Paper-Thin Disguise/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

** After failing to get the [[MacGuffin|Triangle of Zinthar]] from the boys, [[Barbra Streisand]] dons a fake mustache and glasses on her second attempt. The boys are fooled and freely mock Streisand in her presence, much to her indignation.

* Used with gusto throughout the ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]] Show'', in various manners.

* In ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'', no one ever recognizes the disguised Beagle Boys under the fake mustache (or whatever), even though they always wear their robbery masks and prisoner numbers. Considering even their own family hasn't seen them without the masks, simply removing them might be far more effective than anything else they could do.

** In a (non-''DuckTales'' related) comic story, this is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by the Beagle Boys ridiculing one of them when he pulls off a disguise that's actually somewhat more convincing than most others, since he actually bothers to make the mask less noticeable by wearing huge glasses. Earlier and later in the story, the other Beagle Boys had worn disguises that didn't even cover any of their faces.

*** Wayne's not the only game in town when it comes to rich people with advanced toys. By that standard alone, [[Lex Luthor]] and [[Vandal Savage]] are also likely candidates.

*** He further covers his back when explaining to his mechanic he has "backers" funding his crusade.

* In the third episode of ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'', the Autobots decide to set up an ambush for the Decepticons. Hound uses his holographic projector to make a fake "rocket base" and the Autobots will be in it, under disguise, to attack the Decepticons when they show up to raid the base. What disguise do the Autobots go for? If you guessed "Disguised in their car mode in the base parking lot", congratulations, you're smarter than an Autobot. They decide to don ''labcoats'' and pass for the human scientists. Despite the fact that even the smallest of them is twice as tall as a human and about 3 times as wide.

** Almost used in ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]''. After Bud describes conventions and cosplay to the Autobots, Jetfire jokingly suggests that they pretend they're fanboys in public, to the amusement of all. However, Optimus Prime takes him seriously and thinks this is a wonderful idea until the humans talk him out of it.

* From ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars|Star Wars the Clone Wars]]'': Despite supposedly being [[Informed Ability|the best]] [[Bounty Hunter]] in the galaxy after the late Jango Fett, Cad Bane's Jedi disguise is pretty pathetic. You'd think that a guy like him would put a little more effort into it.

* Parodied and inverted in ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'', with Orson wearing nothing but a moustache and costume posing as the Rooster Ranger to play a trick on Roy. Roy immediately recognized it as "Orson in a pathetic disguise", but when Orson fell into his mudhole {{spoiler|Orson came up to investigate. It turned out that the Rooster Ranger was actually Lanolin in costume.}}

** Fluttershy used a large hat and sunglasses to go unnoticed during her fashion model career, which would have been more convincing if her canary yellow body and distinctive cutie mark were also concealed.

** Inverted in "Party of One". Pinkie Pie disguises herself as a block of hay. Wearing [[Conspicuous Trenchcoat|a trenchcoat and fedora]]. [[Up to Eleven|And Groucho glasses]]. Despite the over-the-top silliness, it ''could'' be a effective disguise, if everyone didn't already knew [[Cloudcuckoolander|Pinkie Pie]] would be the only one crazy enough to wear that in the first place.

* In every episode of the British children's animated series ''Poppy Cat'', the badger Egbert appears in the characters' adventures as a villain wearing a paper-thin disguise. The catch, however, is that unlike most instances of this trope, the characters ''always'' recognize him who he is and even call him "Egbert," but he insists "I am ''not'' Egbert, I am such-and-such character."

* In the "Christmas: Impossible" segment of ''Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas'', Huey, Dewey, and Louie mosey around Santa's workshop wearing their usual [[Color-Coded for Your Convenience|monochrome shirts]] plus green hats. Their doubts of success disappear the moment an elf addresses one as "fellow elf."

* In ''[[Get Muggsy]]'', the title character's friends (an opossum, raccoon and ''spider'') need only stuff sticks of white gum in their mouth to fool others into thinking that they are beavers.

* In an episode of ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy|Ed, Edd n Eddy]]'', the Eds manage to sneak past Kevin by disguising themselves as Jonny. Which means all three Eds are crammed into a gigantic papier-mâché sphere vaguely shaped like Jonny's head, with the eyes cut out and ''all three Eds plainly visible inside'' and an imitation [[Companion Cube|Plank]] glued to the side. Kevin doesn't seem to notice, saying hi to "Jonny" and muttering "What a freak" when "he" hits the fence and falls over it.

* In ''[[The Owl House]]'' episode "Eclipse Lake", this is inverted twice over. Hunter tries to infiltrate Kikimora's project, and his disguise - a regular Emperor's Coven uniform - seems sound, having a full-head helmet. Unfortunately for him, Kikimora quickly recognizes his "whiny voice", as does Eda when he flees and runs into her.

* In ''[[The Tick (animation)|The Tick]]'' episode “Armless But Not Harmless”, one-shot villain Venus uses a high-tech device to steal the Tick and Arthur’s arms, and then place them on robot “duplicates” to frame the heroes for her crimes. Both these robots are the wrong color, aside from the arms and heads (the imposter Tick is red, imposter Arthur is brown), the heads look like buckets with faces drawn on by markers, and everything but the arms looks jury-rigged and mechanical. Even the dim-witted Tick notices, “That doesn’t even look like me, they got my antennae all wrong!” Despite these obvious fakes, the press, the police, and even the manager of the Comet Club (where both heroes are regulars) are fooled by the ruse, requiring both to clear their names.