History Main / ButHeSoundsHandsome

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** ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'': James Bond impersonates Francisco Scaramanga and talks with Scaramanga's employer. During the talk, Bond warns the man about James Bond and plays up his skills, although Scaramanga would [[WorthyOpponent likely agree with everything Bond says g himself]].

** [[https://dilbert.com/strip/2011-08-07 In another strip]], the Pointed Haired Boss hires Dogbert's firm to persuade the media to write negative stories about their competitor. When Dilbert asks about if this is ethical, Dogbert assures him that their competitor is already doing it, since they already have hired a firm to do just that. When Dilbert then asks who did they hire, Dogbert just says is probably someone awesome.

* A common [[MemeticMutation joke]] in Creator/{{Bethesda}}'s fandoms is for people to photoshop {{Paper Thin Disguise}}s of [[LyingCreator Todd Howard]] to hype up whatever game (''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', ''VideoGame/Fallout76'', etc.) they're planning on rereleasing for whatever platform ([[UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch Switch]], UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, [[UsefulNotes/Commodore64 Commodore]] [[{{Retraux}} 64]], etc).

** [[spoiler: Vicki Vale plays it straight. After her article on the Children of Arkham comes out, she tells Bruce that the Children were fighting for the noble cause of rooting out corruption in Gotham. She turns out to not only be a member of the group, but its leader — which leads to FridgeBrilliance when the truth is revealed, since when she interviewed the leader, she was actually interviewing herself.]]

* Inverted in ''Literature/TheYoungDiana'', the titular middle-aged spinster drinks an elixir that turns her into a beautiful young woman. When a friend of her father's asks if she's any relation to his friend's daughter, Diana says, "Women over forty who have failed to get married shouldn't live! Don't you agree?"

* ''ComicBook/{{Robin}} In ''ComicBook/Robin1993'', [[Characters/RobinTimDrake Tim Drake]] mentions the former Robin looking more "graceful" and built like an athlete in comparison to [[Characters/SupermanConnerKent Conner]] dressed as Robin when trying to convince Darla Aquista that said Robin (himself) is dead, so she doesn't need to keep trying to kill him.

* This was used pretty frequently in ''ComicBook/TheFlash'', with him out of disguise saying something along the lines of "Now now, we can't all be the Flash".
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' occasionally plays this trope straight (especially in UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}}) but more often plays it in reverse, sometimes even using Clark to voice his regrets in the form of criticism. In the novelization of ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' in fact, having just learned Superman's secret, journalists everywhere are amazed at how balanced a presentation the Daily Planet gave of Superman given that most of the articles about him were written by him or his wife.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'':
** In ''ComicBook/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' #245, the Chameleon plays it straight in one panel and inverts it in the next when he comes after Mary Jane, disguised as Spider-Man: starting off with "He's one of the toughest foes I've ever faced" and then calling himself a "strait-jacketed loser".
** In ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManLeeAndDitko'', Peter would [[InvertedTrope bash Spider-Man]] anytime he was asked for his opinion on him.
** Similarly, Spider-Man will occasionally claim that he hates the guy who keeps selling pictures of him to the Daily Bugle.
** A few times during ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan2013'', Spider-Man (really Otto Octavius playing GrandTheftMe with Spider-Man's body) would defend [[Characters/MarvelComicsOttoOctavius Doctor Octopus]] as "the greatest enemy [he] ever faced" whenever someone else put Ock down.

* Both ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules and [[Characters/TheMightyThorThorOdinson Thor]] (though mostly Hercules) do a bit of this at each other's expense right before the [[CostumeCopycat Hercuthor vs. Thorcules]] fight.

* ''ComicBook/BillyBatsonAndTheMagicOfShazam'' has an {{inver|tedTrope}}sion of the usual way this plays out: Billy (an orphan) uses his OlderAlterEgo for any situation that requires a parent's involvement, including enrolling himself and his AnnoyingYoungerSibling in school:

* In ''ComicBook/Robin1993'', Tim Drake mentions the former Robin looking more "graceful" and built like an athlete in comparison to [[Characters/SupermanConnerKent Conner]] dressed as Robin when trying to convince Darla Aquista that said Robin (himself) is dead, so she doesn't need to keep trying to kill him.
* ''ComicBook/ScoobyDooTeamUp'': El Kabong describes Quick Draw [=McGraw=] as "that world-famous and staggeringly handsome lawman".

* The LemonyNarrator of ''ComicBook/VenomTheEnd'' makes a joke about "God forbid the world ever had to do without [[spoiler:[[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]]]], eh?" as they narrate how his {{Artificial Intelligence}}s were among the many to survive into the twilight days of biological life. At first this sounds like SelfDeprecation on Creator/{{Marvel}}'s part... until the end of the story, when it is revealed that [[spoiler:the narrator is an A.I. descended from Stark, and thus they were actually describing themselves]].
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'': During the Golden Age ([[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]], ''ComicBook/SensationComics'', ''ComicBook/ComicCavalcade'' and ''ComicBook/AllStarComics''), Di talked up Diana Prince as Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman as Di to Steve in order to try and figure out if he knew her secret identity, and if he loved her as both. His answers, which always had him claiming to love Wonder Woman, and conveniently timed distractions preventing his answers are a large part of why a subset of the fandom believes he always knew but didn't want to admit it at the time for a slew of reasons.

* In ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'' (chapter 42), Sun Wukong takes the appearance of the father of Hong Hai'er, a monster who kidnapped his master. Under this disguise, he tells the monster that Sun Wukong is an unrivaled fighter.

* In Roman mythology (as described by Creator/{{Ovid}} in his ''Literature/{{Metamorphoses}}'') Vertumnus, the god of season, plant growth, and change, used this trick to praise himself disguised as an old woman and win the heart of Pomona, a wood nymph and a goddess of fruits and gardening. This makes the trope OlderThanPrint.
* OlderThanDirt, even. [[Literature/TheBible Numbers 12:3]] says, "Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth." Guess who wrote Numbers. (Assuming he, and not Joshua or someone else, wrote that bit.)
** Famously, in the [[Literature/TheFourGospels Gospel of John]], John never refers to himself by name but only as "the disciple whom Jesus loved". (Although some see this as a form of humility rather than boastfulness.) There's also an amusing bit in chapter 20, where the otherwise highly-theological book takes a moment to point out that "the other disciple" beat Peter in a footrace.

* Uncle Negi from ''Literature/{{Anpanman}}'' will happily comment on how handsome and amazing his Zorro-esque alter ego Naganegiman is. Whenever Naganegiman leaves the scene, Uncle Negi pops up nearby, commenting on him. When people talk about Naganegiman's awesomeness around Uncle Negi, he has a tendency to just melt...and everyone else wonders what the heck he's doing.

* An odd version comes up in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''. A running gag in the second season is someone (usually Krillan) references another character with the other person saying something along the lines of "I do not know what this is, but it sounds awful". The trope comes into play with the Bardock film when Bardock points out how Lord Chill is a lot like Freeza (Chill's distant descendant) to which Chill responds "I don't know what this Freeza is but it sounds like a classy lady!"

** A few times during ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'', Spider-Man (really Otto Octavius playing GrandTheftMe with Spider-Man's body) would defend [[Characters/MarvelComicsOttoOctavius Doctor Octopus]] as "the greatest enemy [he] ever faced" whenever someone else put Ock down.