Hugh Mann: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

'''Zapp''': Hugh Mann? Now that's [[Names to Trust Immediately|a name I can trust]]. Run down to the central battle computer and enter these codes. Chop, chop!<br />

'''[[Only Sane Man|Kif]]''': [[Genre Savvy|Um, sir? There's something about that ensign that's--]]<br />

 

Someone has gotten [[Cloning Blues|duplicated]]/[[Demonic Possession|taken over]]/[[Humanity Ensues|impersonated]] by something not human, and the duplicate is trying to pass as a main character. But they do a [[Glamour Failure|terrible job of it]]; [[Uncanny Valley|acting in an erratic manner]], forgetting names, walking stiffly, and [[Creepy Monotone|talking in an odd dialect]]. They might as well call themselves "Hugh Mann" and [[Most Definitely Not a Villain|walk around with a name-tag reading "I'm Most Definitely Not A Space Alien"]] - it would make for about as convincing a disguise.

{{quote| '''Kro-Bar''': My wife sometimes forgets that she is ''not'' [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|a space alien]].<br />

'''Kro-Bar''': Aliens? Us? Is this one of your Earth jokes? }}

* In ''[[The Human Duplicators]]'', a detective gets duplicated (Surprise!) and the duplicate reports back to the original's superiors to throw them off the case. Despite his random pauses and stiff movement, they don't suspect a thing.

* Absolutely ruthlessly parodied in ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'' where the aliens can tell that the ancient fishman is not one of them (although they believe him to merely be a defective clone) but cannot identify a one-eyed slime monster or a six foot cockroach as not being one of them. The disguise that leads them to believe that they are mere clones? Simply their ill-fitting uniforms.

* ''[[The Skeleton Key]]'' [[Grand Theft Me|ends this way]], although at least one person seems to suspect something might be wrong.

* {{spoiler|The Strangers}} from ''[[Dark City]]''. By extension {{spoiler|the whole environment they constructed}} .

 

 

== Literature ==

** It doesn't exactly help that Arthur blurts out "What?" on this suggestion.

* Mostly averted by R. Daneel Olivaw of the ''[[The Caves of Steel|Robot]]''/''Empire/[[Foundation]]'' series by [[Isaac Asimov]], but every now and then the ten-thousand-year-old robot gets the urge to call himself something like "Chetter Hummin" ("Cheater Human") for a while. This is probably a way to evade the psychological cost of lying to humans, which is an indirect violation of the Robotic Laws.

** This is actually something of a running gag for Ax whenever he's [[Humanity Ensues|in his human form]], [[Sense Freak|particularly about food]]. This boy [[Big Eater|enjoys eating]] cigarette butts and other strange stuff...

*** And [[Trademark Favorite Food|Cinnamon buns]] (who would blame him? Cinnabons).

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in "Off the Grid" when Daniel, Cam, and Sam are all arguing over who would make the most convincing drug dealer for their meet with the bad guys and Teal'c says they're all equally unlikely. Subverted when Mitchell's attempts at posing as said drug dealer backfire off screen and the audience just sees the team running for their lives.

* In the comedy soap opera ''[[Soap]]'', Burt was replaced by a look-alike alien Burt. Though alien Burt acted very oddly and was sex-crazed, only his wife Mary was really concerned, because the real Burt was pretty odd himself.

** Anya seemed to like the robot better than the regular Buffy, particularly after its greeting of, "Hello, Anya. How is your money?" Anya replies with a happy, "Fine! Thank you!" apparently glad that someone now cares about the money as much as she does.

** We also have all of the demons at Xander and Anya's wedding, and Clem at Buffy's birthday party.

== Video Games ==

* If you hide for some period in ''[[Halo]]'', Grunts may occasionally respond with: "It's okay to come out now, this is Sergeant... Smitherson! Yeah..." Occasionally they'll play it straighter and reply as "Sergeant Humanoid."

* In ''[[Rift]]'', there are a group of...odd people that, should you greet them, will say things like: "Hello, fellow air-breather!" They also sell strange items.

* Inverted in ''[[Sam and Max Hit The Road]]''. At one point in the game, the eponymous duo put on a [[Paper-Thin Disguise|paper-thin Bigfoot disguise]] to sneak into a convention. Also subverted in that the bouncer makes it clear that he knows they're in disguise, and he's only letting them in because they did him a favor earlier. Played straight with the rest of the bigfoots, however, who don't see anything out of the ordinary, even when the [[It Makes Sense in Context|bigfoot's navel starts talking]].

* [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/5/4/ Broodax] of ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]''.

* Parodied in [http://legostargalactica.comicgen.com/d/20061101.html this] [[Legostar Galactica]] strip.

* When Corlis (dragon) and Moppy (cat) from ''[[Dragon Tails]]'' attempt to board a plane with a [[Paper-Thin Disguise]], Corlis delivers "I am Bob Human, and this is my friend Bill Human. We are both human."

* Taken to its flimsiest extreme in [http://buttersafe.com/2010/07/22/the-essence-of-being-human/ this] ''[[Buttersafe]]'' strip.

 

== Western Animation ==

** They have to, lest the slug becomes suspicious, and, in Leela's words, "assimilates" them.

** [[Trope Namer|Names the trope]] in the episode "A Taste of Freedom".

* "Bill Cosby" from the Trapper Keeper episode on ''[[South Park]]'' is a ''[[Terminator]]''-esque operative from the future who takes a contemporary name.

{{quote| Oh, I see. Alright, I'll pay 100 geliga stones -- uh, I mean, hu-mon dollars! -- eugh, I mean dollars!}}

** In a Treehouse of Horror episode, where Kang and Kodos attempt to sabotage the 1996 American presidential election by assuming the identities of Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. In one campaign speech, Kang (as Clinton) monotonously intones "I am Clin-Ton! As overlord, all will kneel trembling before me, and obey my brutal commands!" before crossing his arms over his chest and shouting "End communication!" His staffers attribute the behavior to an "over-tight necktie".

{{quote| '''Marge:''' That's slick Willy for you, always with the smooth talk.}}

* In one episode of ''[[The Flintstones]]'', The Great Gazoo creates a duplicate of Fred. The duplicate can only utter the words "Yes yes yes", separated by one second pauses. Despite this, absolutely no one notices the difference.

** There's a second episode in which aliens produce multiple Fred clones. They can say nothing more than "Yabba. Dabba. Doo." And almost no one notices.

* Frequently used heroically by ''[[Scooby-Doo]]'', who seems to get away with impersonating the bad guys' own human and/or monstrously-disguised henchmen with ease, despite being 1) a terrible actor, 2) impaired by a speech impediment, and 3) a freakin' Great Dane.

** The hilarious part is that "Major Shake" is a seemingly normal, decent, average person, whereas Master Shake is a sociopathic obnoxious [[Jerkass]]. Major Shake also looks like a slightly melted version of Master Shake, wearing red high heeled shoes, and with a [[Insistent Terminology|jambox]] melted into his side.

*** And he doesn't actually have any mission or agenda, and is rather confused about what the heck the Plutonians are hoping to accomplish.

* In an episode of ''[[The Tick]]'', Arthur was cloned by their alien neighbor. The clone was greenish and could only say "I Arthur", yet he fooled the Tick ([[The Ditz|not that it's very difficult with him]]). When he found both the original and the clone, he told them to say [[Something Only They Would Say|something only the REAL Arthur would know]]. Arthur delivered a lengthy anecdote about a personal incident they had once, which convinced the Tick... while the clone said "I Arthur", which ALSO convinced the Tick, since he couldn't find any fault in the statement.

* In the episode "Prime Problem" of the [[Transformers Generation 1|original Transformers cartoon]], Megatron creates a clone of Optimus Prime and operates it remotely. The Autobots can't tell the difference between the clone and the original, despite the fact that Megatron calls Ironhide "Bumblebee" and can't operate Teletran 1. Amongst the methods used to try to tell the two Optimus apart is a race. Yes, a race.

** To make the name mix-up even more ridiculous... Ironhide is one of the highest ranking officers. Bumblebee is not an officer and is a member of the Spec Ops team (either a spy or assassin, depending on source material). Any leader worth his salt should know his enemy's highest ranking officers, ''especially'' when he's been fighting them for millions of years!

* Zim from [[Invader Zim]] is... not a very convincing human, to say the least. Luckily, Earth is filled with morons/people who don't care who won't listen to [[Only Sane Man|Dib]].

** And Dib's sister, who is just [[Genre Savvy]] to see that Zim is far too incompetent to have much chance of success and so doesn't give a damn.

* In ''[[Archer]]'', {{spoiler|Barry Dillon's}} fake Israeli passport reads "Sy Berg", after he is rebuilt as a cyborg. He also doesn't act very naturally when going through customs, leaving them with "Shalom, or whatever it is we say."