the audience, who constantly sees the wall crawler in action, clearly know it's a fake, but to people in the actual world, most of whom have never seen anything more than a photograph, he's close enough to convince them. Captain Stacey is familiar enough with the web head to immediately know he's a fake. It's later played ridiculously straight when Venom tries to frame Spider-Man, and nobody (except Stacey) notices that he's two feet taller, built like a brick, fights completely differently, and has razor sharp teeth and a salivating tongue. Oh, and his costume is black. [[SarcasmMode They're practically twins!]]
* A hilarious example in ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'', when criminals stole Tick and Arthur's arms and went on a crime spree. (The only part of them that even slightly resembled Tick and Arthur were... their arms. Despite that, everybody was fooled.)
** Another example: An alien creates a clone of Arthur, which is noticeably green, deformed, and can only say "I... Arthur." When the clone and the real Arthur try to prove to The Tick who's the real deal, Arthur tells about a deeply personal event they had earlier and that no one else would know about... while the clone just says "I... Arthur." The Tick's response? Well, ''both of those statements are true'', so he can't tell for sure.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' has a Skrull impersonating Captain America for the first few episodes of the second season. The Skrull wears [[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate Captain America]]'s suit, even though the real Cap has the costume from the main Franchise/MarvelUniverse. He did wear the normal costume when capturing Cap, and while viewers know that the Skrull pulled off this charade for two months, they don't know exactly how much time passed until he changed his clothes. This might justify the fact the Avengers never questioned the costume change onscreen.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball:'' When [[DoAnythingRobot Bobert]] tries to replace Gumball, he perfectly replicates his voices but visually all he does is put a crude drawing of Gumball over himself, yet everyone falls for it.
* In ''WesternAnimation/StreetSharks'', the BigBad is able to use poorly-constructed disguises and robotic duplicates to frame the sharks for various crimes. The only reason he gets away with it is because the people of the town are generally ''really'' stupid. There's also a point in the episode where footage of Slash and Slobster robbing a bank is passed off as the sharks committing the crime. Their names are only cleared when Leena calls the police and tells them that the sharks were allegedly attacking somewhere else at exactly that same time, so they can't be in two places at once. Never mind that the footage is of ''a mutant lobster and marlin'' and not, y'know, ''sharks''!
* Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "In Your Footsteps". A bear dresses up like Finn, wearing unfitting clothes and a crude mask and appears to have everyone fooled when he's dancing with Princess Bubblegum at the party, but it turns out they were just playing along because they thought it was one of Finn's pranks.

* Happens in an Action League Now segment in ''WesternAnimation/{{Kablam}}''. The Flesh is replaced with an evil robot double, who while he does look like the Flesh, also speaks in a [[MachineMonotone monotone voice]] and has bolts sticking out everywhere. The robot ultimately fools everybody, even the Action League. Stinky Diver is only able to tell them apart by shouting out "Hey, Stupid!" [[SpotTheImpostor The real Flesh looks over and says, "Yes?"]]
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm'': Batman is initially blamed for the Phantasm killings. Justified in that they both use similar stealth tactics, making it easy to mistake the newcomer for the (relatively) familiar one.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E18BurnsHeir Burns' Heir]]". Mr. Burns tries to convince Bart that his family doesn't want him around by showing him "hidden camera footage" of the Simpsons at home saying things like "I don't miss Bart at all" in incredibly stiff, forced voices. Bart suspects something is up when Homer drops his sandwich and says [[MangledCatchPhrase "B'oh!"]], prompting Burns to sneak off to the sound stage where the actors are and yell at them. When he returns, he shows Bart footage of fake!Homer saying "Duh-oh!", which convinces a heartbroken Bart that it's real.

* In the opening act of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', Mario is sent to KangarooCourt and imprisoned based on his resemblance to a rough police sketch of the perpetrator: Shadow Mario, whose eyes and skin are the wrong colour.

* In the opening act of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', Mario is sent to KangarooCourt and imprisoned based on his resemblance to a rough police sketch of the perpetrator: Shadow Mario.

[[quoteright:340:[[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/easy_impersonation.png]]]]

** In an earlier episode Shredder trains a group of karate students and sends them on a crime spree wearing bad turtle costumes and calling themselves "[[CardCarryingVillain The Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang]]." Naturally, Channel 6 News eats it right up, since its boss and one of the reporters hates the turtles anyway.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' had a trio of burglars get into Powerpuff Girls Halloween costumes and claim to be the Powerpuff Girls. Despite their being about three times taller than the girls, with hairier legs, fingers and masculine voices, everyone except Ms. Bellum actually believed that they were the Powerpuff Girls, and the girls got in trouble for everything the crooks did.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' had Dale picking up a [[GreenRocks meteorite fragment]] that allowed him to turn into a RubberMan; sick and tired of being TheLoad, he adopts the SecretIdentity of "Rubber Bando" and [[WhatMeasureIsANonSuper leaves the rest of the Rangers feeling inadequate]]. Unfortunately, a ''bigger'' chunk of the meteorite fell into the hands of a sleazy travel agent named Seymour, who began abusing its power to ''steal entire monuments''. Naturally, his shenanigans were blamed on Dale, even though Seymour was quite obviously several times ''bigger''. Though that might be just a ''tiny'' bit justified given the nature of their powers.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' in that the duplicate of Mr. Krabs made by Plankton was horrendously fake. However, [[TheDitz Spongebob]] still couldn't tell the difference, despite the fake talking in a CreepyMonotone, having a metal body with a PaperThinDisguise, and ''[[EnergyWeapon shooting lasers]]''.

Compare PaperThinDisguise. See also CostumeCopycat and AllegedLookalikes.

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[[caption-width-right:300:Nailed it.]]