History Main / IdenticalTwinMistake

* In ''Literature/TheRollingStones'' Castor and Pollux, 'the Unheavenly Twins', use this to trick their teachers, with one twin taking two identical classes.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': The Heyday triplets (three of the Holliday Girls) are identical and are commonly mistaken for each other even when they're not pulling a TwinSwitch, which leads to them being ordered to wear name tags. They generally avoid the name tags, which comes in handy when their vile elder brother abducts them to make them sign over their inheritances. It doesn't work because he can't tell which one should be signing which name.

* In ''Film/DoubleImpact'' Jean Claude van Damme plays twins. They are at first mistaken for each other, but they have very different personalities and are soon told apart.

* Happens several times over the course of ''Series/SisterSister'', especially in the earlier seasons. For example, in the first episode, SeparatedAtBirth twins Tia and Tamara coincidentally meet at the same store. One is looking for a sweater and the other is looking for a sweatshirt. They take turns asking the same sales clerk, who doesn't realize there are two of them and slowly goes crazy with them for constantly "changing their minds." Considering ''they'' didn't even know they were twins yet, a complete stranger couldn't be expected to know either.

* A fraternal twin example occurs in ''Webcomic/WelcomeToRoom305''. Rumors spread about the campus that Yoongsung is a {{crossdresser}}. It turns out people were seeing his {{Half Identical Twin|s}} sister Yoona.

->'''Galatea''': "But you should know there's a significant difference twixt my sister and I. [[CuteMonsterGirl I understand how my claws work."]]

* ''Animation/AditAndSopoJarwo'': "Saudara Berkunjung Semua Tersanjung" has Jarwis, Jarwo's much nicer twin, comes to the suburb and gets mistaken for Jarwo. Those who sees Jarwis is confused at seeing Jarwo being generous and polite until it gets cleared up at the end of the episode.

This may happen intentionally, as part of a FakeTwinGambit, a TwinSwitch, or if a character is ImpersonatingTheEvilTwin, but just as often it's a complete accident, with [[HilarityEnsues hilarity following]]. However, this can also be used for drama, if the mistake leads to an actual problem rather than a gag; this route is common when one twin is a criminal. If the twins are babies, expect this to happen often.

* The first episode of ''Series/SisterSister'' has SeparatedAtBirth twins Tia and Tamara coincidentally at the same store. One is looking for a sweater and the other is looking for a sweatshirt. They take turns asking the same sales clerk, who doesn't realize there are two of them and slowly goes crazy with them for constantly "changing their minds." Considering ''they'' didn't even know they were twins yet, a complete stranger couldn't be expected to know either.

* ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'': The only person who can tell the Hitachiin twins from sight alone is Haruhi. Everyone else struggles, not helped by the twins' tendency to [[TwinSwitch switch their identities]], mostly ForTheLulz. After his CharacterDevelopment, however, Hikaru decides to dye his hair black to differentiate himself from Kaoru. The anime makes this a case of AllegedLookalikes, because even though the twins have the same appearance, their voices are ''completely'' different (Kaoru has a much softer voice than Hikaru).

* ''ComicBook/GravityFallsLostLegends'': When Pacifica first saw Ford, she assumed he was Stanley, though she notices that he looks very different (and "hot"). The comic ends before we see if anyone explained the truth to her.
* In ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' storyline ''ComicBook/StarfiresRevenge'', Supergirl mistakes Rodney Marlowe for his twin brother Derek. Much to her confusion because Derek was reported dead.

* In ''Fanfic/TheBridge'', the Sirens and Dark Hunters get a bone to pick with Twilight Sparkle after she allies with the dark magic source the Hunters are going after along with stealing Sonata Dusk's necklace, leaving her scarred and sickly. This causes Monster X to threaten the resident Rainbow Dash, knowing it would draw the hiding Twilight out. So when ''Princess'' Twilight Sparkle arrives after being summoned by Sunset Shimmer, it's not even two hours into her arrival when Monster X and Gigan ambush the party and kidnap her to demand information and the return of the necklace. Problem? She has no idea what they are talking about. It's only after discussion they realize it was the human world's resident Twilight Sparkle that was responsible.

* In ''Manga/ZekkyouGakkyuu'', Nana and Nono from ''The Story About Twins'' get mistaken by sight alone. [[invoked]] [[FridgeLogic Despite them having different haircolors]].

* DC has a mother-daughter example. One instance of Green Arrow meeting Black Canary has him saying that he's had a huge crush her for years. Black Canary is offended because he's talking about [[LegacyCharacter her]] [[StrongFamilyResemblance mother]].

[[folder:Film]]

-->'''Mal:''' Mingo. ''[Nods to Mingo]'' Fanty. ''[Nods to Fanty]''
-->'''Mingo:''' He's Ming-
-->'''Mal:''' He's Fanty, you're Mingo.
-->'''Mingo:''' ''[Stares at Mal for a moment before reluctantly smiling]'' How is it you always know?

* In ''DoubleImpact'' Jean Claude van Damme plays twins. They are at first mistaken for each other, but they have very different personalities and are soon told apart.[[/folder]]

* In ''DoubleImpact'' Jean Claude van Damme plays twins. They are at first mistaken for each other, but they have very different personalities and are soon told apart.[[[[/folder]]

[[/folder]]

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' novel ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy''. After Prince Corin runs away from the Narnian group, they later meet Shasta and mistake him for the prince because the two look exactly alike. It's later discovered that Shasta's real name is Cor and he and Corin are identical twins.

* ''VideoGame/HerStory'': Suggests that the trigger for the murder was [[spoiler: Hannah posing as Eve and Simon falling for the deception, giving her another "unique" mirror to show his love]]. At least that's [[NameDrop her story]].

* ''Series/TheBarrier'': Hugo is recently widowed from Sara, a woman who had an identical twin sister named Julia. At some point in the series, Hugo and Julia walk by a closed-down dive that they both recognize. Hugo tells Julia the dive is the place where he first saw Sara and fell in love with her, but didn't manage to approach her or get noticed by her, resulting in him first asking Sara out after running into her again somewhere else. In Hugo's flash-back to when he first saw Sara, a pendant necklace of which the twins owned identical versions that differed only in color is hidden under Sara's top and Sara is wearing braids, which are favored by Julia. Julia is also surprised that Sara would ever go to a dive, as they were TomboyAndGirlyGirl twins to an extent and Sara was the girly girl. Guess who Hugo actually saw in the dive that evening.

* ''Series/TheBarrier'': Hugo is recently widowed from Sara, a woman who had an identical twin sister named Julia. At some point in the series, Hugo and Julia walk by a closed-down dive that they both recognize. Hugo tells Julia the dive is the place where he first saw Sara and fell in love with her, but didn't manage to approach her or get noticed by her, resulting in him first asking Sara out after running into her again somewhere else. In Hugo's flash-back to when he first saw Sara, a necklace of which the twins owned identical versions that differed only in color is hidden under Sara's top and Sara is wearing braids, which are favored by Julia. Julia is also surprised that Sara would ever go to a dive, they were TomboyAndGirlyGirl twins to an extent and Sara was the girly girl. Guess who Hugo actually saw in the dive that evening.

* ''Series/TheBarrier'': Hugo is recently widowed from Sara, a woman who had an identical twin sister named Julia. At some point in the series, Hugo and Julia walk by a closed-down dive that they both recognize. Hugo tells Julia the dive is the place where he first saw Sara and fell in love with her, but didn't manage to approach her or get noticed by her, resulting in him first asking Sara out after running into her again somewhere else. In Hugo's flash-back, a necklace of which the twins own identical versions that differ only in color is hidden under Sara's top, Sara is wearing braids (which are favored by Julia) and Julia is surprised that Sara would ever go to a dive (they were TomboyAndGirlyGirl twins to an extent and Sara was the girly girl). Guess who Hugo actually saw in the dive that evening.

* ''Series/TheBarrier'': Hugo is recently widowed from Sara, a woman who had an identical twin sister named Julia. At some point in the series, Hugo and Julia walk by a closed-down dive that they both recognize. Hugo tells Julia the dive is the place where he first saw Sara and fell in love with her, but didn't manage to approach her or get noticed by her, resulting in him first asking Sara out after running into her again somewhere else. In Hugo's flash-back, a necklace of which the twins own identical versions that differ only in color is hidden under Sara's top, Sara is wearing braids (which are favored by Julia) and Julia is surprised that Sara would ever go to a dive (they were TomboyAndGirlyGirl twins to an extent and Sara was the girly girl). Guess who Hugo actually saw that evening.

[[folder:Fanfic]]

* ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' once used this to trick a murderer into incriminating himself. The murderer had almost run over a blind man while fleeing from the scene of the crime. Later, Columbo brought in what appeared to be the same blind man to identify the murderer. The killer protested that the man was blind. Then Columbo asked why the killer would think that, since when the man he had brought in wasn't wearing dark glasses or carrying a white cane. The killer claimed that as a trained physician he could spot subtle clues. Then Columbo had the "witness" read from a newspaper. The "witness" was the blind man's identical twin bother, and by claiming the witness was blind the killer showed that he had mistaken the man for the blind man who was almost run over.

* This sometimes happens with Fred and George Weasley from ''Literature/HarryPotter''. Often it's because the twins themselves pretend to be each other just to troll others.

* The Main/TwinSwitch in ''Literature/LottieAndLisa'' is so successful that the girls are only found out by complete coincidence. They look exactly alike except for their hairstyles which are easily disguised. However, they are also Main/PolarOppositeTwins and have to work hard to maintain their charade, which causes especially Lotte a lot of stress and anxiety. They would probably have been found out due to their different personalities and lack of knowledge about each others' lives had it not been for the fact of the parents being distracted by their own problems. Their looks, however, are so identical that they themselves cannot distinguish between each other in a photo.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

* In the second ''VideoGame/Boktai'' game, during the mission in the Remains, Django gets mistaken by Kid for his twin brother Sabata, who saved Kid earlier in the story. (How this could happen it's confusing, considering that both twins have distinguishable hairstyles and hair and eye color).

[[folder:Web Comics]]