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{{trope}}
[[File:
When a character uses physical props to disguise themselves. This is a staple of [[Spy Drama]], where the hero will often use a wig and dress and affect an accent, thus the name of the trope.
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{{examples}}
* Happens quite often in [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s works. In ''[[Phoenix]]'', the protagonist disguises himself as a surprisingly attractive maiden to get himself closer and kill the rival king.▼
▲== Anime & Manga ==
▲* Happens quite often in [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s works. In [[Phoenix]], the protagonist disguises himself as a surprisingly attractive maiden to get himself closer and kill the rival king.
* In one episode of ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'', Ash has to dress up like a girl to get into one of the gyms to battle its leader for a badge. [[media:1141848330152.jpg|Here]] is the result.
** Jessie and James have a tendency to do this in a number of episodes, usually involving some [[Gender Swap
* An episode of ''[[Outlaw Star]]'' involves Gene dressing up as a woman so he can enter an all-female wrestling tournament. He is defeated in the first round. There was at least the explanation that they bribed the judges, and the one guy who knew him, but was not in on the plan, recognized him instantly. In the same episode, Aisha infiltrated the competition by stealing the costume of one of the regular entrants, since Ctarl-Ctarl weren't allowed to enter.
* ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'' has an interesting take on this: a wig, dress, and an affected voice is quite literally all {{spoiler|Johan}} needs to fool the ''reader''. (Don't forget, in the Anime, some make-up for skin tone.)
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** When they get to the Magic World, just about everyone does this to disguise themselves, using [[Catgirl|Cat Ears, Tails]], and [[Meganekko|Glasses]].
* Misa does this twice in ''[[Death Note]]'': once to avoid being spotted by Light and L in Aoyama, and once to trade places with a friend in order to get close to Higuchi.
* ''[[Ranma ½]]'': When Ranma Saotome needs further disguise than what his [[Gender Bender]] [[Involuntary Shapeshifting|Jusenkyô curse]] can provide, this trope is more or less how he goes about it. Though he does on occasion go a step further by pretending to be a [[Meganekko]] (see the Japanese Nanniichuan and Ryôga
* In [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|the 2003 anime version]] of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', when Ed goes on the run he spends some time transmuting his hair a dark green and wearing platform shoes (to disguise his trademark short height). The disguise actually works remarkably well, even for the viewer.
* Yozak from ''[[Kyou Kara Maou]]'', everyone's favourite spy, has this as his first resort. He carries around a dress for good luck. For a [http://media.photobucket.com/image/yozak%20kyou%20kara%20maou/Isha-libran/Bishies/yozak.jpg huge, muscular man], it's [http://img1.lln.crunchyroll.com/i/spire3/686e3a797f9c50500c7cde71985059841280174897_full.jpghttp://img1.lln.crunchyroll.com/i/spire3/686e3a797f9c50500c7cde71985059841280174897_full.jpg surprisingly]{{Dead link}} [http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v642/StarRose/Kyou%20Kara%20Maou/KKM%20gifs/?action=view¤t=yozak-breasts-LARGE.gif effective.]
* Minoru in ''[[AKB49: Ren'ai
==
* When Thor lost his ability to transform into a nebbish doctor, some of his fellow Avengers (in their series) took him out to see "some guys they knew," to help him work up a "civilian" hairstyle and outfits. On the way out there's a shout-out to Clark Kent.
* When Dinah Lance (either of them) fights crime as the Black Canary, she wears a disguise consisting of a wig and a [[Stripperiffic|stripper-like]] outfit. Even though her face is covered up even less
** Hey, [[Even the Girls Want Her|Nobody]] is [[Distracted by the Sexy|looking at her face]]...
* In the ''[[Super Mario Adventures|Super Mario World]]'' comic, Luigi swaps clothes with Princess Peach (or Toadstool) and dons a wig to infiltrate the Koopa Kids' stronghold, in which Mario is kept. In his defense, he at least tried to hide his face with a mask, which also justified her deep voice as "having a nasty cold."
** Peach also disguised herself as Luigi, in a comic. The difference in size between herself and Luigi was [[Totem Pole Trench|made up for with Bob-ombs]].
* There are quite a few examples in ''[[Tintin]]'', particularly the Thompson twins, who fail utterly. Tintin is also known to do it a fair bit, and several
* ''[[The Pink Panther
== Films -- Live-Action ==▼
▲* [[The Pink Panther|Inspector Clouseau]] does this a lot, to mixed success. He is so committed to being the [[Master of Disguise]] he thinks he is that the proprietor of the costume shop he frequents is a minor recurring character.
* In the ''[[Charlie's Angels]]'' movie, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz are disguised as men in one scene. Maybe it was Lucy Liu in her dominatrix outfit who distracted everyone.
* The whole premise of the Wayans brothers' ''[[White Chicks]]''.
* Subverted in ''[[To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar]]''. When the three drag queens are stranded in a Midwestern hick town, it seems that the townsfolk don't know the true sex of the "career girls". However, it's revealed at the end that they knew for awhile and simply didn't care.
* ''[[The Crying Game]]''.{{context}}
* In [[Scooby-Doo (film)|the first ''
* Used in ''[[12 Monkeys]]'' {{spoiler|at the end, the protagonists use store bought disguises (a glued on mustache for the man and a blonde wig for the woman) to get through airport security and escape to Florida.}}
* In the Universal film ''[[Sherlock Holmes
** Guy Ritchie's more recent movie also featured a scene where Sherlock adopted a fake nose, hat, eye patch, and some stones in his mouth to disguise himself.
* FBI Agent Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe) in ''[[The Boondock Saints]]'' dresses up as a woman and hams up a Brooklyn accent to help out the brothers, completely (and I do mean ''completely'' in one case) fooling two mob goons.
* Nathaniel from ''[[Enchanted]]''.
* Chevy Chase in ''[[Fletch]]'' swaps into and out of about 10 different disguises throughout the film. Including insurance adjuster, busboy, vagrant and basketball star (with afro and going one-on-one vs Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).
* In Disney's ''[[Condorman]]'', this is used twice. First, after [[The Hero]] Woody and [[Defector From Commie Land]] Natalia have been arrested by local cops, his [[Sidekick]] Harry shows up in a
* ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]''. Indy, swapping hats with Elsa, poses as a Scottish art collector to trick his way into Castle Brunwald.
{{quote|'''Butler:''' If you are a Scottish lord, then [[And I'm the Queen of Sheba|I am Mickey Mouse!]]<ref>Amusingly, by Scottish law one needs only own a single square foot of land to call oneself a "laird" (lord).</ref>}}
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* Subverted in a ''Department 13'' novel: an agent "disguises" himself by putting on a wig that looks like his own hair, colored contacts the same color as his real eyes, subtle makeup, and wears shoes that look like they have lifts (but really don't). When enemy agents look at him they easily spot the wig, contacts, makeup, and shoes and assume that they're seeing a decoy, not the agent himself.
* [[Sherlock Holmes]] successfully pulls this off a few times, even fooling his best friend Watson.
** In ''A Scandal in Bohemia'', the tables are turned on Sherlock when opera singer Irene Adler disguises herself a man so successfully that she's even able to wish the detective a good night without him recognizing her as the woman he's supposed to be investigating.
* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'':
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
*** Re-visited in ''[[
** Though wizards occasionally have trouble letting go of the hat; in ''[[
** In ''[[The Science of Discworld]] II: The Globe'', the wizards have to disguise the Librarian to hide him from some eighteenth-century Englishmen. A dress and a large hat is all it takes to convince them that he's a Spanish lady. The Librarian ''is an orang-utan''.
** In ''[[
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]]:
** Leia's childhood friend, Winter Celchu, was frequently mistaken for Leia, due to Leia's tomboyishness and Winter's more ladylike behavior. As they grew older and joined the Rebellion, they had the bright idea to put this to good use, with Winter occasionally going in disguise as Leia to protect her. Winter would later become a full-fledged Intelligence agent and put
** Also, Mara Jade disguises herself as Jabba's dancing girl Arica. Sometimes Arica is depicted with black hair, [[Heroes Want Redheads|unlike]] Mara's actual hair color (and is therefore most likely a wig), while other times Mara appears to be using her real hair. [http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/5/5e/Arica.jpg Here's] [http://freewebs.com/mskywalker/gallery/illust34.jpg some]{{Dead link}} comparisons, for the curious.
* ''[[Les Misérables]]''
** There's a rather clever use of disguise by the villain Thenardier at the end of the book. The narrator discusses how his disguise as the respectable "Thenard" was simply purchased from a shop which sells clothing to rogues to make them look respectable, and that his oufit belonged to a Statesman. What makes his disguise clever, is that it came with quill pens as an accessory. Thenadier sticks the pens ''up his nose'', altering the shape of his nose and changing his voice tone, rendering him unrecognizable.
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** Javert himself uses a disguise when he infiltrates the barricades and Eponine disguises herself as a boy for most of the end of the story.
* Used repeatedly by Harry Dickson and his pupil Tom in [[Jean Ray]]'s novels, so succesfully that they even fool close friends like their cook or the police chief. Or each other.
* In the ''Shadow'' pulp novels, recurring character Myra Reldon is Caucasian but easily able to pass as Chinese. Walter Gibson specifies that she uses tape to create a fake epicanthic fold, but doesn't explain how she turns her brown eyes
* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Double Star]]'', the narrator follows the theory that a thin disguise can be the best. He makes a few small changes to Dak Broadbent's
* The heroine of ''Blind Waves'' by Steven Gould was being hunted by a criminal conspiracy, so the police disguised her. No accent, but a wig, sexy dress, and falsies that made her seem '''very''' buxom. Her own mother didn't recognize her. On the other hand, the male lead knew her at first glance, despite not expecting to see her there and having known her for only about four days. Possibly because [[Fourth Date Marriage|he'd already bought the ring]]. "They've been a very ''intense'' four days."
* ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'' does this an average of [[Once an Episode]].
* In ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'', Tobias dons a dress, wig, and accent in order to disguise himself as a nanny and spend time with his daughter while he and his wife are separating, a la ''[[Mrs. Doubtfire]]''. He doesn't fool anyone, especially since he can't get rid of his habit of accidentally saying homoerotic things, but everyone plays along so he can keep the house clean.
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* [[Roseanne]] as gone in drag a few times on her sitcom, once in the [[Halloween Episode]] as her costume, and in a [[Christmas Episode]] where she acts as Santa Claus at her mall (Jackie was the Missus). In both cases, one would think her ear-piercing voice would give away her gender, but she actually got past most people. In the Halloween episode, she even almost gets into a fight with a drunk bar patron and has to be rescued by Dan, who inexplicably plays gay while defending her.
* The Granada TV production of ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' mostly manages to avoid this trope; Holmes' disguises tend to be fairly convincing. Once in a while they go overboard: in "The Final Problem", Watson boards a train and sits down in his cabin opposite a man with an unrealistically long nose and a frizz of grey hair under an enormous hat, and doesn't realize it's Holmes until Holmes addresses him by name. When you get a good look at him in the moment before he takes off the disguise, you wonder how anyone could look at him and ''not'' think "that's a bloke in a costume".
* Reality TV example: In a season premiere of ''[[Hell's
* Although ''[[Mission: Impossible (TV series)|Mission Impossible]]'' is remembered for [[Latex Perfection|latex masks that could even alter height and body type]], they did a lot of this too, especially when someone other than the team [[Master of Disguise]] had to play the role.
* ''[[Leverage]]'' features this often when [[Manipulative Bitch|Sophie]] is running her part. Lampshaded and almost subverted in "The Rashomon Job" when a museum head of security notes that a duchess in the main hall bears a striking resemblance to one of the lab girls (both are Sophie's acts, one in a slinky evening gown with her usual accent, and the other in a white lab coat with what sounds like a Jersey accent) and almost seems to make the connection.
** Parker often does this as well but [[No Social Skills|isn't as good with the accent bit]], though she more frequently is seen using wigs than Sophie. She generally also uses [[Beneath Notice]] as well as a part of her infiltrations, occasionally switching to [[Show Some Leg]].
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{{quote|"I'll go get my boobs!"}}
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: ''[[The Bible]]'', Old Testament, 1 Kings 20: A minor prophet disguises himself by wearing his headband down over his eyes.
* Possibly older than ''The Bible'': Greek Mythology has the myth of goddess of wisdom and crafts Athena disguising herself as an old woman to confront the young and foolish Arachne about Arachne's boasts that her weave-work was better than Athena's. Athena thus took off her disguise and challenged Arachne to a weaving contest. Athena wins, naturally, and
** ...Another version has it that Arachne wove scenes which offended Athena or she was simply better (your call) and Athena transformed her out of anger.
** And yet another version combines all of the above. Arachne wove better but was arrogant and used designs making fun of Zeus and his many sexual conquests. Athena broke the loom over Arachne's head and the girl tried to hang herself out of humiliation. Athena then turns her into a spider.
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** The other story being that Odysseus simply saw Achilles' huge, muscular arms and legs and took a rough guess at his true gender.
== [[Theater]] ==
▲== Theater ==
* In ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'' by R. Strauss, the protagonist (an adolescent male played by a woman) dresses as a maid, supposedly his country-bumpkin relative, and dons an appropriate accent to avoid a relative of the woman he's having an affair with. The Baron then makes passes at our hero. [[Hilarity Ensues]], along with plot devices.
* In ''Anyone Can Whistle'', Fay Apple dons a slinky dress, red wig, and puts on a
== [[Video Games]] ==
* As part of the plot of ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', Cloud has to dress up like a girl. [[media:1128755977025.jpg|This is the logical extension.]]
** Anyone else strangely reminded of those Disney Princess pictures?
* In one chapter of ''[[Mother 3]]'', Lucas and his dog Boney need to gain access into a nightclub. However, the club doesn't allow minors or pets, so Boney dons a t-shirt and hat and stands on his hind legs to look more like a person. They're still rejected, but the waitress lets them in anyway (incidentally, {{spoiler|the waitress is also another party member in disguise; she just happens to be better at it.}})
* Iroquois Pliskin in ''[[Metal Gear Solid
** Exactly the opposite and a great example of this trope occurs in ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' with {{spoiler|[http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/2196/metalgearsolid3evatatya.png EVA/Tatyana]}}. Combed back hair, glasses, and a different set of clothes shouldn't really fool anyone, but instead of relying entirely on it,
** {{spoiler|Liquid's disguising himself as Master Miller}} retroactively is this, as not only did he
* ''[[Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]'': In the middle of their adventure, the brothers stumble upon a situation that requires a stand-in for Peach. They weren't aware of this earlier, but, conveniently, have one of Peach's dresses with them [[Noodle Implements|((don't ask))]]. [[Bellisario's Maxim|We probably don't want to know]] why they have the wig, but this fits the trope namer to a ''T'', because, in addition to the dress and wig, in all of the other scenes, both brothers have vague-
* In ''[[Primal]]'', the protagonist briefly loses her ability to shapeshift into various demonic forms and is thus forced to dress herself up as demon in order to blend in.
* In ''[[Space Quest
== [[Web Comics]] ==▼
▲== Web Comics ==
** Roy is forced into a [[Gender Bender]] once. Roy is bald, and in his own words, "The lesson here is, if the magic item doesn't specifically
▲* ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]''
▲** Roy is forced into a [[Gender Bender]] once. Roy is bald, and in his own words, "The lesson here is, if the magic item doesn't specifically SAY it grows hair, it probably doesn't." So he gets forced into a literal [[Wig, Dress, Accent]], minus accent 'cause it's a webcomic.
** And then there's the time Vaarsuvius' raven familiar Blackwing disguised himself to buy materials from a store where they'd been banned. Yes, the ''raven'' disguised himself. [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0679.html with a moustache.]
* Red Mage in ''[[8-
** Probably worth noting that it's actually Thief's
* ''[[George the Dragon]]'' has pulled this particular one off. Even though it was a rather [[Paper-Thin Disguise]], it seems to [https://web.archive.org/web/20100526123430/http://www.drunkduck.com/George_the_Dragon/index.php?p=321300 have worked like a charm].
== [[Web Original]] ==
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* Cassidy Cain in uses an accent and wig to disguise herself as the [[Grandmaster of Theft]].
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
* The ''Alias'' example is sent up on ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' with "Whalias", substituting an orca for Sydney. The whale's disguises work just as well as hers usually do.
* On ''[[American Dad]]'', Roger the Alien wears many
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''
** Aang disguises himself as a old man with a mustache and hair made of fur from Appa the flying bison the first time Team Avatar goes to Omashu. He gets found out when it blows off.
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*** Smarty Mart's [[For Inconvenience Press One|phone tree menu]] includes: "To demand an enormous amount of money for the safe return of our founder, press three". Maybe he didn't remember Shego [[Fridge Brilliance|because he's been kidnapped so often that the incidents all blur together]].
** In Frugal Lucre's first appearance, he disguises himself with a fake beard and accent while [[Do Not Adjust Your Set|broadcasting his demands]].
* [[
* [[Woody Woodpecker]] also uses this ruse frequently, usually to get to Wally Walrus' stash of food.
* Brain from ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'' does this a lot. Penny rarely does this, but has at least once; she likely gets points from Brain. No-one ever sees through the disguises. Brain, by the way, is a ''dog''. Not a talking dog like Scooby, either.
* [[Pinky and The Brain]] find themselves, as lab mice, trying to disguise themselves during their plots and plans. (A minor [[Running Gag]] to some fans is that Pinky's outfits [[Wholesome Crossdresser|aren't meant for male mice]].)
* The entire gag for the Chicken Boo shorts on ''[[Animaniacs]]''. A giant chicken in nothing more than a wig/hat/suit/mustache. Everyone falls for it. Well, all [[Only Sane Man|except one person]],
* Grizzle from ''[[Care Bears|Adventures in Care-a-Lot]]'' has used this on occasion, but since he doesn't take off his mechanical suit, it also counts as a [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]. Whether or not the [[Care Bears]] are fooled depends on what kind of [[An Aesop|lesson is being taught]].
* Dukey from ''[[Johnny Test]]'' is similar to Boney's example above. In case that fails, he's usually able to pass himself off as a kid with a rare hair disorder.
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', the future wife of [[Gene Roddenberry]], Majel Barret, was in the
▲== Real Life ==
▲* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', the wife of [[Gene Roddenberry]], Majel Barret, was in the first pilot episode as the female first officer. When that character was [[Executive Meddling|discarded]] for the actual show, she bleached her hair blonde and cut it short. It was specifically an attempt to get back in the show without the executives catching on. Even her husband didn't recognize her at first. She was recast in the smaller role of Nurse Chapel.
* [[Stephen Colbert]] waxed his chest, put on a wig and posed for [[media:raven.jpg|this]] photo as Raven, the stripper from ''[[Wigfield]]'', who he voices on the audiobook.
{{quote|'''Stephen Colbert:''' When my brother Jay saw that, he said, "[[Attractive Bent Gender|Hey, hey. How do we know her?]]" And I pointed at myself and he goes, "OK, how do ''you'' know her?"
'''Conan O'Brien:''' And then what did he do when you explained that [[Incest Is Relative|that is in fact you?]]
'''Stephen Colbert:''' [[Dropped a Bridget On Him|He was]] [[Squick|a little disturbed]]. }}
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8106010.stm This man], who ripped-off Social Security by disguising as his dead mother with a wig, a pair of glasses, a walking cane and heavy make-up. It definitely worked, because he managed to pocket $115,000 in welfare checks before Social Security found out.
* In a case of Wig Dress Foreign Language, one Allied prisoner broke out of a German prison camp in [[World War II]] by making a fake copy of a German uniform and simply walking out the front door. This was actually extremely common, especially in camps like [[The Alcatraz|Colditz Castle]] where conventional tunnels and wire-cutting were more difficult to pull off. The Colditz Dutch contingent were the acknowledged masters of the technique and they got so good at it that one attempted escape plan was for a prisoner with a strong resemblance to impersonate the camp warrant officer, relieve the guards on a side gate and replace them with other disguised prisoners, [[Refuge in Audacity|to be followed by the entire camp slipping out and down the road]]. It almost worked, only failing because the last guard got chatty and the real NCO came out to reprimand him for socializing on duty.
** This is partly because Dutch uniforms were almost identical to German uniforms, plus the Dutch language and German are similar.
* [[Sacha Baron Cohen]] is famous for dressing up for his various alter egos ([[Borat]],
* To testify in a court case, Stella Rimington (later head of MI5) wore a wig and make-up that made her look about ten years older then she was. When she met the judge undisguised later, he didn't recognize her.
* In the early 1960s, author Lyn Tornabene (then in her thirties) went undercover in a middle American high school to get a handle on the generation gap that was even then starting to split American culture, using only a change of wardrobe and a pair of glasses to hide the fact she wasn't a teenager. According to the book she wrote about the experience, ''[[I Passed as a Teenager]]'', she was stunned by how ''easy'' it was to masquerade as half her age -- no teacher ever actually ''looked'' at her closely enough to pierce her rudimentary disguise, and the girls she met in her classes admired how "mature" she looked without her glasses.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Disguise Tropes]]
[[Category:Costume Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
▲[[Category:Wig, Dress, Accent]]
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