History Main / MasqueradeBall

* In ''Franchise/{{Zorro}}: The Gay Blade'', the governor holds a Masquerade Ball. Zorro shows up ([[ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself in costume]]) and is unmasked as Don Diego, but then ''all'' the other male guests show up, also dressed as Zorro.

* One of these happens at the end of the giant DisneyAnimatedCanon tribute-slash-{{Deconstruction}}-of-itself ''{{Enchanted}}''.
* ''{{Labyrinth}}'': Villain Jareth places a DreamBallet illusion of this in protagonist Sarah's mind. For those of you who like symbolic details:

* In ''{{Zorro}}: The Gay Blade'', the governor holds a Masquerade Ball. Zorro shows up ([[ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself in costume]]) and is unmasked as Don Diego, but then ''all'' the other male guests show up, also dressed as Zorro.

* The first ''PinkPanther'' film has one.
* In ''{{Amadeus}}'', Salieri follows Mozart to a masked ball, at which Mozart ridicules Salieri to the delight of the crowd.

* In creepy parallel to Judge Turpin above, ''RevengeOfTheNerds'' has the lead nerd use his college-fair [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] costume to trick the heroine into sex.
* The film ''StartTheRevolutionWithoutMe'' (a humorous account of the French Revolution, and yes, ) has a hilarious send-up of this type of party. Even though it's technically not a Masquerade Ball, everyone still wears elaborate court dress--except for King Louis the XVI, who arrives in an elaborate chicken costume. (Apparently his devious wife told him it was [[ItsACostumePartyISwear supposed to be a costume ball]] and then "changed her mind" without telling him.) There's also plenty of intrigue, spying and backstabbing going on as the ball patrons exchange secret notes with each other--so many notes in fact, that the ''entire floor'' gets covered with them.

* ''SkyBlue'' has one of these at the very start; Shua sneaks into Ecoban wearing an appropriate mask.
* In ''{{Brick}}'', Laura holds a "Halloween in January," party.

* EdgarAllanPoe's ''[[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death The Masque of the Red Death]]''. [[CaptainObvious It ends badly.]]

* JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/TheGoldenOecumene The Golden Age]]'' opens with a masquerade season to celebrate a once-in-a-millenium holiday.

* Creator/GKChesterton's ''TheManWhoWasThursday'' ends with one.

* ''GossipGirl'', being about rich socialite teens, has a GorgeousPeriodDress costume ball.

** ''GeneralHospital'' has an annual Nurses Ball, which is also used to spread awareness about HIV and AIDS.

* In ''KeepingUpAppearances'', Hyacinth wanted to go to the Lord Mayor's Fancy Dress Ball as Marie-Antoinette, but ended up with a Boudiccea costume instead.

* Season 2's Masquerade in {{The Vampire Diaries}}

* Lord Fain of ''{{Lusternia}}'' has an aesthetic that mixes Masquerade Ball and ChessMotifs. Appropriately, his appearance is an extended ShoutOut to [[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe Poe's]] ''Masque of the Red Death'', right down to his title ("The Crimson Masque") and his [[spoiler: [[NotAMask actual lack of a mask]]]].
* In {{Dishonored}}, one of the missions takes place in a masquerade ball party. You can, if choose to do so, [[ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself infiltrate as a guest with your own mask]], widely known as a famous assassin's icon, though this will be seen as a flashy and provocative innocent costume.

* Both the anime and manga versions of ''Manga/SailorMoon'' feature Usagi attending a masquerade ball held at the D Kingdom's embassy in order to find out if the royal family's treasure is the [[MineralMacGuffin Silver Crystal]] and if Princess D is actually the Moon Princess that they are looking for. The scene is more significant in the manga as [[spoiler: Mamoru and Usagi both reveal that they have memories of each other in a past life]] at this event. Naturally, the two of them also share a dance together.

A popular 19th century setting, due, as TheOtherWiki puts it, "both to their popularity at the time and to their endless supply of plot devices." To wit: Mistaken identities, untraceable murderers, believing something is AllPartOfTheShow, a normally-costumed character hiding in [[ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself plain sight]], (or mocked for their [[YourCostumeNeedsWork poor quality costume]]) and one of the attendees' masks being revealed to be their ''[[NotAMask actual face]]''. [[DeadlyDecadentCourt A court is a... difficult place.]]

* ''TheManInTheIronMask'' uses this to switch out the corrupt (literal) EvilTwin king for the good one, with the added bonus that the hidden twin had spent his entire life wearing a heavy iron mask, which he flashed to the king from under the decorative gold one to freak him out.

* Barbara Gordon first created the {{Batgirl}} outfit as a costume for a party - to annoy her father. When the party was crashed by supercriminals, she responded to the crisis like a costumed crimefighter rather than a costumed partygoer (Which Bruce Wayne did, seeing as he was in a clown outfit at the time), starting her journey to become a member of the Bat-Family.

* In creepy parallel to Judge Turpin above, ''RevengeOfTheNerds'' has the lead nerd use his college-fair [[StarWars Darth Vader]] costume to trick the heroine into sex.

* [[TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]] gets invited to a vampire masquerade ball in the third book. It's a trap, of course, and he knows it. So he declares his opinion on the subject by showing up in the cheesiest vampire costume ever.

-->-- ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', "Masquerade"

* {{Vassalord}}: In vol. 4, [[spoiler: Rayflo sends Charlie a note to attend a masqueradeso they can meet up. They quote PhantomOfTheOpera at each other and eventually a fight between Barry and Charlie breaks out.]]

** The Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'' is an AffectionateParody of ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', complete with [[NeverMessWithGranny Granny Weatherwax]] and [[MagnificentBastard Nanny Ogg]], rural Lancre witches who have no concept of how to behave in high society, dressing up this way and attending an opera performance. This goes about as well as could be expected given the witches concerned.
* ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' has a masquerade scene where the Phantom tributes Poe's story.

* ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' has one turned UpToEleven - the song is simply called "Masquerade," and gets used repeatedly throughout the remainder of the play.

Want to show off just how rich, elite, and extravagant your [[BlueBlood upper class]] is? Have them celebrate everything with a MasqueradeBall. With bizarre masks and elaborate GorgeousPeriodDress, everyone's identity is sufficiently obscured for any number of misunderstandings. Either Horror or HilarityEnsues.

The refinery on top of the sheer trope goldmine that is the MasqueradeBall is the convention of using aliases to go with the masks. Historically, that can free participants to indulge in era-appropriate 'scandalous' behaviors -- and also make a good opportunity for the uninvited to crash. Watch out for the mass robbery by the PhantomThief and ClassyCatBurglar, and hope there's a [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] SuperHero around somewhere. CharityBall often combines with the theft, to give the thiefs a good way to infiltrate.

A modern costume party has some of the potential for this, especially if there are disguises abounding. If it's an ''actual'' MasqueradeBall in a modern setting, expect at least one guest to bring out the ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' quotes. If FanService is desired, the modern costume party has a great advantage: Whereas the nineteenth century believed in modesty, the twenty-first century is a time in which you can expect plenty of [[SexyWhateverOutfit Sexy Whatever Outfits]].

Even those who vainly deny that EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory may grudgingly admit the social metaphor inherent in the MasqueradeBall.

* In ''{{Zorro}}: The Gay Blade'', the governor holds a MasqueradeBall. Zorro shows up ([[ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself in costume]]) and is unmasked as Don Diego, but then ''all'' the other male guests show up, also dressed as Zorro.

* The film ''StartTheRevolutionWithoutMe'' (a humorous account of the French Revolution, and yes, ) has a hilarious send-up of this type of party. Even though it's technically not a MasqueradeBall, everyone still wears elaborate court dress--except for King Louis the XVI, who arrives in an elaborate chicken costume. (Apparently his devious wife told him it was [[ItsACostumePartyISwear supposed to be a costume ball]] and then "changed her mind" without telling him.) There's also plenty of intrigue, spying and backstabbing going on as the ball patrons exchange secret notes with each other--so many notes in fact, that the ''entire floor'' gets covered with them.

** ''Witches Abroad'' also includes Death apparently wearing a carnival mask, and in ''Maskerade'' he actually does (along with the full ''Red Death'' ensemble), with the shock coming when he ''does'' take it off. Pratchett uses the same gag in the short story ''Turntables of the Night'' set at the modern-day, ultra-mundane version of the MasqueradeBall; a small town Hallowe'en disco.

* Lord Fain of ''{{Lusternia}}'' has an aesthetic that mixes MasqueradeBall and ChessMotifs. Appropriately, his appearance is an extended ShoutOut to [[EdgarAllanPoe Poe's]] ''Masque of the Red Death'', right down to his title ("The Crimson Masque") and his [[spoiler: [[NotAMask actual lack of a mask]]]].
* In {{Dishonored}}, one of the missions takes place in a masquerade ball party. You can, if choose to do so, [[ForHalloweenImGoingAsMyself infiltrate as a guest with your own mask]], widely known as a famous assassin's icon, though this will be seen as a flashy and provocative innocent costume.

A modern costume party has some of the potential for this, especially if there are disguises abounding. If it's an ''actual'' MasqueradeBall in a modern setting, expect at least one guest to bring out the ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' quotes. If FanService is desired, the modern costume party has a great advantage: Whereas the nineteenth century believed in modesty, the twenty-first century is a time in which you can expect plenty of SexyWhateverOutfit s.

* In Vampire Knight, a Masquerade ball is held in Chapter 87 of the manga, with Zero and Yuki sharing a masks-on kiss, away from the crowd. You'd expect these types of scenarios in a world filled with aristocratic, bishonen and bishoujo vampires having a social structure heavily resembling a monarchy.

* Barbara Gordon first created the Batgirl outfit as a costume for a party - to annoy her father. When the party was crashed by supercriminals, she responded to the crisis like a costumed crimefighter rather than a costumed partygoer (Which Bruce Wayne did, seeing as he was in a clown outfit at the time), starting her journey to become a member of the Bat-Family.

* Creator/AgathaChristie uses a masquerade ball as the starting place for a murder in the "Finessing the King"/"The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper" two-part story in ''Partners in Crime''.

* Used in the Disney series "The Swamp Fox". Mary was arrested for treason and told she'd be released after attending one. Marion sneaks into the ball in a redcoat uniform and tries to sneak her out. They both get caught, although they both escape soon after.

* One of these took place in season 2 of ''House of Anubis'' although most of the time the masks weren't worn anyways.

* {{Vassalord}}: In vol. 4, [[spoiler: Rayflo sends Charlie a note to attend a masqueradeso they can meet up. They quote PhantomOfTheOpera at each other and eventually a fight between Barry and Charlie breaks out.]]

* Jacqueline Carey's ''KushielsLegacy'' books frequently feature elaborate masked balls, usually at the winter solstice; however, the trope is averted in that most people's identity isn't really concealed all that effectively. It's an effective plot device for forcing characters together, however.

* Many of the {{Batman}} short story collections feature this. A few times Bruce Wayne shows up in a Batman costume. How silly!

** A common trend of this in ''HarryPotter'' fanfics is to hold another Yule Ball (sans the Triwizard Tournament that it's supposed to go with).

Has nothing to do with TheMasquerade (and can actually mean a break from it, such as ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself).

* The second episode of ''series/{{Leonardo}}'' season two is "The Betrothal Ball", set at the Medici's masquerade ball during Florence's Carnivale.

* The {{climax}} of Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''ToCatchAThief'' is set at a ball, where people wear lavish costumes fom the era of Louis XV.

* In the book version of ''EllaEnchanted'', Ella wears a mask to the ball so she can see the prince without being recognized. In this case, though, no one else is masked.
** No, it's a three night ball event where everyone is wearing masks the first night, but then take them off quickly, so the Prince can see their beauty. This troper is not sure if everyone wore them the next nights, but Ella certainly did.

* A masquerade ball is the central setting for the Music/{{Rammstein}} video for "Du Riechst So Gut '98". All the band members, in the form of one werewolf (who continually shapeshifts between all six without anyone noticing) tracks a woman in a red dress to a masquerade ball, infiltrates them, seeking her out by scent (he/they sniffs various women's shoulders, searching for her), culminating in cornering her in a bedroom, for a FetishFuel / NightmareFuel scene in which six wolf heads burst from his body as they kiss. The wolves escape as the partygoers try to catch them, and the woman is implied to have become a Werewolf as well.

** They also use them to hide how disfigured their faces [[NightmareFuel now are]].

* In {{Dishonored}}, one of the missions take place in a masquerade ball party. You can, if choose to do so, [[ForHalloweenImGoingAsMyself infiltrate as a guest with your own mask]], widely known as a famous assassin's icon, though this will be seen as a flashy and provocative innocent costume.

* In the videogame Dishonored, one of the missions take place in a masquerade ball party. You can, if choose to do so, infiltrate as a guest with your own mask, widely known as a famous assassin's icon, though this will be seen as a flashy and provocative innocent costume.