Masquerade Ball: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:MaskedBall.jpg|frame|''Paper faces on parade...'']]

 

{{quote|Green and black,

Take your turn, take a ride

on the merry-go-round

 

Want to show off just how rich, elite, and extravagant your [[Blue Blood|upper class]] is? Have them celebrate everything with a '''Masquerade Ball'''. With bizarre masks and elaborate [[Gorgeous Period Dress]], everyone's identity is sufficiently obscured for any number of misunderstandings. Either Horror or [[Hilarity Ensues]].

 

Subtrope of [[Dances and Balls]]. Has nothing to do with [[Idiot Ball]] or any of its subtropes.

{{examples}}

* In ''[[The Big O]]'', Schwarzwald rigged it so that the masks would eventually explode. Damn.

** He didn't end up the [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] posterchild for nothing.

* [[Vassalord]]: In vol. 4, {{spoiler|Rayflo sends Charlie a note to attend a masqueradeso they can meet up. They quote [[Phantom of the Opera]] at each other and eventually a fight between Barry and Charlie breaks out.}}

 

* Featured in the [[Gargoyles]] comics by SLG. A costume party is held on Halloween at the Xanatos building- where the gargoyles fit right in and Elisa is dressed like Princess Jasmine. (She likes Disney Princesses for some reason.) Meanwhile, Fox and David Xanatos are attending a masquerade at the White House.

* Barbara Gordon first created the Batgirl outfit as a costume for a party - to annoy her father. When the party was crashed by supercriminals, she responded to the crisis like a costumed crimefighter rather than a costumed partygoer (Which Bruce Wayne did, seeing as he was in a clown outfit at the time), starting her journey to become a member of the Bat-Family.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Marie-Antoinette, her husband, and her two favorite ladies sneak out of Versailles to attend a masked ball in Paris in Sofia Coppola's ''[[Marie Antoinette (film)|Marie Antoinette]].''

* In ''[[Terror Train]]'', there's a masquerade party held in the titular vehicle, providing plenty of disguises for the killer.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Referenced by [[The Grim Reaper]] in ''[[Discworld]]'', explaining why he appeared at a summoning ritual with a cocktail and a sausage-onna-stick.{{small-caps| "The party's nice, but I expect it'll all go downhill after midnight. It's when [[For Halloween I Am Going as Myself|they think I'll be taking my mask off.]]"}}

** ''Witches Abroad'' also includes Death apparently wearing a carnival mask, and in ''Maskerade'' he actually does (along with the full ''Red Death'' ensemble), with the shock coming when he ''does'' take it off. Pratchett uses the same gag in the short story ''Turntables of the Night'' set at the modern-day, ultra-mundane version of the Masquerade Ball; a small town Hallowe'en disco.

* ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'' has a masquerade scene where the Phantom tributes Poe's story.

* Very obliquely mentioned in an excerpt from a scene of the eponymous [[Brown Note]] [[Show Within a Show|playscript-within-the-book]] ''[[The King in Yellow]]'':

* [[Agatha Christie]] uses a masquerade ball as the starting place for a murder in the "Finessing the King"/"The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper" two-part story in ''Partners in Crime''.

 

* ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'' brought the [[Wig, Dress, Accent]] to new levels by attending a modern retro masque party, where Sydney meets a [[New Old Flame]] who's probably [[The Mole]].

* A black-and-white masque ball in an episode of ''[[Ugly Betty]]'' provides cover for on-the-lam Claire Meade to talk to her estranged husband again.

* Completely unsurprisingly, the video for [[Versailles]]' song "MASQUERADE".

 

* ''[[Shakespeare|Romeo and Juliet]]'' fall in love at the masque ball, not knowing that they're members of enemy families.

* Act II, Scene i of ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]''.

Hide your face so the world can never find you!'' }}

** As in the book, the Phantom attends dressed up as Red Death. He's much more blatant about crashing the party in this version, though.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* [[Infocom]]'s third mystery, Suspect, was set at a costume party. The hostess is murdered with part of the protagonist's costume, making the protagonist...well, as the title implies, the suspect.

* Lord Fain of ''[[Lusternia]]'' has an aesthetic that mixes Masquerade Ball and [[Chess Motifs]]. Appropriately, his appearance is an extended [[Shout-Out]] to [[Edgar Allan Poe|Poe's]] ''Masque of the Red Death'', right down to his title ("The Crimson Masque") and his {{spoiler|[[Not a Mask|actual lack of a mask]]}}.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* An episode of the first ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon revolves around a high-class masquerade ball April attends (and looks [[She Cleans Up Nicely|shockingly stunning]] in her evening gown). She brings the Turtles with her, thinking it'd be fun and ironic. Over the course of the episode she is [[Mistaken Identity|mistaken]] for a similarly-dressed European princess and kidnapped, and when security orders everyone to take off their masks, the Turtles are in an obvious bind.

* The episode "Heart of Tarkon" of ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers|Galaxy Rangers]]'' has Doc crashing one of these and using the opportunity to turn on the charm with Maya. Maya is not fooled by his identity in the slightest, [[Give Geeks a Chance|but is surprised at how charming he can be]].

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Disguise Tropes]]

[[Category:Settings]]

[[Category:Dancing Tropes]]

[[Category:Plots]]