History Main / IncrediblyConspicuousDrag

* ''{{Series/Kaamelott}}'': One episode has Attila the Hun demanding the most beautiful women of Kaamelott as a BegoneBride. He ends up with Arthur's Viking bodyguard Grüdü in a dress. It's not even remotely convincing, but it works out anyway.

-->-- '''Creator/RogerEbert''' on Matt [=LeBlanc=] in ''All the Queen's Men''

* A Series/FullHouse episode titled "Fraternity Reunion" centers around Danny and Joey dressing as women in order to sneak their way into a sorority house reunion in order to take back a stuffed fraternity seal that was stolen from them in college. In typical Joey fashion he gets to into character and loses his wig in a limbo contest. Danny makes a mad dash for the seal and is subsequently revealed to the women as also being a man. They're both taken down by the women and are arrested by one of them who turns out to be a cop through some sort of HollywoodLaw no doubt.

* There is a Myth/{{Norse|Mythology}} story in which Thor must disguise himself as Freya in order to trick the giants and get his hammer back (and yes, the hammer stands in for exactly what you think it does). The giants, who are apparently not all that familiar with human(oid) sexual dimorphism, fall for every one of Loki's excuses about why "Freya" looks so haggard, has such a big appetite and can eat an entire cow, has a ''beard'' and can drink so much mead in a single gulp. Everything goes swimmingly until the hammer is brought out to bless the marriage, at which point Thor starts [[KickingAssInAllHerFinery Kicking Ass In All His Finery]].

* A {{sidequest}} in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'' has the player working for an animal wrangler named Margaret--a mustachioed man who dresses as a woman because he thinks a female animal wrangler will attract a bigger audience.

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' the fairly bulky man Ollie dresses up as Judy for a humorous role in the pantomime like Heterodyne shows Master Payne's Circus of Adventure puts on in small towns as they travel. To be fair the real Judy ''is'' ripped, but she has a very feminine appearance.

* ''WebVideo/PlayStationAccess:'' "Rob's mum" is obviously a man in a dress speaking in a shrill voice. His face is always out of shot, but the body shape is a bit of a giveaway. Since they have several female members on staff, this is clearly a part of the joke.
* In ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'' the Gatekeeper's wife is, like most characters on the show, played by Noah himself in a wig. He does have a funny bit on one of the commentaries about how difficult it was to find a bra the right size.

'''Sweetie Belle:''' That's Big Mac in a dress.\\

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''Manga/FamilyCompo'' where Masahiko asks his [[{{Nephewism}} aunt and uncle/adopted parents]] (who are {{transgender}}) to come to his school entry dressed as their biological sex. The result is both of them appearing visibly uncomfortable in IncrediblyConspicuousDrag, when in fact RecursiveCrossdressing is what's really going on.

Somebody passing for the other gender is a common trope in comedy, [[JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples all the way back to]] [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]]. However, it usually works only if the actor in question actually makes an effort to look and behave like a member of the opposite sex, otherwise the audience's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief is broken and instead of being about, say, a man trying to pass as a woman, the work becomes about [[IdiotPlot how a group of morons didn't realize they were trying to pick up a drag queen]]. Occasionally it works, if applied side by side with RuleOfFunny. The trope is gradually becoming less common as it's often been used to mock transgender women who fail to pass and as such has attracted outcry from trans rights advocates. On the other hand, it is still played straight by some DragQueens as {{camp}} to subvert gender role expectations.

Somebody passing for the other gender is a common trope in comedy, [[JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples all the way back to]] [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]]. However, it usually works only if the actor in question actually makes an effort to look and behave like a member of the opposite sex, otherwise the audience's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief is broken and instead of being about, say, a man trying to pass as a woman, the work becomes about [[IdiotPlot how a group of morons didn't realize they were trying to pick up a drag queen]]. Occasionally it works, if applied side by side with RuleOfFunny. The trope is gradually becoming less common as it's often been used to mock transgender women who fail to pass and as such has attracted outcry from trans rights advocates.

Somebody passing for the other gender is a common trope in comedy, [[JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples all the way back to]] [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]]. However, it usually works only if the actor in question actually makes an effort to look and behave like a member of the opposite sex, otherwise the audience's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief is broken and instead of being about, say, a man trying to pass as a woman, the work becomes about [[IdiotPlot how a group of morons didn't realize they were trying to pick up a drag queen]]. Occasionally it works, if applied side by side with RuleOfFunny.

* In ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'' the Gatekeeper's wife is, like most characters on the show, played by Noah himself in a wig. He does have a funny bit on one of the commentaries about how difficult it was to find a bra the right size.

* In ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', Kenshiro once confronted a gang of Ken-Oh's henchmen in a bar, one of them disguised himself as a nanny barkeeper, it doesn't take that much of efforts discover the disguise as he didn't shave properly.
--> ''"The next time you want to play crossdressing, shave properly. No real woman in the world would have a '''beard'''."''

** Another example is Igaram, who disguised himself as Vivi to serve as a decoy twice. Problem is; he's a 48-year-old man with broad shoulders, while Vivi is a slim teenage girl. The second attempt didn't fool anyone, but it did leave the Alabasta citizens distracted long enough to allow Vivi to properly say goodbye to the Straw Hats.

* In ''Manga/GugureKokkurisan'', Shigaraki's [[http://media.animevice.com/uploads/1/18405/802346-gugure_crossdressing_scene_ep_6_super.png poor attempts to disguise himself as Kohina]] to appeal to her StalkerWithACrush Inugami fool no one due to his muscular build and hairy legs, and it just disgusts Inugami more than anything else.
-->'''Shigaraki:''' (''still in his Kohina disguise'') The dog seemed down, so I tried being nice to him, but he cried and ran away.\\

* Jokey Smurf in ''ComicBook/TheSmurfs'' one-page gag in "Romeo And Smurfette", who disguises himself as Smurfette (not perfectly) in order to fool a Smurf into a PrankDate. Needless to say, the Smurf was neither fooled nor amused.
* The Film/NationalLampoon had a comic-book style ad for magazine subscriptions with two clearly middle-aged men (one had a moustache, the other stubble and a cigar) dressed like housewives at a supermarket. They addressed each other with female names, the employees regarded them as women, then the last panel had the police turn up and haul them off. None of this was explained in the least.

* At the climax of ''{{WesternAnimation/Mulan}}'' several of Mulan's male comrades join her in infiltrating the palace by [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/541837914_574.jpg disguising themselves as concubines]]. Yao doesn't even bother shaving his beard and one of Ling's breasts appears to be crooked, but [[TheBigGuy Chien-Po]] is the most passable of the three and simply looks like a very fat woman. Amazingly the disguises ''mostly'' work on some guards.
-->'''Guard 1:''' Concubines?
-->'''Guard 2:''' ''Ugly'' concubines.
* WesternAnimation/OpenSeason: In the "Scared Silly" special, Boog has to play a female Wumpus monster, to lure out the male species.

* {{Averted|Trope}} in ''Film/SomeLikeItHot''. Creator/JackLemmon and Creator/TonyCurtis actually walked around the studio lot in drag in order to make sure they could realistically pass for female. The scene were they try using mirrors in the public ladies' room in order to fix their makeup is based on something they actually did while on the lot.
** When asked why his "Josephine" was so much more feminine than Jack Lemmon's "Daphne", Tony Curtis explained that he was so scared to be playing a woman (or a man pretending to be one) that his tightly wound body language could be read as demure and shy, traditionally feminine traits, whereas Lemmon, who was completely unbothered, "ran out of his dressing room screaming like the Queen of the May," kept much more of his masculine body language.

-->''"What is unusual about "Sorority Boys" is how it caves in to the homophobia of the audience by not even trying to make its cross-dressing heroes look like halfway, even one-tenth-of-the-way, plausible girls. They look like college boys wearing cheap wigs and dresses they bought at Goodwill. They usually need a shave. One keeps his retro forward-thrusting sideburns and just combs a couple of locks of his wig forward to "cover" them. They look as feminine as the sailors wearing coconut brassieres in Theatre/SouthPacific."''

* There was a short from ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' where Curly dressed like an Indian maiden and a mountain man fell in love with him. Guess it's been a really long time since he last saw a woman.

* The failure -- or prime source of comedy, depending on how you look at it - of ''Film/WhiteChicks'' is generally considered to be a combination of this and [[UncannyValleyMakeup disturbingly unconvincing makeup]]. Shawn Wayans even admits in the DVD commentary that he makes "a very ugly woman."

* Averted with Zahara in ''Film/BadEducation2004'', who makes an effort to adopt feminine mannerisms, hair, and makeup on top of the women's clothing. And then played straight with the real Ignacio, who has stubble and an extremely deep voice.
* ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'' had Holmes disguising himself as a woman. Since it was a last minute disguise, it wasn't one of the better ones. But in the dark when the other guys could only glimpse it, it worked.

** And when his disguise is quickly blown by the bad guys, Lug does ''not'' [[UnsettlingGenderReveal take]] it [[MegatonPunch well]]...

* In the martial-arts films ''Come Drink With Me'' and its sequel ''Golden Swallow'', the female character Golden Swallow is able to pass as a man simply by wearing men's clothing. The fact that actress Creator/ChengPeiPei is an incredibly beautiful woman and makes no attempt to disguise her voice is unnoticed by almost everyone.

-->''"The film of "M. Butterfly" does not take hold the way the stage play did. Perhaps the camera is too cruelly realistic, reminding us at wrong moments that Song Liling seems to have 5 o'clock shadow. Perhaps it is Lone's voice, so low and monotonous."''

** Averted and played with in ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'' by Nobby Nobbs, disguised as a harem girl for reasons [[ItMakesSenseInContext which aren’t worth attempting to explain]]. The local women seem entirely fooled, though. (And if they aren't, well... he's still acting more sympathetic to their personal problems than the ''actual'' men in their lives...)

* ''Literature/LittleRedRidingHood'': A ''wolf'' disguises himself as LRRH's grandmother by putting on her cap and robe. LRRH does seem to notice that something is off, but cannot quite put her finger on it, as "granny" gives explanation for all the oddities in her appearence.
** And is... discussed (and deconstructed)... in ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'', where the titular trio decide the family was "as thick as teak". Of course, the stories were being magically enforced.

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* Big Macintosh, a big, bulky, deep-voiced stallion, disguises himself as a SouthernBelle named "Orchard Blossom" in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Brotherhooves Social". It's such a shoddy disguise that it only fools exactly one old stallion who ends up getting a crush on him. Rainbow Dash recognies him instantly, and while she doesn't verbally out him to anyone else that can hear, she turns up the snark and tells him not to expect her to take it easy on him in the competition because he's a stallion. Also notable in that it wasn't even necessary for him to dress up to begin with. It's explained by the judges that the competition has a "loose" definition of what qualifies as a sister (basically, a familial-like bond is all that's required), and they would've allowed him to compete as himself if he just asked. Rainbow is allowed to compete as Scootaloo's sister even though they aren't even related.
-->'''Applebloom:''' This is my... cousin, Orchard Blossom.\\

'''Scootaloo:''' That's Big Mac in a dress.\\
'''Rainbow Dash (competing as Scootaloo's honorary sister):''' "[[PaperThinDisguise Orchard Blossom]]", huh? Well, I'm not going to take it easy on you just because you're a stallion.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'', Betty and Wilma enter a television contest for cooking the best cake, and they win. The prize is a huge amount of money, except that they have to bake the cake on television in the show. Unfortunately, right at the wrong time, Betty and Wilma get the measles and are quarantined. Seeing the prospect of great money slipping away, Barney and Fred "disguise" themselves as women. They successfully maintain their disguises, and successfully bake the cake, but blow it by using "Brand B" flour instead of the advertised brand.
** In {{WesternAnimation/The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones}}, Fred and Barney are supposed to be working, but opt to attend a poker game against their boss instead. They don disguises, with Fred as a southern gentleman and Barney as his girlfriend. Barney makes some effort to pad out his chest and speak in falsetto, but keeps his five o'clock shadow.

* {{Averted|Trope}} by Creator/DustinHoffman in ''Film/{{Tootsie}}''. He might not be an ''attractive'' woman (a fact {{lampshade|Hanging}}d several times in the film) but he at least ''looks'' like one. That Oscar nomination was well-deserved.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Hypnota wore a mustache and turban to disguise that not only was she a woman, but also the identical twin sister of her LovelyAssistant in order to pull off some of their tricks as stage magicians. She did not bind her chest, seemed to be wearing mascara, and otherwise just looked like a girl wearing a mustache, which seemed to fool audiences just fine. She keeps this same costume as her supervillain outfit, but does even less to hide the fact that she's got a woman's body and doesn't actually seem to be trying to pass as a man.

** In {{WesternAnimation/The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones}}, Fred and Barney are supposed to be working, but opt to attend a poker game against their boss instead. They don disguises, with Fred as a southern gentleman and Barney as his girlfriend. Barney made some effort to pad out his chest and speak in falsetto, but kept his five o'clock shadow.

-->'''Fred:''' Lucky I'm in disguise, because the real me would never be seen in public with such an ugly girlfriend.

* Aversion in a Don Martin cartoon for ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'': Men looking for an escaped convict at a train station see a hairy-armed, tattooed, stubble-faced person in a dress walk by. One of them pulls off the person's wig and they jump on the presumed escaped convict... but let her go with shamefaced apologies.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' gives us Joseph's famous attempt at infiltrating the Nazi lab in Mexico. The guards aren't fooled by an instant: no matter how hard he tries to act girly (and he tries a bit too hard for his own good), he [[HeroicBuild sure as hell can't look the part]].

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''Manga/FamilyCompo'' where Masahiko asks his [[{{Nephewism}} aunt and uncle/adopted parents]] (who are {{transgender}}) to come to his school entry dressed as their biological sex. [[http://www.anymanga.com/family-compo/001/004/010/ The result]] is both of them appearing visibly uncomfortable in IncrediblyConspicuousDrag, when in fact RecursiveCrossdressing is what's really going on.

* Hilariously [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment''. Blouse takes the guise of a woman and is ridiculously bad at it, to the point where all the washerwomen notice right away but don't say anything because they think it's entertaining. But while the women aren't fooled by his awful, extremely stereotypical act, the male guards buy it completely. The funniest part is when the female soldiers masquerading as male soldiers decide to don women's clothing to also infiltrate enemy lines, they're immediately accused of being this trope, saying that they're obviously male and it's the worst attempt at drag they've ever seen.
** Also in ''Discworld/TheTruth'', when the mountainous brain-damaged villain Mr. Tulip is disguised as a nun. It actually works until he starts swearing; as Sacharissa says, she's known genuinely female nuns who looked just as bad, if not worse.
** Averted and played with in ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'' by Nobby Nobbs, disguised as a harem girl for reasons [[ItMakesSenseInContext which aren’t worth attempting to explain]]. The local women seem entirely fooled, though. (And if they aren't, well... he's still acting more sympathetic to their personal problems than the ''actual'' men in their lives...)

** And is... discussed (and deconstructed)... in Discworld/WitchesAbroad, where the titular trio decide the family was "as thick as teak". Of course, the stories were being magically enforced.

* The failure -- or prime source of comedy, depending on how you look at it - of ''Film/WhiteChicks'' is generally considered to be a combination of this and [[UncannyValleyMakeup disturbingly unconvincing makeup]].

* ''WebVideo/PlayStationAccess:'' "Rob's mum" is obviously a man in a dress speaking in a shrill voice. His face is always out of shot, but the body shape is a bit of a giveaway.

* At the climax of ''{{Disney/Mulan}}'' several of Mulan's male comrades join her in infiltrating the palace by [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/541837914_574.jpg disguising themselves as concubines]]. Yao doesn't even bother shaving his beard and one of Ling's breasts appears to be crooked, but [[TheBigGuy Chien-Po]] is the most passable of the three and simply looks like a very fat woman. Amazingly the disguises ''mostly'' work on some guards.