Paper-Thin Disguise/Live-Action TV

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Examples of Paper-Thin Disguise in Live-Action TV include:

  • A few characters on Hannah Montana have this.
    • Robbie Ray's mustache is made even thinner as anyone could easily put 2 and 2 together that Robbie Ray and Robbie Ray Stewart are the same person - this may be a Lampshade Hanging, especially when one considers that he never hides the fact that he is Robbie Ray and generally acts the same.
  • Many episodes of I Love Lucy have Lucy and Ethel dressing up in paper-thin disguises to fool their husbands in some scheme. Depending on what the plot demands, Ricky and Fred are either completely fooled or recognize their wives right away.
    • Tennessee Ernie Ford doesn't recognize the Wicked City Woman trying to seduce him (just Lucy in a black wig.)
  • The Blackadder Goes Forth episode "General Hospital" features Blackadder trying to find a German spy in the field hospital. One of the men recovering there has a very thick German accent, introduces himself simply as "Smith" and behaves rather suspiciously...Subverted in that as Blackadder points out, not even the Germans are stupid enough to send a man with such a pitiful disguise to be a spy; he's actually a British spy who's been in Germany for so long he's developed an accent.
    • Similarly, George's suggestion that they find the German spy by going to the hospital and looking for the person whose name begins with "von" receives understandably short shrift from Blackadder.
    • Similarly, in "Major Star", Private "Bob" Parkhurst is just a woman dressed up in mens clothing, without any facial disguising of any sort, and yet she is able to fool the General into thinking she is a man, to the point where he is disgusted by her "disgusting drag act" when she gives a cabaret performance (as opposed to earlier, when he thought George's actual drag act so real, he tried to date "Georgina").
    • In Blackadder The Third, the Prince of Wales and his butler exchange clothes and fool everyone, even their Igor, Baldrick or the King, the Prince's father.
    • In "The Witch-Smeller Pursuivant" in Blackadder I, Blackadder goes King Incognito to avoid detection while he consults a wise woman. His disguise consists of a leather strap across his face.
  • Used in the Farscape episode 'Coup by Clam'. A female character has disguised herself as a man by covering up her breasts in spite of the fact that her face is completely unchanged. She manages somehow to fool the guard she works with (possibly justified by the guard being an idiot as well as a misogynist dickhead) but Chiana sees straight through it. Also used again in that episode with John dressing up amusingly as one of the least convincing women ever, in order to enter a club where all the male clients are known.
  • On Doctor Who, the Master, whose skills involved being a master of disguise, disguised himself frequently during Roger Delgado's tenure with a pair of glasses. Anthony Ainley also adopted paper-thin disguises in "Castrovalva" and "Time-Flight" (In the latter case, they actually intended to fool someone, as Ainley even used a pseudonym in the credits). The Master hid behind pseudonyms like "Colonel Masters", "Mr. Magister", "Dr. Masterly", etc. In the new series, he hides behind an unintentionally Significant Anagram.
      • In The End Of Time he even lampshades it, sort of.
    • In "The Visitation" (Peter Davison Doctor) the villain travels to London wrapped up in a huge cloak. Seeing as he's a lizard-like alien with nothing covering his large green snout this disguise is particularly unconvincing.
    • In the Eighth Doctor Adventures, Sabbath demonstrates just what an Expy of the Master he is, with a dreadful pseudonym (Mr. Holiday) and a disguise which, being Bigger on the Inside, makes him very slightly thinner than he actually is. The Doctor is thrown off, while the readers wonder if the Doctor recognizes people who've been on a diet.
  • Subversion: On Top Gear, the presenters occasionally switch out James "Captain Slow" May for their "tame racing driver", a masked man known only as The Stig. The whole disguise is The Stig wearing one of May's iconic shirts (a ghastly purple-and-pink striped number) over his white racing suit. Mysteriously, no one finds it convincing.

May: Some say I was bound and gagged in locker room...

    • Also played with during the Hammerhead i-Eagle Thrust challenge when the "independent tester" was clearly May with a gaffer-tape mustache and his hair tied back.
    • And in the "Three Wise Men" special, when Clarkson and Hammond dress up in niqab.

Hammond: It is I!

  • In Glee, the kids switch names to screw with the substitute teacher. What name does the blonde, female Brittany choose? Mike Chang.
  • Someone handed MacGyver the Idiot Ball in the episode "Cleo Rocks". Despite clues so obvious that a child could work it out, it takes Mac most of the episode to realize that his old nemesis Murdoc is back, even though his disguise is so thin that it's obvious who he is the first time we see him. From behind. In the dark. And he's only halfway in the frame. They clearly thought it was working, too, since even after the first reveal where Murdoc appears undisguised, it's only after we get a second reveal that anyone realizes that he's been in disguise all along.
  • From Allo Allo, there is the character of Monsieur Roger LeClerc, "Man of a thousand faces - every one the same." Most episodes see him donning a completely useless disguise and conspiratorially whispering "It is I, Le Clerc!"
    • Subverted: A 'Duck Seller' enters the café approaches the bar and identifies as Le Clerc only for Le Clerc to pop up and out the Seller as an impostor. It is in fact Mme. Edith in a very convincing disguise.
    • In Leclerc's case, Rene almost always recognises him immediately. However, when events like the Colonel and the Captain being trapped as British POWs in a Stalag Luft, and examined closely by their own General, or Herr Flick posing as a temporary typist, Gruber or the airmen (complete with large handlebar moustaches) posing as nuns, and going completely unrecognised, the trope is played much straighter.
    • As mentioned, Gruber's disguises are usually pathetic, but one episode features him disguised as a nurse so convincingly that most viewers don't realise it's him until he speaks. Judging from the explosion of laughter, the studio audience didn't recognise him either.
    • In another case, Michelle of the Resistance comes in dressed as a very old lady. Though the identity of the person under the disguise may not be immediately apparent, it is quite obvious that it is a disguise due to the fact that her skin is very young looking apart from the false nose...and the fact that when she sits down a pair of decidedly not old lady legs emerge from the coat.
  • Beautiful subversion on Arrested Development, where Tobias steals the plot of Mrs. Doubtfire and dresses himself up as a British nanny in order to try to get closer to his daughter - complete with Mary Poppins-style song-and-dance numbers and Tobias' own total lack of competence at housework. The other characters, apparently far more Genre Savvy than Tobias himself, recognize Tobias right away, as well as the movie he took it from, and their trying to deal with this without breaking Tobias' heart create some of the show's most hilariously painful scenes.
    • The best part is that in order to impersonate a woman, David Cross had to shave off his signature mustache - thus, whenever Tobias reappears as himself, he's wearing a painfully fake mustache.
  • Terryin Al Murray's Time, Gentlemen, Please! is frequently able to pass himself off for someone else just by wearing different clothes, an obviously fake moustache and in some cases simply saying he's not Terry. This doesn't last for long however since Terry is known to be 'very gassy'. He is however hailed as a master of disguise by everyone he fools.
  • On The Wild Wild West, Artemus Gordon was supposed to be a Master of Disguise, but most of his disguises involve little more than a fake scar or cheap mustache. They make "paper thin" seem unnecessarily complimentary. This was because the network heads complained whenever he wore a disguise that actually worked, fearing it would confuse the audience, and required that all of his disguises be paper thin. The actor and the make-up people are on record complaining about this.
    • Unintentionally averted in "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary", when Artie is disguised as a gas company meter man; he broke his leg during filming of the episode so he was replaced for part of the climax by a stand-in (who looks nothing like Ross Martin).
    • In the film version, however, it's much much worse. Gordon is introduced disguised as a saloon girl... and despite looking rather obviously like a man, and sounding very little like a woman, his disguise fools the living Hell out of everyone. Yet, even this is topped when James West dons an awkward harem costume and interrupts the villain's inaugural Nebulous Evil Organisation meeting by doing a Little Egypt dance, which despite being membrane-thin and a grossly obvious diversion tactic, somehow gains the rapt attention of every bad guy in the scene.
      • Of course, the movie also played it perfect with Gordon's spot-on U.S. Grant impression. (The fact that Grant was played by Kevin Kline as well helped a bit, too.)
        • In fairness, Artie was also occasionally disguised as a woman on the original show as well ("The Night of the Freebooters" and "The Night of the Green Terror") but never to that extent.
  • Eric van Helsing from Young Dracula who doesn't even shave his beard off when disguising himself as a woman.
  • Super Villain Sylar on Heroes has an uncanny, entirely non-superpowered ability to convince other people that he's someone he's not, mostly by using a variety of fake accents combined with acting like he's supposed to be there. Once he gains the power to generate actual illusions, he quickly manages to bluff his way into becoming President of the United States.
  • This was practically a Running Gag in Kamen Rider Den-O, as giant friendly Tengu rubber-suit monster Deneb would routinely stroll through the streets next to the main characters wearing no more of a disguise than... say, a hat.
    • Kamen Rider Black plays it painfully straight with the main character. Now, while a suit that covers one's entire body is good for hiding one's features, Kotaro has a habit (shared with pretty much every Rider ever, actually) of using his Rider-motif bike in civilian identity. He gets a new bike as Black, and rides it in civilian form, too. Establishment shots frequently have it parked outside in plain view. He never tries to pretend to not be hunting down whatever Golgom is up to, or ever make an excuse for running off. Somehow, nobody notices.
    • Inverted in Kamen Rider Double in that, while Shoutarou rides around on the same bike that Double uses, the Fuuto Police Department inspector believes that Shoutarou is a 'friend' of Double. One could assume that he also told the inspector that Double gave him a duplicate bike and that the public simply also believes this.
  • Parodied in a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch, where "Mr. Hilter" and his associates, "Ron Vibbentrop" and "Heimlich Bimmler" campaign for the National Bocialist Party in England. Nobody recognizes them, despite wearing Nazi uniforms, speaking in German, and denying that they're Nazis rather unconvincingly.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 subject The Rebel Set features one of the most bizarre examples of all time: the mastermind of an armored car robbery goes incognito on a train to bump off his henchmen (all of whom have spent a lot of time with him) and keep the money for himself. His disguise? A priest's collar. The MST3k guys have said that the first time they saw the film, it took them all quite a while to realize it was even supposed to be a disguise.
  • In the Cloris Leachman episode of The Muppet Show, pigs take over the show and fill all the roles. Cloris comes out on stage while "Kermit the Pig" is making an introduction and states her belief that he's not Kermit the Frog, despite being green (not easy for a pig) and having the collar. What changes her mind? "Ribbit!" He didn't even have to hide his ears or snout.
    • Any role played by Gonzo fits, as the mask has to fit that unique nose of his

Gonzo: (As the Black Knight) The world will forever wonder who I am!
Kermit: Though some may harbor suspicions...

  • Gonzo had the same problem portraying Darth Vader in two episodes. That nose of his is simply hard to hide with a mask.
  • Beaker once donned a lampshade to hide from testing Dr. Bunsen Honeydew's invention. This worked well, until Beauregard plugged him in.
  • In Tales OF the Tinkerdee, a pre-Muppet Show Jim Henson production, Taminella Grindenfall, witchiest witch of them all, is able to disguise herself as a Santa Claus, the princess, the kingdom prime minister, and an artist by wearing different wigs and hats.
  • In an episode of the UK version of Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, after one of Dr. Dark's henchman steals the secret identity files of their superheroes, they are forced to don disguises and create distractions in an attempt to take them back off him. Most of the heroes' disguises were paper thin and if anything would make them stick out like a sore thumb. Fortunately the henchman was fooled until he saw some of the superheroes taking the files from under his snout.
  • Invoked totally in The Count of Monte Cristo with Gerard Depardieu, where the disguises of the Count often involve no more than a larger nose than Gerard's normal one.
  • Invoked in Dads Army when, on a training exercise, Captain Mainwaring decides to dress some sheep in tin hats to make it look as though they were his men dressed as sheep. Meanwhile Corporal Jones poses as a log using a pantomime costume. It gets funnier.
  • The League of Gentlemen contains a rare effective example. It's obviously the same actor with different makeup and hair, but because that actor plays about a third of the characters on the show, you'll never guess. Saying which two characters are the same person would be telling.
  • The same kind of economy casting is used on The Mighty Boosh. But it didn't make Howard and Vince's attempts to masquerade as old ladies in the Bingo Hall seem any less feeble. Howard in particular should really have considered doing something about his moustache...
  • In LazyTown no one ever realises the person causing trouble who looks like Robbie Rotten in a silly outfit is, in fact, Robbie Rotten in a silly outfit. This is especially hilarious because his cover is blown at the end of EVERY episode, yet the townspeople will still fall for his Paper-Thin Disguise in the next episode. (And yet, Robbie Rotten himself thinks his disguises are amazingly awesome and calls himself "The Master of Disguise.")
    • If he actually is fooling everyone, then he's probably on to something.
    • Taken to the extreme in "Play Day" where his hat falls off and not one person yells "Robbie Rotten!" like they usually do.
    • Subverted in the episode "Defeeted" where the mayor recognises Robbie straight away, even though the villain is wearing one of his better disguises: a superhero outfit. The characters have fallen for lesser disguises in the past.
  • Spoofed in the Nickelodeon series All That, where the local superhero encounters an impersonator robbing the bank. Said impersonator is a little girl. The real superhero repeatedly tries to convince the Too Dumb to Live townspeople that he's the real thing. They are unable to tell the difference between the two even when the real superhero bends a metal pole, and the impersonator just rips a piece of paper.
    • To make it better, the superhero was black (and a bit fat), while the little girl was white (and pretty thin).
  • On CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, in the episode "Living Legend", a series of murders are committed, ostensibly by separate people. All of the killers look amazingly alike (including the one who's supposed to be black and female). All of the killers use names that are obviously cribbed from horror movies. None of the killers try to hide their identities, which don't lead back to any real people. Any viewer with half a brain cell will have figured out by the fifteen-minute mark that all the killers (plus a few other characters) are played by special guest star Roger Daltrey, but it takes the well trained and highly intelligent police 45 minutes to even figure out that any one of the killers is actually using a disguise and fake name, let alone figure out that they're all the same person.
  • On Robin Hood, all the outlaws had to do to render themselves invisible was to put on their hoods. In any given crowd of people, there would always be a little group of people that had their hoods obscuring their faces - this was never considered suspicious.
    • An especially strange example is when Will Scarlett and Allan-a-Dale put on their hoods after a guard has stormed past and told them to get out of his way.
    • Funny hats also did the trick, as did a fancy dress for Djaq. Guy of Gisborne stops her as she infiltrates the castle, only for him to give her some orders, thinking she's a serving girl. Just for the record, Djaq was a Saracen woman. I guess Guy sees a lot of them around Nottingham...
  • The 2005 Canadian series Young Blades was notorious for this. The best example was Jacqueline - a female Musketeer masquerading as a man - who used to conceal her femininity by tying back her (waist-length) hair, assuming a bizarre guttural voice and frowning a lot. In some episodes she sported a highly amusing fake goatee, which only made things worse. And yet no one penetrated her disguise, ever, even when she let her hair down, put on a dress and started pretending to be her own twin sister. It was absurd!
    • In fact, most of the characters seemed to think that if they just put on a mask that covered their eyes they would be instantly unrecognizable even to their closest friends. They were usually right...
    • Notably averted in the episode "The Chameleon," where the villain had the ability to shapeshift at will. Though of course, given the good guys' track record for recognizing impostors, an eyepatch and a cigar might have served him just as well.
      • Also inverted in "The Chameleon," where the Chameleon disguises himself as Jacques, and D'Artagnan claims the disguise was paper thin to him because "Jacques" acted like a man, not like a woman disguised as a man.
  • Common on Batman, where the citizens of Gotham City are remarkably unobservant when it comes to recognizing Special Guest Villains. On at least two occasions, The Joker is able to successfully impersonate someone else—not by wearing makeup to hide his distinctive features, or even by changing clothes, but by simply wearing a hat.
    • Even the Mad Hatter (a criminal who collects hats and has a very recognizable handlebar moustache) is able to fool everyone at a fancy party by simply switching from his usual top hat to a fez - which is, of course, a concealed weapon.
  • Subverted in Chapelles Show, when Tyrone Biggums is tricked into an intervention with his friends. One of them, Rhonda, recalls the time that he carjacked her. He tried to hide his identity simply by pulling his red hat over his head like a ski mask, but Rhonda instantly recognized him anyway:

Tyrone: Get out the car!
Rhonda: Tyrone, what are you doing?
Tyrone: Who's Tyrone? Huh? I don't know Tyrone!
Rhonda: No, it's you with your crusty-ass lips.
Tyrone: Stop playin', and get out the car! Get out the car! I don't know no Tyrone.

  • A Running Joke on The Steam Video Company where every week an exasperated cast member would express dismay at the shoddiness of Bob Todd's disguise.
  • In Tokumei Sentai Gobusters, villain Enter is made of data and can change his clothes in the blink of an eye, but for some reason never bothers with the rest of the disguise, and maintains his appearance and signature goggles every time.
  • In Barney Miller, this happened most times one of the cast had "mugging duty", the term for going as a Dirty Harriet on the series. Only Harris' outfit was convincing.
  • Ahem, Bosom Buddies. The plot of this sitcom involves two guys (Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari) who are Disguised in Drag in order to rent a "dirt cheap" apartment in a building for women only. To be frank, they do not look like women, but none of the other tenants or the landlord is any the wiser, even after one of them gets caught and they use an excuse that he's the other's boyfriend. At least it became an Open Secret later in the show.
  • There was a "mockumentary" special done on Superman's 50th birthday (in 1988) which "revealed" that one guy in Metropolis has figured out that Superman and Clark Kent are the same person - the dry cleaner he uses in both identities. He won't confirm or deny he knows the secret; "Suffice to say, I've never seen both of them come in at once," he says, jovialy.
  • Subverted in an episode of M*A*S*H where Colonel Flagg comes into Radar's office wearing a pretty absurd disguise, and Radar recognizes him quickly. When Flagg sternly asks him how he recognized him, Radar nervously says that Flagg is so good at not looking like himself that he guessed that someone who looked so much not-like him must be him. However, when Flagg then walks into Colonel Potter's office, it doesn't fool Potter either.
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