History Main / MultilayerFacade

* An early ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' comic has Spidey caught unmasked by [[Characters/SpiderManRoguesGallery Alistair Smythe's]] surveillance camera. His solution is to make a latex Peter Parker mask (which averts LatexPerfection, as it's noticeably not quite right), return to the camera, and take off his Peter mask to reveal the Spider-Man mask underneath. It works: Smythe concludes Spidey was probably screwing with him, and doesn't follow up on trying to put a name to the face.

** Despite the Great Saiyaman's original purpose to hide his identity as the Golden Warrior, the tournament's permitted him from wearing a helmet, so he settled down with a pair of sunglasses and a white bandana. And despite the fact that Gohan didn't want any Saiyan to transform in the tournament, Gohan's rage-induced transformation into a Super Saiyan prior to his match ripped his bandana apart, something that wouldn't have happened had he still his helmet on. Which means that Gohan's attempt to conceal his Golden Warrior identity with the identity of the Great Saiyaman was absolutely fruitless.

* A literal version of this trope can be found in ''Film/WhoAmI'', where the hacker MRX unmasks his rival [=WhoAmI=] only to find another mask below, and another, and another.

** In "The Exterminator," the actor [[Creator/LonChaney Lorne Chumley]], known as the "man of a million faces", is filming a new movie with his butler, and has assumed numerous disguises to keep people from the bank away while he prepares his comeback. When guest star Don Adams unmasks the "monster" Lorne is portraying, he initially tugs off various human masks (including a [[DisguisedInDrag woman mask]], but once he reveals Lorne's true face, he thinks it's also a mask and ends up [[NotAMask pulling on his scalp]].

* ''Manga/DragonBall'': Son Gohan had two vigilante identities: one that is called "the Golden Warrior" by the citizens of Satan City, and "the Great Saiyaman" which he created himself. Originally, Gohan wanted a costume that allowed to transform into a Super Saiyan (the aforementioned Golden Warrior) without anyone recognizing him, although the Great Saiyaman made this purpose redundant, so Gohan settled with this superhero identity instead. (''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' is the only instance where he really transformed into a Super Saiyan while wearing his complete Great Saiyaman costume). While Videl figured out that he's the Great Saiyaman, Gohan still denied that he's also the Golden Warrior. But during the 25th Tenkaichi Budokai, his classmates recognized his Great Saiyaman disguise (although they assumed it might be just cosplay) because of his lack of headgear. Right after that, Gohan transformed into a Super Saiyan 2, revealing to everyone that he's the Golden Warrior.

* ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse: Paperinik (the superhero alter-ego of [[Donald Duck]]) has to involuntarily do this in one story. At one point he decides to demonstrate ([[AsYouKnow for no reason and to no-one in particular]]) how his masks work, and too late realizes that he's out of the spray that would let him take the sticky mask off. Since the mask he is trying on is one of a caricatural alien, he is forced to wear a new mask on top of this one. (Later on, however, he manages to avoid having his secret identity exposed because he is wearing this additional mask).

Contrast SecretIdentityIdentity, where there's only one secret identity but it's becoming the person's real identity. Compare SecondSuperIdentity, when someone has more than one costumed identities; ARiddleWrappedInAMysteryInsideAnEnigma; and InfractionDistraction. If pretending to be the opposite sex in one layer is part of the deception it may involve RecursiveCrossdressing.

* In ''Discworld/MakingMoney'', the protagonist [[ConArtist Moist Von Lipwig]] (former BoxedCrook, now sort-of reformed) meets [[CoolOldLady Topsy Lavish]], who owns Ankh-Morpork's bank. Being a businesswoman, she immediately sees him for what he is, [[spoiler:decides he's the perfect person to keep the bank out of the hands of her evil relatives]] and proceeds to {{lampshade}} his relationship with [[ILoveYouBecauseICantControlYou Adora Belle Dearheart]] with this trope.

** Shows up as part of the plot for ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'' too. When an assassination attempt on the Klatchan ambassador seems to point to Klatch as the culprit, Commander Vimes is quick to point out the ease with which the evidence could be a frame up. He spends most of the book thinking his primary suspect is in league with rogue Ankh-Morpork elements to start a war with Klatch, only [[spoiler: to find out from 71-hour Achmed that the flimsy evidence had been specifically planted to make him think that due to his own predisposition to distrust his own countrymen.]]

* In one of the earliest team ups between Franchise/SpiderMan and ThePunisher, Frank gave Spider-Man some make up in case he was caught and unmasked by the bad guys.

'''Moody:''' Really, boy? I'd say that's a little... paranoid. Not paranoid enough!

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'''s Galuna Island arc, there is an EnigmaticMinion named Zolty, a middle-aged man always wearing a mask. At the end of the arc, after he'd revealed he was trying to [[HijackingCthulhu take control of]] the SealedEvilInACan the rest of [[ArcVillain Lyon's]] team were trying to kill, Zolty takes off his mask in private. This face, [[AnticlimacticUnmasking which is neither out of the ordinary]] [[StrangerBehindTheMask nor anyone we've seen before]], is inconsequential because seconds later it turns out his ''entire'' appearance was a magical disguise used by someone who looks completely different--[[spoiler:namely, Ultear, the young-adult ''woman'' we had seen was part of the Magic Council.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': [[spoiler:Amon is lying about his mask covering burns from a firebender, but he wears makeup under it just in case he loses it or wants to "prove" he isn't lying.]]

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'''s Galuna Island arc, there is an EnigmaticMinion named Zolty, a middle-aged man always wearing a mask. At the end of the arc, after he'd revealed he was trying to [[HijackingCthulhu take control of]] the SealedEvilInACan the rest of [[ArcVillain Lyon's]] team were trying to kill, Zolty takes off his mask in private. This face, [[AnticlimacticUnmasking which is neither out of the ordinary nor anyone we've seen before]], is inconsequential because seconds later it turns out his ''entire'' appearance was a magical disguise used by someone who looks completely different--[[spoiler:namely, Ultear, the young-adult ''woman'' we had seen was part of the Magic Council.]]

* An example featuring Cool Shades - one piece of concept art for Proto Man from ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' has Proto Man holding his helmet, which has shades attached as a visor... and he's wearing another pair of shades. So either this trope is in effect, or he wears shades under his shades.

* ''Fanfic/WhiteSheep'': Blake hides her smutty books under her bed; everyone knows that. And that's what keeps everyone from realizing that she has ''much worse'' books hidden elsewhere.

* ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse: Paperinik (the superhero alter-ego of Donald Duck]]) has to involuntarily do this in one story. At one point he decides to demonstrate ([[AsYouKnow for no reason and to no-one in particular]]) how his masks work, and too late realizes that he's out of the spray that would let him take the sticky mask off. Since the mask he is trying on is one of a caricatural alien, he is forced to wear a new mask on top of this one. (Later on, however, he manages to avoid having his secret identity exposed because he is wearing this additional mask).

* An early ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' comic has Spidey caught unmasked by [[SpiderManRoguesGallery Alistair Smythe's]] surveillance camera. His solution is to make a latex Peter Parker mask (which averts LatexPerfection, as it's noticeably not quite right), return to the camera, and take off his Peter mask to reveal the Spider-Man mask underneath. It works: Smythe concludes Spidey was probably screwing with him, and doesn't follow up on trying to put a name to the face.

* ComicBook/{{Sandman}}. During a nightmare, one character is confronted with Dorothy from the ''Wizard Of Oz'' movie, who pulls her mask off to reveal the Wicked Witch, then that mask off to reveal another mask...

* In ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom'', the secret leader of the jungle patrol is The Phantom itself -- the masked superhero identity, rather than its mundane counterpart "Mr Walker".

* Meta example: in the ending of ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', there is a scene where the Master Chief takes off his helmet, but part of the ship obscures his head. If you move the camera so that you can get a good look, you can see that under his helmet is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mkiRQVkERg another helmet]].

* Happens in the flash video [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/188383 Mega Man and the Pompous Robots]], during a fight between Tenguman and Bass. At one point, Bass says something amongst the line of "Let's see who's under that mask", pulls off Tenguman's mask... to reveal another one. This then gets repeated for a ludicrous number of masks which were all stacked on Tenguman's face.

* Parodied in a ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' guest-penned filler arc [[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20000416 here]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' episode "Bravo Dooby-Doo", a crossover with ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'', the villain turns out to wear multiple masks on top of each other. The masks are, in order: two ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' characters, Bigfoot, Creator/DonKnotts, and [[Creator/HannaBarbera Joseph Barbera]] ("[[BitingTheHandHumor Who's that?]]"). The gang shouts in surprise-like unison each time they reveal a new mask.

* In the ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Duet", Cardassian file clerk Aamin Marritza impersonates Cardassian occupation work camp administrator Gul Darhe'el who is himself "impersonating" Marritza. His plan is to be captured by the Bajorans, to have the latter part of the facade exposed, and to be executed as Darhe'el [[TheAtoner to force the Cardassian regime to face the truth about its war crimes]].