History Main / FakeTwinGambit

* A variation in ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' - Paige uses magic to impersonate Glen's fiancee Jessica and goes to marry him in her place. When Leo shows up with the real Jessica, he tells the confused priest that they're twins.
** In a different episode, Prue gets a mind-reading power and believes her new boyfriend is a warlock conspiring against her. It turns out that his troubling thoughts were only due to the fact that it was really the boyfriend's twin, whom the boyfriend had sent in to meet her.

* In ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', Mion does this in the Cotton Drifting Arc, when she claims to be her twin sister, Shion, a twin who never made an appearance in the previous arc, and who Rena and Satoko, some of Mion's best friends, don't know anything about. [[spoiler:The aforementioned is what Keiichi and the audience are led to believe, until shortly before the Cotton Drifting Festival, Shion tricks him into buying a doll that Mion had wanted him to give her from the toy store ''where Mion was working.'' Seeing the two twins side-by-side shows Keiichi - and by extension the audience - [[SubvertedTrope that Mion really does have an identical twin sister named Shion]], but it’s later shown [[DoubleSubversion that Mion really did pretend to be Shion]], [[TwinSwitch she just happens to be a real person]].]]

* ''Music/TheAquabats'': In the song "Hot Summer Nights (Won't Last Forever)!", Elizabeth pretends to be her twin sister "Liz" when she accidentally bumps into the narrator again, to fend off his affections. He falls for it completely. Later, she pulls it off a ''second'' time by pretending to be her "identical cousin", "Beth".

* In ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', Mion does this in the Cotton Drifting Arc, when she claims to be her twin sister, Shion, a twin who never made an appearance in the previous arc, and who Rena and Satoko, some of Mion's best friends, don't know anything about. [[spoiler:The aforementioned is what Keiichi and the audience are led to believe, until shortly before the Cotton Drifting Festival, Shion tricks him into buying a doll that Mion had wanted him to give her from the toy store ''where Mion was working.'' Seeing the two twins side-by-side shows Keiichi - and by extension the audience - [[SubvertedTrope that Mion really does have an identical twin sister named Shion]], but it’s later shown [[DoubleSubversion that Mion really did pretend to be Shion, she just happens to be a real person]].]]

* In ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', Mion does this in the Cotton Drifting Arc, when she claims to be her twin sister, Shion, a twin who never made an appearance in the previous arc, and who Rena and Satoko, some of Mion's best friends, don't know anything about. [[spoiler:The aforementioned is what Keiichi and the audience are led to believe, until shortly before the Cotton Drifting Festival, Shion tricks him into buying a doll that Mion had wanted him to give her from the toy store ''where Mion was working.'' Seeing the two twins side-by-side shows Keiichi - and by extension the audience - that Mion really does have an identical twin sister named Shion]].

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''LiightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya''. Kyon and Mikuru pretend that Mikuru is "Michiru" - because [[spoiler:the "real" Mikuru is still around [[TimeyWimeyBall (blame time travel)]] and "Michiru" needs to [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet hide from herself]].]]

* Jelal does this in ''Manga/FairyTail''.

* ''Literature/SweetValleyHigh'': The Sweet Valley Twins did a fake ''triplet'' gambit where they invented a third sister and took turns pretending to be her.

* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', [[spoiler:Stan]] did this twice in [[spoiler:his]] life, while having a real twin. They both worked.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''. [[spoiler:Stan]] did this twice in [[spoiler:his]] life, while having a real twin. They both worked.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'', Matt Murdock pretended to be his own non-existent twin brother Mike Murdock to trick Karen and Foggy into believing that "Mike" was Daredevil, after they began suspecting Matt's double life. This was back in UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age of comic|books}}s when even Daredevil wasn't a very realistic series.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'', Matt Murdock (Daredevil's secret identity) pretended to be his own non-existent twin brother Mike Murdock to trick his friends into believing that "Mike" was Daredevil, after they began suspecting his identity. This was back in UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age of comic|books}}s when even Daredevil wasn't a very realistic series.

** In [[Recap/ArrestedDevelopmentS2E5SadSack "Sad Sack"]], George Sr. poses as his twin brother Oscar in order to learn if Lucille was in fact in love with Oscar.

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': As a prank, Maeby poses as her fictional twin sister Surely (yes, it's not spelled "Shirley"). Surely is depicted as rather sick with [=BS=] and a charity is set up for a cure.

** The trope is ''vital'' in the novel [[spoiler: ''Elephants Can Remember'']] and its live action adaptation as a part of ''Series/{{Poirot}}'': [[spoiler: A lady named Dorothea/Dolly, who had been mentally unstable all her life ''and'' had been even more shattered after an horrible time in a mental hospital, snaps on her twin sister Margaret/Molly and fatally pushes her off a cliff. As Molly lies dying in her husband Alistair's arms, she makes him swear that not only he won't press charges against Dolly, but he will say that Dolly died while in reality helping her to pull this, so she can rebuild what's left of his life. Alistair complies... but later ''he'' snaps, [[MurderSuicide takes Dolly to the same cliff, shoots her dead and then commits suicide]].]]

** The trope is ''vital'' in the novel [[spoiler: ''Elephants Can Remember'']] and its live action adaptation as a part of ''Series/{{Poirot}}'': [[spoiler: A lady named Dorothea/Dolly, who had been mentally unstable all her life ''and'' had been even more shattered after an horrible time in a mental hospital, on her twin sister Margaret/Molly and fatally pushes her off a cliff. As Molly lies dying in her husband Alistair's arms, she makes him swear that only he won't press charges against Dolly, but he will help that Dolly died while in reality helping her this, so she can rebuild what's left of his life. Alistair complies... but some time later ''he'' snaps, [[MurderSuicide takes Dolly to the same cliff, shoots her dead and then commits suicide]].]]

* Literature/HerculePoirot creates an imaginary twin brother named "Achille" in ''The Big Four'' - a parody of [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Mycroft Holmes]], in fact.

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* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''. [[spoiler:Stan]] did this twice in [[spoiler:life]], while having a real twin. They both worked.

* In HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi, Mion does this in the Cotton Drifting Arc, when she claims to be her twin sister, Shion, a twin who never made an appearance in the previous arc, and who Rena and Satoko, some of Mion's best friends, don't know anything about. [[spoiler:The aforementioned is what Keiichi and the audience are led to believe, until shortly before the Cotton Drifting Festival, Shion tricks him into buying a doll that Mion had wanted him to give her from the toy store ''where Mion was working.'' Seeing the two twins side-by-side shows Keiichi - and by extension the audience - that Mion really does have an identical twin sister named Shion]].

* Snakeweed from ''Literature/TheDivideSeries'' pretends to be his identical twin Snakeroot in the second book when trying to find lodging. Justified in that Snakeweed was the BigBad of the first book and is trying not to let anyone discover that he's still around.