History Main / DittoAliens

* Inverted (in the "other races can't tell ''us'' apart" sense) in ''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings The Fellowship of the Ring]]''. In one scene, Bilbo is astonished that his elven audience in Rivendell can't tell what parts of a poem he was reading were written by him, and which were written by the Dúnadan[[note]](read: Aragorn)[[/note]]. One elf responds "To sheep other sheep no doubt appear different, or to shepherds. But Mortals have not been our study. We have other business."

* In one strip of ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'', humans are considered sexual deviants by other sapient species because their men look like their women. The really unsettling part for them is that [[BizarreSexualDimorphism our species looks like their women too]].

** Odo on always said he had difficulty imitating humanoids (unlike other Changelings), and when someone said they thought he had perfectly imitated a seagull, he responded "I doubt the seagulls would agree."

[[folder:Fanfic]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

** Occasionally [[BrokenAesop problematic]] -- both [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E2DoctorWhoAndTheSilurians "The Silurians"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E3TheSeaDevils "The Sea Devils"]] have the moral that the Silurians are all individuals and should be treated as such. Having identical, inexpressive faces and the same actor doing all of the voice work does not really contribute to this. Fortunately, for a later story by the same writer with the same themes, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace "Frontier in Space"]], the effects department gave all of the Draconians different faces, which makes them a lot easier to see as people. The revival series also redesigns the Silurians to look like beautiful lizard people.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Zig-zagged in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Gems of a single kind are actually ''[[CloneArmy supposed]]'' to all look alike, as they're created artificially and designed for specific tasks, as can been seen with the first three Rubies shown, who are identical except for [[HeartDrive gemstone]] location. Major variations in body type (like Amethyst's short height, contrast with Quartzes' intended HeroicBuild) are considered deformities/defects. However, a later group of Rubies show there are cosmetic variations small enough to ''not'' be considered deformities, like varying tones of the same color of skin. [[BeautifulSlaveGirl Pearls]] seem to have such difference deliberately in order to [[UncattyResemblance match the appearance of those they serve under]] (e.g. Yellow Diamond has a yellow Pearl, Blue Diamond has a blue Pearl).

* In Marvel Comics, the Solons are a large but humanoid race who reproduce by binary fission, like single cell organisms, so apart from gender (the purpose of which is anybody's guess) they all appear identical. Amusingly, the first Solon to visit Earth assumed she wouldn't need to disguise herself (despite being huge and blue) because, to her eyes, individual humans all looked so wildly different that she assumed no one would even notice her.

* Deliberately done in the Battle For Azure City arc of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''. The hobgoblin army was done entirely by copying and pasting one (male) sprite hundreds and hundreds of times, while the human army contained a wide variety of sprites of different genders and appearances. [[WordOfGod Word Of Giant]] is that this was done to indicate that the humans of Azure City were more socially advanced than the hobgoblins.

-->'''Mushroom Man:''' ''(Pointing at a picture of a human male)''' They're like blobby chicks you wouldn't fuck!

--'''Mushroom Man:''' ''(Pointing at a picture of a human male)''' They're like blobby chicks you wouldn't fuck!

* The Asgard in ''Series/StargateSG1'' and ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' are all identical, though it is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the fact that they are all clones. (In the finale Daniel Jackson says they tell them apart from their voices). Other alien races such as the Wraith, are similar to one another, but have enough differences between themselves to be unique. The Wraith also have cookie-cutter soldiers, but those are clones.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "The Deprogrammers", the Torkor Koltok mentions that humans all look alike to him.
* ''Series/PlanetOfTheApes'':
** In "The Good Seeds", a gorilla officer comments that all humans look alike.
** In "The Surgeon", the gorilla guard Haman can't describe the human who attacked him, namely Burke, as he thinks that all humans look the same. Urko agrees with him.
** In "The Deception", Fauna says that all humans looked alike to her when she could see.

* In one ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' story, a grateful race Supes once saved is on Earth to find a human actor to play him in a movie they're going to make about his daring rescue. The one they wind up choosing bears a much closer resemblance to Jimmy Olson (short, scrawny, red hair and freckles). He's ultimately chosen because he's ill (further separating him from Superman) and his coughing is close to the aliens' language, which will make it easy for him to memorize the script, but even after Superman himself points out the difference, the aliens shrug it off, insisting that they're practically identical.

* ''Series/PlanetOfTheApes'': In "The Good Seeds", a gorilla officer comments that all humans look alike.

* In Harry Turtledove's ''Literature/WorldWar / Colonization'' series, which takes place over nearly a century, neither humans or the alien Lizards ever quite get the hang of even telling each other's genders apart.

* Averted in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob.'' We've seen crowd scenes of [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20090728.html dragons,]] [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20090314.html bigfeet,]] and Fleenians, and they've always been pretty well [[CastOfSnowflakes individuated]].

* Exaggerated in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' with the Chritchellites, an alien race whose members not only look the same, and dress the same, but ''sound'' the same. As in, they all have the same voice actor who inflects all their lines the exact same way. The only distinguishing feature that their leader has is that his visor is orange.