Thoroughly Mistaken Identity: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[Hilarity Ensues]]. Or else a horrific depiction of how far gone this person is.

 

Compare [[My Name Is Not Durwood]]. Contrast [[Napoleon Delusion]]. Not to be confused with [[Mistaken Identity]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Inuyasha]]'': 'My name is NOT Kikyo. It's Kagome. KAH. GOH. MAY.' (Kikyo is [[Inuyasha]]'s ex-girlfriend, Kagome being her reincarnation.)

* In ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'', Isumi's mother (Hatsuho) and grandmother (Kokonoe) think they're going to meet the Sanzenin's new butler (Hayate). Kokonoe sees Hatsuho and immediately thinks that Hatsuho is their butler who just happens to look like her daughter. She then realizes who it is and both wonder where the butler went.

** Hayate was actually visiting, he was standing off to the side during the conversation.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Effie in the ''Ernie/Piranha Club'' newspaper comic regularly mistakes people for one of her many ex-husbands. (Except [[My Friends and Zoidberg|Arnold]], which she thinks is one of her ''old dogs''.)

* Enrico the Mole, from the Italian comic strip ''[[Lupo Alberto]]'', [[Blind Mistake|has addressed the eponymous protagonist as "Beppe"]] ever since his first appearance. As years went by, Alberto went from his initial bemusement to desperate frustration and eventually to wry resignation. The real "Beppe" (supposedly a friend of Enrico's) has never actually appeared in the strip.

 

== Fan Works ==

* In ''[[Turnabout Storm]]'' it happens to Phoenix twice while in [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Equestria]]. First he confuses [[Original Character|Sonata]] with his deceased mentor Mia, something that happens because both have the same voice, and since Sonata [[Identical Stranger|looks exactly like Mia would look in pony form]]. Later on, and more amussingly, he confuses Applejack with [[Deep South|Lotta]] [[The Idiot From Osaka|Hart]] because of the accent, making him [[Rapid-Fire "No"|completely freak out]].

 

== Film ==

* In the final scene of ''Smoke,'' Augie poses as a blind old lady's grandson rather than let her spend Christmas alone. Subverted in that she probably realizes that he isn't actually her grandson but goes along with the act rather than admit that she has been abandoned.

* In ''[[Mars Attacks!]]'', senile old Grandma Norris calls both of her grandsons "Thomas". Strangely enough, she does remember their names in some capacity, as she tells Ritchie that "Ritchie" was always her favorite... while still calling him Thomas.

 

== Jokes ==

* The whole point of the old [[Vaudeville]] joke "I'm not Rappaport".

 

== Literature ==

** The Hoka stories are a particular variation on this trope. The basic premise of the Hoka stories is that the Hokas (a highly intelligent race that just happen to resemble teddy bears) have trouble distinguishing fact from fiction, so whenever they come across a human novel they end up acting it out and [[Hilarity Ensues]]. It's never entirely clear when they do so whether they are conscious of the fact that it's just a re-enactment.

* Professor Binns in ''[[Harry Potter]]'' is constantly mistaking everyone for the students of centuries past. It's implied that he's so out of it, he doesn't even realize he died.

* ''[[The Animals of Farthing Wood]]''. After Mole dies, Badger is pretty old and out of it by this time, so when he encounters Mole's son, Mossy, he mistakenly believes that Mossy is his father. Weasel, wanting to be kind to Badger is his last few years, asks Mossy to keep up the charade to spare his feelings.

* A particularly old and addled man at a museum confuses [[Star Wars|Lara Notsil]] for someone else he once knew. In typical ''[[Star Wars]]'' fashion, he actually confused her ''for her mother'', {{spoiler|an Imperial Intelligence agent, like Lara/Gara/whatever-her-name-is-today herself. This confusion puts another Wraith on the trail to discovering her identity, no less}}.

* In [[Chuck Palahniuk]]'s ''Choke'', the protagonist's mother spends most of the book confusing him for someone else, and one of her fellow patients in the nursing home is convinced that he is her brother who molested her as a child.

* In Angie Sage's ''[[Septimus Heap]]'' books, several ghosts always call Jenna Esmeralda. In ''[[Septimus Heap|Physik]]'', she ends up in Esmeralda's time and everyone takes her for her.

 

* Trigger, [[The Ditz]] of ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]'', insists on calling Rodney "Dave."

** And it's hilariously deconstructed in a late-run episode when he mentions that the parents are considering naming a baby "Rodney, after Dave."

* One episode of ''[[Lie to Me (TV series)|Lie to Me]]'' has Cal Lightman meeting a woman with Alzheimer's Disease who mistakes him for her (dead) husband, and insists that someone murdered her (also dead) sister. {{spoiler|They eventually realize that she has attributed mistaken identities to virtually everyone in her life, and the fellow nursing home patient she'd confused with her sister was the victim of an Angel Of Death style [[Serial Killer]]. She'd witnessed the murder and had been struggling desperately through most of the show to remember it.}}

 

* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: [[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|Majora's Mask]]'', Anju's grandmother mistakes Link for her son, Anju's dead father. {{spoiler|This is an act too.}}

** Then again, the Legend of Zelda timeline(s) are so screwy that goddesses know how many Links there have actually ''been.''

* In ''[[Xenogears]]'', the two main protagonists, Fei and Elly {{spoiler|have been re-incarnating since the dawn of "history" 10,000~ years before the start of the game}}. As such there are several characters (such as [[Big Bad|Krelian]]) who are functionally immortal who {{spoiler|knew their previous incarnations}}. Emerelda was {{spoiler|also created by one of their past incarnations as a [[Replacement Goldfish]] for the child Elly was incapable of having at that point in history}}. Emerelda refers to Fei as "Kim" {{spoiler|because she actually believes that Fei is Kim}} and is a legitimate case of this trope in action. Krelian meanwhile {{spoiler|knows full well that these are seperate people from the ones he was friends with 500 years ago, but calls them Lacan and Sophia anyway because its his way of keeping their memory alive}}.

* ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'': {{spoiler|the protagonist}} believes {{spoiler|he's Alex Mercer, suffering from [[The Corruption]]. He's not; he's a strain of [[The Virus]], unconsciously mimicking its first meal}}.

** It's made explicit by the end of ''[[Halo 3]]'', where Guilty Spark comes out and ''says'' {{spoiler|that humans ''are'' the [[Precursors|Forerunners]], or at least their direct descendants}}. This does not, however, stop him from going [[Ax Crazy]] when he realizes that in order to save the galaxy from the Flood, {{spoiler|Master Chief is planning on destroying "his" Halo ''again''}}.

* A drunken [[Boisterous Bruiser|Oghren]] from ''[[Dragon Age]]'' can do this to the player character, mistaking him/her for {{spoiler|his ex-wife's lover}} Hespith and insisting that he won't let "some kind of moss-biting poetess" march into the [[Player Character|Warden's]] camp.

 

== Web Comics ==

* In ''[[No Rest for The Wicked (webcomic)|No Rest for The Wicked]]'', the witch [http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/03-43.html calls the kidnapped children Hansel and Gretel]. They explain that they are really Anna and Klaus. Later revelations show that her own children had been Hansel and Gretel and that {{spoiler|she's made the same 'mistake' with other pairs of children who didn't get off as lucky as Anna and Klaus.}}

* When [[Pibgorn]] [http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2010/02/05/ takes Dru as "Sylvia"], Dru intervenes, seriously.

 

== Western Animation ==

* All ''[[Mr. Magoo]]'' cartoons.

* In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "The Principal and the Pauper", returning soldier Armin Tamzarian visits Ma Skinner to deliver news of her son, his commander, being taken prisoner by Vietcong. She instead mistakes him for her son and he moves in, eventually becoming a school principal to honor his commander's dream. Judging from her behavior, she actually knows he's not her real son, but puts on the charade anyway. When the real Skinner returns and moves in, she doesn't like him as much.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Madness Tropes]]

[[Category:Naming Conventions]]

[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]

[[Category:Identity Index]]