Mistaken for An Impostor: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''Before I could fully recover, however, two or three of these admirers ran up to me radiating indignation, and told me that a public insult had been put upon me in the next room. I inquired its nature. It seemed that an impertinent fellow had dressed himself up as a preposterous parody of myself.''}}

* ''[[Discworld/Wyrd Sisters|Wyrd Sisters]]'' plays with this: {{smallcaps|Death}} winds up filling in for the actor playing him in a play. People normally don't see him because of the [[Weirdness Censor]], but now they're ''expecting'' to see Death... and he gets stage fright.

* A disloyal subordinate uses this against Tuon after Tuon's accidental abduction in ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' - Suroth spreads rumors among the troops that some traitor is out in the countryside impersonating Tuon, and should be killed on sight. {{spoiler|Since Mat keeps Tuon safe until her loyal bodyguard corps can return her to the capitol, it goes very badly for Suroth.}}

* ''[[The Baroque Cycle]]'' - Jack Shaftoe, a.k.a. King of the Vagabonds a.k.a. l'Emmerdeur, in rags and a slave collar rides a warhorse into a Parisian fancy dress ball (escaping captivity and trying to brazen it out) only to be mistaken for the king (of France.) Until the actual king arrives in his l'Emmerdeur costume, at which point all the noble women who'd been giving their jewellery to the 'fake' l'Emmerdeur feel foolish, and life becomes more exciting and dangerous for Jack (yet again.)

* In the game ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'', one of the abilities Alex Mercer gains is "Patsy", faking out the military by accusing one of their own of being a shapeshifting mutant. And, of course, since Alex himself is the shapeshifting mutant they're hunting...

* In ''[[Suikoden V]]'', Euram falls for one of these.

* In the online game ''Legends of [[Zork]]'', at the end of the quest "Antharia Jack and the Hat Mislaid", {{spoiler|it turns out you've been trying to find Antharia Jack's hat for a crazed fan rather than the real Antharia Jack - and furthermore, there's an entire ''fan club'' in town devoted to dressing up like him. This culminates in you irritably pushing aside the ''real'' Antharia Jack, who comments that it's been the third time it's happened to him that day}}.

* In a sidequest in ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'', Mario is given the task of helping a die-hard Luigi fangirl meet the man himself. Unfortunately, Mario's brother is unavailable, so Mario has to dress up as Luigi and meet the fan instead. While he is doing so, the real Luigi shows up. Guess what happens.

* There's an episode of ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' where SpongeBob sees a gorilla and concludes that it must be Patrick in a costume. Patrick walks up, but the gorilla takes off its mask to reveal the real Patrick. The fake Patrick takes off its mask to reveal a gorilla. This is subverted later?when SpongeBob wonders [[Misplaced Wildlife|why a gorilla is underwater]]. The Gorilla tries to explain why he's underwater only to say "They're onto us!" and ride off into the sunset on a pantomime horse.

** Another SpongeBob SquarePants example: In the episode where Mrs. Puff is in jail and she likes it better than teaching at boating school, SpongeBob and Patrick tried to break her free. Of course, Mrs. Puff didn't want to leave. One of their attempts to get her out was donning [[Latex Perfection|perfect disguises of prision guards]]. After they left, two real guards came to see Mrs. Puff. Thinking that they were Spongebob and Patrick wearing disguises, she pulled off their faces.

* An old ''[[Donald Duck]]'' cartoon, "Donald Duck and the Gorilla", had Donald's nephews pretend to be an escaped killer ape to scare Donald. He catches them, and when the actual killer ape shows, he slaps it around a few times before realizing what it is and running for his life.

** Also, in another ''Donald Duck'' cartoon, "Lion Around", two of Donald's nephews dress up in a lion costume to scare Donald while the third nephew goes for a yummy pie. However, one slip-up has Donald discover who the "lion" really is and shoos the nephews out of the house. Then a real mountain lion shows up and goes to Donald's house in an attempt to eat him and the pie. However, Donald thinks the actual lion is just his nephews in costume and tries shooing it away, but the lion persists and enters his house. At once Donald becomes infuriated and even attempts to rip off the lion's head, but then one of his nephews knocks on the window and tries convincing Donald that the lion is real by showing him the costume, which the nephews had taken off. It takes Donald a few seconds to realize that the "lion costume" he attempted to "take off" is actually a real lion, whom he had just ''[[Incredibly Lame Pun|ticked off]]''! [[Oh Crap]]!

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* [[Charlie Chaplin]] entered a Charlie Chaplin Impersonation contest.... [http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/chaplin2.asp and came in 3rd].

** The contest was to impersonate the Tramp, one of Chaplin's most popular characters. The judges noted his perfect impression, but he lost points for showing up on the spur of the moment with no costume.

[[Category:Doppelgänger]]

[[Category:Mistaken for Index]]