History Main / TwinSwitch

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12615261/15/The-New-Trio-and-the-Philosopher-s-Stone The New Trio and the Philosopher's Stone]]'' Fred and George each pick two electives the other twin isn't taking and then trade places regularly, doing the homework for all four electives as well as their one shared elective, Care of Magical Creatures.

* In ''Fanfic/BoyScoutsOneHalf'', When twins Kirstin and Nicole Porter are involved in a production of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', half way through Nicole foists her role of Juliet upon Kirstin, so that Kirstin might [[spoiler:get to kiss Aaron, the boy she likes, who is playing Romeo.]]

* In the ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' fanfic ''Equal Halves,'' [[note]]where Ranma meets his born-a-girl AU counterpart from the prequel ''Genma's Daughter''[[/note]] Ranma and Ranko do this so that Ranma can practice talking to Akane without it becoming a shouting match. They even get the idea from seeing ''Film/{{The Parent Trap|1998}}'' on TV.

* In the ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' fanfic. ''FanFic/{{Reflections}},'' [[LateArrivalSpoiler Asch, who never joined Van,]] and Luke, who never cut his hair tend to do this a lot. It's also a major plot point in parts of the story. At the end [[spoiler: both return and do it one last time... and for the very first time fool no one.]]

* In the ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' fic ''Fanfic/SevenLittleKillers'', [[spoiler: America and Canada switch places repeatedly in the story.]] For example, in the hostage scene, [[spoiler: "America" kills Vietnam and Finland, while "Canada" protests.]] Their intention? Both of them are framing the other for the murders... but they're ''[[MindScrew working together]]'' to do it.

* Izzy from ''Webcomic/EnnuiGo'' occasionally goes out in public disguised as her idental twin sister Adeline to avoid the press [[spoiler:or have sex with anyone who catches her fancy]] (much to the latter's annoyance).

* Tragic example in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': After Hiashi Hyuuga killed a ninja (who was a visiting delegate for another hidden village) for trying to kidnap his daughter, Hinata, the ninja's village demanded Hiashi's head in compensation. The clan elders suggested sending Hiashi's twin brother and Neji's father, Hizashi, in his place (They wanted to do this because the kidnapping was an attempted XanatosGambit in order to get a [[XRayVision Byakugan]] via either Hinata or Hiashi. Hizashi, as a member of the cadet branch, had the Caged Bird Seal, which would seal his Byakugan away upon his death, thus preventing the other village from getting it). Though Hiashi objected, Hizashi agreed as a way to save his brother, prevent a war and [[ScrewDestiny choose his own destiny]].

** They frequently won matches this way even after the ruse was revealed[[note]]Which was kind of silly and one of those "WWE thinks their fans have the mental capacity of a drunk 4 year old" things, as Brie and Nikki are pretty easy to tell apart. For one, Nikki has pretty noticable breast implants, and for two they look different enough facially you could easily tell them apart even from the neck up. Fans pointed this out at every oppurtunity[[/note]]. In one match Wrestling/EveTorres was feeling GenreSavvy and had the referee draw an X on Nikki so she couldn't switch. Ironically Brie won the match anyway.

* ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'': [[spoiler: Late in the game, Shiro kills his twin Kei, and takes his place, though the cutscene in which it happens is deliverately ambiguous, making it look like Shiro has killed himself. You can still play as 'Kei', but he has Shiro's items and voice actor.]]

* During practice for the 1969 [[UsefulNotes/IndyCar Indianapolis 500]], Mario Andretti suffered burns to his face, so his twin brother Aldo (himself a former racer, like several of their respective descendents, so perhaps this was an attempt at wish fulfilment) filled in for the official front row picture session. Allegedly even Bobby Unser and A.J. Foyt (the other front row racers in the shoot) were fooled. While in later life this became impossible due to the reconstructive surgery Aldo needed making him look distinctive from Mario, apparently they still looked alike ''enough'' that Mario's pet pig Martini would attack the 'impostor' Aldo (and get sprayed with water in response).

* [[https://nypost.com/2019/04/04/identical-twins-both-ordered-to-pay-child-support-after-inconclusive-paternity-test/ In Brazil]], there are twin brothers "Fernando" and "Fabrico", their true identies are sealed as part of a court order, regularly from the time of their childhood would switch identies for fun. This developed into using the other's identity and sleeping with women. Eventually, their shenanigans ended up impregnanting a woman. The mother doesn't know which was is the actual father. The mother sought finaincial assistance from the father, but a court-compelled DNA test can only confirm their DNA is the male parent, not which particular man is the actual father. Rather than let them off, Judge Filipe Luis Peruca chided the men for their "bad faith" actions. Judge Peruca then ordered that both men be named on the birth certificate as the child's father, both must pay 30% of Brazil's minimum wage as child assistance, roughly $60 a month, and collectively cover 50% of the child's medical and school expenses.

* The twin Argentine brothers Guillermo and Gustavo Barros Schelotto, after retiring from their football playing careers, have since worked together as manager and assistant manager, respectively. There have been some ocassions in which Guillermo has been sent off by a referee, only for Gustavo to leave and Guillermo to stay instead. Were it not for their voices and mannerisms, it can prove difficult to tell them apart.

[[caption-width-right:240:From [[http://www.smackjeeves.com/comicprofile.php?id=132927 The Prince and the Princess.]]]]

* The premise of ''Fanfic/TheRigelBlackChronicles'', with Harriett and Archie swapping places so that they can go to their preferred schools in defiance of restrictive blood status laws -- except that they aren't actually twins. However, with enough magic, determination, and daring, there are workarounds for that, from Polyjuice potion to voice-altering charms to "specialised equipment" for making Harriett look masculine in a wetsuit. The fact that their deception is so long-term helps, in a way; when the "Rigel" people see is the same one they've known for years, they're less likely to look for signs of an impostor. The Aesop is absent, though; each is quite aware that their cousin has their own challenges, but they're both pursuing their dreams, and only the prospect of being caught and punished puts a dampener on it.

* In the Softcore film ''Film/VideoVixens'' (about an Adult Film awards show) one of the films is about a SerialRapist who turns out to be twins -- one twin would go out raping while the other is his alibi, having been seen doing some mundane activity at the same time.

* The Renegade Twins, Charlette and Robyn. While not identical (they're fraternal twins), they initially look similar enough, especially with hairsyle, gear, and makeup all helping, that they could make use of this trope during matches. This tactic has declined [[Main/DivergentCharacterEvolution as their respective characters have evolved]], and flat-out failed to work at all in the revived Wrestling/RingOfHonor when both the referee and Willow Nightingale were able to easily recognize that a switch had been attempted.

*** [[spoiler: Queen Ga'ran]] occasionally has her sister [[spoiler: Queen Amara, whom the public thinks is dead,]] impersonate her when needed.
*** The teleporting magician, Bonny de Famme, turns out to actually be a pair of twins, Bonny and Betty de Famme, who use this trope for their signature trick. Betty also impersonates Bonny at times during the case. The two look identical aside from preferred hairstyle, but when Betty isn't impersonating Bonny she's something of a JerkAss.

* Hideyoshi from ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts''. The guy is so girly all he needs to do is swap into a school girl uniform, take off a hairpin, and change his voice a bit and he'll look/act the same way as his twin sister Yuuko. [[spoiler: He's so good he was able to make Class C believe "Yuuko" was degrading them and got Class C to attack Class A in episode 12!]]

* This happens several times with Mikoto and her numerous clones in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' and ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'', both deliberately and by accident:

* In the {{Seinen}} series ''Anime/{{Monster}}'', this is played interestingly: we know that a pair of [[HalfIdenticalTwins opposite sex twins]] were taken [[spoiler: where one of them (accidentally) sees a killing spree, and it's thought that the kid would grow up to be a cold-blooded murderer. Later, we know that Johan, the twin who becomes a cold, malevolent serial killer was the one who ''hadn't'' witnessed the murder scenery and only heard about the massacre from the history of the other twin, Nina. To make things worse, it's implied that their mother confused and gave them the "wrong" twin, which may be or may be not an honest mistake since she dressed both the same way, complete with wigs to conceal their real gender and to hide that she had two children and not one]].

** ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' had Dianna Soriel and Kihel Heim periodically switching places. Dianna originally seemed to do it as a practical joke on her attendants (being Queen doesn't give you too many chances to have fun), but it ends up going a bit far when they are separated by a war. [[spoiler:At the end of the series, they switch again, with Kihel ruling the Moonrace while Dianna settles down in peace with Loran.]]

* Films and television shows have been known to hire twins to play a single child character (like the [[Creator/MaryKateAndAshleyOlsen Olsen Twins]] on ''Series/FullHouse'') to get around child labor restrictions and have a backup if one is cranky or sick.

* There was a story where a pair of twins had trouble passing their driving exam when they were teenagers. So, one took the written exam for both of them while the other took the driving test.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* A nasty example on ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers''. Jackie Subtract, a DiabolicalMastermind in the show's RoguesGallery, had a twin named Aiden. Aiden was a harmless GadgeteerGenius who wanted nothing to do with his brother's criminal life. Unfortunately, Jackie decides he's going to [[FakingTheDead fake his death]] by killing his twin and stealing Aiden's identity.
* Particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} on ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'', where Lil forces her '''brother''' to impersonate her for a date she doesn't want to keep. This happened quite often on ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', where the only way anyone could tell the two apart was [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics Lil's hairbow]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', preschool TricksterTwins Timmy and Tommy Tibble pull this in "My Fair Tommy." When their teacher Ms. Morgan gives them both time-outs, after Tommy has his time in the quiet corner, Timmy shouts "LookBehindYou!" to Ms. Morgan and switches [[IdenticalTwinIDTag their colored scarves]] so Tommy has to take a time-out twice. Apparently, Timmy always makes Tommy do both time-outs because "you're better at it than me."
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Centurions}}'' episode "Return of Cassandra", HotWitch Cassandra Cross' EvilTwin Lilith imprisons her sister and impersonates her as part of one of Doctor Terror's schemes. It's not a perfect impersonation -- viewers who saw "That Old Black Magic" will immediately notice that "Cassandra" is acting a bit different and that her magic is red instead of blue.
* ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer'': Dora and Sabrina the Snow Princess pull this in the special "Dora Saves the Snow Princess".
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'':
** In "[=GlomTales=]!" Louie attempts to disguise himself as Huey in order to get past a guard robot after he has been grounded. It might have worked if Huey had not chosen that exact moment to call him.
** Webby (who isn't actually the triplets' sister, but is treated as such for all intents and purposes) impersonates Dewey in "Escape from the [=ImpossiBin=]!" with such perfect accuracy that Huey didn't realize it was her until the actual Dewey shows up. [[spoiler:[[ChekhovsSkill She later follows this up in "The Last Adventure!" by taking the place of her clone June to find out about her origins]]. The ruse goes completely undiscovered until F.O.W.L. finds June tied up.]]
* On ''WesternAnimation/EllaTheElephant'', the twins Ida and Ada do this as their Halloween costumes in "Frankie's Perfect Pumpkin."
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'':
** In "Blondas Have More Fun", Wanda switches places with her twin sister Blonda to see what each other's life is like.
** In "Fairy Idol" after Norm tricks Cosmo and Wanda into quitting their jobs by using an EvilKnockoff clone of Timmy, Jorgan arrives to erase Timmy's memory. Both Timmy and the clone head to the closet to hide, but Timmy pushes the clone out so ''his'' memory is erased instead, allowing the real Timmy to retain his memory of Cosmo and Wanda so he can go find them.
* The subject of a ''WesternAnimation/FreakyStories'' story is a pair of PolarOppositeTwins who go to such extreme lengths with this that they essentially live their lives as one person, using their combined different interests and abilities to add up to one seemingly perfect person.
* Bender attempts this in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. He falls in love with a fem-bot named Anglene, and later finds out that she was once married to Flexo, another robot nearly identical to himself. He suspects that Anglene is still secretly in love with Flexo, so he poses as Flexo and invites her out on a date. Bender (as Flexo) tries very hard to seduce her, and she finally comes around after believing that her ex has truly changed. Then Bender reveals himself, calling her a cheater (despite her loving Bender even through his disguise), and she winds up back together with the real Flexo.
* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', [[spoiler:after Stanley Pines accidentally pushed his brother Stanford into an interdimensional portal, he took Ford's identity for 30 years in order to repair the broken portal and bring his brother back. Stan got away with it since nobody in Gravity Falls, except his senile former assistant, knew Ford very well thanks to his reclusive lifestyle.]]
** In the final episode, [[spoiler:when [[BigBad Bill Cipher]] threatens to kill Dipper and Mabel unless Ford divulges the equation needed for Bill's forces to escape Gravity Falls, Stan suggests that he and Ford switch places in order to trick Bill and (possibly) get rid of the demon for good. It works, but at the cost of Stan's memories when they were erased to destroy Bill inside his mind.]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "WesternAnimation/TortoiseBeatsHare", Cecil Turtle and nine identical relatives pull this on Bugs Bunny "all through the picture".
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'':
** In "Toads and Tiaras", Lola [[InjuredLimbEpisode breaks her leg and arm]] right before a beauty pageant, and Lincoln coaches Lana to fill in for her (behind Lola's back) because the grand prize for winning that pageant is two free passes to Dairyland. Given that Lana and Lola are PolarOppositeTwins, this proves difficult.
** In "Sister Act", Lana and Lola start pretending to be the other in instances where one twin wants to get out of something she wouldn't like but the other one enjoys (such as Lana [[HatesBaths not wanting to take a bath]] and Lola [[GymClassRopeClimb not wanting to climb a rope for gym class]]). They manage to pull it off for a few days until they switch places so Lola can get out of a doctor's appointment and Lana can get out of a dentist appointment, which [[DidntThinkThisThrough backfires on both of them the next day]]; Lola gets [[SickEpisode sick]] with a bad case of the flu, preventing her from competing in a pageant, and Lana gets [[TheToothHurts an abscessed tooth]], preventing her from eating a massive sundae she won in a recycling contest. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Had the twins gone to their respective appointments as themselves in the first place, the early warning signs of their respective ailments would've been caught and treated right away before they got worse]]. The twins are forced to confess what they did to their parents so their doctor and their dentist don't lose their medical licenses for negligence, which not only got them [[GrowingUpSucks scolded for not being responsible]], but they end up having to go to the appointments they tried to avoid in the first place so both their ailments can be treated.
** In "Prize Fighter", Meryl (the secretary of Royal Woods Middle) replaces her twin Cheryl (the secretary of Royal Woods Elementary), who's busy judging for the Minnie [=McFiggle=] Award. As Meryl wears differently-scented cologne than Cheryl, Lola instantly [[SpottingTheThread sniffs out the thread]].
* ''Westernanimation/MiraculousLadybug'': Identical cousins Adrien Agreste and Félix Fantom.
** As kids, they would prank their parents by switching places.
** Félix impersonated Adrien a few times to try and steal the Miraculouses.
** Their mothers are twins, making them genetically half-brothers.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies2018'' episode, "A Tale of Two Twins", the boys invite Scooter to join them in a tricycle race, while the girls invite Skeeter to join them for a relaxing day at the spa. [[MasculineGirlFeminineBoy Scooter would much rather relax than race, and Skeeter would much rather race than relax]], so they dress in each other's clothes and pretend to be each other to do each other's activity. However, their personalities compromise the situation. Scooter is an expert at mechanical engineering but is scared to jump over a puddle, let alone a canyon, while Skeeter is very athletic but doesn't know much about technology, and these come into play when the wheel of Scooter's tricycle breaks off and Skeeter doesn't know how to use the hairdresser that Scooter made.
* Droopy the dog has been known to do this a few times in his shorts.
** This turned out to be the explanation for Droopy's OffscreenTeleportation in ''WesternAnimation/NorthwestHoundedPolice''.
--->'''Wolf:''' Say, I wonder if there could've been more than one of that guy...\\
''(pan to the hall outside the cell, where a small army of Droopies is standing)''\\
'''Droopies:''' What do you think, brother?
** In "Droopy's Double Trouble", Droopy gets his super-strong twin brother Drippy to help him take care of the house while the master is away. Spike takes advantage of Droopy's generosity and invites himself in, but whenever Droopy leaves, Drippy just happens to enter the room and beats up the intruder. Droopy then re-enters just as Drippy leaves, and a confused Spike wonders why Droopy is nice one minute and beating him up the next.
* ''Toys/PollyPocket'' and her cousin Pia pulled this in "2 Cool at Pocket Plaza".
* Four times the [[HilarityEnsues fun]] with the titular WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2003}} in the 2003 cartoon, where they all stood in for the same turtle while trying to teach a one-time character named Arnold how to be a ninja. [[spoiler:The twist is that the character was actually a child-Casey Jones -- his real first name is Arnold. Arnold Casey Jones.]]
** Which doesn't work out as well as you'd think, since in the 2003 series each turtle had a unique skintone and facial features. Arnold even comments that there's something different about them each time.
* Both Donald and Douglas, and Bill and Ben from ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' have impersonated each other at times.
** Except Donald and Douglas only did it in their debut book. The TV adaptation of the story "The Missing Coach", in which this trope is a major plot point, was filmed, but Britt Allcroft ultimately cancelled the episode because younger audiences would find the plot "too complicated", and replaced it with "Thomas, Percy, and the Coal". Pictures of the episode have surfaced on the internet over the past decade.
* On ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Pahkitew Island,'' two of them contestants, [[EvilTwin Amy]] and [[ExtremeDoormat Sammy]]/"[[MaliciousMisnaming Samey]]", are a pair of identical twins. Amy is a ManipulativeBitch and a bully to Sammy, and eventually arranges for their team to vote her off. Sammy decides to [[TheDogBitesBack strike back]] by tricking Amy into eating a poisonous fruit, giving her a rash that renders her unable to speak. When the elimination is announced, Sammy simply pretends to be Amy and Amy gets kicked off the island instead. Sammy is able to keep this up for a few more episodes with only her friend [[AwesomeAussie Jasmine]] (and [[SecretSecretKeeper apparently]] [[TheSmartGuy Scarlett]]) aware.
* The ''WesternAnimation/TUFFPuppy'' episode "A Tale of Two Kitties" has Kitty Katswell's villainous twin sister Katty try to impersonate her sister to steal a golden fishbowl by switching outfits while using black spray paint to hide the streak in her hair and white spray paint to give Kitty's hair a white streak. Her scheme is ultimately thwarted due to underestimating the extent of Dudley's loyalty to his partner (i.e. being willing to take the blame for stealing the fishbowl when Katty tricks him into holding it once the police show up rather than rat out "Kitty" for stealing it).
[[/folder]]

See also TagTeamTwins for a [[ProfessionalWrestling different]] type of Twin Switch and TwinTest, which may involve a Twin Switch if you're dealing with some TricksterTwins. Compare with PrinceAndPauper. Contrast FakeTwinGambit. Subtrope to IdenticalTwinMistake.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/AllMyChildren'''s Adam Chandler would often do this with his brother Stuart (usually with Stuart being very reluctant to do so or unaware in the first place) to get the goods on people in either his or Stuart's life that he was suspicious of.
* An episode of ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'' where the kids discover the girl they've been playing with is in fact two girls. And a season later, Ashley and Alyssa became part of the cast. Interestingly, not all of their episode appearances were together.
* The ''Series/BananasInPyjamas'' episode "Switcheroo" has the Bananas trade pyjamas as a joke on the Teddies to see if they could tell which is which. It backfires when they slip up and answer to their own names rather than the other's.
* A set of twins from the 2002 UK ''Series/BigBrother'' actually did that to their boyfriends. They took the ''other's'' boyfriend to the bedroom and indulged in foreplay and fondling and then swapped back and scolded them. So hot yet so wrong.
** The Australian ''Big Brother'' had a set of twins pretend to be one person. One twin would spend some time in the house while the other would be in his own room with books and TV and such. At any time Big Brother felt like, they would swap over, with only a couple of minutes to update each other on what was happening in the house. They managed to keep it up for two or three weeks until one of the twins cut himself in an accident.
** The American edition did this too with Adria and Natalie. In [[Characters/BigBrother5 season 5]], Project Do Not Assume, it was assumed that Cowboy and Nakomis were the twist because they turned out to be half-siblings. However; it was then revealed that someone ''else'' had a sibling in the house and they were pulling one of these. It was then revealed that to be Adria and Natalie, who switched places in the diary room until the reveal. There was also some brilliance from the crew, because it could have also been Diane or Drew, since they both had a twin sibling outside the house.
*** This was repeated in [[Characters/BigBrother17 season 17]] with Liz and Julia as part of the BB Takeover. However, the cast was well aware of the Twin Twist.
* In ''Series/BroadCity'', Trey's younger twin sisters are middle school teachers who pretend to be each other.
* On the '''Series/BurkesLaw'' episode "Who Killed the Movie Mogul?" loathsome movie producer Leo is murdered on set. At his funeral, everyone is shocked when his kindly brother Max shows up. He passes a lie detector test on not killing Leo but Burke notes how the near-sighted Max's glasses are clear, not actually corrective. It turns out Leo was angry Max wanted to push him out of the studio so tricked him into swapping places "like when we were kids." He then killed Max and decided to pose as him to continue running the studio.
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' pulls this off with two women that aren't even related in "Dance with Death", thanks to MagicPlasticSurgery and an untimely death on a train (the dead woman was a wealthy heiress who had various minor criminal convictions and hired a dancer with a strong resemblance to her to pose as the heiress and deal with the obligations she didn't want to deal with, the dancer taking the opportunity when the heiress died in a train accident).
* ''Series/ChicagoMed'' has an episode where teenager Jemma needs ovarian surgery. Her identical twin sister Emma is with her and it's clear the girls are far too obsessed with matching on everything from clothing to hair and Emma even wanting to also be on an IV. Emma openly asks she receive the same surgery just so she and Jemma can have matching scars. Dr. Charles appears to get through to them so they agree. As Jemma goes in for the surgery, Charles talks to Emma...who starts crying "I'm sorry, she talked me into it..." A horrified Charles bursts into the operating room to warn the doctors that it's Emma they're about to operate on. Thankfully, the surgeon hasn't gone too far and the proper twin is operated on, although the girls get their wish as Emma now has a scar just like Jemma.
* There's an episode of ''Series/{{Coupling}}'' in which [[KavorkaMan Patrick]] relates a story in which he'd been unknowingly dating twins for some time, to the point of near-complete exhaustion.
-->'''Patrick:''' Yeah, it would have been worse if they'd been identical...
* One of the many things the original ''Series/{{CSI}}'' makes extremely creepy. [[spoiler: In the episode "Pirates of the Third Reich", the Neo-Nazi killer responsible for the murder of Lady Heather's daughter killed his twin for deciding to remain an adherent to the Jewish faith, then took his place at a sleep study clinic so he could gain access to victims for concentration camp-style experimentation.]]
* The plot of ''Series/{{Deception}}'' is based on the premise that Cameron and Johnny Black were the identical twin sons of a stage magician who decided to use them in his act. He hid the existence of Johnny from the public and had the twins switch places as needed. After his death, the brothers continued the deception with Cameron being the face of the act and Johnny continuing as the twin no one knew about. The public learns the truth when Johnny is framed for causing a fatal car accident and goes to prison. We later learn that the Mysterious Woman behind the frameup knew about the twin scheme and was planning on framing Cameron but got it wrong due to not knowing which brother was really which. In the season one finale [[spoiler: Johnny knocks out Cameron and impersonates him in order to escape from prison]].
* On ''Series/DesperateHousewives'', Porter is late for a hearing when accused of a crime. When he finally shows up, his attorney ready to go...only for Tom and Lynette to berates Preston for being stupid enough to take his twin brother's place while Porter fled town. Preston briefly claims to be Porter only to be cut off by his parents asking if their sons actually think the two can't tell the difference between their own children.
* Another non-comedic example: A man murders his twin, then takes over his twin's life on ''Series/DiagnosisMurder''.
* Parodied in ''Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh''. A girl has to leave her date early, so she has her twin sister take her place half-way through. It's all for nothing, because the boyfriend is too busy hitting on another girl to notice.
* This is the main premise of the Polish series ''Dziewczyna i chłopak'' ("The girl and the boy"): a twin brother and sister switch places before going on summer vacation.
* The plot of the Chilean SoapOpera ''"Esa no soy yo"'' ("That one is not me") is triggered by the protagonist Judith, a hard-working woman with a DarkAndTroubledPast, finding her twin sister Anahí dead in weird circumstances. Thinking that Anahí was killed because of her ''and'' fearing for her own life, Judith decides to pass herself as Anahí to protect herself and find out what happened; however, she soon finds out that Anahí had a DarkAndTroubledPast of her own...
* Early in ''Series/{{Friends}}'', Joey was dating Phoebe's EvilTwin Ursula. When Ursula stands Joey up on their date and wants nothing to do with him anymore, Phoebe poses as Ursula to break up with Joey on her sister's behalf and lets him down gently. [[spoiler: He eventually recognizes Phoebe after kissing her, but is thankful for the gesture.]]
** Years later, Ursula pulls the same trick herself when [[BedTrick she has sex with her ex-fiance, who mistook her for Phoebe whom he just started dating.]]
* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': One episode had characters played by Shawn and Aaron Ashmore pull this one off -- one twin presumed dead [[spoiler: actually frozen in amber]] while the other assumes his identity for years. This is a variation in that one twin had developed into TheAtoner because of his twin's status, [[spoiler: and was developing a procedure to wake him up. He eventually gets Fringe division to freeze him in amber so that the formerly frozen twin could step back into his life without a hitch.]]
* ''Series/{{Himmelsdalen}}'': Siri does with her twin Helena in the first episode, switching places to leave the sanitorium without Helena knowing (she's been drugged).
* In one episode of ''Series/HomeAndAway'', Kirsty got Laura to take her place during an exam. Unfortunately for them, Dan had seen everything.
* ''Series/HouseOfAnubis'': Patricia attempts to do this when she's scheduled for a dinner with Eddie and his father, who happens to be the school's dorky principal, Mr. Sweet. Her [[PolarOppositeTwins Polar Opposite Twin]] Piper just so happens to be staying at Anubis House in secret during this time, so the plan is for Piper to take her place on the date and impress Eddie's dad. HilarityEnsues when she and Joy tag along to see how the date's going, with Patricia having to pretend to be Piper pretending to be Patricia when she's caught trying to eavesdrop. Eventually, they get caught in the act by a very unhappy Mr. Sweet.
* ''Series/TheInBESTigators'': "The Case of the Soccer Saga" is driven by this; unlike most examples, the twins in question are mirror twins rather than perfectly identical.
* ''{{Series/Jeremiah}}'': This is {{played with}} by Erin (Ingrid Kavelaars) and Lauren (Monique Kavelaars) during the episode ''Moon in Gemini'', where one of them sleeps with Jeremiah. He thinks it's Erin at the time, but then becomes uncertain, though neither will say which it was (in the scene we see it's Lauren, who pulls down her hair (it was in ponytails) [[BedTrick to appear like Erin]], but he doesn't). Interestingly, this was the only time Monique Kavelaars ever acted, while Ingrid does so full-time.
* Played a part in the ''Series/JonathanCreek'' special "Black Canary"; years ago one of a pair of twins died when a trick they were practising went wrong, but it is revealed in the course of the special that the twin everyone believes died was actually the one that survived, the surviving twin taking her sister's place to spare her sister's family from the truth of her death.
* ''Series/KitchenNightmares'' had an episode where twins owned the failing restaurant and the first action upon meeting Creator/GordonRamsay was for the one up front to shake his hand then go back, get his brother and pretend they were or weren't the same person.
* A grisly and totally non-comedic Twin Switch was the basis for an episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': [[spoiler:A woman finds the body of her twin sister and knows that the hit was meant for her, so she decides to make them think they succeeded by posing as her dead sister, fooling everyone, including the murdered twin's husband and daughter. It's not until the murdered sister's bones are found and autopsied (the supposed victim had some extensive dental work that was missing from the body) that the truth begins to come out.]]
** In another episode, [[spoiler: one man is wrongly accused of rapes his [[EvilTwin twin brother committed]] (they were {{separated at birth}}). His twin had discovered and framed him.]]
** In yet another variation one half of a set of identical male twins is raised female because of a botched genital surgery. He asserts his maleness and either he or his twin kill their therapist. No way to know which what with the identical DNA.
* Notable is how on ''Series/LivAndMaddie'', the titular twins pull this but it almost never works as it turns out each is terrible trying to replicate the other. Maddie can never get Liv's higher voice and fashion right and Liv is totally out of her depth trying to replicate Maddie's smarts or basketball playing.
** Notable is the one time they tried it on their parents, it didn't fool them for a second.
** Bigger is when the girls' grandmother (played by none other than Patty Duke) came for a visit. Feeling something is off, Maddie soon finds it's not their grandmother but her own twin sister as the real grandma couldn't make it so sent her twin instead. Maddie actually calls out her mother on this with "you hate switches!" She agrees to keep quiet so as not to mess up Liv being honored at school. During the ceremony, guess who enters fresh off her flight from Africa...
* In ''Series/{{Lucifer}}'', [[ArchangelMichael Michael]] is Lucifer's twin brother, although he speaks with an American accent and is always hunched over, while Lucifer has a British accent and stands up straight. Their powers are also opposites: while Lucifer can compel mortals to reveal their deepest desires, Michael can compel them to reveal their greatest fears. When Michael comes to Earth while Lucifer is in Hell, he pretends to be Lucifer [[spoiler:in order to sleep with Chloe]]. However, Maze quickly figures out that "Lucifer" isn't who he claims to be. [[spoiler:And so does Chloe.]] Later on, [[spoiler:Lucifer uses one of Maze's blades to carve a permanent scar on Michael's face to make sure this doesn't happen again]].
%%* Also the main plot of ''Series/TheLyingGame''.
* In the fourth episode of the fifth series of ''Series/{{Misfits}}'', Rudy One impersonates Rudy Two, the other aspect of his LiteralSplitPersonality, in order to investigate who is responsible for Rudy Two's mysterious rapid aging. Due to the difference in their personalities, this is very difficult.
* In the ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' episode "Sweet Amelia", [[spoiler: Crabtree's AxeCrazy StalkerWithACrush Amelia Ernst arrives at the station house to give herself up, saying she has seen the error of her ways, and also her twin sister Dorothy has left and she doesn't know where she is. It eventually transpires that Amelia has killed herself, and this is Dorothy seeking revenge on George for this.]]
* Matthew pulls this on ''Series/NewsRadio'' when his twin brother Andrew came to visit. Trouble is, they didn't look alike, because they really weren't twins. In fact, they weren't even ''blood'' brothers; Matthew was adopted but never caught on.
** In a subversion of Matthew's normal stupidity, at the end of the episode it is revealed Matthew has known all along they weren't twins, but went with it because it is Andrew who was adopted.
* One episode of ''The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency'' had a case involving identical twins trying to share one dentist's degree. One was [[NightmareFuel considerably less talented]] than the other.
* In an episode of ''Series/NorthernExposure'' Joel's streetwise never-before-metnioned twin brother Jules comes to town and wants to pull the twin switch for old times sake. Joel agrees on the condition that Jules not actual conduct any of Joel's business as a doctor. Then Joel gets arrested for a three-card monte scam and Jules ''has'' to fill in.
* ''Series/OrphanBlack'' features several clones all played by [[Creator/TatianaMaslany the same actress]]. Naturally, there are several instances where one clone impersonates another. There's even one scene where one clone impersonates another clone's impersonation of a third clone. These scenes are played for both drama and comedy.
* Most episodes of ''Series/ThePattyDukeShow'', albeit the same actress played both twins with the help of NerdGlasses and a [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents Scottish Accent]].
* In ''Series/PrettyLittleLiarsOriginalSin'', Faran openly accuses Kelly of actually being Karen and they switched at the dance. It's up in the air whether or not Kelly is honest about being herself but telling even her ''mother'' calls her Karen.
* One episode of ''Series/PropertyBrothers: Buying and Selling'' started off with Drew and Jonathan dressed as each other as a prank (the clients were big fans of the show). It failed, because there's ''just'' enough difference between the brothers' voices and hairstyles that the clients (big fans, remember?) caught on immediately.
* In the very first episode of ''Series/{{Quantico}}'', we learn that new recruit Nimah is actually a set of AlwaysIdenticalTwins sharing the same post. One of the recruits saw her sister, Raina, pinning her hijab on differently than Nimah, to which she passes it off as ambidextrous.
%%* The main plot of ''Series/{{Ringer}}''.
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''
** The sketch "Mirror Image" had two sisters, played by Creator/AmyAdams and Creator/KristenWiig, try this to divide schoolwork. The plan falls through, though, due to Wiig's character looking fatter, acting dumber, and behaving more crudely than Adams's.
** A similar sketch ran as a parody of Creator/DisneyChannel {{sitcom}}s, featuring Creator/ChrisHemsworth and Creator/TaranKillam as "identical" twins who decide to switch places so Taran's twin can help Chris's pass a math test. Unfortunately, all of the girls in the class--including the teacher--immediately realize the truth and start pointing out [[MrFanservice how much hotter Chris's twin is]] by meanly comparing Taran to the muscular Chris.
* ''Series/Scoundrels2010'': When Cal gets stuck with having to do two jobs at the same time, he asks Logan to take his place and pretends to be Cal to do Mr. Hong's job. Logan reluctantly agrees and wears a wig to pass as Cal. Things get complicated when he meets Patty Hong at the end of the job and they end up hitting off and sleeping together... [[BedTrick while she still thinks he's Cal]]. Cal is only somehwat jealous (mostly because Patty brags she's a SexGoddess) but Patty gets ''pissed'' when she finds out, and it takes some groveling from Logan to get her to forgive him.
* ''Series/SisterSister'' far too many times to mention. In the first few seasons, Tia wore a mole to make her look identical to Tamera, but [[IdenticalTwinIDTag the mole was off]] by senior year, and was even [[LampshadeHanging talked about]].
** Funnily enough, the girls have mentioned that this ''doesn't'' work for them in real life. They once tried it for laughs (faking the mole with mascara) and all their friends immediately recognized them.
** Actually {{Inverted}} in one episode--both sisters make plans to go out with a boy, who accidentally asked both out thinking that they were the same person. The three-person date was naturally a bit awkward.
** Subverted in another episode where one of their friends asks Tia why she's coming out of Tamera's classroom, blowing their cover. They switched so that Tia (the smart one) could take a test for Tamera.
* Katie and Emily switched in one episode of ''Series/{{Skins}}'', so that Emily could sit Katie's exam while she was sat at home moping. All of the teachers were fooled, but none of their fellow students.
** And Katie later pretended to be Emily to trick Naomi, although that was mostly over the phone.
** Actually, after watching the show for a while, it becomes almost ridiculously easy to tell them apart. They have subtly different mannerisms and dress-senses. It is almost as if they are two different people. [[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Rather than using camera-trickery, the two are played by identical twins Kathryn and Megan Prescott]][[/note]]
* ''Series/StuckInTheMiddle'': Harley Diaz and her friend Ellie Peters pull one in "Stuck in the School Photo".
* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'', many times in the earlier episodes. However, they haven't used it as much now that the one twin is clearly thinner and slightly taller than the other one.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in one episode, when Zack suggested that one of them should take the place of their middle-eastern friend Sanjay at a ceremony that Sanjay didn't want to attend.
---> '''Cody:''' Great! Except he looks ''nothing like us!'' '''*to Sanjay*''' His plans only work for twins.
* ''Series/SunsetBeach'''s Ben's EvilTwin Derek did this in order to take over his life.
* ''Series/Supergirl2015'': Astra comments that when she and her twin sister Alura were kids, they liked to prank people by switching.
* An episode of ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' has a [[FakeTwinGambit fake]] Twin Switch. A man (played by Joe Pesci) falls in love with a pair of beautiful twins, but they tell him that they promised each other that they'd only marry another set of twins. So he replies "But I do have a twin!", and makes up a story that he and his "twin brother" switch places every month, with one of them staying home and the other going on a business trip. So in this way he can date both twins, by doing a fake Twin Switch with himself at the end of the month. Of course, this being ''Tales from the Crypt'', the twins find out eventually, [[spoiler:and solve the problem with a chainsaw.]]
* ''Series/TwoOfAKind'', starring the Olsen twins.
** At one point they switch because Mary Kate doesn’t want to go to tutoring lessons while Ashley has a crush on the tutor and wants to get closer to him. The gig is up once the original girl assigned fails a makeup test yet the girl he tutors shows drastic academic improvement.
** Mary-Kate invokes this after Ashley's new friend Nicole initially mixes them up, so she later pretends to be Ashley to break up their friendship because Ashley had been ditching her to spend time with Nicole.
* ''Series/{{Twin}}'', a 2019 NordicNoir drama where a mother accidentally causes her husband's death and persuades his surviving twin to stand in for him to cover it up.
* ''Series/WonderWoman1975'': "The Deadly Toys" features Frank Gorshin as a toymaker who creates robots to duplicate real people [[spoiler:- including Wonder Woman. After an epic Wonder Woman vs. robot Wonder Woman fight, the real Wonder Woman pretends to be the robot Wonder Woman to foil the evil plot!]]
* A sinister version of this occurs in the season one finale of ''Series/TheWorstWitch'' television series, where Miss Cackle's evil twin "Agatha" locks her sister in a cupboard and proceeds to masquerade as her to launch her revenge against Cackle's Academy.
* Korean drama series ''Series/YouAreBeautiful'' (and its Japanese remake ''Ikemen desu ne'') is based around a girl taking her twin brother's place as a member of a rock group while he is having surgery abroad.
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[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]

!!Examples:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film — Animated]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Cynthia Blair has a young adult series with food-themed titles where twins Susan and Christine Pratt switch places for various reasons.
* In the fifth book of the ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'' series, Anne's House of Dreams, the titular Anne meets a woman named Leslie, whose past is a tragic one. To make it worse, her once cruel husband, Dick, is now a helpless, brain-damaged man after coming home from a sea voyage, forcing her to have to take care of him for 11 years. You learn later in the book that he has a cousin named George that he looks exactly the same as, because their parents had been two sets of twins who married one another...
* ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'':
** Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold swap places while Mallory is babysitting, with the wrong twin going to piano lessons (to the teacher's annoyance). The goal was to get back at Mallory, who once called them "Marilyn-or-Carolyn". When Mallory explains that she didn't mean they were interchangeable to her, she just didn't know which twin she was talking to, they explain [[IdenticalTwinIDTag how to tell them apart]].
** In the Little Sister book "Karen's Twin", Terri and Tammy, the twins in Karen's class, start doing this. Unlike the Arnold twins, who are implied to do this on a fairly regular basis, Karen mentions that they don't normally even dress alike, though they start doing so in order to pull this off.
* ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries'': In book #8 (''The Cat Who Sniffed Glue''), this is central to the resolution. A couple has adult twin sons, David and Harley. One night, Harley and his wife Belle are murdered when someone breaks into their home. It's eventually revealed that it was actually ''David'' and Belle who were murdered; Harley and David's wife Jill, who were having an affair, had planned the whole thing so they could be together without anyone realizing. The twins' parents figured it out and were utterly destroyed -- the mother had a stroke over it and the father shot himself because he was unable to choose between informing the police what had happened or becoming an accessory after the fact by hiding the truth.
* One of the ''Literature/CHERUBSeries'' bonus stories, aptly named "The Switch", has nearly identical twins Connor and Callum switch places as part of a mission. The fact that RealLife twins are rarely perfectly identical is acknowledged, and a makeup artist is used to make the two boys look even more alike.
* In ''Literature/CourtshipRite'' the Liethe clan is composed of clones, and the personas they show outsiders are just roles that they can teach their sisters so they can switch when needed. I.e. if the clan decides that a particular priest needs to die one of his consorts can be switched for an assassin from the same clone-line.
* In ''[[Literature/TheWolvesOfWilloughbyChase Dido And Pa]]'' by Joan Aiken, aristocratic siblings [[spoiler:Simon]] and [[spoiler:Sophie]] swap places so the latter can politely attend a meeting with an advisor while the former hunts wolves. It's never made quite clear whether the two are twins, and even if they were they [[HalfIdenticalTwins couldn't be identical]]. The ruse only works in any case so long as the person they're fooling isn't really paying attention, and [[spoiler:Sophie]] gets into hot water when her disguise is rumbled.
* ''Literature/DontCareHigh'': Or rather triplet switch, the [=LaPaz=]'s sometimes switch classes with each other to do better on tests in subjects where one of them is stronger than the others. They are impressed when Mike (or rather Paul pretending that Mike told him) figures this out.
* The book series ''Double Trouble'' is all about this trope with twin sisters Sandi and Randi, usually with the switch being imperfect and them being found out. It gets cranked up a notch with the '' '''Triple''' Trouble'' books that feature their identical cousin Mandi.
* In ''Literature/DragonBones'' the outgoing ladies' man Beckram frequently gets his bookish, rather shy twin brother Erdrick to pretend to be him at boring formal occasions so that he can go partying elsewhere. Much to Erdrick's embarassment, Beckram's lady love tends to get very familiar with him in public.
* In ''False Colours'' by Creator/GeorgetteHeyer, protagonist Kit Fancot is persuaded by his mother to take the place of his missing twin, Lord Denville, at a very important social engagement. HilarityEnsues.
* {{Downplayed}} in ''Literature/HarryPotter,'' but [[TricksterTwins Fred and George]] did a quick one for their EstablishingCharacterMoment.
-->'''Mrs. Weasley:''' Fred, you next.
-->'''Twin #1:''' I'm not Fred, I'm George. Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you ''tell'' I'm George?
-->'''Mrs. Weasley:''' Sorry, George, dear.
-->'''Twin #1:''' Only joking, I am Fred.
* The Twin Switch plot was used in one of the Literature/HerculePoirot novels, more exactly [[spoiler: ''Elephants Can Remember'': the mentally broken Dorothea/Dolly fatally wounds her twin sister Margaret/Molly, and in her last words Molly convinces her husband to keep the secret of her death and make Dolly ([[SiblingTriangle who loved him]]) pass as her. He does, but some time later, he goes the MurderSuicide way on Dolly and himself.]]
* ''Literature/HowlsMovingCastle'' has a subplot about two sisters, Martha and Lettie, who are apprenticed by their mother to a sorceress and a bakery respectively, but switch places because each would prefer what the other's been given. They're not identical, but Martha concentrates on learning enough magic to disguise herself as Lettie and vice versa, and then they switch. (After the deception is revealed, the sorceress admits that the disguise never fooled her since it was based on one of her own spells, but she let it pass because she figured a girl that determined to learn should be given the chance.)
* In ''Literature/{{Identical}}'', the leads are identical twins that share a wardrobe, making it easy enough for one of them to take the other's place. [[spoiler: Eventually subverted; the twins are actually the same girl with multiple personality disorder, which she developed after her twin died in a car accident and her father began sexually abusing her.]]
* ''Literature/JamesBond''
** In ''Literature/NeverSendFlowers'', [[spoiler:[[BigBad David Dragonpol]]]] has an identical brother, whom he switches places with when his insanity takes hold on him. He uses this switch to delude authorities to think that he's dead.
** The Taunt twins from ''Literature/DoubleShot'' share the identity of the CIA agent Hillary Taunt, going out one at the time to keep their status as twins a secret.
* ''Literature/LottieAndLisa'' is a novel by Erich Kästner. The twins in it don't switch for fun or mischief but out of a serious fear that they will never get to know their mother and father, respectively, since they were Main/SeparatedAtBirth and only met by coincidence. The switch going unnoticed is facilitated by the parents being distant in case of the father and constantly working in case of the mother.
* The ''Miss Nelson'' series of picture books, written by Harry Allard and illustrated by James Marshall, is about a schoolteacher named Miss Nelson who has to take time off from class and when she finds out that the kids of her class are acting up in her absence returns dressed up as a mean substitute named Viola Swamp, a black-haired, no-nonsense teacher who is known for "getting results." The book ''Miss Nelson Has a Field Day'' has a new twist. In this one, the school's football team, the Smedley Tornadoes, is rubbish and acting out, and Miss Nelson overhears a kid suggesting that Viola Swamp ought to coach the team because she "gets results." However, she still has her class to teach this time. How does she do it? Well, given the trope page you're at, you probably already guessed. The ending of the book shows her at home, thanking her identical twin sister Barbara for filling in for her classes.
* The 'one twin dies and the other takes up their life' variant is actually fairly common in mystery novels. A brilliant usage appears for example in Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Literature/AMurderIsAnnounced.'' There were twins involved, but the DeadPersonImpersonation plot was done by a lady who was a younger sister of the deceased.
* In one case in ''Literature/TheNo1LadiesDetectiveAgency'', Mma Ramotswe investigates a doctor who sometimes seems to be very competent, and sometimes seems to have no idea what he's doing. She discovers the doctor is routinely switching places with his twin brother (who definitely isn't a qualified doctor), so they can run two offices in separate cities at the same time, and make twice as much money.
* In ''Literature/OneHundredYearsOfSolitude,'' the twins Aureliano Segundo and Jose Arcadio Segundo swap themselves around constantly during childhood, resisting all attempts to distinguish them, because they find others' dismayed reactions to be amusing. Their family has two traditional male names which are used repeatedly down through generations, each of which comes to imply a [[MeaningfulName different set of personality traits;]] of course, Jose Arcadio becomes more like an Aureliano (silent, disconnected from reality, embittered, a fighter for lost causes) and vice versa (Aureliano is cheerful, charismatic, generous, an epically BigEater), until both the audience and the members of their family are led to believe that they swapped permanently at some point. They both seduce the same woman; one ends up keeping her as a concubine. During adulthood, they grow VERY dissimilar, but slowly return to their former state until [[spoiler:they die at the exact same time, upon which the bodies are mixed up and accidentally buried in the wrong graves.]]
* ''Literature/PrettyLittleLiars'' had a very plot important twin switch. Local Alpha Bitch Alison disappears and when a body is later found everyone assumes that it's her. Later books reveal that Alison had/has a twin named Courtney who was institutionalized. The end of the second arc reveals that the Alison the liars knew was actually Courtney (whom Ali claims was violent and malicious), who pulled off a twin switch by herself and ended up getting Ali sent back to the mental hospital in her place (it should be noted that Ali is strongly implied to have purposely set her sister up to look crazy in the first place). Ali attempted to switch back by killing Courtney (it failed)so Courtney is buried under her sister's name.
* ''Literature/ThePrinceAndThePauper'', by Creator/MarkTwain. It's essentially what happens, although it's combined with an IdenticalStranger. Those who switch places are StreetUrchin named Tom Canty and Prince Edward VI of England.
* ''Literature/ThePrisonerOfZenda'' uses a variant with a distant cousin of the Crown Prince of {{Ruritania}}, a descendant of said Crown Prince's illegitimate son.
* [[spoiler:Halt]] from ''Literature/RangersApprentice'' switches places with his twin in book eight of the series.
* ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'':
** In [[Recap/TheRailwaySeriesB15TheTwinEngines "The Missing Coach"]], Donald and Douglas swap tenders (Donald is No. 9 and Douglas No. 10) to avoid getting discovered by the Fat Controller after Douglas misplaced Thomas' Special Coach. Unfortunately for the twins, the Fat Controller isn't fooled and rounds up on Douglas for masquerading Donald's tender.
** In [[Recap/TheRailwaySeriesB21MainLineEngines "The Diseasal"]], Bill and Ben do this to play a trick on [=BoCo=] by pretending to be the same engine, after removing their nameplates and numbers.
* Creator/DavidEddings' story ''Regina's Song'' has, as part of the backstory, a pair of twins who pull this so regularly that they themselves have no real sense of "I", only "We". When one of the twins is murdered and the other left incoherent from witnessing it, nobody, including their parents, is able to tell whether the dead girl is Regina or Renata.
* [[MeaningfulName Castor and Pollux]] from Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheRollingStones1952'' took each other's places in one semester of high school. Instead of each being burdened with two time-consuming classes, they split it up to each take one class twice. AnAesop occurred in deep space, when the twin who'd taken history instead of advanced math had to spend all his leisure time playing catch-up in that essential spaceman's discipline.
* In ''Literature/TheRomanMysteries'', Gaius poses as his twin brother Marcus (who has been shipwrecked), in order to convince the bankers who want to foreclose on Marcus's home that Marcus is in good health and should get more time to pay off his loan.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Cersei Lannister recalls how she used to switch places with her twin brother Jaime when they were children, often for a whole day. This basically was just {{Crossdressing}}--they're HalfIdenticalTwins, and they were prepubescent at the time. Living in a world of strict gender roles, taking on the trappings of gender was enough; people saw that they expected to see. And now you may imagine Jaime Lannister in skirts.
** The BackStory[=/=]WorldBuilding book ''Literature/FireAndBlood'' has an AmbiguousSituation example. After the coronation of King Jaehaerys in Oldtown, it was noted that the twins Aerea and Rhaella had suddenly switched personalities, leading some to believe that the twins had been switched during the wedding by either their mother Rhaena or their grandmother Alyssa. It's never confirmed, however.
* Variation in the ''Literature/SongOfTheLioness'' books: Alanna is to be sent to the convent to receive instruction in the proper behavior of a noblewoman and wants to be a knight; her twin Thom is supposed to go to the palace to be a page, but wants to learn magic (taught at the convent). Instead of switching identities, Alanna [[WholesomeCrossdresser dresses as a boy]] and the two switch destinations.
* ''Literature/SplitHeirs'': Arbol and Wulfrith are switched multiple times once they meet, usually without them meaning to (they're {{half identical|twins}}).
* This was done an insane number of times in the ''Literature/SweetValleyHigh'' series and its various spin-offs. In one book, an IdenticalStranger tries to pose as Elizabeth, but Elizabeth's best friend doesn't believe it for a second and thinks that Jessica, Elizabeth's twin sister, is the one pretending to be her.
* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities'' to get Charles Darnay out of prison. Sydney Carton (not actually his twin but a look-alike) forces Charles' accusors to admit they can't identify him since he looks identical to Sydney. [[spoiler:Sydney later exploits this resemblance to [[HeroicSacrifice take his place]] and die on the guillotine so Darnay can escape France.]]
* ''Literature/TheThinkingMachine'': In "Convict #97", a convict escapes by forcing his twin brother to take his place on the cell. Van Dusen works out what has happened because the brothers have different shoe sizes.
[[/folder]]

** In "Sister Act", Lana and Lola start pretending to be the other in instances where one twin wants to get out of something she wouldn't like but the other one enjoys (such as Lana [[HatesBaths not wanting to take a bath]] and Lola [[GymClassRopeClimb not wanting to climb a rope for gym class]]). They manage to pull it off for a few days until they switch places so Lola can get out of a doctor's appointment and Lana can get out of a dentist appointment, which [[DidntThinkThisThrough backfires on both of them the next day]]; Lola gets [[SickEpisode sick]] with a bad case of the flu, preventing her from competing in a pageant, and Lana gets [[TheToothHurts an abscessed tooth]], preventing her from eating a massive sundae she won in a recycling contest. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Had the twins gone to their respective appointments in the first place, the early warning signs of their respective ailments would've been caught and treated right away before they got worse]]. The twins are forced to confess what they did to their parents so their doctor and their dentist don't lose their medical licenses for negligence, which not only got them [[GrowingUpSucks scolded for not being responsible]], but they end up having to go to the appointments they tried to avoid in the first place so both their ailments can be treated.

** In "Sister Act", Lana and Lola start pretending to be the other in instances where one twin wants to get out of something she wouldn't like but the other one enjoys (such as Lana [[HatesBaths not wanting to take a bath]] and Lola [[GymClassRopeClimb not wanting to climb a rope for gym class]]). They manage to pull it off for a few days until they switch places so Lola can get out of a doctor's appointment and Lana can get out of a dentist appointment, which [[DidntThinkThisThrough backfires on both of them the next day]]; Lola gets [[SickEpisode sick]] with a bad case of the flu, preventing her from competing in a pageant, and Lana gets [[TheToothHurts an abscessed tooth]], preventing her from eating a massive sundae she won in a recycling contest. Had the twins gone to their respective appointments in the first place, the early warning signs of their respective ailments would've been caught and treated right away before they got worse. The twins are forced to confess what they did to their parents so their doctor and their dentist don't lose their medical licenses for negligence, which not only got them [[GrowingUpSucks scolded for not being responsible]], but they end up having to go to the appointments they tried to avoid in the first place so both their ailments can be treated.

** In "Sister Act", Lana and Lola start pretending to be the other in instances where one twin wants to get out of something she wouldn't like but the other one enjoys (such as Lana [[HatesBaths not wanting to take a bath]] and Lola [[GymClassRopeClimb not wanting to climb a rope for gym class]]). They manage to pull it off for a few days until they switch places so Lola can get out of a doctor's appointment and Lana can get out of a dentist appointment, which [[DidntThinkThisThrough backfires on both of them the next day]]; Lola gets [[SickEpisode sick]] with a bad case of the flu, preventing her from competing in a pageant, and Lana gets [[TheToothHurts an abscessed tooth]], preventing her from eating a massive sundae she won in a recycling contest. Had the twins gone to their respective appointments in the first place, the early warning signs of their respective ailments would've been caught and treated right away before they got worse. The twins are forced to confess what they did to their parents so their doctor and their dentist don't lose their medical licenses for negligence, which not only got them scolded for not being responsible, but they end up having to go to the appointments they tried to avoid in the first place so both their ailments can be treated.

** In "Sister Act", Lana and Lola start pretending to be the other in instances where one twin wants to get out of something she wouldn't like but the other one enjoys (such as Lana [[HatesBaths not wanting to take a bath]] and Lola [[GymClassRopeClimb not wanting to climb a rope for gym class]]). They manage to pull it off for a few days until they switch places so Lola can get out of a doctor's appointment and Lana can get out of a dentist appointment, which [[DidntThinkThisThrough backfires on both of them the next day]]; Lola gets [[SickEpisode sick]] with a bad case of the flu, and Lana gets [[TheToothHurts an abscessed tooth]]. Had the twins gone to their respective appointments in the first place, the early warning signs of their respective ailments would've been caught and treated right away before they got worse. The twins are forced to confess what they did to their parents so their doctor and their dentist don't lose their medical licenses for negligence, which not only got them scolded for not being responsible, but they end up having to go to the appointments they tried to avoid in the first place so both their ailments can be treated.

** In "Sister Act", Lana and Lola start pretending to be the other in instances where one twin wants to get out of something she wouldn't like but the other one enjoys (such as Lana [[HatesBaths not wanting to take a bath]] and Lola [[GymClassRopeClimb not wanting to climb a rope for gym class]]). They manage to pull it off for a few days until they switch places so Lola can get out of a doctor's appointment and Lana can get out of a dentist appointment, which [[DidntThinkThisThrough backfires on both of them the next day]]; Lola gets [[SickEpisode sick]] with a bad case of the flu, and Lana gets an abscessed tooth. Had the twins gone to their respective appointments in the first place, the early warning signs of their respective ailments would've been caught and treated right away before they got worse. The twins are forced to confess what they did to their parents so their doctor and their dentist don't lose their medical licenses for negligence, which not only got them scolded for not being responsible, but they end up having to go to the appointments they tried to avoid in the first place so both their ailments can be treated.