Obfuscating Disability: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"The wheelchair is for respect."''|'''Guy Caballero''', ''[[SCTV]]''}}
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Sometimes a person with an apparent disability will be more than they seem. Sometimes they will turn out not to be disabled at all. The reasons for faking a disability vary, but it is usually to cause others to underestimate them.
A particular form occurs in [[Crime and Punishment Series]] where one suspect will be obviously be ruled out because they are in a wheelchair and physically incapable of committing the crime. However, at [[The Summation]], the detective announces that the criminal is in fact the paraplegic. This is then followed by the supposed paraplegic getting up and attempting to run. Another variant, commonly used in [[Courtroom Episode
See also [[Throwing Off the Disability]], [[Pillow Pregnancy]], [[Faking Amnesia]], and [[Playing Sick]].
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* In later ''[[Mistborn]]'' books, the heroine consistently suspects that an enemy warlord is using this. Not on any kind of evidence, solely because of his paraplegia. He's crippled! He must be hiding some enormous powers! Yes, she is a bit of a nutter, why do you ask?
* The killer in the [[John Dickson Carr]] novel ''The Problem of the Wire Cage'' uses his recent car accident, and its attendant injuries, to pull off a murder he seemingly couldn't have physically committed. Unfortunately, circumstances turn it into a murder NO ONE could've committed.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "A Witch Shall Live", Salome tossed the head of a murdered man to a deaf
* Although he has ''significant'' mental problems, Bromden in ''[[One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest]]'' is not "deaf and dumb." He got so used to people disregarding him that he gave up trying to communicate with them, and finds that being considered a deaf-mute has the advantage that staff are careless about what they discuss when he's around. He throws off the charade partway through the book and - aside from [[Mc Murphy]] - none of the patients notice because they never paid much attention to him in the first place.
* Claudius exaggerated his stutter, limp and general clumsiness in ''[[I, Claudius]]''. This ''barely'' kept him alive when he had to work for [[The Caligula]].
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* Used in the two-part ''[[Get Smart]]'' episode "Ship of Spies". It involves a wheelchair bound water polo player.
** ''[[Get Smart]]'' also featured Leadside, a villain in a wheelchair. He pulls off an impressive infiltration because while he is incapable of walking or standing up, the act of running is still within his power.
* ''[[The X-Files]]'', "The Amazing Maleeni." When a stage magician who made his head rotate 360 degrees as part of his act turns up decapitated, Mulder and Scully quickly believe his bank manager brother could have been his
* The "Lost Ending" to ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'' as seen on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' showed Mr. Potter was faking.
* In several episodes of ''[[Law and Order]]'' and its spinoffs;
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