History Main / FakeIdentityBaggage

Usually happens because the imposter DidntSeeThatComing. May lead to PreferableImpersonator if the imposter decides to start fixing what his victim messed up. See MistakenIdentity for when a person is mistaken for another due to a misunderstanding rather than an intent to impersonate. See also BecomingTheMask and ShapeshifterIdentityCrisis when the imposter is consumed or becomes at risk of becoming consumed by their fake identity. Compare with AssimilationBackfire when absorbing or copying a being comes with drawbacks, and with StolenCreditBackfire when a character gets in trouble by stealing another person's deeds but not their identity. If the character-in-question was picked out-of-the-blue by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, then they're a VictimOfCircumstanceWithNoJobQualifications.

Usually happens because the imposter DidntSeeThatComing. May lead to PreferableImpersonator if the imposter decides to start fixing what his victim messed up. See MistakenIdentity for when a person is mistaken for another due to a misunderstanding rather than an intent to impersonate. See also BecomingTheMask and ShapeshifterIdentityCrisis when the imposter is consumed or becomes at risk of becoming consumed by their fake identity. Compare with AssimilationBackfire when absorbing or copying a being comes with drawbacks, and with StolenCreditBackfire when a character gets in trouble by stealing another person's deeds but not their identity.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "Save the Clam", Meg gets a job at the local funeral home, and Chris takes one of the corpses so he can sneak into R-rated movies. When the body decomposes in the local pool, Meg forces Chris to pose as the dead man at his funeral so she won't lose her job, and while there, they find out that the man was an organ donor and that a woman just lost her face in a freak accident. Cut to Chris with his face ripped off.

A character impersonates somebody or creates a false one to gain something out of the stolen or created identity (money, fame, love, freedom, etc). Unfortunately, they hit a bit of a snag when the person they impersonate has some baggage that derails the imposter. This includes the impersonated person owing some dangerous people money, having a family the imposter didn't know about or the impersonated being a target for assassination. In the case of the identity being created by the impostor, they could end up attracting some people who want the fake identity to provide a service or object the imposter cannot, or the created identity could be a the type of person a dangerous individual may dislike (i.e. pretending to be an assassin could incur the wrath of a person who hates assassins). This may or may not result in the imposter's ruse being exposed.

** ''[[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManLeeAndDitko Amazing Spider-Man Issue #5]]'' has Flash Thompson try to scare Peter using a Spider-Man costume as a prank. Unluckily for Flash, Doctor Doom is tracking Spider-Man in order to either recruit him to fight against the ComicBook/FantasticFour or use him as bait. Because Doom was tracking Spidey by detecting his SpiderSense when he discovered Flash-as-Spidey waiting for Peter he naturally assumed he'd found his prey and knocked him out. Meanwhile, a totally oblivious Peter walked by the scene, idly wondering why his SpiderSense was acting up. [[note]] This served as the inspiration for the ''Spider-Man the Animated Series'' example[[/note]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'': In "The Spider Slayer", [[JerkJock Flash Thompson]] in a misguided attempt to stick up for Spider-Man dresses up as the Web-Slinger and tries to intimidate Peter Parker to make him stop taking pictures of Spider-Man that Jameson will use to slander his hero. Unfortunately for Flash, this results in him being captured by Spencer Smythe who mistakes him for the real Spider-Man. After rescuing Flash, Spider-Man tells Flash "Now you know what kind of trouble this costume attracts".

* ''VideoGame/HenryStickminSeries'', ''Infiltrating the Airship'': In one Fail, Henry attempts to sneak past a group of Toppat Clan members having a conference by disguising himself as a fellow member. Another member mistakes him for a guy whose wife is about to go into labor and sends him away.
** In ''Fleeing the Complex'' Henry and Ellie sneak past a pair of guards by wearing their 'uniform' (just a hat due to the nature of the game) only to come face-to-face with three escaping convicts, who immediately attack the duo

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "And Here's to You, Mrs. Azrael", a [[MamaBear pissed-off mother]] [[SickbedSlaying kills a comatose teen]] whom she blames for the drunken car crash that killed her daughter. However, Hawkes reveals to the mother that the girl she killed was her own daughter, who exploited the fact she looked almost exactly like the girl who died in the crash to use her ID to enter a bar because she was still legally underage and didn't switch back the [=IDs=] before having the crash. The mother is taken away by the cops [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone as she has a nervous breakdown over having killed her own daughter.]]

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': In "Where Were We?", Marshall is depressed over his breakup with Lily. He checks her online credit statement and discovers charges for a hotel in New York. Thinking Lily is seeing another guy, Marshall goes to the hotel room and punches out the guy who answers the door. It turns out that the guy isn't Lily's boyfriend and Lily wasn't dating anyone at all; the man Marshall hit was an identity thief who had stolen Lily's credit card and was making purchases in her name.

*** In "Serendipity", a doctor murders a pregnant woman and inserts a tube with the blood sample of another man into his arm, so that his DNA sample doesn't match the DNA of her baby. It turns out that the man he took the blood sample from is a pedophile whom the NYPD is after. [[MortonsFork His choices are to keep quiet and be convicted of child molestation, or admit the deception and in doing so all but confess that he killed the pregnant woman (since he went to such lengths to hide the DNA match)]]. He ultimately chooses the latter choice, only to be murdered by the real child molester who was afraid the doctor would reveal his identity.

** ''ComicBook/SpiderVerse'': Downplayed. [[ComicBook/SpiderWoman Jessica Drew]] infiltrates Loomworld, the home universe of the Inheritors. Upon discovering that her Loom World counterpart is an ally of Morlun's, she poses as her in order to infiltrate the Inheritors' mansion and gather intel. However, she is shocked and disgusted to learn that her Loomworld counterpart isn't just an ally of the Inheritors, but also Morlun's lover. Her Loomworld counterpart is also a dancer, which forces Jessica to come up with an excuse when Morlun asks her to dance with him. Despite this, she is still able to gather the intel the heroes need.
* ''ComicBook/{{XIII}}'': XIII infiltrates an embassy by posing as an arms dealer. One soldier there is particularly contemptuous towards him because his disguise is known for selling things like napalm and defoliating agents, which the soldier considers too dangerous or cowardly to be used as weapons.

** In the first movie, Malcolm has to fend off the advances of Big Momma's lecherous boyfriend. He also finds himself serving her role as a midwife, which he clearly isn't comfortable doing.
** In the second movie, he encounters a woman who hates Big Momma for stealing her boyfriend and tries to goad Malcolm into a fight. Malcolm's partner Kevin actually has to talk him out of rising to the bait.

* ''Film/{{Rango}}'': When he arrives in the town of Dirt, the titular character pretends to be a tough drifter who somehow managed to kill seven opponents with one bullet. This results in an outlaw named Bad Bill challenging him to a gun fight. Rango is only saved when a hawk that had chased him earlier shows up and frightens Bad Bill away.

A character impersonates somebody to gain something out of the stolen or created identity (money, fame, love, freedom, etc). Unfortunately, they hit a bit of a snag when the person they impersonate has some baggage that derails the imposter. This includes the impersonated person owing some dangerous people money, having a family the imposter didn't know about or the impersonated being a target for assassination. In the case of the identity being created by the impostor, they could end up attracting some people who want the fake identity to provide a service or object the imposter cannot. This may or may not result in the imposter's ruse being exposed.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': The "Return to Sabaody" arc has Demalo Black, a low-bounty pirate who gets the idea to impersonate Luffy and his crew in order to gain power. Black’s flaunting of his "reputation" results in him getting unwanted attention from the marines as well as other pirates who were planning on killing Luffy to bolster their own reputation. Black gets his ass kicked by Sentomaru in a CurbStompBattle, while the rest of his crew (who abandoned him after his real identity was revealed) get BuriedAlive by Caribou.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': The Return to Sabaody arc has Demalo Black, a low-bounty FatBastard pirate who got the idea to impersonate Luffy and his crew in order to gain power. All of Black’s flaunting of his "reputation" ends up getting him unwanted attention from the marines as well as other pirates who were planning on killing him to bolster their own reputation, which ends in him [[CurbStompBattle getting his ass kicked by Sentomaru]] and the rest of his crew (who abandoned him after his real identity was revealed) getting BuriedAlive by Caribou.

* ''Film/ReindeerGames'': Rudy impersonates his cellmate Nick who was killed in a prison riot two days before they were to be released from prison. Using Nick's identity, Rudy enters into a relationship with Ashley, a woman Nick was exchanging letters with in prison. At first it seems like Rudy has finally caught a break in life, but it turns out that Ashley is league with a gang of thieves who were using her to rope Nick into a plan to rob a casino Nick used to work at. [[spoiler:The climax reveals that Nick faked his death and that the idea to rob the casino was his, with Rudy taking his identity being exactly what Nick counted on]].

[[quoteright:300:[[ComicBook/LeeDitkoSpiderMan https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/untitled_239.png]]]]

** ''[[ComicBook/LeeDitkoSpiderMan Amazing Spider-Man Issue #5]]'' has Flash Thompson try to scare Peter using a Spider-Man costume as a prank. Unluckily for Flash, Doctor Doom is tracking Spider-Man in order to either recruit him to fight against the ComicBook/FantasticFour or use him as bait. Because Doom was tracking Spidey by detecting his SpiderSense when he discovered Flash-as-Spidey waiting for Peter he naturally assumed he'd found his prey and knocked him out. Meanwhile, a totally oblivious Peter walked by the scene, idly wondering why his SpiderSense was acting up. [[note]] This served as the inspiration for the ''Spider-Man the Animated Series'' example[[/note]]

* A ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' storyline has some crooks attempting to disguise themselves as Judges in order to be able to rob banks and commit other crimes without anyone trying to stop them. Instead, they get drafted by Dredd to help curb down violent crime, and all end up being killed.

** In the second movie, he encounters a woman who hates Big Momma for stealing her boyfriend and tries to goad Malcolm into a fight using insults. Malcolm's partner Kevin actually has to talk him down from rising to the bait.

* ''Film/{{Sommersby}}'': Creator/RichardGere plays a man who adopts the identity of a soldier who died in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. Then it turns out that the dead man had committed a murder before he died, and Gere's character will have to admit his real identity or stand trial for murder in the dead man's place.

* ''VideoGame/HenryStickminSeries'', ''Infiltrating the Airship'': In one Fail, Henry attempts to sneak past a group of Toppat Clan members having a conference by disguising himself as a fellow member, when one of them mistakes him for a member whose wife is about to go into labor and sends him away.
* In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'', the Mario Bros. quartet find Princess Peach, with some kind of Shroob stuck to her face, imprisoned beneath Past Gritzy Desert and take her back to the present day Peach's Castle - except that's actually [[BigBad Princess Shroob]] pretending to be Princess Peach. The Bros. decide to leave "Peach" in her bedroom for the time being... and while they're away, Bowser shows up and kidnaps her, shortly thereafter falling into a Time Hole that takes the two of them back to the past.

** In "Double, Double, Boy in Trouble", Bart [[PrinceAndPauper switches places]] with a rich lookalike named Simon Woosterfield. But the swap turns out to be a trick by Simon to escape his stepsiblings who are plotting to kill him for his inheritance.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "Save the Clam", Meg gets a job at the local funeral home, and Chris takes one of the corpses so he can sneak into R-rated movies. When the body decomposes in the pool, Meg forces Chris to pose as the dead man at his funeral so she won't lose her job, and while there, they find out that the man was an organ donor and that a woman just lost her face in a freak accident. Cut to Chris with his face ripped off.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In [[Recap/FuturamaS6E10ThePrisonerOfBenda ''The Prisoner of Benda'']], Bender uses the Professor's mind-swapping machine to take over the body of visiting Robo-Hungarian Emperor Nikolai and steal his crown jewels. While Bender enjoys the luxuries of Nikolai's yacht, Nikolai's fiancée Flavia and cousin Basil reveal that they've been having an affair and are planning to assassinate Nikolai. Bender tries to save himself by revealing that he's not really Nikolai, but all that matters to them is that Nikolai's body is dead, not who's inside it.

[-[[caption-width-right:300:Flash Thompson's prank was Doomed from the start.]]-]

** In "Homie the Clown", Homer becomes a regional Krusty performer. He looks so much like Krusty that people mistake him for the real deal and treat him like a celebrity. Unfortunately, the disguise also fools mob boss Fat Tony whom Krusty owes money. Worse, when Fat Tony's goons grab Homer, he protests he isn't Krusty but Homer Simpson... except the goons also have an issue with Homer too. Homer keeps throwing out fake names (including Barney Gumble and Benedict Arnold), but each time he does so the goons have a reason to rough up the identity he gives.
** At the end of "Bart Star", the police show up looking for Nelson. Thinking Nelson is wanted for a petty offense, Bart claims to be Nelson to get out of playing junior football. However, the charge is actually for burglary and arson, and Bart ends up getting a ride to the slammer.

* ''Series/{{Banshee}}'': The entire premise. The main character is an ex-convict who witnesses the town's new Sheriff being murdered by thugs and then assumes his identity. He is, of course, under threat from the same local mob boss that sent those thugs, along with many others.

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "And Here's to You, Mrs. Azrael", a [[MamaBear pissed-off mother]] [[SickbedSlaying kills a comatose teen]] whom she blames for the drunken car crash that killed her daughter. However, Hawkes reveals to the mother that the girl she killed was her own daughter, who exploited the fact she looked almost exactly like the girl who died in the crash to use her ID to enter a bar because she was still legally underage and didn't switch back the [=IDs=] before having the crash. The mother is taken away by the cops [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone just as she starts her nervous breakdown.]]