History Main / SpotTheImposter

** Not really. Kim had to rely on Camille being unable to duplicate Ron's ever-present pet, despite the fact that Camille stood in a pose that was obviously nothing like Ron's and utterly lacked Ron's {{Cloudcuckoolander}} personality. In the episode where Ron had to pick, Camille apparently worked on those flaws in her disguises, and Ron, having been trapped in a crate the entire episode, had stumbled onto the scene only moments earlier, and had absolutely no idea what was even going on. Even Monique, who had been touted as the one who got it right, wasn't actually able to distinguish between the two; she simply identified the disguised Camille's outfit as an expensive one more likely to be worn by spoiled heiress Camille than by the more practical Kim. [[hottip:*:Plus Monique had helped Kim ''pick out'' that outfit to disguise herself a few minutes earlier!]]

* This was the entire premise of ''KamenRiderBlade's'' Hyper Battle Video, "Blade Versus Blade", in which one of the [[KillerRobot Trials]] becomes an evil copy of [[TheHero Kazuma]] (and by extension, an evil copy of Blade). Played for laughs all the way, his comrades' attempts at identifying the real Kazuma result in him getting shot in the ass and smacked on the head, despite the fact that the copy is wearing an extremely obvious red scarf. When resident AntiHero Hajime comes along, he easily identifies the real one by calling out Kazuma's name; the superhuman reflexes of the Trial cause it to react first, but as Kazuma later complains, "That kind of makes me look slow, doesn't it?"

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BackAtTheBarnyard'', at the vet's office, stray dog Baxter switches places with Duke and even spray-paints himself to look like him. The animals take him home instead of Duke. When the real Duke returns, none of the animals are able to tell them apart (even though they look ''nothing'' like each other, not to mention [[Main/MyNameIsNotDurwood Baxter always gets everyone's names wrong]]), except for Otis, who knows that Pig's pet skunk, Skunky, absolutely loathes the real Duke.

* In an episode of ''[[Franchise/SuperSentai Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger]]'' (and replicated almost scene-for-scene in ''Series/PowerRangersSPD''), Hoji is [[BodySwap bodyswapped]] with an alien criminal. To make matters worse, the criminal then breaks the [[TranslatorMicrobes translator collar]] around the neck of his alien body, ridding Hoji of his ability to speak Japanese (because [[FridgeLogic language is biological, after all]]). The real Rangers figure out who the imposter is by noticing if this Hoji acts OOC (for instance, calling Ban his 'partner').

** In ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'', a MonsterOfTheWeek has the power to assume the form of anyone with whom it touches foreheads, and during a battle it manages to imitate Gokai Silver. Gokai Yellow suggests that the team [[PowerCopying transform into]] [[DenjiSentaiMegaranger the Megarangers]]; the real Silver changes, while the impostor stands there looking dumbfounded.

* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'' has this when Johnny and Dukey encounter their cyborg clones. After disposing of his clone with a "Fetch the Grenade" trick, Dukey takes the Clone's weapon and confronts the Johnnys. The cyborg immediately does the rapid spin clone switcheroo so they can't tell which one's real and which one's the cyborg. Dukey eventually manages to get the cyborg to give himself away by asking a math question, and blasting the one who answers immediately, knowing that Johnny always does math by counting on his fingers.

* ''Sev Trek: Puss in Boots'' (an Australian CGI spoof of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''). The crew find themselves confronted with two Captain [[PunnyName Pinchhards]], one of them a shapeshifting alien. Lt. Barf wants to [[KillUsBoth kill them both]], as the alien would [[ThisWasHisTrueForm revert to its natural state when dead]], while Beta tries "statistical probability" (''"eeny-meeny-miny-mo"'') but Commander Piker suggests asking a question only the real Captain would know.

** When Lust poses as Ross, Hughes knows it isn't her when he notices she didn't have a mole under her left eye.

* The ''Comicbook/IronMan'' novel ''Operation: A.I.M.'' had several Avengers battling shapeshifting "adaptoids"; Iron Man tricks the War Machine impostor into giving himself away by pretending his PoweredArmor had a [[ShoutOut chameleon circuit]]. When the android uses this as an excuse to shapeshift in front of the others, his cover is blown. Later, the heroes must fight their own doppelgangers and resort to uncharacteristic tactics to win since the fakes know all their usual moves.

-->'''Evil Jim:''' He was the real one.
-->'''Gun Holder:''' I know.

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* A variant occurs during the Frieza saga in ''Manga/DragonBall Z''. Captain Ginyu uses [[FreakyFridayFlip a last ditch move]] [[BodySurf that puts his mind in Goku's healthy, stronger body,]] while Goku's mind is stuck in Ginyu's injured form. The real Goku has to convince Gohan and Krillin what has happened when they attack him in Ginyu's body.

* Somewhat complicated version in a ''NickFury'' comic: Fury is battling Baron von Strucker, the head of ComicBook/{{HYDRA}} in his soon to be CollapsingLair, but he has to disguise himself as Strucker using a convenient masking device in order to commandeer a plane out. However, he also sets up Strucker's death by first disguising Strucker as Fury and then putting a ''second'' mask on Strucker so he's wearing his own face on top of Fury's. Result? HYDRA troops burst in and see two Struckers fighting. Fury-disguised-as-Strucker convinces the HYDRA troops he's the real Strucker by yelling louder and ordering troops to remove Strucker-as-Fury-as-Strucker's mask, so the troops comply. Strucker panics and dives into the alpha particle generator, dying. Fury-as-Strucker jets off.

* A heartbreaking one during Marvel's ''SecretInvasion'' (the main mini-series): In Issue #8, BackFromTheDead ComicBook/{{Mockingbird}} is confronted by her ex-husband, {{Hawkeye}} (who, at the time, was presumed dead and operating as masked hero Ronin). To prove she wasn't a Skrull, Hawkeye states a certain date, and asks Mockingbird what it meant. Turns out, Mockinbird had a miscarriage on that date and only she and Hawkeye ever knew she was even pregnant. This also served tell Mockingbird who was under the Ronin mask.
* An early issue of ''Franchise/GIJoe'' had Zartan trying to escape the Pit by disguising himself as various Joes... Until [[BecauseImJonesy he tries to imitate Gung-Ho right before the real one shows up]]. When both of them end up in front of Sgt. Slaughter, he decks one of them, which shifts back to Zartan. Slaughter says it was just a lucky guess.

* ''[[Franchise/{{Terminator}} Terminator 2: Judgment Day]]'': Page quote of BluffTheImpostor... and the closing fight scene where [[spoiler:the shapeshifting Terminator has impersonated Sarah Connor, and John must work out which is the real one (which wants him alive) and the bad one (who wants him very very dead). He picks the good one.]]

* The split personality type is used in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', when Xander is split into his "Cool" and "Lame" sides by a magical artifact. We follow the lame Xander around and [[TomatoSurprise discover suddenly]] that they're the same person. Surprisingly, the dual body effect was done so well because the actor Nicholas Brendon is actually an identical twin whose brother guested on the episode, although the twin was mainly used as a body double -- Nicholas Brendon played all of the scenes in which one twin was alone, and whichever role was larger in the scenes where they were together.

* The same plot is used in ''TheCommish'' with twin brothers confessing to the same crime (a case of ArtisticLicenseLaw as both could be arrested for conspiracy). The real murderer is uncovered because he's dyslexic, and when telling his brother about the crime he passed on his incorrect reading of a sign.

* ''PainkillerJane'' has a variant of the "shoot them both" scheme where it is viable because Jane has regeneration powers. The imposter has regeneration powers too, but he does the ShapeShifterSwanSong and its all a plan bordering on [[GambitRoulette roulette]] anyways, so it works out well for the team.

* Partially subverted amusingly in ''LazyTown'' when Robbie Rotten impersonates Sportacus. The other characters can't tell the difference despite Robbie being, among other things, 4-5 inches taller and a lot less muscular. Stephanie suggests a race to tell them who is the real Sportacus, and Robbie wins because Sportacus is forced to forfeit the race halfway through to rescue Bessie. Stephanie realises that the one who forfeited to rescue Bessie must be the real one, says so, and unmasks Robbie by pulling his false moustache off. The tag would be a very touching {{Aesop}} on friendship if it wasn't for the simple fact that [[IdiotPlot Robbie and Sportacus look nothing alike, and they]] ''[[IdiotPlot should]]'' [[IdiotPlot have been able to tell them apart by looking at them.]]

* The trope-heavy ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' Digital Shorts directed by TheLonelyIsland did a short, [[http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/#mea=2923 Doppelganger]], whose punchline was a masterful context-free segue into the standard "Spot the Impostor" scenario.

* This happens a ''lot'' in ''KamenRiderKabuto'' thanks to the fact that the main villain faction are {{shapeshift|ing}}ers who can copy a host's memories as well as their appearance. The most notable example comes when they imitate one of the main Kamen Riders so well that even the sentient TransformationTrinket is confused. His MysteriousWaif sidekick, however, knows exactly which one is the fake. [[spoiler:The fake is right-handed, while the original is left-handed. This is never pointed out in the show, making it more of a bonus for eagle-eyed viewers]].

* Interestingly, ''TheFamousJettJackson'' had one in TheMovie finale where Jett (the actor) met Silverstone (the character he plays) for real as well as an evil shapeshifter, resulting in the shapeshifter changing to match ''the two already-identical good guys'' and complicating the crap out of the bit. To explain, Jett has to guess which one is Silverstone while Silverstone is guessing which one is Jett and anyone who walks in the room is guessing which one is Jett, which one is Silverstone, and which one isn't.

* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' has used this one a few times. The Primator (who had impersonation as his power) gave himself away while pretending to be Tommy by saying the rangers should give up (Tommy is a {{Determinator}} who on several occasions in the series, both before and after this moment, was willing to fight even without his powers, so giving up is so out-of-character for him it had to be the Primator). Also, while Primator disguised as Trini, Jason challenged both Yellow Rangers to fight him, saying he can easily recognize her fighting style. However, Trini proved her identity by refusing to fight, lest she harm a fellow Ranger, while the Primator leaped towards Jason to attack him with way too much enthusiasm for just testing Trini's identity.

** In an episode of the second season, Kimberly tells the real Billy apart from a copy made from a statue, by asking them to identify Billy's science project.

* In ''{{Animal Crossing}}: New Leaf'', on [[spoiler: April Fool's Day, Blanca will arrive in your town, and visit a random neighbor. You have to guess who the real neighbor is; Choosing the actual neighbor instead of Blanca nets you a reward from your neighbor.]]

* Subverted in ''DeadOfSummer''. The deal with [[spoiler: Panther and his clone]] seems to be leading into this, as the two meet face to face...and the real [[spoiler: Panther]] takes the clone out in one blow. It's [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesome]].

** Another example occurs in "Operation: P.O.O.L." Numbuh Four was clueless at first about Negative Numbuh One and Eizzil who were posing as Lizzie and the true Numbuh One; ''but'', when the other members of the DNK showed up, he could tell that Negative Numbuh Three wasn't the real deal simply by looking at her. (As he told the imposter, [[PowerOfFriendship "It's called being a friend!"]] Of course, his reasons likely went [[OfficialCouple gone beyond simple friendship...]])

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror; when an army of marauding Homer-clones attack, Marge stops them by leading them into a canyon. She returns to Homer, but finds out the one that survived was actually a clone; however, he starts giving her a backrub, and she decides she doesn't mind too much.
** In a non-THOH ep., Homer becomes a local Krusty "helper" (i.e. dons the makeup and costume so as to look identical to the original for local publicity), but the original Krusty is in trouble with [[TheMafia the Mob]]. Both end up cornered at gunpoint in an AbandonedWarehouse, where the villains are initially flummoxed as to which one to shoot (which partly lampshades the show's [[OnlySixFaces limited animation character styles]] as both Homer & Krusty share the exact same basic frame, as well as both being voiced by DanCastellaneta, which [[WordOfGod Groening actually intended]] so as to create a dynamic where Bart hated Homer but worshiped a man who looked just like him in the original shorts, and one of the early shorts story ideas was the revelation that Homer was Krusty), until Homer blows their cover by addressing Krusty by name. This being comedy, they survive anyway. Despite the limited animation character style, it actually was quite easy to tell the two apart - Krusty has a tuft of green hair on the top of his head, Homer two single hairs combed over it.
* Played with in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', during a {{Flashback}} to when Peter defeated his "evil twin". Lois has to pick one to shoot, shoots one, and while she and Peter are hugging, his face flips down showing he's a robot.

** It's used more straight in the next episode "The Hand that Rocks the Wheelchair", where Stewie creates an evil (or more evil) clone of himself, and Brian ends up pointing a gun at them; he lampshades the situation saying "Oh, come on, not this thing, really?" He eventually asks them to look at their feet, and shoots the one who doesn't start to laugh, as the real Stewie told him earlier that he spent an hour laughing at his feet. [[spoiler:Unfortunately the AmbiguousCloneEnding suggests that Brian shot the wrong Stewie; it also helps that said ending is a ShoutOut to Music/MichaelJackson's Music video of "Thriller".]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': In an episode involving a group of [[EvilKnockoff Evil Knockoffs]] cloned off the FiveManBand, Jackie's clone is found but the rest of the group needs to know which Jackie is the real one. Jade asks both Jackies if they can take her to an amusement park, the first says yes while the second says no and tells her to do her homework. [[OutOfCharacterAlert Jade knows better]] and the first Jackie is exposed as the clone. In the same episode, Paco keeps calling Jade by pronouncing her name correctly, while in all the other episodes he pronounces it "Yade." She catches on to this as well and it is exposed that he too is a clone.

* Used to hilarious effect in a ''[[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse He-Man]]'' sketch on ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken''. Skeletor commissions Beast Man to create a magical clone of He-Man. The result is the blue-skinned, incredibly stupid clone Faker. Undaunted, Skeletor sets Faker upon his enemies. Its odd appearance, mannerisms, and speech go unnoticed by all except Prince Adam himself; in fact, this laid back clone is far more popular and quickly becomes the life of the party, much to Skeletor's annoyance. When Adam returns as the real He-Man, Faker has either killed or captured most of his enemies. He-Man's outrage at the act, as well as the general hedonism Faker has inspired, leads the crowd to dub him a wet blanket and vote him as the imposter (even though Faker voted for him as the genuine article). He-Man is then executed, and it is only after Faker expresses no knowledge of being Prince Adam does someone finally catch on.

-->'''Alien 1:''' How where we going to take over the world with a white Michael Jackson anyway?\\

* Used in ''WesternAnimation/ActionLeagueNow'' on Nickelodeon. The villain has created a "perfect duplicate" of the heroic (if moronic) Flesh (who looks just like him except for the various bolts sticking out of every part of his body and his mechanically modulated voice). When the two Fleshes square off, the rest of the Action League try to determine which is the real one by asking for the League password. Both ''incorrectly'' guess "devilled egg". Finally Stinky Diver gets the idea to yell "Hey, stupid!", and the real Flesh responds.

* The TooDumbToLive citizens of Townsville take three hardened criminals poorly disguised as WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls as the actual heroines in "Powerpuff Bluff." The real Powerpuffs get locked in jail.

* In an episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/BackAtTheBarnyard Back at the Barnyard]]'', at the vet's office, stray dog Baxter switches places with Duke and even spray-paints himself to look like him. The animals take him home instead of Duke. When the real Duke returns, none of the animals are able to tell them apart (even though they look ''nothing'' like each other, not to mention [[Main/MyNameIsNotDurwood Baxter always gets everyone's names wrong]]), except for Otis, who knows that Pig's pet skunk, Skunky, absolutely loathes the real Duke.
* In an episode of ''Main/TheFairlyOddparents'' that has been [[Main/BannedEpisode pulled from syndication]] due to Main/UnfortunateImplications, Benedict Arnold disguised as George Washington nearly tricks John Hancock into signing a document called "The Declaration of Surrenderpendence". Timmy and the Founding Fathers show up, and the real George Washington stops Hancock before he can sign the document. When everyone is unable to tell Washington and Arnold apart, Timmy brings in a wooden coat rack and the real Washington chops it to pieces.

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* In ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'', [[http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Dragon_Doctors/5246467/ one thief uses a spell to disguise herself as Goro]] to escape a failed robbery -- [[[[RefugeInAudacity and even]] [[http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Dragon_Doctors/5247080/ warns the people she's trying to fool that she's impersonating someone to escape.]]

* In ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'', Elizabeth, disguised as Goro, uses the bond of enmity between them to hide her true form completely, even from Sarin; it would have worked, except that while Sarin indeed couldn't sense her true form, she couldn't sense ''Goro'''s true ([[GenderBender male]]) form, either.

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** Both time that X.A.N.A. pretended to be Franz Hopper, he got caught by two different people. In "Franz Hopper", it's Jeremie realizing about line about Franz's ruined dairy. "Distant Memory", it's Aelita who realizes what's going on when X.A.N.A. calls " Skidbladnir" a funny name and no virtual take for Aelita's mom.

* In [[{{Animal Crossing}} New Leaf]], on [[spoiler: April Fool's Day, Blanca will arrive in your town, and visit a random neighbor. You have to guess who the real neighbor is; Choosing the actual neighbor instead of Blanca nets you a reward from your neighbor.]]

* ThoseWackyNazis have created {{doppelganger}}s of the two female members of ''Series/{{Danger 5}}''. Tucker starts by asking Claire some personal questions, but both know the answer. Pierre says that while memories can be duplicated, emotions cannot. So Tucker starts playing the flute until the real Claire starts crying, leading him to BoomHeadshot the imposter. This technique won't work on Ilsa as "[[MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong Russians don't have emotions.]]".
-->'''Jackson:''' The fake Ilsa will say whatever she has to to stay alive. But the real Ilsa...I don't know what she wants, and I don't think she'll ever really know. So...why shouldn't I kill you?

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/WhereOnEarthIsCarmenSandiego'', Carmen's henchman Sarah Bellum attempts to [[TheStarscream take over Carmen's organization]], and a big part of this is disguising herself as Carmen. After she captures Zack and Ivy along with the real Carmen, Ivy quickly figures out how to tell the two apart: Sarah is left-handed (because the controls on the vehicle she uses are on the left side) but the real Carmen is not (she tosses her a tool from her cell - with her right hand - that they use to escape). After they are separated from Carmen briefly and later have to decide who is who, Ivy simply throws it to one of them, and the fact that she catches it with her left hand is enough proof that it's Sarah. (As for why they decide to nab her and not Carmen, well, since Carmen helped them escape, they [[YouOweMe owed her one]].)

** In "XANA's Kiss", when confronted with two Jérémies, Aelita can guess which one is genuine because the Clone had kissed her without permission, which the true Jérémie would not have dared to do. (Maybe XANA ''can'' comprehend good, just not very well...) Later in the same episode, Odd recognizes the real Yumi from the Clone impersonating her when she calls him a dork. (He says the real Yumi would have called him a "pea brain". Odd may be insulted a lot, but he knows when an insult doesn't match the person insulting him.)

** In "XANA's Kiss", when confronted with two Jérémies, Aelita can guess which one is genuine because the Clone had kissed her without permission, which the true Jérémie would not have dared to do. (Maybe XANA ''can'' comprehend good, just not very well...) Later in the same episode, Odd recognizes the real Yumi from the Clone impersonating her when she calls him a dork.

* One ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episode is titled "Will the Real Oak Stand Up?", with James from Team Rocket being the impostor.

* In the earl stor ''Counterfeit'', an alien imposter who has infiltrated the crew is detected in a medical check because the imitation isn't quite perfect; amongst other faults, the alien has a blood-glucose level of ''zero'' -- a real human would be dead.