Latex Perfection: Difference between revisions

[[File:scooby_mask1.jpg|link=Scooby-Doo (animation)|thumb|400px|Scooby-Doo gets his face peeled off!]]

 

 

 

 

Typically, [[Expressive Mask|a mask like this can even easily mimic the wearers' expression]], making it easier to fool others.

 

 

Another variation of this involves the use of a [[Full-Body Disguise|full rubber bodysuit]] that is unzipped down the front of back for the reveal, usually used more in animation.

 

 

 

== Advertising ==

* A really memorable but creepy Smokey bear PSA commercial from 1973 had this. It starts off with actress Joanna Cassidy talking to us about forest fires and then towards the end she takes her face off like a rubber mask to reveal a creepy Smokey Bear costumed character underneath. It was remade in 1980 with the unmasking being less scary and Smokey being more cuddly and friendly-looking and have a voice that [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|sounds remarkably similar to John Goodman]]. The Joanna Cassidy original can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXcrbpMNvTs

* Don't forget the late 1990s Subaru Forester commercial, where in some kind of spy parody, a pretty red-haired woman (complete with suggestive feminine American voice) escapes the bad guys' hideout in a Subuar Forester vehicle, managing to get out before the exit door closes. Then once safely outside, the announcer says that the experience can be "full of surprises," as the woman peels off her rubber mask and her wig to reveal Paul Hogan, whom says in his normal deep Australian accent, "Like mine for example!"

* Also seen in the [[Wal Mart]] "Rollback Man" commercial from 2003-2004, which parodies all the old action/spy tropes as a parody of ''[[Secret Agent Man]]'' plays in the background, when a female Wal-Mart employee disguises herself with a rubber Smiley Face mask (a CGI effect.)

* A funny/creepy [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAQCG2T_6b0 chewing gum commercial] which spoofs the soap opera formula, when an old man reveals to his son that he's really his mother in disguise. Then, the son peels off his mask to reveal that he's just a puppeteer dummy. Bonus points for the random possible ''[[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' reference at the end.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plmFkZHjt6Y Got Milk?]

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** In addition, to make up for differences in skeletal structure, she would, without any apparent pain, ''dislocate and rearrange her bones at the joint''. Logically, of course, this doesn't make any kind of sense, but hey, at least they took body differences into account too...

** Anyone capable of making Mutsumi look convincingly enough like Keitaro to pass muster in a Furo scene wearing only a [[Modesty Towel]]...

*** Notably Kanako fooled even ''herself'' for a moment there. [[It Got Worse]] in the manga, with Kanako even going so far as to [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/love_hina/v11/c000/134.html give Mutsumi a schlong], commenting that her brother "should be about that big".

** One movie shows Zenigata being surprisingly [[Genre Savvy]] by tugging on the face of a random guard just to be sure it wasn't Lupin. It ''was'', but he explains he has started using stronger glue, and Zenigata needed to tug harder.

* {{spoiler|Sayoko as Lelouch}} in ''[[Code Geass]]''. It's a somewhat more realistic example, as the mask is clearly a hard piece of whatever shaped like Lelouch's face, and a voice modulator of some type was apparently also used.

** Shinichi's [[Hot Mom]] Yukiko also manages to do this {{spoiler|as a part of a [[Batman Gambit]] by both her and her husband, Yusaku, to try convince Conan/Shinichi to let them help him}}. Somewhat justified as she ''was'' a prize-winning actress before getting married, and trained under the same guy that villainous mistress of disguise Vermouth did... KID's dad, the previous Kaitou KID.

** One particular chapter features a very interesting take on this trope, along with [[Becoming the Mask]]. The members of dysfunctional family go their separate ways and one by one are replaced with fugitives disguised as them, who eventually come to love each other more than the real family ever did.

* Orochimaru of ''[[Naruto]]'' puts his own [[Body Horror|unique spin]] on this trope. He's able to perfectly disguise the face of his current host body to look exactly like his old face using his skin-shedding jutsu. On top of that he also has a habit of wearing other people's faces as a real disguise. Not masks of other people; he ''peels their faces off and wears them''.

* In the ''[[Read or Die]]'' manga, [[Paper Master]] Ridley Wan uses paper to make a full-body mask to impersonate Yomiko's deceased lover, Donny Nakajima. It's so detailed that Yomiko had no idea that he was an impostor until he voluntarily unmasked himself after bedding her. This is really impressive when you consider that not only had Yomiko been present when Donny died, {{spoiler|she was the one who killed him}}.

* Jessie on ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' tried this a couple of times when she would impersonate a Nurse Joy to convince the heroes that she is a good nurse who can help their Pokémon. The disguise is nearly flawless, except for the mask's mouth not moving when she speaks. In fact, this was one of the things the girl-crazy Brock would notice when he would detect the Nurse Joy is a fake. Jessie's rival Cassidy also did this once wearing the same Nurse Joy mask, to which some boy in the crowd asked his mother why her lips were not moving.

* The manga series ''Gimmick!'' features this in nearly every chapter, but Kohei ''is'' a [[Justified Trope|professional SFX artist]]. It started with {{spoiler|perfectly layering multiple latex masks on the same person in a scheme to help a model/actress escape from her abusive manager}} and [[Serial Escalation|only got more absurd from there.]]

 

 

* A regular feature of the Italian comic ''[[Diabolik]]''.

* The comic book series (and, briefly, TV series) ''[[Human Target]]'' starred Christopher Chance, a man who is paid to mimic people who have been targeted for assassination. The twist in later versions was that he was so good at mimicking them, he would sometimes forget who he really was.

* In ''[[Sillage]]'', Navis often wears a semi-liquid symbiote over her skin. Since she is the only human in a giant space fleet composed of thousands of species, normal disguise wouldn't be very effective. As a bonus, the symbiote adjusts her metabolism and immune system for [[No Biochemical Barriers]] and serves as [[Translator Microbes]].

* In the comics, [[Batman]] would occasionally disguise himself (often impersonating [[Superman]] to get the bad guys to use their [[Kryptonite Factor]] on the wrong target) and then pull off the false face, ''revealing his cowl, ears and all, underneath''. This seems to have finally become a [[Discredited Trope]] because it just stretches [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] too far.

*** Probably reached its apex when Batman disguised himself, full-body, as Killer Croc. While playing poker for what was apparently several hours. And not only did no one notice any oddness in the way his (much taller, more muscular, and all-around bigger) body moved, when the light started swaying and he went into shadow, ''you could see his Batman costume underneath it''. (This last was pretty much purely for dramatic effect, but still.) Making it even more implausible, the show's design of Killer Croc had a very wide, cheekless mouth open on the sides, making it impossible to hide a normal human face underneath it.

*** There was also the time that Dick Grayson dressed up as ''Bruce Wayne'' [[Identity Impersonator|to discredit a man that had discovered Batman's true identity]]. Aside from looking ''and sounding'' exactly the same as Bruce, Dick's only complaint was that he had to use leg extensions to appear taller, lifting up his pant legs to reveal that he's on ''stilts''. Did no one notice the disturbing bulges right in the middle of Bruce Wayne's ''shins''?

* This was also done shockingly well in Batman and Robin with the character of Oberon Sexton, who we are led to believe is a English best-selling crime author/detective, who assists the Dynamic Duo, Damien suspects Oberon is faking his accent and believes he is {{spoiler|Bruce}}, but he denies this, and Dick confirms this, it turns out he is {{spoiler|The Joker}}, yeah, let that sink in for a while.

* Quite a few examples from ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' comics:

* Harvey Dent uses one of these in ''[[The Long Halloween]]''.

* Regularly used by [[DC Comics]]' ''[[Unknown Soldier]]''.

* One of the trademarks of [[Master of Disguise]] Nemesis in [[The DCU]]. He uses special masks of his own invention that dissolve with the application of a special spray, allowing him to resume his normal appearance in seconds.<ref>In his 21st century appearances, Nemesis often instead uses even higher tech [[Hologram]] technology for his disguises.</ref>

** [[Fridge Logic|Why]] would the Devil even need to use a [[Face Off|John Travolta-style mask]], given that the novel ''Faust'' [[Word of Dante|establishes he can shapeshift]]?

* In earlier issues of ''[[Daredevil]]'', he disguised himself like [[The Mighty Thor]] to attract Mr. Hyde and Cobra, usual foes of the Nordic God. Thor himself said that it was like looking in a mirror. DD even used some skin-coloured latex to cover his costume and ressemble the naked arms of Thor. Yeah.

** A few issues later, DD participates on a movie with the Stunt-Master. The Stilt-Man knocks down SM and disguises his face to look like him. In about five minutes.

* [[Supergirl]] did this quite a bit for some time, before she briefly gained the ability to shapeshift. In a non-canonical "Death of Superman" story, she finally reveals herself to the public by crashing a party the bad guys are throwing in a full Superman suit and mask, then removing it to reveal herself.

** Spoofed in an issue of ''[[Rat-Man]]'' with a similar premise, where the old shopkeeper the young woman agent is disguised as is actually an old woman identical to her former appearance under the young woman mask. Also, her pet cat is actually a guard dog in disguise.

* ''[[Modesty Blaise (comic strip)|Modesty Blaise]]'': In "Butch Cassidy Rides Again", the gang uses latex masks to make themselves appear identical to the Hole-In-The-Wall Gang.

* Partly adverted in a ''[[Spirou and Fantasio]]'' story where a latex mask is used to frame Fantasio. While the mask is good enough to fool people watching him on TV or from afar, it always keeps the same, smiling expression. It is also revealed that a sculptor was hired to create a bust of Fantasio from identity photographs (though, since he is his neighbour, he may have also worked from memory).

 

* In ''[[My Immortal]]'', [[Harry Potter (novel)|Lord Voldemort and the "Death Dealers"]] are able to disguise themselves as the band [[My Chemical Romance]] simply by donning masks. Why they didn't use Polyjuice Potion is never explained. [[So Bad It's Good|It's that kind of fic.]]

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[The Master of Disguise]]'', the mask cliche is used (sometimes even parodied) for several of the disguises in this film. Such examples include Fabrizzio Disguisey (portrayed by James Brolin) masquerading as Bo Derek, Michael Johnson, [[Jesse Ventura]], and [[Jessica Simpson]]. For these disguises, the old "actor switch" technique is used, and only the unmaskings of Bo Derek and Jessica Simpson are depicted on screen, while Fabrizzio in his Michael Johnson disguise lifts up the Constitution scroll to cover his body out of frame, and among moving it back down he goes from black to his true Caucasian identity, and Jesse Ventura is only seen tugging on his cheeks as we cut away to a close-up of the villain as we hear the mask stretching offscreen. Similarly, Grandpa Disguisey disguises himself at one part as a smaller female maid, done via the "actor switch" technique and an off-screen masking, and Pistachio Disguises (portrayed by [[Dana Carvey]]) wears various disguises, the majority of them played by Carvey himself under different makeup/prosthetics, yet the only disguise we see him unmasking onscreen is when the villain manages to see through Pistachio's disguise of one of his henchmen (where the actor-switch trick was employed yet again).

* In a recent short film entitled ''[[The Real Deal]]'' (starring Courtney Gaines), the five main heroes consist of the Elder (an old wrinkled man with glasses and a fishing hat), the Inbred (a yokel with a semi-disfigured face and stringy blond hair), the Sarge (a tough drill sergeant type of guy with a shaven head and almost always squinting), the Player (an black man in a long black coat and sunglasses) and the Gangster (a bald tough-looking man). The film involves them fighting martial arts style to fend off the main villain's henchmen and protect the money they just stole from the villain. At the end of the movie, the five men meet up and then through a montage we see them taking off their various hats and glasses, unbuttoning their coats or shirts, and then peeling off their super-convincing rubber masks to reveal hot young ladies underneath. The woman disguised as the Player was also black, like her male alter-ego. However, the actor-switch technique was employed here: for most of the film up to the unmasking scene, the five heroes were played by professional male martial-arts actors wearing the masks (and a different voice actor dubbing the voice for The Player), and were then replaced with the corresponding actresses for the unmasking scene and then the rest of the film's finale. This film was a promotion of sorts by the special-effects/Halloween mask company SPFX Masks, which designs convincing and realistic silicone full-head masks.

** ''Mission: Impossible 2'' provided some particularly egregious examples of this, with Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt apparently carrying perfect latex masks, not only of various bad guy henchmen but also of himself. These he was able to apply unaided to himself (or in the case of the mask of himself, a bad guy henchman), in about ten seconds flat.

** ''Mission: Impossible 3'' made it [[Technology Porn|more realistic and time-consuming]] than its predecessors, leaving us to wonder what happened to the technology.

* In the film ''[[La Femme Nikita]]'', we briefly see a supporting character applying a complex, realistic looking disguide, complete with extensive makeup to alter the shape of his face and a wig. Not quite a mask, but it does completely alter the way he looks.

* ''[[Undercover Brother]]''. The title character, while masquerading as an elderly janitor and {{spoiler|[[James Brown]]}}.

* In the [[So Bad It's Good]] spy movie ''The Second Best Secret Agent in the World'', the James Bond-like hero meets up with a sexy, petite Asian girl... who then tries to kill him. And the latex mask comes off, revealing (in standard fashion for special effects back then) a male Asian martial arts master in drag.

* Partially averted by ''[[Darkman]]'', whose synthetic skin (not latex) masks are only really convincing when he backs up the deception by researching his target's voice and mannerisms. The substance the masks themselves are made of is seen as a technological breakthrough in itself, the [[MacGuffin]] of the film.

* Played with in ''[[Johnny English]]''; the villains make a near-perfect mask of the Archbishop of Canterbury {{spoiler|as part of the [[Big Bad]]'s plot to make himself king}}, but they suspect (correctly) that [[Idiot Hero|English]] knows about the mask, so they scrap the idea and decide to trick the real Archbishop into going along with their plan. Naturally, English tries to remove the mask that the not fake Archbishop is not wearing, and [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* Could be said of the full-body cow disguise used in ''[[Top Secret (film)|Top Secret]]''; the rubber bovine suit becomes totally realistic when put on, despite having obviously painted-on brown spots and black rubber boots instead of hooves (done via mixing in shots of a ''real'' cow with the painted spots and boots). The disguise works well enough for the two men inside the suit to slip past the guards, and it even manages to fool a young calf (whom sucks the udder, presumably giving the guy in the back a blowjob that surprisingly ''arouses'' him) and a larger male bull ([[Black Comedy Rape|don't ask!]])

 

== Literature ==

* A very extreme example of this is featured in the ''[[Anonymous Rex]]'' novels, where the whole premise is that dinosaurs are still alive, just disguised as humans. Using very complicated latex costumes. Egad.

** The TV movie adaptation had the dinosaurs hide themselves using [[Hard Light]] holographic projections...is that better?

*** The books [[Hand Wave]] the "elaborate costume" trick by saying it's also part evolution; the dinosaurs (which, undisguised, are quite dinosaur-shaped, if human-sized) have developed soft, rubbery skeletons so that they can fit into the costumes without, for example, having an elongated velociraptor snout poking out of a human face. It works if you're willing to ignore the fact that this pretty much defeats the purpose of having a skeleton to begin with.

* In [[Bruce Coville]]'s ''[[My Teacher Is an Alien]]'' books, this is how aliens disguise themselves as humans. Somehow it works despite them having very different features such as extra eyes.

** To be fair, it's not simply latex, it's some sort of alien technology (note, for example, that it can automatically change skin tone). And while aliens in that series can look ''very'' weird by human standards, the aliens sent to Earth were basically (and probably purposefully) humanoid; Kreeblim just had to deal with only using two-thirds of her usual vision for a while.

* In Dominique Jean's La Fiancée du Vent, the heroine, who can exist in 3 places at the same time, uses a latex mask to pass for a friend and pretend to betray herself, so as to work as a double agent with her enemies.

* The books in ''[[Goosebumps]]'' have occasionally used this trope, including the spin-off TV series, but perhaps the most famous use was in "The Haunted Mask" stories, where whoever wears a creepy mask that was taken from a mysterious party shop is transformed; the mask attaches to his or her face and ''takes over the mind of the wearer'', making him or her act evil. In the sequel ("The Haunted Mask II"), a mask resembling a ghoulish old man even goes as far as making its victim wearer become very old and weak.

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: The Vigilantes use this a lot. In fact, Alexis Thorne carries a red bag that contains the necessary tools to create latex disguises. One book explains that Alexis had Hollywood aspirations, and while she couldn't get a job as an actor, she proved to be very good at dressing up actors. Those latex disguises have certainly proven to be very helpful!

 

== Live Action Television ==

* Used frequently in ''[[The X-Files]]'' spinoff ''[[The Lone Gunmen]]''.

* A high quality rubber mask was worn by a bank robber in an episode of ''[[Numb3rs]]'' and it was totally convincing, though the wearer wasn't impersonating anyone in particular, just concealing his own appearance.

* Similarly spoofed in ''[[Police Squad!]]'''s second episode, when a pretty cocktail waitress in a club turned out to be a bearded Frenchman in a mask and wig.

** Of course, considering that this is the series (and race) that gave us the Does Everything Tool in the Sonic Screwdriver, the Master being able to create masks that do that kind of stuff is a little more believable. In his first appearance he had a deal with the Nestene Consciousness, controller of the living plastic Autons - he could have gotten them then.

** However, despite this great disguise he'd still in some way refer to himself as The Master, usually by translating it into another language.

** On some occasions, he'd pull a reverse trick - slap a disguise of himself on someone else while he makes a getaway.

*** One wonders whether this was borrowed from the Warwolves, in Marvel Comics' Excalibur, who did the same thing.

** In the serial ''City of Death'', the main villain has a head which is a mass of tentacles with a single eye in the center. Despite this, a latex mask enables him to perfectly appear as a human being complete with eyes, tongue, facial expressions, etc. Bonus points for the villain's real head being bigger than his head when masked as a human.

* Spencer in ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive]]'' at one point assumes the form of the much younger, much more female Ronny and succeeds. He'd done disguises of this nature before, but this one really embodied the trope. In a similar manner, his ''[[Super Sentai]]'' counterpart, Makino, does the same with female team member Sakura.

** In the episode "The Secret Underground", the Resistance Duo Mike and Juliet board the main mother ship, undercover as Visitor scientists disguised as humans (while wearing the Visitors' distinctive orange jumpsuits), and at one point, Diana nearly catches Mike and Julie, until our heroes peel off their latex masks to reveal Reptilian heads underneath, thus letting them pass without any trouble. But in the next scene, it's revealed that the Resistance Duo "impersonators" are indeed the real Resistance Duo, wearing latex Reptilian masks and having pulled masks resembling their human selves over their scaly disguises (we don't see them peel off their Visitor heads, although we do clearly see them peeling off the human masks to reveal their alien masks).

** In ''V: The Final Battle'', a Visitor fifth columnist disguises himself as Mike Donovan to make Diana believe Donovan has been killed. One wonders why the Visitors never exploited this ability to impersonate specific humans.

* In an episode of ''[[Due South]],'' Ray Vecchio and Benton Fraser are each simultaneously abducted by someone in a mask of the other.

* A staple of the Canadian action show ''[[FX the Series]]''. Averted in the sense that lead character and makeup/effects artist Rollie Tyler often takes several hours to create the masks he wears, which are applied as separate strips with supplemental makeup. The same goes for his arch-nemesis, Victor Loubar. On the other hand, they do fall prey to the "extrapolate the face from a few photos" setup.

** As a fun bit of trivia, Arnaud De Thiel is also the name of the first case of identity theft legally recorded in France.

*** Better known for the name of the man he stole the identity of, Martin Guerre.

* An episode of ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'' used this trope to try and ruin Bo and Luke Duke's reputations. Boss Hogg apparently found a fellow who made such masks to order from people's photographs.

* Used more improbably than usual in an episode of ''[[The Wild Wild West (TV series)|The Wild Wild West]]'' when Artemus Gordon wears one latex mask under another for a double reveal, (when he impersonates the henchman Leto impersonating him.)

* Avoided on ''[[The A-Team]]''. Hannibal Smith used disguises like this frequently, but just to hide his own appearance, not look like any other specific person. Usually to screen people he would "send" to the A-Team later. He also apparently had a few regular personae.

* Dr. Marlena Evans from ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'' was shocked when she witnessed her then husband Roman Brady committing a murder, thus revealing him to be the Salem slasher. However several episodes later, "Roman" pulled off his face mask to reveal that it was actually Tony Di Mera underneath, seemingly having undergone a [[Face Heel Turn]], or was it?. The murderer turned out in the end to be Andre, Tony's [[Uncanny Family Resemblance|identical cousin]].

* ''[[Childrens Hospital]]'': Malin Akerman is Jon Hamm.

* Used a few times in ''[[Lois and Clark]]''. They even [[Justified Trope]] one case by showing how it takes a long time for the [[Master of Disguise]] to achieve it with makeup.

* ''[[She Spies]]'' episode "Learning to Fly" included [http://youtu.be/1BLIiZYEQPs this gem], with the rarely-seen complication: "Mine's stuck!"

* The ''[[Cheers]]'' episode "The Improbable Dream" includes [http://youtu.be/sDeSFKrAmfQ this reason] why Sam might not want to date Kirstie Alley's character.

* Catherine Martel from ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' does this after the fire burns down the mills. Disguised as a Japanese business man. In fact the actor Piper Laurie had to come on set disguised in order to keep the plot twist a secret and she managed to fool a couple of the other actors; including her on-screen husband.

 

* Makes a brief appearance in the video for [[Britney Spears]]' song "Toxic" when a stewardess rips the "face" off a fat, balding businessman to reveal a Brad Pitt lookalike underneath.

* Makes a brief appearance in video clip of [[U2]]'s Hold me, Thrill Me, Kiss me, Kill me - just watch.

* The very end of [[Switchfoot]]'s "New Way To Be Human" music video features Chad Butler yanking his face off to reveal that he's actually Tim Foreman, at which point the other Tim rips off his face to reveal that he's actually Jon Foreman, at which point the other Jon pulls off his face to reveal that he's actually Jerome Fontamillas.

** That isn't Jerome. He didn't join the band until at least a year later. It could possibly be the legendary "Chin", namesake of their first album.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* In the tabletop RPG ''[[Cybergeneration]]'', there is an entire subculture - the Facedancers - devoted to the high-tech version of this.

 

* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater]]'', Naked Snake is given a mask that remarkably resembles a major in the enemy army. If you call a specific character over the radio while wearing it, he explains how it is the cutting edge of masquerade, with the ability to allow the wearer to blink with the mask blinking with it. Naked Snake promptly replies with a query of why they didn't work on the ability to have its mouth move with the wearer, to which the person on the other line shrugs it off, calling the man who invented the mask "just weird". (Though in the creator's defense, while someone may not be suspicious of a guy who doesn't talk to you, they will definitely be suspicious when the guy doesn't appear to blink for a while.)

** It fulfills its intended purpose of getting Snake through the Colonel-only security checkpoint, but the trope is subverted when Volgin becomes suspicious of the disguised Snake because [[Crotch Grab Sex Check|crotches are hard to disguise]], latex perfection or not.

** In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', although the player doesn't find this out until well after the fact, one of the NPCs you interact with turns out to be master of disguise Decoy Octopus in a very convincing mask. Octopus, in fact, [[Invoked]] this trope: he had sliced off his own ears and shaved down his cheekbones in order to remove distinguishing features under masks.

* ''[[Professor Layton and the Curious Village]]'' has Don Paolo disguising himself as Detective Chelmey with a mask featuring a full body suit. It gets more ridiculous in the second game where he disguises himself as ''{{spoiler|Flora}}'' who is about half his size.

** ''Unwound Future'' has him impersonating {{spoiler|Dr. Schrader, the Dean of Layton's university and Layton himself during their [[Enemy Mine|temporary truce]]. Paolo pulls each one off so well that even Layton requires some serious contemplation on each person's mannerisms to begin catching on.}}

* IIRC, this was how LeChuck disguised himself as the sheriff in the first ''[[Monkey Island (series)|Monkey Island]]'' game.

* Can be seen in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1bb_JRkAOk trailer] for ''[[Sly Cooper]] 4: Thieves in Time'', when after a typical thieving by a silhouetted Sly Cooper, we fade into the Cooper Gang hideout, where Sly enters with his loot, only for him to peel off his latex Sly Cooper mask and reveal Dimitri underneath (it should be noted that his silhouetted tail actually ''changes from raccoon to lizard'' and that he was also smoking, with his cigar ''completely hidden by the mask''!) Not sure if something like this will be in the real game though.

* In ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'', this is how the Spy's disguise ability looks to the enemy team (to the Spy's own team, it's just a [[Paper-Thin Disguise|paper mask over his face]]).

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** On a few occasions, sometimes someone (usually a villain) would wear a mask of ''Scooby-Doo himself'' to either confuse him or give him a bad name. This could be seen in ''A Scooby-Doo Valentine'' (with {{spoiler|former [[Boy Band|NSync]] member J.C. Chasez as an "evil" Scooby-Doo and four extras as demonic versions of the Mystery Inc. humans}}), even [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpWkHydGPjU ''DavidBeckham'' did so] in an Adidas ad with the gang, and vice-versa. Perhaps the most famous example of this was in the classic episode "Never Ape an Ape Man" when [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-9icY86B0w the Ape Man slipped on a Scooby-Doo mask] to [[Mirror Routine|make the real Scooby think he has come up to a mirror]], and then later apparently Shaggy finds the rubber Scooby mask and wears it briefly at the end.

* Even Disney got into the act in some of their animated [[Disney Animated Canon|movies]] and [[Classic Disney Shorts|shorts]]. The Big Bad Wolf in the numerous ''Three Little Pigs'' shorts sometimes employed through this sort of disguise to catch the pigs, the most famous one being him posing as a Jewish peddler (complete with a mask featuring a big nose and a beard), though usually he would [[Paper-Thin Disguise|settle for something cheesy]]. Another example was in the 1986 animated film ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'', in which Basil of Baker Street disguises himself as a white Chinese mouse, complete with rubber mask and an inflatable bodysuit. And yet another example was in the 1992 film ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', where Jafar disguises himself as an ugly old man to lure Aladdin into the Cave of Wonders (his mask even gives him hideous teeth, one with a gold filling!), and in the 1989 animated film ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'', when Ursula disguises herself using Ariel's voice as the sexy Vanessa to marry Prince Eric, in which her skin rips off during the "wedding" to reveal her true self (though this last is justified because [[A Wizard Did It|a sea witch did it]].

* Quite a few ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' cartoons from Warner Bros. Animation also often employed the mask device as well, typically when a surprise ending/gag is needed, or when [[Paper-Thin Disguise|wearing a cheesy disguise would not work]]. Such examples include ''What Makes Daffy Duck'' (1947) when [[Daffy Duck]] masquerades as a ranger dog, ''Odor-Able Kitty'' (1945) when a cat hiding from Pepe Le Pew disguises in a completely convincing Bugs Bunny costume, ''Scent-Imental Over You'' (1947) when Pepe Le Pew peels off his skin to reveal a dog underneath, then removes his dog mask revealing Pepe's true skunk features once again, ''The Sheepish Wolf'' (1942) which features a twist on the old wolf-in-sheep's-clothing gag ala "The Far Side", ''Of Fox and Hounds'' (1940) in which George Fox masquerades as another dog to fool his adversaries, ''Don't Give Up the Sheep'' (1952) where Ralph Wolf wears a convincing latex mask and suit to imitate another sheepdog (which his adversary Sam Sheepdog sees through), ''Paying the Piper'' (1949) where a cat disguises himself in a convincing rat suit to fool Pied Piper Porky, ''A Sheep in the Deep'' (1962) where Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog engage in a "disguise duel," ''Muzzle Tough'' (1954) where Sylvester disguises himself full-body as a really attractive female dog to lure away Hector (but instead it fools the dog catcher), ''Fowl Weather'' (1953) when Sylvester wears a very convincing goat mask when hiding behind a fence (which Tweety instantly detects as the "puddy tat"), ''Ready, Set, Zoom'' (1955) where Wile E. Coyote masquerades as a female Road Runner to attract his prey (but instead attracts a bunch of other hungry coyotes chasing HIM), and ''Knight-Mare Hare'' (1955) when the wizard Merlin attempts to use a magic spell to transform Bugs into a pig, but instead it just magically conceals Bugs in a realistic pig suit, to which Merlin transforms himself into a jackass, but keeps unzipping each suit to reveal another mule underneath.

** In the ''Once Upon a Time on Mars'' three-parter, Lawrence gets the mask glued onto his face, which makes it difficult for him to peel it off when his boss orders him to.

** Limburger's rival Napoleon Bonapart also had the same mask.

** Sherlock Holmes arguably deserves his own sub-section of this trope, in that one of his shticks was that he could follow a client or a suspect anywhere in Victorian London due to his "mastery of disguise".

* Parodied in ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police (animation)|Sam and Max Freelance Police]]''. When the trusted doctor reveals himself to be the big bad (and a woman) by removing a mask, the reaction is simply "Oh, that old parlor trick. We can top that!" Sam, Max, and the Geek then each remove several layers of masks, but eventually stop when the villain orders them too (and we don't see them reveal back to their normal faces on-screen).

* ''[[Arthur (animation)|Arthur]]'' sometimes does this, mostly during fantasy/dream sequences Buster comes up with (often involving aliens or super villains), though one exception was the ending to "The Boy Who Cried Comet", when all of the cast members peel off their masks to reveal [[Gainax Ending|they are actually aliens]].

** The Brain [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades this]] in one episode, when he and Binky are watching an episode of ''The Bionic Bunny Show'', and the Brain is unimpressed at how predictable it is, and he knows when the villain, Dr. Fowl (a chicken) will reveal his master plan, which will be robbing banks dressed as Bionic Bunny (and he slips on a rubber mask of him while explaining this.) The Brain's reaction: "The age-old mask device? We've seen it a million times!"

** The female villain The Baroness frequently did this as part of her schemes to capture the G.I. Joes. A random woman would often peel off her mask and wig to reveal the Baroness. In one instance, she actually dressed up as Lady Jaye, and ''vice-versa''

* In an episode of ''[[King of the Hill]]'', this trope is referenced when Dale hatches a ridiculous scheme to sue a tobacco company for five thousand dollars. They counter sue him for a larger amount, and Dale decides to step up his game a bit. Hank tells him what a dumbass he's being, and tells him that if he drops the lawsuit they might go easy on him. Dale is instantly suspicious and suspects Hank of being the company's CEO in diguise due to his 'insight'. He then demands Hank remove his "false face" by grabbing behind his jaw and pulling with a flourish. He even demonstrates the technique with an imaginary mask. Hank refuses and Dale grabs at his hand, prompting Hank to slap him away. Dale tells him he just earned himself an assault charge. Later in the episode, when they actually go to court and he meets the CEO, Dale's response is "Wait... if you're here... THEN WHO'S THAT?!", with him pointing at an annoyed Hank.

* An episode of ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes|Jimmy Two Shoes]]'' had [[All Bikers Are Hells Angels|The Rodeo Clowns]] wear several disguises like this.

* In the ''[[Kim Possible]]'' episode "Attack of the Killer Bebes", Ron demonstrated a surprising skill with latex by perfectly impersonating Kim's father, who was being targeted by Drakken.

** Not quite perfectly, as he doesn't ever speak until just before he pulls off his mask, and when he does so, the lips on the mask don't move.

** In this same episode, Ron made that mask, along with some others, thanks to his new Movie Makeup Magic Kit. He even made a mask of Kim Possible (which he briefly wears at one point when mocking her), and he also created the mask for his Mad Dog mascot costume prominently featured in the episode this way, complete with the ability to foam at the mouth (which is actually a banana cream),

* During the 1989 season of the classic ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987]]'' series, the Turtles had disguises made by April's TV studio consisting of latex masks that resemble generic male bald humans. Usually they would simply wear these masks with only trenchcoats and nothing else (not even caring if their true turtle hands are exposed. On another occasion, Raphael wanted to be a [[Master of Disguise]] and made himself up with latex to look like the gangster Mad Dog. Of course in true wacky cartoon tradition, a mix-up occurs and the real Mad Dog winds up with the turtles, and Raphael winds up with the gang Mad Dog works with.

* Spoofed at the end of an episode of ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'' entitled "Aloha Hoek"; the [[Gainax Ending]] features Stimpy mourning the loss of the seemingly-deceased Ren, only to be interrupted by his buzzing wristwatch. In tThe next shot of them they suddenly look all bulgy with empty eyeholes and exposed zippers and mask-lines, and they both tug their Ren and Stimpy masks off to reveal they are actually two human [[Not Even Bothering with the Accent|vaguely "Russian"]] spies (whom resemble Soviet versions of [[The Flintstones|Fred and Barney]] for some reason) and riding off in a Russian submarine.

* In an episode of the 1993 ''[[The Pink Panther (animation)|Pink Panther]]'' series (where the Panther talks) entitled "Werewolf in Panther's Clothing" had a small male gypsy disguise himself full-body as a werewolf (complete with stilts to make him appear larger), and the disguise appeared perfectly flawless, but suspicions were aroused when a part of the "wolf"'s skin was torn off on his chest during a fight with the Panther.

* Also a common practical joke on [[April Fools' Day]] in animation, as demonstrated on ''[[Cat Dog]]'', ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' and Disney's ''[[House of Mouse]]''.

 

== Real Life ==

** However, masks like those can be used in harmless practical jokes, even to simply [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrveMx32DGY driving around in one].

* In [http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/11/04/canada.disguised.passenger/index.html?hpt=C1 this] story, a twenty-something man was able to pass as an elderly one. Suspicion was raised when the man had young-looking hands, but was only discovered after he went into a bathroom on the plane and returned without his disguise.

** The sequel to this story will involve someone with the budget to purchase not only the mask, but the [http://spfxmasks.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=59 associated "sleeves"] to go with it.

* In most cases, these were done using silicone masks manufactured by [http://www.spfxmasks.com SPFX Masks], a company that specializes in realistic and horror masks. When those crimes have occurred using the masks, they went to the company's founder, Rusty Slusser, who was shocked and appalled for criminals using masks for evil purposes. Another company called [http://www.greylandfilm.com Greyland Films] also makes rather decent realistic masks, but out of foam latex (like many movie prosthetics/masks are), and while some can be pretty realistic, they are not as impressive (or expensive) as the SPFX masks are.

* Be advised that [[Rule 34]] is definitely in effect. For the time being, the subculture in question simply refers to its membership as "Female Maskers", although sometimes rubber fetishists and furries are included.

* Aside from professional sources like the above-mentioned SPFX Masks, there are also dozens of hobbyists around the world who make and sell masks of varying levels of realism. In addition, a growing number of companies offer full-torso and lower-body suits. Full one-piece bodysuits are available, but would-be impersonators must still pay steep fees and wait several weeks for completion.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Futuristic Tech Index]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Acting for Two]]

[[Category:Costume Tropes]]

[[Category:Latex Perfection]]