History Main / NewspaperThinDisguise

** ''Film/DrNo''. When Bond first arrives in Jamacia a man in SinisterShades (unknown to him, his future ally Felix Leiter) is shown to be watching him at the airport. At one point Bond goes back into the airport to make a phone call, and Felix is shown folding up a newspaper apparently after using this trope, then bending to drink from a nearby water fountain to avoid Bond getting a good look at him.

*** Also used successfully by Sallah, to disguise his fist.

** ''Film/DrNo''. When Bond first arrives in Jamacia a man in sunglasses (unknown to him, his future ally Felix Leiter) is shown to be watching him at the airport. At one point Bond goes back into the airport to make a phone call. Felix is shown folding up a newspaper apparently after using this trope, then bending to drink from a nearby water fountain to avoid Bond getting a good look at him.

Compare HighlyVisibleNinja, HighlyConspicuousUniform and, [[{{Snowclones}} of course]], PaperThinDisguise. Subtrope of LookingBusy.

* In Season 2 Episode 1 of ''Manga/SpyXFamily'', while spying on Loid and Yor at a jazz club during their date, Anya and Franky use fliers with eye cut-outs to hide their faces.

** ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService''. Bond finds his Walther PPK missing from the drawer in his hotel room. After he checks out, one of Draco's men intercepts him in the lobby.
--->"Mr. Bond? You're lost something. ''(indicates a man reading a newspaper, who lowers it to reveal the PPK aimed at Bond)'' [[BlatantLies We'll give it to you outside.]]"
*** When Irma Bunt picks up Bond (posing as Sir Hilary Bray) from the train station, a fellow agent can be seen watching them from behind the ''Daily Express'' (you'd think a spy would avoid using a newspaper from his own country).

* A lot of modern police shows employ this for one or two officers when they have a large amount of officers staking out a single target. They can play it straight without accidentally invoking parody if those hiding are [[ExtraExtraReadAllAboutIt extras]] [[IncrediblyLamePun and]] the camera doesn't single them out for long.

* Can be done in the ''VideoGame/WorldOfAssassinationTrilogy'' of ''VideoGame/Hitman'' games to blend in from people who could see through the disguise 47 is wearing.

[[quoteright:200:[[VideoGame/FallenLondon https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/newspaper_thin_disguise.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:200:"News just in: I'm watching your every move."]]

[[quoteright:197:[[VideoGame/FallenLondon https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/60cfbbb2_75bf_4181_c19d_2b86368985bc.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:197:"News just in: I'm watching your every move."]]

* Happens with restaurant menus between Yzma and Kuzco in ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove''. Though to be fair, Kuzco (as a llama) was DisguisedInDrag at the time. ItMakesSenseInContext...

** The Doctor and Jamie do this in Episode 2 of the serial "The Faceless Ones". It's especially egregious in Jamie's case, since the newspaper does nothing to hide his lower half, and the authorities are ''specifically looking for a young man in a kilt.''
** The Doctor also does this when investigating Clara's childhood to try to work out why she's The Impossible Girl in "The Rings of Akhaten". Because the Eleventh Doctor is a {{Manchild}} however, he's not using a newspaper, but that year's ''Comicbook/TheBeano Summer Special''.

* In ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'', Sousuke has a habit of watching out for Kaname behind an old newspaper with a hole cut out; like a lot of things he does, it really makes Sousuke look like a pervert. Eventually Kaname gets so annoyed she walks up and rips the newspaper from his hands, pointing out that it's several years out of date.

This is a trope for when someone attempts to hide by covering their face with a newspaper, magazine, book or other printed work. Often combined with a musical sting when the paper is lowered to let the audience know that this man is a villain. This has a surprisingly high rate of success. This is mostly a DeadHorseTrope and, as such, is very often parodied or used as a quick visual gag. Two of the most common types of parody are having the character's face on the cover or front page of whatever he's reading, or else having eye holes cut out of the paper.

This is a trope for when someone attempts to hide by covering their face with a newspaper, magazine, book or other printed work. Often combined with a musical sting when the paper is lowered to let the audience know that this man is a villain. This has a surprisingly high rate of success. This is mostly a DeadHorseTrope and, as such, is very often parodied. Two of the most common types of parody are having the character's face on the cover or front page of whatever he's reading, or else having eye holes cut out of the paper.

* Finnegan uses this while ([[IncrediblyObviousTail poorly]]) tailing Miriam in ''[[Film/HillTwentyFourDoesntAnswer Hill 24 Doesn't Answer]]''. Because he doesn't read Hebrew, he [[RushedInvertedReading accidentally picks it up upside down]], only for Miriam to come over and turn it right side up for him.

-->The guy on the sofa was watching them, she suddenly realised. Just wide grey eyes, appearing in the slit between the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' and the black [fedora]. The second time he does it, this time actually trying to camouflage himself, he realizes that the newspaper is in Chinese, and, unluckily for him, while he does speak Chinese, he can't read it.

* ''Series/HorribleHistories'': In the ''Mission: Incompetent'' sketch detailing the attempts of the Black Hand to assassinate the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the first assassin Muhamed Mehmedbašić is hiding behind a newspaper at a cafe, but is too scared of the policeman standing nearby to act.
** Another episode of ''Series/HorribleHistories'' had Harriet Tubman use a newspaper as a disguise. The man looking for escaped slaves assumed that a woman who knew how to read couldn't possibly be an escaped slave and left her alone. The Talking Rat didn't deny it, so it was maybe TruthInTelevision.
** This really happened, though it was not so much hiding behind a newspaper but pretending to be someone else by means of a newspaper. The man sitting in the same train compartment was a former master of her, who knew she couldn't read (as it was forbidden to teach slaves to read and to write). She pretended to read the newspaper, hoping that this was enough to throw him off and make him think that she must be someone else.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', Hermione does this with a book (which is upside down) when Professor [=McGonagall=] comes in and takes Harry's Firebolt (Hermione having told [=McGonagall=] that Harry received it with no card and suspecting it to be from Sirius Black[[spoiler:, an assumption that turns out to be accurate, except he hadn't harmed it]]), to hide her face from Ron and Harry, who round on her as soon as [=McGonagall=] is gone and start getting after her for tattling.

*** When Irma Bunt picks up Bond (posing as Sir Hilary Bray) from the train station, Bond's local contact can be seen watching them from behind the ''Daily Express'' (you'd think a spy would avoid using a newspaper from his own country).