Your Costume Needs Work: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''Zuko:''' ''The scar's '''not''' on the wrong side!''|''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', "[[Avatar: The Last Airbender the Ember Island Players/Recap|The Ember Island Players]]"}}

 

* In the ''[[The Sandman|Sandman]]'' spinoff ''Death: At Death's Door'', [[Grim Reaper|Death]], a [[Perky Goth]] [[Anthropomorphic Personification]], announces her identity to a group of departed souls, only for an unimpressed guy to dismiss her with, "You, and every goth chick in here!" (To be fair, in another story line Death's little sister once mistook an actual goth chick for ''her''.)

* ''[[Y: The Last Man|Y the Last Man]]'': Having grown a beard on a cross-country train-ride, Yorick is given advice by a "working girl" (who assumes Yorick is a woman with a fake beard) to make it look more natural.

"...Thanks?" }}

* In one early ''[[Spider-Man]]'' comic, Spidey tries to save his then girlfriend, Betty Brant, from Doctor Octopus while suffering from the flu. He is easily defeated and unmasked... and his poor showing convinces Doc Ock, the hostage and the other witnesses that it's just Peter Parker making a brave but very foolish effort to save her.

* A ''[[Jose Carioca]]'' story has Jose assuming he's guaranteed to win a Jose Carioca look-alike contest. He loses to [[Donald Duck]].

* In ''[[Scare Tactics (comics)|Scare Tactics]]'', Slither (a lizard boy) is refused admitance to a nightclub because:

* In ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'', Gary Jackson comes third in a Gary Jackson lookalike contest, probably as a [[Shout-Out]] to the famous Charlie Chaplin example discussed below.

* An episode of the Polish comic ''[[Kajko I Kokosz]]'' has both heroes, medieval Slavic wrriors, [[Time Travel|transported to present day]] where they stumble into a movie set of a historical drama film about their adventures. The film's main characters are [[Future Imperfect|completely unlike them]], and when someone proposes that the two strange-dressed arrivals might serve as stuntmen for the lead characters, the director laughs them off; after all, they look nothing like the "real" Kajko and Kokosz!

* And in a late '70s ''[[Iron Man]]'', Tony Stark goes "undercover" as Iron Man at the San Diego Comic Con. There are several other "Iron Men" there, and Tony takes some flak from fans of earlier revisions of the suit.

* In ''[[Dork Tower]]'', Carson the Muskrat gets this from a bunch of costumed furries at a convention.

"HEY!" }}

* In the 2008 ''[[DC Universe]] Halloween Special'', when Superman beats Lois home and gives out candy to the night's first trick-or-treaters, one remarks "Wow... that has to be the worst Superman costume I've ever seen!"

* Played with when [[The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers]] one day notice the fourth wall, discovering there's a comic strip starring them. They promptly decide on complete wardrobe makeovers to avoid association with the idiots on the printed page. That evening they find their local watering hole is holding a Freak Brothers lookalike contest with a cash prize, and can't find appropriate clothes.

* Lampshaded in the third issue of Batman, Inc:

 

 

* In ''[[Megamind]]'', the eponymous villain is about to blow up the Metro-Man museum in the middle of the night when he runs into snarky curator Bernard, who initially mistakes him for a guy in a cheap costume (didn't help Megamind was still in his pajamas), and gets dehydrated and impersonated for his troubles.

* In ''[[How High]]'', street pimp Baby Powder and his assistant crash Harvard's costume party looking for his women (the two main characters had hired them to spice things up), but Powder doesn't get quite the reaction he wanted:

'''Tuan:''' Homie, puh-''lease''! Your Halloween costume! If you pimp, you ''broke'' pimp! Ha-ha-ha-ha! }}

* The film Vantage Point has President Ashton being placed in a bunker and replaced by a body double--both are played by the same actor. Hilarious in that the body double looks totally fake thanks to his mannerisms and overzealous acting.

== Live Action TV ==

* In the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode ''Buffy vs. [[Dracula]]", the [[Monster of the Week]] introduces himself:

'''Buffy:''' And you're sure this isn't just some fanboy thing? 'Cause I've fought more than a couple pimply, overweight vamps that called themselves Lestat. }}

** "Actually, Billy Idol stole his look from...never mind"

** Although he's not being himself specifically, one episode of ''[[Angel]]'' has Lorne being told that he got the forehead wrong on his costume.

'''Lorne''': ''(Laughing)'' You have no idea. }}

* In a Halloween episode of ''[[Dark Angel]]'', several of the cast (who were transgenic supersoldiers with barcodes on their necks) tried to pass for people dressed as...[[For Halloween I Am Going as Myself|transgenic supersoldiers with barcodes on their necks]]. The response to the costumes varied, some were considered cool, others unoriginal, and some normal humans were using the same costume. The transgenics were actually what they were cosplaying as, and using it as a cover, but some were still told it needed work.

** Aang tries to get his group free passage on the ferry to Ba Sing Se. The woman taking tickets doesn't find his Avatar costume any more believable than those in the nearby group of impersonators. [[Fridge Logic|Why didn't Aang and those who know he's the real Avatar considered using his Airbending as a proof? It worked at Kyoshi Island.]]

** Naturally, in "[[Avatar: The Last Airbender the Ember Island Players/Recap|The Ember Island Players]]," a kid tells Zuko his "Zuko costume" is great, but his scar's on the wrong side of his face.

* In ''[[American Dragon Jake Long]]'': Jake finds himself out in the street in his dragon form. [[For Halloween I Am Going as Myself|Luckily it was Halloween so no-one freaked out]], but a passerby did call his "dragon costume" unconvincing. Likewise when Hans Rotwood offered a reward for photos of a real dragon Jake gave him some photos of himself that Rotwood decried as fakes, but this time because they were ''too good'', as most other Cryptozoology photos (e.g. [[wikipedia:Image:Smalfut.jpg|Big Foot]], [[wikipedia:Image:Lochnessmonster.jpg|Nessie]]) are blurry and taken from distance.

** Justified, actually. Would something mythical actually stay still long enough for you to photograph it except if it was used to people?

* An episode of ''[[DuckTales]]'' had Gizmo Duck go to a convention where everyone was dressed as him. No one's believes he's the real guy and he tries to prove he is by showing the mechanics of his suit, which other people have as well.

* In ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]: Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space'', the Missing Link is unable to scare people on Halloween because everyone just assumes he's a guy in a costume. The biggest insult comes from a kid ''dressed as Link'':

'''Kid:''' No, I'm dressed as the Missing Link. You're dressed as a fat mermaid. }}

** Another kid mistakes him for [[The Muppet Show|Kermit]].

* [[Dolly Parton]] once lost a Dolly Parton lookalike contest. Even better, the other competitors were [[Drag Queen|Drag Queens]], and her comment was that she looked like a midget next to them since most of them were around six foot.

* And here's [[Joss Whedon]] pretending to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLyuTU26sDk cosplay himself].

* In that vein, this is certainly ''not'' [[Kevin Smith]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QepgKVOVfZ8 protesting his own film].

* According to his autobiography, [[Lewis Black]] had a friend who got a [[Pilot]], and wrote a character that was basically Lewis saying what Lewis would say. Lewis was considered for the part, but had to audition to play ''himself''--and lost the part. As he said in a stand-up routine about the incident, "Unbeknownst to me, there was a better '''me!'''" (The show wasn't picked up.)

* In a similar vein, [[Myth Busters|Adam Savage]] reported at Dragon* Con 2009 that a fan told him "Dude, you are doing him so well."

** Evidently people recognize him exponentially better when he's appearing with Jamie, rather than without. To wit, from the show:

** Jamie ''does'' have his rather distinct mustache as beacon of his identity, not to mention his [[Nice Hat|beret]], [[Nerd Glasses|glasses]], and dirt-shielded white shirt.

* An inversion of the trope so weird it's actually true: [[wikipedia:Alan Conway|Alan Conway]], a travel agent from Muswell Hill, London, spent time in the 90's impersonating reclusive director [[Stanley Kubrick]]. Even though Conway looked ''nothing'' like Kubrick and knew nothing about any of his movies, he completely fooled interviewers and critics.

* Similar but with voices instead of appearances- Ernie Hudson auditioned for the role of Winston in ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' and lost. Then again, ''nobody'' really looked or sounded like their movie equivalent.

* An interesting one from Bobcat Goldthwait:

* John Leeson, the voice of K-9 on ''[[Doctor Who]]'', once placed second in a K-9 sound-alike contest he entered under an assumed name.

* In the introduction to [[Carl Sagan]]'s ''The Demon-Haunted World'', he tells a story of being picked up at an airport by a driver holding a cardboard "Carl Sagan" sign. The driver said, "You have the same name as that science guy." And it turns out the driver had the [[Name's the Same|reverse problem]]. His name was William Buckley.