Wig, Dress, Accent: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

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.

== 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.

** Jessie and James have a tendency to do this in a number of episodes, usually involving some [[Gender Swap|Gender Swapping]] and including, but not limited to, dressing as vikings, Pokémon stylists and traditional Japanese samurai.

* 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.

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''

** The cheerleaders do this while [[Date Peepers|spying]] on Konoka and Negi in Akihabara (they thought it was [[Not a Date|a date]], but was really [[Not What It Looks Like]].

** When they get to the Magic World, just about everyone does this to disguise themselves, using [[Catgirl|Cat Ears, Tails]], and [[Meganekko|Glasses]].

* ''[[Ranma One Half]]'': 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 & Akane's First date storylines) or applying make-up and other accessories (lipstick on date with Tatewaki, make-up powder when pretending to be Ryôga's fiancée, etc.). This trope tends to work because the people he plays it against are either desperately lonely (Ryôga), [[Loveable Sex Maniac|utter perverts]] (Happôsai) [[Blind Without'Em|have rotten vision]] (Mousse) or are just plain stupid (Tatewaki Kunô). And even he was surprised it worked the first time he tried it: he was expecting Ryôga to see through it, though since it did work, he does it again and again.

* 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] [http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v642/StarRose/Kyou%20Kara%20Maou/KKM%20gifs/?action=view¤t=yozak-breasts-LARGE.gif effective.]

 

 

* 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 the [[Clark Kenting|Clark Kent]], she still maintains a secret identity.

** 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]].

 

 

== 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.

* The whole premise of the Wayans brothers' ''[[White Chicks]]''.

* ''[[The Crying Game]]''.

* In the first ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' live action movie, dogs aren't allowed on the plane, so Shaggy brings his grandma...

* In the Universal film ''[[Sherlock Holmes]] and the Secret Weapons'', his disguise as a German book salesman. Sherlock doesn't typically appear at the very beginning of the films and the make-up work was very good. Much more noticeable in the earlier ''Hound of the Baskervilles'' film.

** 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.

* 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 trenchcoat, fake glasses and moustache, and a truly absurd accent to spring them. Second, after {{spoiler|Natalia gets captured by the [[Big Bad]]}}, Woody and Harry together don [[Arab Oil Sheikh]] disguises to infiltrate the palace and pull off a rescue.

{{quote| '''Butler:''' If you are a Scottish lord, then [[And I'm the Queen of Sheba|I am Mickey Mouse!]]}}

 

** 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 ''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''.

* ''[[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 [[Wig, Dress, Accent]] to more use.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[Due South]]'': In the second-season episode "Some Like It Red", Fraser goes undercover as a female teacher in an all-girls' Catholic school. Kudos to the makeup department for this one. Paul Gross, who played Fraser, manages to make a convincing woman (and walk normally in high heels) despite the fact that he's six feet tall and not even close to slender and willowy.

* ''[[That's So Raven]]'' is supposed to be about a girl with psychic powers, but said psychic is such a "master of disguise" the show could just as well be about a girl with a knack for disguises. While this trope is used as ridiculously as possible, Raven still manages to be more convincing than plenty of serious/non-comedic examples.

* [[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".

* ''[[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]].

{{quote| "I'll go get my boobs!"}}

 

 

== Myths & Religion ==

* 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 Arachne -- so upset -- hangs herself. {{spoiler|Athena feels pity for the poor thing and thus turns Arachne into a spider, which is, according to the mythology of the Greeks, why spiders weave webs}}.

** ...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.

 

== Theater ==

* In ''Anyone Can Whistle'', Fay Apple dons a slinky dress, red wig, and puts on a french accent to become [[Fauxreigner|The Lady From Lourdes]]. While she intends to reveal the town's miracle is a fraud, she reveals to her love interest that this is also the only way she can get herself to relax and cut loose.

 

 

== Video Games ==

** Anyone else strangely reminded of those Disney Princess pictures?

* Iroquois Pliskin in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'' is so ''obviously'' Snake in a different uniform with his hair down that it's [[The Untwist|genuinely shocking]] when he turns out to be Snake in a different uniform with his hair down. [[Word of God]] is that [[Hideo Kojima]] kept pressuring them to make the disguise more and more transparent, the idea being to take advantage of paranoid gamers expecting his [[Gambit Pileup|twisty]] plots to be more twisty than they actually are.

** 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|she}} also changes {{spoiler|her}} body posture and movement and {{spoiler|her}} entire way of acting.

* 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]] IV'', you do this to access an ATM.

 

== 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 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.]

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* Cassidy Cain in uses an accent and wig to disguise herself as the [[Grandmaster of Theft]].

 

== 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.

** 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.

** Sokka's infamous "Mr. Wang Fire", which consists of a goofy, deeper voice, and a beard in order to pretend to be Aang's father. Sokka likes it so much, he occasionally uses it randomly after, like when trying to give psychiatric advice to Aang (which pretty much consists of Aang screaming into a sheepkoala).

** ''"Flameyo, hotmen!"''

* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' wears a wig and dress to infiltrate a club in ''[[The Movie|So The Drama]]'', about the only time she wore a disguise. It didn't fool Shego for a moment.

*** 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]].

* 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]].)

* 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.