Holding Both Sides of the Conversation: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Woody''': Oh, hi Buzz! Why don't you say hello to the guys over there?

 

Let's say we have Bob, Carol, and Alice. This trope is for when Bob is pretending to have a conversation with Alice, even though that Alice isn't actually there (or in certain cases, may not even exist). The purpose of this is to convince Carol that Alice is actually there, to maintain some lie Bob is pulling. Bob may do this by holding a one-sided conversation with "Alice", or he may even attempt to imitate Alice's voice and hold ''both'' sides of the conversation. Depending on the situation, this may involve Bob actually partially/fully disguising himself as Alice to further the ploy.

 

{{examples}}

 

* ''[[Astro City]]'': used by Atomicus, who developed a power to duplicate himself and almost immediately used it to try to conceal his (rather obvious) secret identity.

 

== Film -- Animated ==

{{quote|'''Woody''': Oh, hi Buzz! Why don't you say hello to the guys over there?

'''Buzz's severed arm''': Hi ya, fellas. To infinity and beyond!

* ''[[Megamind]]'': Megamind has a disguise hologram that makes him look like a normal human. At one point, though, he's in a situation where he has to pretend to be both simultaneously. There's a "fight sequence" between the two, where Megamind ends up repeatedly switching back and forth between his normal appearance and the hologram, all the while opening and closing a door over and over to give the appearance that that two are fighting each other.

* The [[Pixar Shorts|Pixar short Geri's Game]], Geri plays both sides of a game of Chess, getting up and switching sides of the table to do so. He acts out both parts, including feigning a heart attack and tricking the other into thinking he's lost. The [[Paper-Thin Disguise|difference between them]] is one has glasses and the other doesn't.

 

== Film -- Live Action ==

* ''[[Young Frankenstein]]'' has an inverse example: in order to disguise a dead body, the title character pretends the arm of the dead man is his own.

 

* The [[Britcom]] ''Sykes'' has an episode where the eponymous Eric pretends to be his own sister to try and fool a criminal uninvited guest (played by [[Peter Sellers]]) who claims she once promised to marry him. There are a couple of scenes where Eric has to hold rapid-fire conversations with himself while changing clothes out of sight.

* In one episode of ''[[ALF]]'', the titular character manages to get himself into a situation wherein he has to (vocally) play the role of a [[It Makes Sense in Context|hostage-taker]] as well as a ''whole bunch'' of hostages.

* In the show ''[[Good Luck Charlie]]'', during the episode "Appy Days," Teddy tricks both her mother and Ivy's mother into letting them both go to a senior party by recording a conversation on her phone and playing it back so it appears their mothers are giving their approval.

 

 

* In ''[[Twelfth Night]]'', Feste fakes a conversation between himself and "Sir Topas the Curate" outside Malvolio's cell.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** Homer tries to withdraw his and Marge's life savings from the bank. The banker insists that he needs both of their signatures.

{{quote|'''Homer''': I'd like to withdraw my life's savings, please.

* ''[[Family Guy]]'': Stewie pretends to be a girl in order to get on his favorite TV show, Jolly Farms Revue. When a girl he has a crush on comes over to meet his girl persona, he quickly goes to change into his girl costume while he ''argues'' with himself, pretending to be both Stewie and the girl. And then [[Overly Long Gag|does the same thing in reverse]] later.

* In season one of ''[[The Critic]]'', Jay often does this by pretending to be his secretary with British nanny accent. He doesn't do this gag anymore since Alice appeared in season 2.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* There is an entire profession based on this. It is called ventriloquism.

* It is "common knowledge" that talking to yourself is a sign of madness. Although there seems to be no science supporting this though.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Disguise Tropes]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]

[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]