Totem Pole Trench: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"We're not clear yet, I think the bouncer is still looking at us."''

 

Two or more children (or just short people) pile up, [[Human Ladder|one on another's shoulders]], and put a [[Conspicuous Trenchcoat]] (and usually a fedora hat) over this pyramid to make them look like an adult or a tall man. Usually a [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]. An unfortunate [[Sneeze of Doom]] by one of the participants will make the whole pyramid collapse at the worst time possible.

 

A mechanical version would be [[Combining Mecha]].

{{examples}}

* In a 1998 Cocoa Pebbles commercial, Barney attempts to trick Fred as he normally does, only this time with Pebbles, Bam-Bam and Dino. Pebbles stands on top of Bam-Bam, and they pose as the Ghost of Christmas Past. In contrast, Barney plays the Ghost of Christmas Present while Dino plays the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. One of the rare instances where Pebbles actually talks.

* In a 2008 Capital One commercial, Santa Claus is supposed to depart for Christmas Eve but is too distracted customizing his Capital One credit card. It ends by showing two of the elves stacked up wearing Santa's suit heading for the sleigh.

* "Your name Keebler? You an elf?" <Opens trenchcoat> "So are we."

 

* Done by Goten and Trunks to enter an adults-only tournament in ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. And the best part is, they ''are'' competent at fighting in tandem like that, only stopping at #18, who blows their ruse in the semifinals.

** A shout-out to this is in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'', when Insector Haga (Weevil Underwood) and Dinosaur Ryuzaki (Rex Raptor) beat up a masked contestant in order to enter the KC Grand Prix tournament.

* The Detective Boys' Club in ''[[Detective Conan]]'' do this once. Of course, in this case, they were ''forced'' to do it when they {{spoiler|injure an actor (who they thought was a child murderer) and have to fill in for him at the community center play}}.

** In an early manga story, Astro does this with the independent lower half of another robot acting as the legs.

** In the ''[[Astro Boy (anime)|Astro Boy]]'' 1980 anime episode The Light Ray Robot Astro does this with Denko so Denko will help people.

* In the fourth ending of ''[[Hanamaru Kindergarten]]''; Anzu, Hiiragi, and Koume do this and dress as Yamamoto-sensei to trick Tsuchida-sensei.

* ''[[One Piece]]''

** In Episode 21 of the [[Soul Eater]] anime: Blair is fighting the (remaining) 5 Mizune sisters. She [[Curb Stomp Battle|smashes four of the sisters]] with one spell...but the fifth sister behind her starts [[Giggling Villain|giggling madly.]] Activating the hivemind within the sisters (accompanied by speaking in sync and rhythmic finger-snapping), and do a [[Fusion Dance]] by stacking themselves atop of each other to form a large tower and the five combine to form... a [[Hot Witch]]. [[It Makes Sense in Context]]... I guess.

*** Though the 5-Mizune witch has yet to do anything but provide [[Fan Service]], in the manga two or three Mizune can combine together to form a teenage-looking girl (the one made from three looks a bit older) actually capable of fighting.

* Seen in the [[Hentai]] manga ''Cherry Town'', where a young boy and a young girl do this... to sneak in a [[Love Hotels]].

* Tyson and Daichi do this in an episode of ''[[Beyblade]]'' so they can sneak into a Shop that's not for kids and get their beyblade fixed.

* In an episode of ''[[Zettai Karen Children]]'' the main three girls do this while infiltrating a school.

* This was also done in Episode 5 of the ''[[Little Lulu (anime)|Little Lulu]]'' anime, in an attempt to rescue Tubby from the Westside Gang. Lulu and Willy disguised themselves as Tubby's mother, with Lulu on top and Willy on the bottom. At first, the Westside Gang don't buy the act, since Lulu doesn't say anything, having Annie do the talking for her, but when she finally convinces the Westside Gang that Tubby's mother has a bad case of laryngitis and that if "she" doesn't see her son pretty soon, there's no telling what will happen. It would've worked too, had Lulu not gotten knocked off by the fence post above that served as the entrance to the Westside Gang's territory while entering and revealed Willy in front of the Westside Gang. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

 

* ''[[The Book of Bunny Suicides]]'' does this with a pile of rabbits dressed as [[Star Wars|Obi-Wan]] who [http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzpez2AWZ21qbnth4o1_500.jpg jump out of their disguise to be impaled by Darth Vader's lightsaber].

* In an ''[[Animaniacs]]'' comic, the Warner kids do this to fool Ralph with Yakko on top.

* This is a [[Running Gag]] in the [[Franco Belgian Comics|French comic]] ''[[Kid Paddle]]'', where Kid and his friends often try this to enter a movie theater and watch horror films rated above their age. [[Failure Is the Only Option|It never works.]]

* Played with in ''[[Garulfo]]'': in order to get by unquestioned, the heroes (one of which is in the body of a frog) wrap themselves in a moldy shroud, shaking a clacker and moaning "Leper! Leper!". Then they meet a [[Genre Savvy]] guard, who knows better than to back away, and knocks off the hood... to see a pair of bulbous yellow eyes on a wizened green body. He runs, fast.

 

* There exists a fanart on [[Deviant ART]] that shows [[Phineas and Ferb]] performing this.

* Calvin performs a singular variant using stilts in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series]]''. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] shortly afterwards:

{{quote|"That was easy. Those kids on TV should try stuff like that instead of those silly growth machines and potions."}}

 

* In ''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven]]'', Charlie, Itchy and Anne-Marie do this to bet on horses as well as do other gambling.

* In the Aardman Animation film ''[[Chicken Run]]'', (a pastiche of classic wartime escape movies featuring the inmates of a chicken farm), the chickens attempt to escape by using this trope to impersonate the farmer's Gestapo-inspired wife during the pre-credits montage of failed attempts.

* [[Wallace and Gromit]] did this in the feature ''A Close Shave''.

* In the ''[[Babar]]'' movie Babar, Celeste, and Zephir try to get past some rhinos by piling up on top of each other and wrap up in cloak, while Zephir puts a banana in his mouth. They would've succeeded, too, if Zephir hadn't gotten too enthusiastic.

* At the beginning of ''[[Winnie the Pooh|Piglet's Big Movie]]'', Tigger and Pooh dress up as a tree as part of their plan to steal honey from a bee hive.

* In ''[[The Rugrats Movie]]'' the babies find an abandoned circus cart then finds a trenchcoat and hat inside, some circus monkeys jump out and scares the babies.

* In "Tom & Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers" Paul (a short pirate) piles himself on some monkeys while wearing a large pirate's jacket to make himself look more threatening.

* Done in the [[Mel Brooks]] film ''[[Silent Movie (film)|Silent Movie]]''. Three normal-sized adults inexplicably attempt this to get into [[Burt Reynolds]]' house. Their explanation for being 15 feet tall is having a "glandular condition".

* Done in the Hong Kong movie ''Dragon from Shao Lin''.

* In ''[[Oz the Great and Powerful]]'', Glinda announces the Munchkins when presenting her allies to Oz. Out march several ranks of incredibly tall soldiers, who each turn out to be three Munchkins inside a long coat.

 

* In ''Miss Nelson is Back'' three of the ringleaders of room 207 disguise themselves as Miss Nelson.

* In ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events|The Carniverous Carnival]]'', Violet and Klaus use this to pose as a two-headed person.

* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'':

* A similar trick was used unsuccessfully in ''[[Welkin Weasels]]: Thunder Oak'', involving nine ferrets in a human-sized suit of armor.

* In the children's novel ''Down Town'', Cary's first uncanny encounter is with an apparent bag lady. The accompanying illustration makes it clear that this is actually a whole lot of tiny humanoid creatures dressed up in old clothes.

* In ''[[The Roman Mysteries]]'' novel ''The Colossus of Rhodes'', a midget pretends to be a giant by riding on the shoulders of his bodyguard, concealed by a long cloak.

 

* Done in an episode of ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'' to predictable ends.

* Done to allow two Jamanese "snakks" to avoid "big" police in the [[British Series]] ''[[A Small Problem]]''.

* Michaelangello and Venus do this in an episode of ''[[Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation|Ninja Turtles the Next Mutation]]''.

* Referenced in ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]''. Marshal claims he was mugged by a monkey, but later confides to Barney and Ted that it was an actual mugger, and he just didn't want Lily to buy a gun. Cue Barney: "Are you sure it wasn't two monkeys stacked on top of each other with a trench coat?"

* This occurs in an episode of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' during the final season. In the episode where Mike and the robots make fun of a German adaptation of ''Hamlet'', Crow and Servo dress up as a ghost and try to get Mike to believe that they're the ghost of his father, but Mike tells them that his father was still living, so the robots kept changing their identity to other people in Mike's family tree, but everyone they tried turned out to be a relative who was still living.

* Done in an episode of ''[[That's So Raven]]'' with Cory and Stanley.

{{quote|'''Stanley:''' ''(while attempting to do a deep voice)'' What's happenin', my brotha.}}

* This occurs on an episode of ''[[Honey I Shrunk the Kids (TV series)|Honey I Shrunk the Kids]]''. On an episode that parodies a famous ''[[Three Stooges]]'' short, Nick and his friend, Joel, do this wearing a long trench coat, a hat and a fake beard, and they do this to sneak into a wrestling arena to try to help Wayne and police chief Jake. Joel brings along his accordion and tries to play "Pop! Goes the Weasel" to see if Jake could hear it and fight better so he could win.

* This was actually shown on an episode of the Nickelodeon TV show, ''[[What Would You Do]]'' In this instance, they showed a dwarf who wanted to ride a water slide, which had a height requirement, and he was too short. He soon found a kid who was also too short to ride, so he got the kid on his shoulders and used a blanket to cover them up with. This may have just been set up, but it was shown in real time.

 

 

* There are a few videos that people have posted on [[YouTube]] of people doing this with their friends. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYgPhIOPaSw These] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbsign1_u60 are] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eANh4p_QETQ a few] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6hy2juofNs examples].

 

 

* In an episode of ''[[Under the Umbrella Tree]]'', the three main puppets attempted to do this with Gloria on top.

* Skeeter and Bobby do this on an episode of ''[[Cousin Skeeter]]''.

* In an episode of ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'', the main fraggles use a cloak to disguise themselves as Sir Hubris so the can get the gorgs to leave forever.

 

* A Chinese Acrobatic Troupe called Zunyi Municipal Acrobatic Troupe did one-on-one in one of their performances.

 

* A trio of Scarabs in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4'' track down Snake this way in the first half of the game's third act.

* In the first ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]]'' game, Larry can meet a trenchcoat flasher on the sidewalk by the hotel. When you look at the flasher, the narrator comments that it's really a little person standing on the shoulders of another. They're both still flashers, though.

* The Wizard enemy in ''Wario Land 2'' is really two Pirate Gooms wearing a robe.

 

* Done very ''un''successfully to try to look senatorial while visiting Washington, DC in ''[[Ozy and Millie]]''; oddly, a semi-adult character is part of the totem pole. The lobbyist targets see through it instantly.

{{quote|'''Esther:''' Did we ever find out exactly what's wrong with Mr. Manuel?}}

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' brings us "[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Dr. Bunwig McTwodudes]]", consisting of two adult men (though they sure aren't acting like it) and a bonus rabbit. [[It Makes Just As Much Sense in Context]]; they really don't have much of a reason to use a disguise like that. Since they're ''not'' short, the "doctor" ends up being very tall, though at least Riff is sitting on Torg's shoulders, not standing.

 

** The Ingrid Twins did this in their first episode. The Ingrid who loved Cat confessed to him at the end of the episode that she wasn't really a tall girl by taking off her dress revealing her sister underneath.

** CatDog themselves have done this twice in the episode, "All You Can't Eat" in a montage of attempts to try to eat at Taco Depot. The first time, they were disguised as a cowboy; the second time, they were dressed like a woman.

** Though they did it straight (with a twist) in one episode; after Comic Book Guy bans Bart and Milhouse from his store, Homer attempts to sneak them in by donning a trenchcoat and riding on their shoulders, identifying himself to a skeptical C.B.G. as ''Shaquille O'Neal''.

** Another episode has, in the midst of several people admitting to not really being Native American, one guy who is really just 2 midgets in a costume.

* Taken to extremes in the ''[[Drawn Together]]'' [[Something Completely Different|episode]] [[The One With...|where they were]] [[Spinoff Babies|all babies]]. In the same episode the doctor was [[Dressed to Heal|four babies in a lab coat]].

* In the ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode "Prick Up Your Ears", Peter and Lois have to sneak into the school auditorium to crash the abstinence lecture. Naturally, Peter has an idea. Cut to an incredibly tall man with a fat head wearing a really long trench coat and high heels. Then it pans over to [[Bait and Switch|Peter telling Lois that this man was big enough for them to sneak in behind]].

** In one episode ("Operation: M.O.V.I.E."), Numbuh Four does this by ''himself'' using several taped-together popcorn boxes as stilts to sneak into an R-rated movie. It's almost blown when he drops his ticket and can't pick it up due to the arms of the disguise being gloves attached to sticks.

** In another episode ("Operation: M.O.U.S.T.A.C.H.E."), Numbuhs One, Two, Three and Five do this to sneak into a headquarters where they can find who is responsible for the evil moustaches turning people into cowboys. They were both teams in this case: Numbuh One was on Numbuh Five, and Numbuh Two was on Numbuh Three.

** In one episode of ''[[Mickey Mouse Works]]'', Donald expected this was the case when a tall woman with very poor balance wobbled towards an amusement park ride that the nephews were too short to go on. Turned out she was the real deal, and when he ripped off her clothing she punched him in the face.

* ''[[Clone High]]'': In "A Shot in D'Arc," Napoleon and Taft use this disguise- with stilts, too- to try and score some points in a basketball game against their absurdly overpowered genetically engineered rivals. Funny because Taft is the top half.

* Parodied by ''[[League of Super Evil]]'', where an attempt by the main characters to try such a ruse in order to get into a fancy restaurant fails, mainly because there is a person right in front of them who happens to look just like them in their disguise.

{{quote|"We should have gone in before that other guy."}}

{{quote|"What the goons didn't realize was, under the coat I was walkin' on my knees."}}

* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]''

** In "I See a Funny Cartoon in Your Future", the girls do this to try to capture Madame Argentina. Bubbles was at the head of the disguise wearing a fake moustache.

* The monster protagonists sometimes use this to pass as human in ''[[Aaahh Real Monsters]]''.

** In "Downhill Johnny", Johnny and Dukey do this to sneak past the ski captain to shred the Bohemoth. The ski captain didn't buy it since numerous kids have already tried to fool him by doing that.

** In "Take Your Johnny to Work Day", Susan and Mary do this to sneak into a top secret lab, but they soon discover that Johnny and Dukey have done the exact same thing, and then, for some uknown reason, Johnny wanted to do a chicken fight with them.

** In another episode, Scrappy did this with his friends, Duke and Annie, so they could sneak onto a subway by paying admission for just one person, but their trench coat came off just as soon as they passed the turnstyle.

* In an episode of ''[[The Flintstones]]'', Fred and Barney did it to try to sneak Barney out of an Arabian palace. Barney was the one underneath so that the others wouldn't recognize his face, but strangely, he didn't seem at all affected by Fred's weight.

* In an episode of ''[[The Jetsons]]'', George and Jane did it to sneak by two mysterious-looking men at a horse race using a trench coat they borrowed from a man who was sitting next to them.

* This happened once on an episode of ''The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald''. On the video containing the episode, "Birthday World", Ronald has the Chicken McNuggets stand on top of each other and dresses them up as a weird-looking tree.

* In the ''[[Gumby]]'' short, "Wishful Thinking", Gumby and Pokey break into Prickle's house dressed as a ghost attempting to trick Prickle into telling them what he wished for on his birthday. Unfortunately, just as Prickle was about to tell them, Pokey lost his equilibrium causing Gumby to fall off his back and on top of Prickle. The fall caused Prickle to start screaming thinking the ghost had swallowed him.

* In the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Starvin' Marvin in Space", the boys do this and pretend to be Tom Brokaw so they can distract the government while Marvin boards his people onto the spacecraft. When Kyle makes a comment from inside the costume, Cartman at the head tries to cover by saying that he had some bad burritos today.

* In the ''[[Shaun the Sheep]]'' short, "Take-Away", Shaun and a couple of his sheep buddies do this using a trench coat they decloaked from a scarecrow so they could take the bus into town and buy pizzas for the entire flock. One of the rare instances where the trick actually succeeds.

** In one episode, Goofy volunteers to skateboard on the world's tallest half pipe when pro skater, Slammer McTwist, chickened out on doing so. Thinking he'd fail, Max and PJ arrive the next day posing as Goofy, and they actually pull it off very well.

** In another episode, Max makes an attempt to sneak past a bully who beats him up every day. He does this by riding his bike with Pistol sitting on his shoulders wearing PJ's jacket.

* In the ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' episode, "Big Daddy", Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts make an attempt to capture Sonic by dressing up as a gorilla.

** In the episode, "Cleanliness is Next to Impossible", Pooh, Tigger and Piglet dress up as a crayon while they're in Crud's world in an attempt to rescue Christopher Robin.

** In the episode, "To Catch a Hiccup", Tigger has Owl and Rabbit dress up as a monster to scare the hiccups out of Piglet.

* Sylvester and Hector dress up as Santa Claus in an episode of ''[[The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries]]''.

* ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]''

** In "Pluck' of the Irish", a beautiful lass reveals herself to be three leprechauns in disguise.

* In an episode of ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (animation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'', the Rangers disguised themselves as birds. Gadget stands on top of Monty, and Dale stands on top of Chip.

* Arnold & Gerald do this in the ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' episode "Door #16".

* The Penguins do this in ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'' episode "Brush with Danger" to sneak into an art museum and uses one of Kawalski's inventions to do the talking.

* In addition to the movie, this trope was also performed on the ''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven]]'' TV series.

** Charlie and Itchy also do this in the Christmas special (this time, with Itchy on top) to try to retrieve back what Carface stole from the poor pups. Sadly, Carface saw through their disguise.

* Performed in ''[[Guardian Fairy Michel]]'' when Michel and [[Victim of the Week|Joe]] pull one off in episode 13 to sneak in a police station.

* ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'': [[Scooby-Doo (animation)|Scooby Doo]] and Shaggy do this while posing as the ghost of "Bulldog" Finney to scare the Joker and the Penguin in "Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!"

* Lilly, Carl and Tred perform this in ''[[Get Muggsy]]'' to help get to the park to rescue their friend.

** In the episode "Stare Master", Scootaloo stands on top of Apple Bloom with a bucket on her head and drapes a rug around them so that they could pretend to be a creature while Sweetie Bell chases them. In this case, they were trying to be "Creature Catchers" so they can try to get their cutie marks.

** In the episode, "Dragon Quest", Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash and Rarity disguise themselves as a dragon to check on Spike while he hangs out with the big dragons. Twilight was at the head of the costume standing on top of Rainbow Dash while Rarity posed as the hind quarters.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Disguise Tropes]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth and Lies]]

[[Category:Costume Tropes]]