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Spot the Impostor: Difference between revisions
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A common subversion is for the protagonist to either shoot in a blind guess that turns out correct, or simply shoot both and see who gets madder. In both situations, the victim of the imposter is likely to be incensed that the hero couldn't tell him from his doppelganger.
Another subversion is for neither of them to be an imposter but in fact both are two parts of the same person split with [[Applied Phlebotinum]]; see [[Evil Twin]] and [[Starfish Character]]. If they are two (visibly) different people but both claiming to be the 'real' whatever-position-would-be-relevant (captain, mother, president, owner, etc), see [[Judgment of Solomon]].
May be caused by a [[Shell Game]] with people or when a [[Kill and Replace]] situation has occurred.
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'''Crow, panicky:''' Uh, the Cubs! Studs Terkel! Saul Bellow! Oh, whatever, just shoot 'em! }}
* The climax of ''[[The Adventures of Pluto Nash]]'' involves the title character's fight against his evil clone and both wearing the same outfit. Pluto tricked the clone's goons into shooting the clone.
* ''[[Dragon Ball Evolution]]'' has this with Chi-Chi fighting against Mai shape-shifted into her.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' loves this trope to pieces.
** In the episode "Whom Gods Destroy", Spock sees Kirk standing right next to an insane shapeshifter who is posing as Kirk. Spock identifies the imposter getting into a fight and noticing that one Kirk orders them both shot to prevent the imposter from escaping. Knowing that the imposter would never give that kind of command, Spock stuns the other one. This may be the origin of the "shoot us both" gambit, which itself is so well-known that [[Evolving Trope|today]] it's more likely that the evil one will use it, expecting the decider to shoot the other one (several such examples are below).
*** Spock knew that the shapeshifter in question couldn't hold another identity for more than a few minutes. He says so, and explains that all he has to do is wait. That's when the "Shoot him! No, shoot us both" dialogue occurs.
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** It gets weirder. Later in the episode, we have [[Alyson Hannigan]] playing Willow playing Dark!Willow and Dark!Willow playing Willow. How Alyson Hannigan didn't explode in a singularity of Willowyness is beyond this troper.
** Spoofed in "Gone" when the Trio accidentally turn Buffy invisible. Andrew comments that Buffy could be anywhere, even right there among them. "For all we know, she could even be one of us!" The Trio look at each other in alarm until they realise how ridiculous that sounds.
* The same plot is used in ''[[The Commish]]'' with twin brothers confessing to the same crime (a case of [[Artistic License: Law]] as both could be arrested for conspiracy). The real murderer is uncovered because he's dyslexic, and when telling his brother about the crime he passed on his incorrect reading of a sign.
* Subverted in the final episode of the second ''[[Blackadder]]'' series: Blackadder tells a would-be assassin that Queen Elizabeth's nursemaid will attend her costume party dressed as a cow. After he escapes, Edmund hurries to the party and stabs the person in the cow costume. The others think he's killed Nursie... until she rushes in, wearing four costume udders, at which point Edmund points out: "Ludwig was a master of disguise, whereas Nursie is a sad insane old woman with an udder fixation."
* ''[[Painkiller Jane]]'' has a variant of the "shoot them both" scheme where it is viable because Jane has regeneration powers. The imposter has regeneration powers too, but he does the [[Shapeshifter Swan Song]] and its all a plan bordering on [[Gambit Roulette|roulette]] anyways, so it works out well for the team.
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* In the ''[[Law and Order]]'' episode "Brother's Keeper", the detectives found that their gangster murder suspect has a respectable look-alike younger brother who could have committed the crime<ref>One of the crimes. The original murder was of a drug dealer. The second was of a witness to the first crime. The respectable brother committed the first crime (the dealer sold a lethal dose of drugs to his daughter) and the gangster killed the witness to cover the other's tracks</ref>. The cops have a witness, but the gangster's lawyer forces the cops to include both brothers in the line-up. As it turns out, the witness is a nurse and could easily tell the brothers apart because the gangster is a heavy drinker with all the body wear from the habit.
* The list wouldn't be complete without mention of ''[[Sliders]]'', where Professor Arturo meets his alternate-universe-evil-self, and with the gang just about to depart forever to the next Alternate Earth, the two engage in fisticuffs and one Arturo dives through the extra-dimensional portal, which then closes, stranding the other. We're never, ever told if the team got the real Arturo or the alternate one, but he dies anyway so it probably didn't matter.
** It's hinted a few times in the following two episodes that they took the imposter instead (Arturo was an established football fan in previous episodes but here he wasn't) until the subplot was dropped. A later interview confirmed that they were supposed to have taken the imposter which would have been followed up had the show not gone off in the direction that it did. It was never said if it was only intended to be or if the Arturo that died was the imposter and the real one still lived.
* The trope-heavy ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' Digital Shorts directed by [[The Lonely Island]] did a short, [http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/#mea=2923 Doppelganger], whose punchline was a masterful totally context-free segue into the standard "Spot the Impostor" scenario.
* In an episode of ''[[Super Sentai|Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger]]'' (and replicated almost scene-for-scene in ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]''), Hoji is [[Body Swap|bodyswapped]] with an alien criminal. To make matters worse, the criminal then breaks the [[Translator Microbes|translator collar]] around the neck of his alien body, ridding Hoji of his ability to speak Japanese (because [[Fridge Logic|language is biological, after all]]). The real Rangers figure out who the imposter is by noticing if this Hoji acts OOC (for instance, calling Ban his 'partner').
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* ''[[Fringe]]'' season 2 ends with the team returning from the [[Alternate Universe]], with Olivia's [[Evil Twin]] having switched places with her. This is known to the audience but not the other characters. In Season 3, the alternate Olivia has noticeably different mannerisms; she's not as cold, and seems more feminine. It's not immediately apparent whether this is merely a reminder to the audience or is noticeable to the characters. When it becomes evident, she explains it away by saying her experiences in the alternate universe changed her. She gets away with it to the extent of getting intimately involved with Olivia's Fringe-team partner, and is not caught until the real Olivia shows up. (at which point a [[Bluff the Impostor]] game ensues).
** On the other side, some [[Applied Phlebotinum]] allows the original Olivia to remain completely undetected by those in the [[Alternate Universe]] who don't already know, despite some revealing mistakes.
* ''[[Cleopatra 2525]]'' has both the original and the imposter believing they are the true version.
* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' has used this one a few times. The Primator (who had impersonation as his power) gave himself away while pretending to be Tommy by saying the rangers should give up (to clarify, Tommy is a [[Determinator]] who on several occasions in the series, both before and after this moment, was willing to fight even without his powers, so giving up is so out-of-character for him it had to be the Primator). Also, while Primator disguised as Trini, Jason challenged both Yellow Rangers to fight him, saying he can easily recognize her fighting style. However, Trini proved her identity by refusing to fight, lest she harm a fellow Ranger, while the Primator leaped towards Jason to attack him with way too much enthusiasm for just testing Trini's identity.
** In "Master Vile and the Metallic Armor," Tommy journeys into the Caves of Deception to retrieve the Zeo Crystal. Among the illusions he encounters are of the team and then just Catherine. They're brief, but pretty dead-on. Tommy sees through the illusions because of their willingness to surrender and professed belief that evil cannot be defeated.
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** In an episode of ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]'' Astronema impersonates Ashley with the help of a monster. Then, while captured, Ashley tricks the monster into making ''her'' look like Astronema. Ashley arrives just as Astronema (while morphed) is about to shoot Andros, and reveals the truth by mentioning what Andros had gotten Ashely for her birthday (a necklace from his home planet, KO-35). ''Then'', when Astronema de-morphs, she's back to looking like herself again, and the two start cat-fighting (seriously), at which point the other rangers arrive. Andros then figures out which Astronema is Ashley by shouting the team's Invocation, "Let's Rocket!" Ashley gets the morphing pose right, while Astronema is completely lost.
** In an episode of the second season, Kimberly tells the real Bily apart from a copy made from a statue, by asking them to identify Billy's science project.
* ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'': The episode "Too Many Roscoes." Do not consider this a comic episode where Rosco is somehow dupicated in some weird contraption and then wreaks havoc on Hazzard County. A double DOES wreak havoc, however ... via plastic surgery and a sinister plan (along with his cronies) to rob Hazzard Bank. The set-up: The real Rosco's patrol car is run into the lake, and the sheriff is promptly kidnapped by the bad guys, which includes Woody (James Best in a dual role), the bank robber who had plastic surgery specifically to prepare for this heist. Rosco -- thought to be dead, then discovered alive and stumbling down the street -- fools everyone in Hazzard (especially Boss Hogg and the Duke boys) by bungling simple facts, but the tip-off that "Rosco" wasn't who he said he was (remembering in exact detail the schedule arrival of an armored car and a $1 million shipment) goes unnoticed. Eventually, Woody exposes himself to the Duke boys and takes them to the same place where the real Rosco is being held captive. Of course, the Dukes and Rosco escape and team up to capture the bank robbers ... with the real Rosco punching out the phony.
* In ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' episode "Replica", when confronted by his wife and a clone, a guy is able to tell them apart because the original had a tattoo.
* ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' gave us some heroic examples in their Other World episodes. In "Stranger in a Strange World," Iolaus has to masquerade as his cowardly jester counterpart after an accidental switch. Later in "Stranger and Stranger," Hercules briefly masquerades as [[Evil Counterpart|the Sovereign]] to get information from Nebula 2. To ensure his success, he actually throws a man out a window (though he had a soft landing arranged).
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* Parodied/lampshaded in an early ''[[Bob and George]]'' [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/Archive/index.php?date=001111 strip].
* ''[[Planet Zebeth]]'' has a sequence in which Samus fight against a backup copy of herself from a save file, and of course, during the battle the scene cut away to other characters watching, so there is no way to tell who won. (However, the two characters are clearly not completely identical -- they've experienced different things, so if there's ever a situation in which the differences come up we will know!)
* Khrima, the main villain of ''[[Adventurers!]]'' made robot copies of the whole heroic party to replace them with, in one strip. The plan fell through since, after all, what's the point of replacing the WHOLE heroic group? He even made a robot copy of Spybot, who * was* a robot (and supposedly working for Khrima anyway).
* Gets time in ''[[Sacred Pie]]'' [http://www.sacredpie.com/rooni23.html starting in this strip].
* Played with here in ''[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=895#comic SMBC]''.
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* ''[[Amazing Super Powers]]'' has [http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/2009/08/which-one-do-i-shoot/ a wife shooting both her husband and the imposter] because neither one knew anything about her. The [http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/hc/08272009/ hidden comic] reverses this.
** And [http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/2010/07/clones/ another one] (as usual, with [[Alt Text]] and a hidden comic).
* Subverted in ''[[Dead of Summer]]''. The deal with {{spoiler|Panther and his clone}} seems to be leading into this, as the two meet face to face...and the real {{spoiler|Panther}} takes the clone out in one blow. It's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesome]].
* Subverted in [http://www.explosm.net/comics/2426/ this] ''[[Cyanide and Happiness]]''.
{{quote|'''Evil Jim:''' He was the real one.
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* An early episode of ''[[AH Dot Com the Series]]'' has a [[Shout-Out]] to the ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' example above, when the crew pick the real Doctor What from his Mirror Universe [[Evil Counterpart]] by rapid-firing questions about Paris Hilton at him. Later [[Continuity Nod|referenced]] when a ''different'' [[Evil Counterpart]]'s deputy tries to use it, but the real Doctor What quickly shouts out the "right" answer and thus she picks the wrong one.
* Played straight in ''[[The Gmod Idiot Box]]''. Louis is trying to decide which Francis is real (one is a spy). He tells them to go up stairs. The one that gladly does gets shot. It then gets parodied the next moment, when Louis decides that they have to go up the stairs, {{spoiler|and the real Francis hates stairs, so he shoots Louis.}}
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPlgxaqH6ks This video] from an obscure youtube channel combine this trope with both [[Take That]] and [[Overly Long Gag]].
* [[Whateley Universe]] story "Test Tube Babies": [[Flying Brick]] Lancer fights power mimic Duplikat. Shroud finds herself facing two identical Lancers. One even tells her to shoot both of them to be sure. {{spoiler|The team has a secret comm system so Shroud knows which one is the real Lancer.}}
== Western Animation ==
* Happened in a third-season episode of ''[[Gargoyles]]''. Where Proteus is disguised as Elisa, and Goliath asks them both if Elisa ever doubted him, even for a second. One Elisa claims that she would never doubt him... and that's the clue that proves to Goliath that the speaker is '''not''' Elisa.
* ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'', "Bloo's Brothers": After trimming a bunch of impostors down to 2, Mac ID's his Bloo after the remaining impostor goes on and on about how much memories they've (supposedly) shared together.
{{quote|'''Sappy Bloo:''' Mac, look me in the eyes, you know it's me. Think of all the good times we had together. The bond that we share, that only best friends can. Mac, you complete me. I-I love you.
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* Played with in an episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'', during a [[Flash Back|flashback]] to when Peter defeated his "evil twin". Lois has to pick one to shoot, shoots one, and while she and Peter are hugging, his face flips down showing he's a robot.
** Parodied in the episode "German Guy", where Chris befriends an elderly puppeteer, Franz Gutentag but discovers that he used to be a Nazi. When Franz finds out, he takes Chris and Peter hostage; Peter knocks the gun out of his hand, and Chris grabs it, but suddenly he's confused which one to shoot. This is despite the fact that they look nothing alike, as Peter points out. Chris asks when is his birthday; Peter doesn't know, but Franz does, so Chris ends up shooting Peter in the shoulder.
** It's used more straight in the next episode "The Hand that Rocks the Wheelchair", where Stewie creates an evil (or more evil) clone of himself, and Brian ends up pointing a gun at them; he lampshades the situation saying "Oh, come on, not this thing, really?" He eventually asks them to look at their feet, and shoots the one who doesn't start to laugh, as the real Stewie told him earlier that he spent an hour laughing at his feet.
** This is also lampshaded at the end of "Thanksgiving", in which the "real" Kevin Swanson suddenly appears and tries to warn about the imposter in the room. "Wait! That man's an imposter; I'm the ''real'' Kevin Swanson!" Peter then remarks "Guys I don't think we have time for this." right before the episode ends.
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'': Danny gets accidentally body-switched with a ghost and proves his identity by telling Sam about the time Tucker threw up in her lunchbox back in elementary school.
* In ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'', the Decepticons built a fake Optimus Prime that was remote-controlled by Megatron. The Autobots came up with some ''really'' stupid tests (one of them was to ''have a race'') and ended up walking away with the fake. Megatron proceeded to expose himself by not being particularly worried about where their human buddy had disappeared off to (being a little too eager to lead the Autobots to their doom).
** Another episode had some of the Autobots disguising themselves as the Stunticons, a group of car-based Decepticons. This in itself is already fairly impressive, since almost none of the Autobots in robot mode have physiques resembling the Decepticon they're copying. The Stunticons naturally manage to escape, leading to a situation where two teams of Stunticons have to oppose each other, culminating with ''both'' the real and fake Stunticons [[Combining Mecha|merging to form Menasor,]] with a little help from electromagnets and hologram devices in the case of the Autobots.
* In ''[[Pirates of Dark Water]]'', Bloth and Konk swap bodies with Ren and Niddler, respectively, using a potion concocted by Morpho, as part of yet another of Bloth's plans to steal the Thirteen Treasures of Rule. They could be distinguished by [[Glamour Failure|any reflection, which would reveal who it really was]]... or by which one did or didn't abandon you to be eaten by piranhas.
* Subverted in the ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' episode "Imitation Krabs", where SpongeBob can't distinguish between Mr. Krabs and Plankton's robotic replica of Krabs -- despite the fact that one is [[Paper-Thin Disguise|clearly a robot]], complete with [[Robo Speak]]. SpongeBob asks questions that (he thinks) only the real Mr. Krabs would know. Krabs, however, fails to answer each one correctly, and is thrown out.
* ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' (animated version) featured a classic episode playing up Spot the Impostor, where an evil tentacular alien makes a very bad clone of the Tick's sidekick Arthur to spy on him. When the real Arthur escapes and confronts the Tick, he becomes infuriated that the Tick can't tell which of them is real despite the fact that the clone is green in color, shuffles around like a zombie and can only say the phrase "I... Arthur" (to which the Tick replies "He's got a good argument there.").
* In one episode of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons & Dragons]]'', Hank correctly works out that the [[Dungeon Master]] is an imposter when he ''[[Cryptic Conversation|gives the group a straight answer]]''. Unfortunately he doesn't realize that the Dungeon Master who shows up after that is ''also'' an imposter.
* Averted in an episode of the 2003 ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon involving a robotic Master Splinter. Hun begins to try this when the real Splinter shows up, only to be reprimanded by Shredder, who has already decided that they'll never fall for such an obvious trick.
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* The eponymous clown in the ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' episode "Binky Goes Bad!" is jailed and brought to trial for the crimes of a man who hated him, and who decided to dress and make himself up like him in order to commit crimes and have Binky take the fall. Stinky is eventually revealed as being the fake when {{spoiler|Garfield gets the judge to say "Order in the court," and Binky "orders" a ham on rye, hold the mayo. Stinky, completely failing to make a bad joke, or indeed, any joke, is sent off in the paddy wagon.}} Incidentally, Garfield is dismayed that he's in an evil twin episode.
* This happens fairly frequently in ''[[Code Lyoko]]'' with the Polymorphic Clones.
** The first occurrence was with XANA himself impersonating Jérémie in "Ghost Channel".
** In "XANA's Kiss", when confronted with two Jérémies, Aelita can guess which one is genuine because the Clone had kissed her without permission, which the true Jérémie would not have dared. Later in the same episode, Odd recognizes the real Yumi from the Clone impersonating her when she calls him a dork.
** Subverted in "Opening Act", when Jim Moralès can't tell apart his nephew from the Clone, and ends up dumbly attacking the real Chris.
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** One memorable moment has Darkwing and Negaduck dressed identically (except Negaduck wore a black mask) and acting so much like each other that they mirrors each other's words and body motions perfectly. Then Darkwing breaks the impasse by declaring that a cute defenseless bunny rabbit is nearby, whereupon Negaduck (who was ''hatched'' from a [[Villain Ball]]) compulsively tries to kill the bunny with a shotgun. Before that, however, we get this memorable solution:
{{quote|'''Dr. Bellum:''' ''(completely nonchalant)'' Well, we'll just have to kill them both. ''(arms bazooka)''}}
** Funnily enough, Darkwing tries the same ploy to infiltrate the Fearsome Five's HQ., using a Negaduck costume (minus his purple mask, again for audience benefit). He gets all the way up to the five -- WHO HAVE JUST RESOLVED TO KILL NEGADUCK FOR SCREWING THEM OUT OF THEIR SHARE OF THE CITY'S LOOT.
{{quote|'''Darkwing Duck''' Hey! What's the deal? IS THIS ANY WAY TO TREAT YOUR LEADER!?!? (So much for the 'perfect disguise!)}}
** When Negaduck returns, it leads to one of the best [[Never Say "Die"]] aversions ever seen.
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