History Main / MistakenForSpecialGuest

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' has a Mistaken for Mistaken for Special Guest. A health inspector arrives at the Krusty Krab, and Spongebob and Mr. Krabs must cater to his every whim. Then a news report comes on that a fake health inspector has been going around trying to get free food from restaurants, so Mr. Krabs, assuming that the health inspector at the Krusty Krab ''is the impostor'', comes up with a plan to get even, by making an incredibly grotesque Krabby Patty that he and Spongebob serve him, which Spongebob calls the Nasty Patty. Unfortunately, after they've carried out the plan, ''another'' news report comes on saying that the fake health inspector has been captured and that any other food inspector you see is real... and to Krabs and Spongebob's horror, the fake inspector pictured ''looks nothing like the health inspector that was assumed to have just eaten the Nasty Patty''.
--> "Yes, they are all idiots aren't they?"

* ''Film/{{Flodder}}'': In the second movie, ''Flodder in Amerika'', upon arriving in America the Flodders are mistaken for a group of Russian doctors at the airport. They spend a day in the New York Plaza before the mix-up is revealed at a dinner party held in their name and they're unceremoniously thrown out.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TopCat'' had Bennie being convinced to impersonate a wealthy visiting maharajah, with the aid of [[PaperThinDisguise some old towels]] and a bag of fake rubies. Amusingly enough, when the real maharajah's retinue shows up, Top Cat ends up [[ExpectingSomeoneTaller mistaking the real deal for another impostor]].

* ''Manga/CaseClosed'': The "Suspicious Uncle" case has this, which involves the inheritance of the Yabuuchi family's late patriarch. One of the invited guests arriving at the family's estate is Uncle Yoshifusa and his Brazilian bodyguard Carlos. Since it's been many years since the family saw Yoshifusa, they suspect him to be an imposter due to his very different appearance. They try to find the uncle's scar on his on his leg which he got from a baseball accident, but the uncle reveals that his scar is on his other leg and he recalls how he got it from said accident. During the case, two assaults are aimed at Uncle Yoshifusa in order for him to forfeit his part of the inheritance. At the end of the case, it's revealed that he's indeed an imposter, called Dickson Tanaka, who has been acting as his deceased friend Yoshifusa in order to protect Yoshifusa's son Carlos, a rightful heir to patriarch's inheritance. Dickson Tanaka is the real bodyguard.

* Elizabeth for Calypso in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'', turning her into a LivingMacguffin for a brief round of pirate negotiations.

* In ''Film/CarryOnRegardless'', Bert Handy (Creator/SidJames) is hired to hold a rich man's place in the waiting room queue at a hospital and is mistaken for a visiting diagnostician and invited to examine various patients.

* In ''Film/JumanjiTheNextLevel'', Bethany and Fridge attempt to infiltrate Jurgen's fortress by mingling with Jurgen's troops the same way Alex did. Looking nowhere near as military as Alex, they are immediately spotted. Fortunately for them, they are mistaken for the Brothers Kababik, Jurgen the Brutal's allies, and brought into the fortress. They then attempt to maintain the masquerade despite knowing nothing about the Brothers Kababik (and one of them being white and the other black). Martha then joins in to pose as their sister who is set to wed Jurgen. The whole ruse is blown when a letter arrives from the actual Brothers Kababik announcing that they've been delayed.

* A really weird example shows up in ''Film/OceansTwelve'', where the cast invokes this trope; Creator/JuliaRoberts' character supposed looks exactly like Julia Roberts (InUniverse), and so they camouflage their museum heist as special guest star Julia Roberts visiting the museum. They are exposed by Creator/BruceWillis (AsHimself), who figures out that while she looks like Julia Roberts, she does not act like her.

** In "The Jimmy", the head of a charity runs into Kramer on the street. As Kramer just came from a dentist appointment (and as a result is slurring his speech) and is wearing special shoes (intended to improve his basketball skills), the man mistakenly believes that Kramer is mentally challenged and invites him to a charity banquet as the guest of honor.

* In ''Film/{{The 39 Steps|1935}}'', Robert Donat's character is fleeing the police and enters a political rally to lose them. One problem - he runs onstage, and they mistake him for the speaker. He gives a stirring speech completely impromptu while consistently hiding his handcuffs, and he gets a ''standing ovation'' after he's done.

* In ''Film/JumanjiTheNextLevel'', Bethany and Fridge attempt to infiltrate Jurgen's fortress by mingling with Jurgen's troops the same way Alex did. Looking nowhere near as military as Alex, they are immediately spotted. Fortunately for them, they are mistaken for the Brothers Kababik, Jurgen the Brutal's allies, and brought into the fortress. They then attempt to maintain the masquerade despite knowing nothing about the Brothers Kababik (and one of them being white and the other black).

* The BadGuyBar scene in ''Film/ThreeAmigos'' is this. A German arms dealer comes in, shoots a man for making fun of him, and warns the bar that some of his even-more-dangerous friends are due to arrive soon. The titular Amigos soon enter the bar and are mistaken for the dangerous Germans because the original German had said that the bar would most definitely know the others, and the garish costumes of the Amigos certainly stand out. They even do a song-and-dance routine to try to "cheer everyone up" since they're all deathly afraid of being killed. After the amigos leave, the real Germans come in, get made fun of, and open fire on several patrons.

* In ''Film/MoulinRouge'', [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold Satine]] mistakes Christian as the investor of the nightclub that she is supposed to seduce. The couple falls in love making a perfect TriangRelations when the real investor, The Duke, steps into the picture.
%%* [[Film/TheNakedGun It's Enrico Pallazzo!!]]

* Subverted in ''Webcomic/DubiousCompany'', where the special guest is mistaken for the host. After a series of [[ReplacementGoldfish individual]], [[RightHandVersusLeftHand coincidental]] [[ElCidPloy incidents]] at the Festival of Veils, Elly is mistaken for the King by everyone, even the Queen and Mary. IdenticalStranger factors into this a bit, but the King looks to be in his early 30s, while Elly is barely past his teens.

* ''Series/TheEricAndreShow'' once did a prank segment where Eric fooled around at the 2016 Republican National Convention. While there, he ran into Alex Jones, who mistook Eric for Creator/TrevorNoah and invited him on-stage at a rally. To say things went hilariously downhill from there is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pud_ql9xJAg quite the understatement]].

If the mistaken guest is TheFool, that's SeeminglyProfoundFool. Compare BavarianFireDrill and SurpriseInspectionRuse.

* ''Film/BlackSheep1996'': During MTV's "Rock The Vote" event for the Washington election, [[StonersAreFunny a stoned Mike Donnelly]] gets mistaken for his brother, gubernatorial candidate Al Donnelly, and he finds himself giving a disjointed, shout-out laden speech that ends with him shouting "KILL WHITEY!", much to Al's horror.