Not a Mask: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:papalazarou1.jpg|link=The League of Gentlemen|frame| The pinkish colour is makeup.]]

{{quote|'''Camilla:''' You, sir, should unmask.

'''Stranger:''' Indeed?

'''Cassilda:''' Indeed, it's time. We have all laid aside disguise but you.

A horror trope which has become something of a [[Dead Horse Trope]], as it's now almost always played for comedy. It involves a character seeing an ugly face and begin pulling at it, on the assumption that it's a mask. Of course, it's actually someone's face and the puller will typically be [[Horror Struck]]. Sometimes a purely comedic variation will occur with wigs if the joke is that [[Bifauxnen|a woman looks like a man]]. Also closely related to "I'm not pregnant, I'm just obese" jokes. Compare with [[Your Costume Needs Work]] and [[For Halloween I Am Going as Myself]]. Can be a result of the monster being [[Mistaken for An Imposter]].

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Happens to the main character of ''[[Angel Densetsu]]'' where a new guidance conselor first scolds him for wearing a frightening mask and begins pulling on his face, and then [[Crosses the Line Twice|accuses him of mutilating himself to scare people]].

* [[Batman|The Joker]] sometimes likes to pretend he's wearing makeup, but that ain't makeup. Well, [[The Dark Knight Saga|except...]]

* Inverted in [http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=15990 this] ''[[Doctor Who]]'' Fan Fic, as the non-mask-wearing character in question is an attractive [[Human Alien]].

== Film ==

{{quote|"I'm sorry, Basil. I thought your mother was a man."}}

* The Archbishop of Canterbury in ''[[Johnny English]]''.

== Literature ==

* In [[Beastly]] Kyle goes to a [[For Halloween I Am Going as Myself|Halloween party]] where he startes talking to a girl who asks to see him again but to do so she needs to know what he looks like and you know the rest.

* Played straight in [[Edgar Allan Poe|''The Masque of the Red Death'']]

** Terry Pratchett played a similar situation (almost) straight in his short story ''Turntables of the Night'', with the catch that it's from the perspective of a guest at the party ([[Unreliable Narrator|who may or may not be drunk]].)

* ''[[The King in Yellow]]'' (see above) is also a straight example, from back before it was such a [[Dead Horse Trope]].

* [[Shel Silverstein]]'s poem "Best Mask?"

* In ''Quozl'', the [[Petting Zoo People]] aliens are wandering around Disneyland pretending to be people in suits. ({{spoiler|The protagonist's sister had written them into her kids' TV show}}) [[Hilarity Ensues]] when {{spoiler|the security guards confront them for being dressed up like characters ''[[Glamour Failure|from a rival company]]''.}}

* Used in the first episode of ''[[Torchwood]]''. The fact that the guy looks like an alien wearing a normal janitor's jumpsuit plays with you.

* ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]'''s Papa Lazarou is not normally wearing makeup.

* In the ''[[Tales from the Crypt]]'' episode "Only Skin Deep", the guy finds out the woman {{spoiler|a deranged [[Serial Killer]] who murders men and cuts off their faces for her "art"}} he hooked up with during a Halloween party isn't wearing a mask when he scratches her and draws blood.

* [[Cyrano De Bergerac]]: In Act I Scene I, Cyrano is described by one of his friends, Raguenau (making this [[Older Than Radio]]):

{{quote|''Above his Toby ruff''

''one laughs, says ''He will anon take it off.'' But no!—Monsieur de Bergerac''

'' always keeps it on.'' }}

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Rendered even creepier by the fact he can ''still make expressions with it'', the metal of the mask [[Uncanny Valley|violently contorting]] to reflect his wrath.

* Played for laughs in the second ''[[Professor Layton]]'' game. When the professor and Luke first run into {{spoiler|Inspector Chelmey}}, who Don Paolo had [[Latex Perfection|impersonated]] in the previous game, Luke immediately assumes it's him again. He has to be pried off the victim, who has ''no'' idea why Luke is trying to pull his face off.

== Web Animation ==

* In one video by College Humor, which is a parody of ''Scooby-Doo'', Shaggy immediately suspects that a security guard is the culprit. He grabs for the guard's face and pulls it off, revealing...the inside of the guard's face.

* Not a horror example, but in ''[[Fur Will Fly]]'', when Brad first arrives in the [[Mirror Universe]], [http://www.jadephoenix.org/fwf/comics/index.php?date=fur_fly5.jpg he tries taking off Stewart's and Natalie's animal masks]. Needless to say, it doesn't work.

== Web Original ==

* In [http://strangeandsecretfaces.blogspot.com/2011/05/fever-ship.html this creepypasta] for ''[[The Fear Mythos]]'', this trope is applied to [[Enemy to All Living Things|the Plague Doctor]]:

{{quote|"He had a funny beak face," the child said. "I asked him. I asked him why he was wearing such a funny mask. He told me that he wasn't wearing no mask."}}

== Western Animation ==

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Disguise Tropes]]

[[Category:Horror Tropes]]