Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
A common plot in
▲A common plot in kid's shows, when a character (usually lacking in self-confidence) begins to imitate someone they look up to, down to what clothes they wear and what foods they eat. For the one being imitated, this usually gets old very, ''very'' fast after the novelty of having a lookalike wears off, and the rest of the episode is usually dedicated to getting the imitator to stop and rely on himself or herself instead. However, sometimes this backfires, and rather than learn anything the imitator will just switch to a new target.
May overlap with [[Hero Worshipper]] and [[Heroic Wannabe]]. Also a common cause (and effect) of [[Poser Hating]]. If this continues for too long it can turn into [[I Just Want to Be You]], with the difference being that this trope is usually a temporary state of affairs and generally [[Played for Laughs]].
See also [[Sincerest Form of Flattery]], which is a meta-trope about [[Word of God]] admitting to copying from an earlier influence on their work.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* One character in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' used a variation by copying someone's deck and then acting like them while playing it. The same character later stole Yugi's deck when it was up on display, and started imitating Jaden after the inevitable loss. Jaden doesn't seem to have a problem with being imitated, but is annoyed at not being copied ''properly''.
** The character may be a [[Take That]] on the real-life practice of "netdecking",
* One episode of ''[[
* One episode of ''[[Pokémon (
▲** The character may be a [[Take That]] on the real-life practice of "netdecking", ie. going online and copying a tournament-winning deck card-for-card in the misguided belief that [[Possession Implies Mastery|dueling with a tourney-winning deck will help them win more often]]. True to this trope, the more creative duelists have begged for or tried methods of stopping the practice be put in place, but considering how well the practice actually ''does'' work, it's not going away any time soon.
* In the ''[[Pokemon]]'' episode "Ditto's Mysterious Mansion", Ash, Brock, Misty, and Duplicia troll James and Jesse by dressing like them and doing their own version of the Team Rocket motto. Needless to say, James and Jesse aren't amused.
▲* One episode of ''[[Sailor Moon (Manga)|Sailor Moon]] SuperS'' had a young girl named [[Woobie of the Week|Nanako]] who becomes [[Onee-Sama|infatuated with Rei,]] and becomes a [[Miko]] like her and copies everything she does. At first Rei thinks it's funny, but then she gets really annoyed. It turns out Nanako is a severe [[Fragile Flower]] and doesn't take Rei's disapproval well at all, making her a good target for the [[Monster of the Week]].
▲* One episode of ''[[Pokémon (Anime)|Pokémon]]'' has Ash and Max being asked to take care of some young starter Pokémon, so May and Brock leave behind their own starters with Ash's to take care of the younger charges. The Treecko, apparently female, instantly crushed on Ash's own Treecko, and started following the latter around, imitating him by carrying around a twig (with a flower) in her mouth.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* When the [[Red Skull]] was believed dead (dying via [[Rapid Aging]] after the method he had used to cheat death wore off) his identity was taken by [[Dirty Communists|a Soviet spy]] named Albert Malik. However, the original Skull was ''not'' dead, having cheated death again by transferring his mind to a cloned body of [[Captain America| Steve Rogers]]. Eventually he sent [[Professional Killer| the Scourge of the Underworld]] to murder Malik not just because he found the imposter annoying and pathetic, but because he wanted Malik’s journal, which held the location of a vault owned by Hitler himself that the Skull had been looking for since Germany lost World War II. However, it seems Malik got the last laugh, as the vault only contained Hitler's medals, art work, anti-Semitic propaganda tracts, and the manuscript of ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' - all items a lowlife hate group might consider interesting souvenirs, [[Mock Guffin| but completely worthless to the Red Skull.]]
* After [[Norman Osborn]] (aka the Green Goblin) faked his death (as retconned during ''[[The Clone Saga]]'') another corrupt businessman named Roderick Kingsley stole the equipment, altering it with a variety of upgrades and becoming the Hobgoblin, a slightly transmogrified version of the villain. To say Osborn was “irritated” when he found out this upstart had robbed him of both the identity and his technology was putting it mildly. Another story shows he ''almost'' came out of retirement much earlier to deal with Kingsley, and the two did indeed come to blows much later.
== [[Film]]
* ''[[Monty
* The second live-action ''[[Scooby
* Made down right frightening in the movie ''[[Single White Female]]''.
* In the early part of the [[
== [[Literature]] ==
* Not, for once, in a children's show: in ''[[
** What if Havelock Vetinari isn't the real Havelock Vetinari? What if he's just better at it than the guys on the ward?
** [[Fridge Brilliance|That would explain]] the rather horrific [[Characterization Marches On]] Vetinari suffered before Pratchet got his act together.
* Occurs in the ''[[Babysitters Club|Baby-sitter's Little Sister]]'' novel ''Karen's Twin''. Karen's schoolmate eats her lunch in the same order and even gives Karen new clothes so they can wear the same thing more often.
* Played for laughs in ''[[
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* An episode of ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' had Valerie copying Sabrina.
* In ''[[
** In a later episode he tried dressing like him, but Cox put an end to this one pretty quickly.
* In all places, it gets used in ''Barney and Friends'', where one of the kids assigned as the librarian's assistant ends up gradually copying him until he learns a surprisingly quick [[An Aesop|Aesop]] about being yourself. In a later season, someone copied Barney himself. As you might expect, [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* In one episode of ''[[Sesame Street]]'', Telly and a group of children became the "Bobketeers", dressing like Bob, following him around and doing everything he did.
* In an episode of ''[[Star Trek:
* This trope was played as straight as the arrow in your head in ''[[Lizzie
* One episode of ''[[The Office]]'' starts with Jim dressing and acting exactly like Dwight; however, though in this case, it actually ''is'' explicitly meant to irritate him, and obviously succeeds. Dwight tries to return the favor at the end of the episode, but since Jim doesn't take himself nearly as seriously, that attempt utterly fails.
{{quote|
Jim (to Karen): "DO you?"
Karen: "No thanks" }}
* ''[[Castle]]:'' In the episode "Nikki Heat", the actress who is going to play Nikki Heat in the ''Heat Wave'' movie shadows Beckett, for "character research", and becomes more and more like her as the episode progresses, causing great annoyance to Beckett.
* In an early episode of ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'', Liberty imitated J.T. for a class project about one's hero. Though it was meant as flattery and playfulness, J.T. is embarrassed and later confronts her about it in front of her friends. Liberty pulls this Trope as a card, and J.T. angrily replays by mocking her with something along the lines of. [[Crosses the Line Twice|“I'm Liberty Van Zandt. You take that back, I do to have friends! Millions of imaginary friends and stuffed animals. Oh, and sometimes, even my parents like me!”]] Liberty is deeply hurt by this and J.T. is labeled a 'creep' by her enraged friends.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In editions of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' prior to the 4th, there have been temptress devils of Hell called erinyes, the Lawful counterparts to the demonic succubus. "Erinyes" happens to be another name for [[Greek Mythology|the Furies]], which in this reality are divine punishers of godlike power. At least one source say that the devils copied the name out of admiration for the Furies and how much they were feared, although it's probable that the Furies couldn't care less.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* A [[Running Gag]] in the ''[[Katamari Damacy]]'' series is that several of the more oddly-shaped cousins wear the exact same colors as the Prince. Each new installment of the series usually adds at least one new lookalike cousin: there was Johnson in the original, Slip, Can-Can and Odeon in ''We ♥ Katamari'', Kenta in ''Me & My Katamari'', Pu in ''Beautiful Katamari'', and most recently Dangle in ''Katamari Forever''.
* Conrad Verner of ''[[Mass Effect]]'' takes to dressing like Shepard in [[Mass Effect 2|the sequel]], much to Shepard's annoyance. The Renegade option lets you punch him, and depending on how you acted towards him in the first game, for the ''second time''. By [[Mass Effect 3
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* In one episode of ''[[Recess]]'', Mikey begins imitating Vince, the jock, due to seeing Vince as a "cool kid", but eventually admits that the persona doesn't fit him and goes back.
** One kid gets a crush on Gretchen and pretty much says this word for word at one point.
* D.W. in ''[[Arthur (
** Another episode had Muffy writing the school's advice section but being upstaged by Molly (one of Binky's friends) as the latter was better at giving advice. In an attempt to rectify this, Muffy dresses like Molly and tries to do the things Molly normally does (skateboard, listen to rock music etc). Say the least it didn't last.
** Another one has Arthur & Muffy teaming up on a school project, and he starts picking up her mannerisms. Lampshaded by the other characters to Arthur, who didn't see it.
** And another one where [[Hand Wave|for some reason]] Buster & Arthur decided the other had the better life and started imitating him - Arthur reading joke books and Buster complaining about D.W. all the time.
* The [[Sabrina the Animated Series|animated version of Sabrina]] has the title character cast a spell to help out a nerdy classmate named Norma become more well liked. It backfires however when the town soon start to dress like her...then subverts it when they considered Norma to not "be Norma enough" and tie her and Sabrina up before Sabrina manages to break the spell.
* Subverted in ''[[Teen Titans (
* ''[[
* In an episode of ''[[Rugrats]]'', Dil started imitating Angelica, much to her annoyance.
** This wasn't the first time it was
* Stacy once did this to Quinn on ''[[Daria]]'' while the latter was staying at the former's house while the rest of her family was out of town. This weirds out Quinn, who opts to make a break for it soon after and ends up staying with ''Jane,'' of all people.
* Patrick once tried being just like ''[[
* In an episode of ''[[The Cramp Twins]]'' the ''entire school'' started imitating Wayne when a famous photographer praised his style. Wayne originally liked it because he could mock Lucien with it, but became gradually more annoyed until it turned out that the combined number of everyone imitating him completely cleared out the junk yard he frequents. Wayne fixed it by dressing up as a girl.
* ''[[The Replacements (
== [[Real Life]] ==
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== Unsorted ==
* In ''Colorful Palate'' a stylish college student gives a plain girl makeup lessons.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Children's Show Tropes]]
[[Category:Just for Pun]]
[[Category:Plots]]
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