History Main / RecognitionFailure

-->Do you know who I am? I was in Series/GameofThrones! I'm Ed Sheeran, bitch!

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': In "Fishsticks", Cartman and Jimmy are held tied up by Music/KanyeWest who plans to kill them in retaliation for creating the "fish dicks" joke. Jimmy has no idea who he is and Cartman misidentifies him as "[[Music/SeanCombs Puff Daddy]]".

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': In "Fishsticks", Cartman and Jimmy are held tied up by Music/KanyeWest who plans to kill them in retaliation for the "fish dicks" joke. Jimmy has no idea who he is and Cartman misidentifies him as "Puff Daddy".

* In February 2016, at a Grammy afterparty, a bouncer particularly bad with faces managed to turn away a group composed of Music/PaulMcCartney, Music/{{Beck}}, [[Music/FooFighters Taylor Hawkins]] and Creator/WoodyHarrelson. As Sir Paul put it: "How VIP do we gotta get?"

** A sketch featuring a parody of a 1980s drug prevention advert with rock star Pete Townshend also plays with this trope. Townshend meets some teenagers in the park and tells them he understands that they are curious about drugs and that he's been "down that that road" too, but that they shouldn't try it. The teenagers, however, haven't got any idea who he is? He tells them: "I'm from Music/TheWho." To which they answer: "Who?" He: [[WhosOnFirst "Exactly."]]

** Dr. Shina is one of the Galactic Republic's top scientists who works as part of the Supreme Chancellor's staff during the Clone Wars. However, when she first meets Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Mace Windu at the end of Episode 5, Shina somehow fails to recognize three of the most famous Jedi Generals in the entire Republic, each of whom are renowned war heroes that regularly hold meetings with the Chancellor. This is at least somewhat justified since Shina had just survived an extremely traumatic near-death experience at the time and had just woken up in the hospital when she was greeted by the three Jedi, so she likely wasn't in her right state of mind.

* A RunningGag in the annual Halloween cartoons on ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' is Homestar's inability to recognize other characters' costumes, even more obvious ones. This dates all the way back to "Homestarloween Party", where Homestar mistakes Strong Bad for the Chiquita Banana Lady and he has to remind him "I'm Carmen freakin' Miranda!" Homestar has even failed to recognize his own costumes more than once, mistaking his Yahoo Serious[[CatchPhrase (ly)]] costume from "Most in the Graveyard" for Carrot Top and Crocodile Dundee. This is lampshaded in ''VideoGame/HalloweenHideAndSeek'', where Homestar claims that failing to recognize the Halloween costumes of his friends and neighbors is "like half my whole deal." In [[Recap/HomestarRunner2022CostumePackNowAvailable "2022 Costume Pack Now Available"]], it's revealed that Homestar prides himself on his "delightful misinterpretations", with him being disappointed in himself after calling The Poopsmith's [[Film/TronLegacy Rinzler]] costume [[spoiler:"Evil Tron"]], only for Strong Bad to point out that description was dead-on correct.

* In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory'', the heroes can't enter two high-class shops in the Mushroom Mall until they've proved that they're [[NoFameNoWealthNoService the right sort of clientele]]... even though most inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom recognize Mario on sight.

* This is a RunningGag in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor''; whenever Mario meets a village elder, they're behind the times and don't recognize him (to the annoyance of their younger relatives).
** Pennington quickly uses his detective skills to deduce that Mario is in fact, Luigi.

* ''WesternAnimation/Cars1'': Nobody in Radiator Springs recognizes Lightning [=McQueen=], a racing champion. Luigi and Guido are racing fans, but they only follow the Ferraris in Europe and are unfamiliar with American racing. They also don't know that [[spoiler:Doc Hudson was the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, another famous race car.]]

* Early on in ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'', Einhart was seemingly unaware that her new friend Vivio's [[HasTwoMommies mothers]] were both highly decorated military officers famed for their part in taking down the Saint's Cradle four years prior (something the 12-year-old Einhart should be old enough to remember), and [[RecursiveCanon a movie about them]] having come out a year or two after that. Also crosses over into UnderestimatingBadassery, much to Nove's amusement.

When a character fails to recognize a famous person that everyone else knows, played for comic effect. This is a popular stock gag in {{Sitcom}}s; typically, [[TheCameo a celebrity]] or SpecialGuest visits the cast, whereupon TheDitz or the ButtMonkey wonders why everyone else is going crazy over this random guy.

May overlap with FailedASpotCheck, PopCulturalOsmosisFailure or NoFameNoWealthNoService. Also see YourCostumeNeedsWork. For deliberate attempts to invoke this, see KingIncognito and ReclusiveArtist. Contrast ClarkKenting, which is where a famous person can avoid recognition remarkably easily.

* ''Series/LittleBritain'': In one sketch the wheelchair patient is watching a documentary about World War II featuring UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, yet says: "I love Charlie Chaplin".

* In ''Literature/TheBible'', Jesus was able to do this at times. The most well-known incident happened shortly after his crucifixion and resurrection, where he met up with two of his former followers who were walking down the road to another town. He spent the whole journey discussing recent events with them and pointing out various things the scriptures said about himself, but it was only at the end of the trip when they sat down for a meal together that they finally realized who he was. There may have been elements of AWizardDidIt involved, or at least WeirdnessCensor as they certainly weren't expecting a casual chat with a guy who was recently deceased.

'''Brett Finch:''' [[[VisibleSigh sighs annoyingly]]]

* In ''Theatre/OfTheeISing'', it's a RunningGag that nobody in Wintergreen's party can recognize Throttlebottom as their [[VicePresidentWho vice-presidential candidate]], or remember his name for more than a few seconds. In the election-night newsreel, one picture of him is labeled "An Unidentified Man". Even after being elected, Throttlebottom only gets into the White House as a tourist. The one time Wintergreen recognizes him, it's as [[MistakenForServant "the fellow that gave me that dill pickle."]]

* In the ''Citadel'' DLC of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', during the charity ball at the casino, two [[UpperClassTwit Asari socialites]] mistake Commander Shepard for just another refugee from Earth, living homeless on the Citadel.

* In the 1970s quite some people outside the punk scene had troubling telling [[Music/JohnLydon Johnny Rotten]] and Music/SidVicious apart. While the resemblance is loose, the two did look,dress, and style their hair similarly enough that even modern punk fans can have trouble telling which tousle-haired icon a given vintage photo depicts. The fact that today Johnny Rotten arguably looks more like Sid Vicious than his own past self doesn't help matters any.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': The Battle City arc had a few civilians who don't know about Duel Monsters and don't know who Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba are. The Grand Championship arc has Joey Wheeler [[DudeWheresMyRespect get increasingly annoyed]] that no one recognizes him.

When a character fails to recognize a famous person that everyone else knows, played for comic effect. This is a popular stock gag in {{Sitcom}}s; typically, [[TheCameo a celebrity]] or SpecialGuest visits the cast, whereupon TheDitz or the ButtMonkey wonders why everyone else is going crazy over the newcomer.

Of course, for the gag to work, the identification subject must be someone who the characters and audience ''should'' immediately recognize, for whatever reason. This is usually done with a renowned RealLife person, though it's also possible to use a fictional celebrity whose fame has been established in the story. When the celebrity is confused with another celebrity you have a case of CelebrityResemblance or WrongfullyAttributed.

* A 2017 Heineken commercial featuring Creator/BenicioDelToro zig-zags this trope as he sits in a restaurant and other patrons glance over and seemingly recognize him. Then a couple of tourists take a (far away) selfie with him and then squeal with delight over meeting ''Creator/AntonioBanderas.'' Cue Del Toro giving an AsideGlance and the subtitle of "This is NOT Antonio Banderas" appearing on the screen.

* In the ''Literature/ParallelLives'' biography of Ancient Greek politican Aristides, it tells the story of when the citizens of Athens voted on who to send into exile (a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracism regular occurence]]). An illiterate man ''walked up to Aristides himself'', "whom he took to be one of the ordinary crowd", and asked him to write 'Aristides' on his ballot.
-->[Aristides], astonished, asked the man what possible wrong Aristides had done him. ‘None whatever,’ was the answer, ‘I don't even know the fellow, but I am tired of hearing him everywhere called 'The Just.'’ On hearing this, Aristides [[KnowWhenToFoldEm made no answer, but wrote his name on the ostrakon and handed it back]].

* In ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', Lindsay is trying to meet men. She is enticed by a bearded homeless fellow described as having the rugged, unkempt appearance of a movie star. When she finds out he's just homeless, she leaves. However, it turns out that the homeless man is actually RealLife actor Thomas Jane, doing some MethodActing character research for a couple upcoming movies by posing as homeless. When Lindsay finds ''this'' out, she is enticed again. Tom Jane is confused that she doesn't know who he is, but seems pleased that she thinks he's gross.

* Now onto actual examples: Music/DavidLeeRoth tells stories of coming off of Music/VanHalen's wildly successful first tour and not being able to get into Studio 54.

* Tennis fans had a field day with [[https://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/07/taking-on-the-best-and-worst-of-espys-fashion/gty-173774519-e-ace-ent-cel-tel-spo-usa-ca a picture]] of the ESPY Awards subtitled "[[Music/{{LMFAO}} Redfoo]] and guest", because that "guest" was Victoria Azarenka, one of the nominees for Best Female Tennis Player.

* ''WesternAnimation/Cars1'': Nobody in Radiator Springs knows who Lightning [=McQueen=] is. Luigi and Guido are racing fans, but they only follow the Ferraris in Europe and are unfamiliar with American racing. They also don't know that [[spoiler:Doc Hudson was the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, another famous race car.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueWar'', Green Lantern has no idea who Bruce Wayne is.