Non-Identical Twins: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Robotnik:''' Voila! Your identical twin brother!<br />

Some directors would try to cast two actors who look similar enough that in identical costumes and make-up they might almost pass as twins, but if your play is a comedy it can be even more effective if you cast two actors who look nothing whatsoever alike - and simply handwave [[Informed Ability|the fact]] that none of the other characters can tell them apart. If you take this second option, what you have is [['''Non-Identical Twins]]'''.

This is generally a comedy trope, and often a theatre trope because, for whatever reason, people have a harder time suspending their disbelief for something like this if it happens in film -- presumablyfilm—presumably because we expect a movie to be able to fake a truly identical-looking twin in ways a play could not.

* ''[[Ranma ½ (Manga)|Ranma One Half]]'' did several of these, often playing on the Magoo-like eyesight of Mousse. One memorable one ''not'' involving Mousse had Ranma disguise Katsunnishiki (a sumo pig the size of a rhinoceros) as Ranma's fiancee Akane, complete with wig and a schoolgirl outfit. [[Tsundere|Akane was not amused]].

* In ''[[Urusei Yatsura (Manga)|Urusei Yatsura]]'', a fox spirit showed up at the school and tried to pull of several impersonations. But it was always one foot tall and an obvious anthropomorphic fox. However, when it impersonated the teacher Onsen-mark, the students (who didn't like Onsen-mark) proclaimed him the real teacher, tied up Onsen-Mark, and beat him for "impersonating the teacher", all the while referring to Onsen-Mark as "The Hoax".

* Terriermon and Lopmon aren't twins, but still got the accidental switch done in the second ''[[Digimon Tamers (Anime)|Digimon Tamers]]'' movie when Henry took Lopmon (who is chocolate brown and pink with two more horns).

* As evidenced by the page quote, Caren and Noel of ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (Manga)|Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]''. {{spoiler|Kaito and Gackto, too.}}

* Kanchomé's debut episode in ''[[Zatch Bell (Manga)|Zatch Bell]]'' has him and Folgore boarding Kiyomaro up against the ceiling. Then Kanchomé transforms into Kiyomaro and tries to get Gash to reveal the location of the book. It's almost a perfect match... except his nose is ''huge''. Even worse... neither Gash nor Kiyomaro's school friend Suzume can tell the difference - although to be fair, Suzume is a huge ditz and Kanchomé compliments her beauty before she has a chance to notice. Gash has no excuse, though.

** This is funnier in the anime as Kanchome's VA sounds nothing like Kiyomaro's and in fact sounds exactly like [[Ah! My Goddess (Manga)|Keiichi Morisato]] (who's voiced by the same person), a kindly person whose character is not at all like Kiyomaro.

* Agon and Unsui of Shinryuji from ''[[Eyeshield 21 (Manga)|Eyeshield 21]]'', with Agon having long, black dreads and glasses and Unsui being completely bald. {{spoiler|When Agon shaves his head, however, it turns out they're exactly alike.}}

== [[ComicsComic Books]] ==

* German artist [[Walter Moers (Creator)|Walter Moers]] once wrote a short comic about "the cruel twins". At first the two mean-looking guys yell about how evil and cruel they are, but when they go into details, we see that they're actually *''extremely*'' nice and gentle in their deeds. At the end, [[Lampshade Hanging|they admit]], yes, they aren't cruel at all, and no twins either--"we just look similar". Which, you guessed it, also isn't the case.

* The 2011 ''[[Tintin (Filmfilm)|Tintin]]'' film has [[Comedy Duo]] and [[Those Two Guys]] [[Spaced|Simon Pegg]] [[Shaun of the Dead|and]] [[Hot Fuzz|Nick Frost]] (who look entirely different) playing the Thompson twins. Then again, while they look alike in the comics they each spell what is presumably their surname differently.. so god knows what's going on.

* On ''[[Friends (TV)|Friends]]'', Joey tries to pull this on some researchers conducting a twin study. No-one is the slightest bit convinced.

* A plot point in an episode of ''[[Law and Order (TV)|Law and& Order]]'', as the witness can tell the gangster apart from his twin brother he is trying to claim did it because, despite being identical twins, they have lived much different life-styles, resulting in many physical differences, which are very noticeable because the witness was a nurse.

* An episode of ''[[News Radio (TV)|News Radio]]'' had this as part of the plot. Matthew's 'twin brother', played by pre-Daily Show [[Jon Stewart]], came to visit. He looked nothing like him, but they both kept playing 'look alike' games. Eventually Matthew's brother says that it was a stupid idea of his parents in order to misdirect Matthew from thinking he was adopted. The rest of the cast is shocked, as this is incredibly stupid, even for Matthew. It turns out that the deception was the other way around. Matthew was the biological son, and he was simply playing stupid in order for his brother to not think he was adopted.

* In ''[[Sykes (TV)|Sykes]]'' Eric and Hattie insisted they were identical, despite not only being the opposite sex but also being completely different body types (Eric being taller, thin, and rakish and Hattie being shorter, heavier set and baby faced).

** It might have been. I do recall something like that, and a joke that they would constantly pull the old "identical twin swaps places with his brother during a tag team match [[Easily -Distracted Referee|while the referee is distracted]]" trick. Which ''worked''!

* A wonderful production of Shakespeare's ''[[The Comedy of Errors (Theatre)|The Comedy of Errors]]'' had the leading pair of twins played by a tall, thin black guy with very short hair, and a short, stocky white guy with a ponytail. Their only physical similarity was their identical Blues Brothers-inspired suits. Naturally, they were indistinguishable to everyone but the audience.

* Travis Touchdown and {{spoiler|Henry}} in ''[[No More Heroes (Video Game)|No More Heroes]]''.

* Kyosuke and Hyo from ''[[Rival Schools (Video Game)|Rival Schools]]''.

* Solid and Liquid Snake in ''[[Metal Gear Solid (Video Game)|Metal Gear Solid]]'' are identical twins. However, due to genetic altering on Liquid his recessive genes became dominant ([[Hollywood Genetics|roll with it]]), causing him to look nothing like his brother despite having the same DNA. [[You Fail Biology Forever|Somehow]].

* [[Terrible Trio|Scratch and Grounder]] of ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (Animation)|Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' are revealed to be twins in the first episode. Scratch was not amused when his ''twin'' rolled off the assembly line. Then again, it was Scratch's fault that Grounder didn't become an exact copy of him like Robotnik had planned. And soon a [[Sibling Rivalry]] begun, as both of them claimed to be the favorite (Scratch because he had been built first and Grounder for having more accessories). This trope was actually referred to by name in the first comic they appeared in.

[[Category:Non -Identical Twins]]