History Main / MistakenForSpecialGuest

* In ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'', the hotel restaurant gets a warning that a [[TheInspectorIsComing famous food critic]] is going to be dining undercover in the coming days. All they know about him is that he often likes to disguise himself as a cowboy/woman/etc, and what his preferred dish is. However, when they assume a man dressed as a cowboy to be the critic, he orders a plate different than the one they had prepared, leading to a mad scramble of them attempting to make his order all while Zack, Cody, and London make a mess of the dining area, as well as blowing off another man who keeps trying to get their attention. Finally it comes to light that the cowboy was really just a regular guest, and the man they kept blowing off was in fact the critic. However, he decides to give them a [[AllIsWellThatEndsWell positive review in the end]] on account of noticing how hard they were working to serve an "ordinary" customer. When questioned why he isn't in disguise, he reveals that he can do [[CrossDressingVoices an impressively convincing female voice.]]

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[[folder:Film]]

** In the Missing Adventure book ''The Empire of Glass'', the First Doctor is mistaken for a visiting Cardinal when visiting Venice. ''Conversely'', the Cardinal himself is mistaken for the Doctor and escorted by the aliens who initially called the Doctor to chair a galactic disarmament treaty. The Cardinal manages a surprisingly good performance (he thought he had been called to Heaven to mediate in a civil war between angels), enough that the event's organizer lets him keep on chairing the treaty.
** Also happened for real when Creator/TheBBC mistook Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan (there to be interviewed for a political programme) for an extra and started having him made up to be one of the tree aliens from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E2TheEndOfTheWorld "The End of the World"]]...

* In ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'', the hotel restaurant gets a warning that a [[TheInspectorIsComing famous food critic]] is going to be dining undercover in the coming days. All they know about him is that he often likes to disguise himself as a cowboy/woman/etc, and what his preferred dish is. However, when they assume a man dressed as a cowboy to be the critic, he orders a plate different than the one they had prepared, leading to a mad scramble of them attempting to make his order all while Zack, Cody, and London make a mess of the dining area, as well as blowing off another man who keeps trying to get their attention. Finally it comes to light that the cowboy was really just a regular guest, and the man they kept blowing off was in fact the critic. However, he decides to give them a [[AllsWellThatEndsWell positive review in the end]] on account of noticing how hard they were working to serve an "ordinary" customer. When questioned why he isn't in disguise, he reveals that he can do [[CrossDressingVoices an impressively convincing female voice.]]

* In ''Manga/PokemonSpecial'' Dia and Pearl are mistaken for Platinum's bodyguards, Paka and Uji. Pearl also assumes that Platinum is part of a reality show initially, but learns the truth when they meet the real bodyguards. ([[ObfuscatingStupidity Dia]] knew about the mistake all along.)

** In "Star One", Blake turns up to sabotage the eponymous MasterComputer, only to find it's already been taken over by alien invaders planning to conquer humanity. Blake is assumed to be a human traitor who's helping the aliens; as Blake himself points out, the location of Star One is OverTheTopSecret (those manning it have literally been marooned there) so who else would be turning up? Unfortunately the real traitor does show up, and being an old enemy of Blake instantly attacks him.
** In "Warlord", Avon and Soolin are escorting Warlord Zukan's daughter back to her homeworld, but [[RebelliousPrincess she teleports off the ship before they arrive]]. On reaching the planet they discover the place swarming with Federation soldiers and realise Zukan has sold them out. Soolin immediately draws a gun on Avon and takes him prisoner, telling the soldiers that she's Zukan's daughter. The ploy works, but later backfires in a different way -- having been told his daughter is safe on their homeworld, [[ThisCannotBe Zukan refuses to believe]] she's on the rebel base which he has sabotaged.

* In the ''Series/RedDwarf XI'' episode "Give and Take", Kryten, and eventually the others, are convinced a rather clunky-looking robot is the brilliant medibot Asclepius, managing to miss that he has "SNACKY SNACK DISPENSER" written on his back. Snacky seems torn between not wanting to let anyone down and unable to believe that anyone would actually make that mistake.

The cast is expecting a special guest of some kind, be it a long lost relative, a critic who's come to review the restaurant/hotel/nightclub/what have you everyone works at, or even a {{celebrity|Star}}. The thing is, the cast isn't sure what they look like or who to expect, and end up mistaking someone else for this guest.

* ''Series/TheEricAndreShow'' once did a prank segment where Eric fooled around at the 2016 Republican National Convention. While there, he ran into Radio/AlexJones, who mistook Eric for Creator/TrevorNoah and invited him on-stage at a rally. To say things went hilariously downhill from there is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pud_ql9xJAg quite the understatement]].

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* Elizabeth for Calypso in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'', turning her into a LivingMacguffin for a brief round of pirate negotiations.
* In ''Film/WaitingForGuffman'', the "theatre critic" turns out to be just a man who is in town to visit his niece, who has just had a baby. In the closing credits, he is listed as "Not Guffman".

* ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' (the movie) and early ''Series/StargateSG1'' featured this frequently. As only "the gods" came through the Gate, it wasn't uncommon for the heroes to be mistaken for them. This led to much kneeling and praying whenever they came through... until the real "gods," who were the {{Big Bad}}s, came along. They were seldom amused. It also led to some weapons pointed in our heroes' faces when they arrived on a world where the locals knew what the "gods" were all about.
* A really weird example shows up in ''Film/OceansTwelve'', where the cast invokes this trope; Creator/JuliaRoberts' character supposed looks exactly like Julia Roberts (InUniverse), and so they camouflage their museum heist as special guest star Julia Roberts visiting the museum. They are exposed by Creator/BruceWillis (AsHimself), who figures out that while she looks like Julia Roberts, she does not act like her.
* In ''Film/OceansThirteen'', they pull the fake critic stunt by getting one of their group to act like the hotel inspector so as to get the hotel management to focus attention on him, rather than the actual hotel reviewer. Then, to ensure a negative review, they proceed to treat the reviewer like crud. This involves dirtying his room, filling his room with a god-awful stench and giving him food poisoning. [[spoiler: At the end of the movie, they rig a slot machine for him, without his knowledge, as a form of recompense.]]
* In ''Film/{{The 39 Steps|1935}}'', Robert Donat's character is fleeing the police and enters a political rally to lose them. One problem - he runs onstage, and they mistake him for the speaker. He gives a stirring speech completely impromptu while consistently hiding his handcuffs, and he gets a ''standing ovation'' after he's done.
* ''Film/{{Zelig}}'' gets by [[SeeminglyProfoundFool in life]] by being mistaken for [[TheZelig important figures]] due to InvoluntaryShapeshifting brought on by a [[FreudianExcuse childhood need to fit in]]. Being a Creator/WoodyAllen movie, HilarityEnsues.

* In ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou'', the main characters being mistaken first for black people (at a Klan rally), then there's an inversion where they get recognized as now-famous musicians in an important part of the climax.
* [[Film/TheNakedGun It's Enrico Pallazzo!!]]
* In ''Film/MoulinRouge'', [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold Satine]] mistakes Christian as the investor of the nigthclub that she is supposed to seduce. The couple falls in love making a perfect TriangRelations when the real investor, The Duke, steps into the picture.
* The 1990 environmental/business training film ''Film/GrimeGoesGreen'' features a workplace whose owner (played by Creator/JohnCleese) is expecting a visit from Prince Charles. He mistakes an environmental inspector for the Prince and is devastated by his negative review. [[spoiler: Also inverted, when Grime mistakes Prince Charles for an environmental inspector and shows off his environmental improvements.]]

* In ''Film/CarryOnRegardless'', Bert Handy (Creator/SidJames) is hired to hold a rich man's place in the waiting room queue at a hospital and is mistaken for a visiting diagnostician and invited to examine various patients.
* The BadGuyBar scene in ''Film/ThreeAmigos'' is this. A German arms dealer comes in, shoots a man for making fun of him, and warns the bar that some of his even-more-dangerous friends are due to arrive soon. The titular Amigos soon enter the bar and are mistaken for the dangerous Germans because the original German had said that the bar would most definitely know the others, and the garish costumes of the Amigos certainly stand out. They even do a song-and-dance routine to try to "cheer everyone up" since they're all deathly afraid of being killed. After the amigos leave, the real Germans come in, get made fun of, and open fire on several patrons.
* In the Creator/LaurelAndHardy movie ''Film/TheBullfighters'', Stan looks just like the famous bullfighter Don Sebastian.

* Happens in the generally dream-like and [[MindScrew mind-screwy]] ''The Unconsoled'' by Kauo Ishiguro.
* In Graham Greene's ''Literature/TheThirdMan'', the main character, an author of pulp westerns, is mistaken for a far more literary writer whose name is similar to the protagonist's pen-name. The protagonist speaks at an event organised for the other writer without anyone working it out. Indeed his adoring readers are impressed by his daring disregard for writers like James Joyce. In fact, the protagonist hasn't even heard of them.
* ''Literature/TheBaroqueCycle:'' Jack Shaftoe, [=AKA=] "King of the Vagabonds", accidentally crashes a masquerade party that King Louis of France is expected to attend dressed as...King of the Vagabonds.
* In ''Literature/ThePaleKing'', Creator/DavidFosterWallace is mistaken for another David F. Wallace who was scheduled to show up at the same time. He gets an expedited entry into the Peoria REC, a promotion, and a consultation with the Iranian Crisis. It takes a few days for the IRS to figure it out, and he faces impersonation charges for months.

* A variation occurs in the science fiction story "The Spectre General"; the variation being that the "special guest" can never show up because he doesn't exist (though only the commanding officers know this; they use the fiction to maintain their authority).
* In the ''Literature/ParadoxTrilogy'', when Devi gets her PoweredArmor repaired, its quality and the fact that she has the same last name as a well-known Baron cause the shop owner to mistake her for nobility. Paradoxan law actually requires any peasant who is mistaken for nobility to immediately correct the person making the error; but since she's not on Paradox, Devi feels comfortable bending the rules a bit to get faster service.

*** People who have had psychic training are immune, as first demonstrated in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E12ArmyOfGhosts "Army of Ghosts"]].

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* ''Series/FawltyTowers'', "The Hotel Inspectors" plays with this, as several characters in turn are possible candidates for the hotel inspector, and are disproven at various times, until [[spoiler: the real ones arrive right at the very end, at the worst possible time, leading to possibly one of the best closing moments of any sitcom episode]]. A similar situation occurs in "A Touch of Class", but in that instance the "Special Guest" is a con-man deliberately pretending to be a Lord to get preferential treatment.
** Also happens on ''Series/TheLoveBoat'', when the crew is expecting an inspector from the cruise line. [[spoiler: But he'd missed the boat.]]

** "The Romans": The Doctor is mistaken for the famous lyre player Maximus Pettulian after he finds Pettlian's body and picks up the murdered man's lyre.
** "The Daleks' Master Plan": While in a movie studio in 1920s Hollywood, Steven is mistaken for one of the KeystoneKops and the Doctor is mistaken for Professor Webster, an expert on Arabian culture.
*** Played with in the Loose Cannon reconstruction. As there were no available stills of the actor who ACTUALLY played Professor Webster, Loose Cannon substituted a photo of a bespectacled William Hartnell from the film "This Sporting Life."
** "Power of the Daleks": The Doctor stumbles across the body of the freshly murdered Examiner: an official sent from earth to investigate strange goings-on in the colony on Vulcan. Taking the Examiner's badge, he is mistaken for the Examiner by the colonists.
** "The Curse of Peladon": The Doctor visits the planet Peladon, where he is taken for the expected Ambassador from Earth. He foils an attempt to prevent Peladon from taking its place in interstellar society and then makes a discreet exit just in time to avoid meeting the real Ambassador.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E5BlackOrchid Black Orchid]]": A particularly bare-faced instance, in which the fifth Doctor (the one who's so keen on cricket that he [[LimitedWardrobe wears a Edwardian-period cricket outfit all the time]]) arrives in an Edwardian-period country village and is assumed to be one of the players for a charity cricket match that's about to start -- they're expecting a substitute about whom they know nothing except that he's a doctor. The Doctor leads his team to victory, but this doesn't do him much good when guests start dying at the after-match nosh-up and the real substitute player sends a message to apologise for not being able to make it.
** In "Paradise Towers", the chief caretaker of a rather disastrous colony believes the Doctor is the Great Architect who designed the place. Unfortunately he's insecure about his position, and orders his underlings to kill the Doctor. Things don't improve after the mistaken identity is settled.
** Used to excess in the new series, abetted by the Doctor's "psychic paper" - a blank piece of paper which the viewer perceives as credentials for whatever position the Doctor needs to pose as. In the episode "The Idiot's Lantern," he even manages to pass for the king of Belgium. Subverted in the third series, where the psychic paper doesn't fool Shakespeare or specially trained Torchwood employees.
*** In the Missing Adventure book ''The Empire of Glass'', the First Doctor is mistaken for a visiting Cardinal when visiting Venice. ''Conversely'', the Cardinal himself is mistaken for the Doctor and escorted by the aliens who initially called the Doctor to chair a galactic disarmament treaty. The Cardinal manages a surprisingly good performance (he thought he had been called to Heaven to mediate in a civil war between angels), enough that the event's organizer lets him keep on chairing the treaty.
*** Also happened for real when Creator/TheBBC mistook Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan (there to be interviewed for a political programme) for an extra and started having him made up to be one of the tree aliens from "The End of the World"...
* ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' (the movie) and early ''Series/StargateSG1'' featured this frequently. As only "the gods" came through the Gate, it wasn't uncommon for the heroes to be mistaken for them. This led to much kneeling and praying whenever they came through... until the real "gods," who were the {{Big Bad}}s, came along. They were seldom amused. It also led to some weapons pointed in our heroes' faces when they arrived on a world where the locals knew what the "gods" were all about.
* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'':
** In one episode, George impersonates a man named O'Brien so he and Jerry can get a limo ride and free tickets to a basketball game at Madison Square Garden. [[spoiler:This backfires spectacularly, since O'Brien is a secretive white supremacist and leader of the "Aryan Union", and he is making his first public appearance.]] Oops.
** In another episode, the head of a charity runs into Kramer on the street. As Kramer just came from a dentist appointment (and as a result is slurring his speech) and is wearing special shoes (intended to improve his basketball skills), the man mistakenly believes that Kramer is mentally challenged and invites him to a charity banquet as the guest of honor.

* An episode of ''Series/HeyDude'' used this. The very end of the episode has Mr. Ernst telling the staff to be on the lookout for a reviewer from a very famous resort guidebook, that he may be in disguise as any one of the guests. Just as he finishes saying this, a guest checks out and remarks that he had a wonderful stay. As he walks away everybody sees him wearing a jacket with the name of the guidebook in huge letters on the back.

* Druing the VacationEpisode of ''Series/TheSteveHarveyShow'', Cedric and Lovita are mistaken for African royalty and are given special treatment from the time their plane lands in Orlando, leaving the rest of the gang to suffer in the motel from hell. Lovita thinks that Cedric went all out for their honeymoon, while he knew from the beginning that a picture taken of them in African garb during the school's Black History Month celebration is what caused the mixup and he takes full advantage of it. Of course, they are discovered to be impostors by the real king and queen and are thrown out of their fancy accommodations. They end up bunking with Steve, Romeo, and Bullethead at the same bad motel with no TV, no minibar, no ocean view, and a gator in the toilet.

* On one episode of ''Series/{{Friends}}'', at Monica and Chandler's wedding rehearsal dinner, Monica tasks Rachel with keeping Chandler's transgender dad away from his mom, since they are divorced and hate each other. Rachel unfortunately mistakes another woman for his dad.

* Variation in season 2 episode 7 of ''YoungKindaichi''. Kindaichi's childhood friend Miyuki is mistaken for Kindaichi, who is called in as a detective because of death threats. The murders happen. [[spoiler:The real Kindaichi finishes solving the crime but not until after Miykui has made several important deductions.]]
* In the ''Series/RedDwarf XI'' episode "Give and Take", Kryten, and eventually the others, are convinced a rather clunky-looking robot is the brilliant medibot Asclepius, managing to miss that he has "SNACKY SNACK DISPENSER" written on his back. Snacky seems torn between not wanting to let anyone down and unable to believe that anyone would actually make that mistake.
* An episode of ''Series/{{Lassie}}'' revolves around Timmy entering Lassie in a dog show, the judges see her name and mistake her for a near identical champion showdog named "King's Royal Lassie", and give Timmy the royal treatment. When he discovers why later in the episode, he tells the truth. Luckily, because of Timmy's honesty and because Lassie proved to be a remarkable dog anyway, no one was too upset.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven''
** In "Star One", Blake turns up to sabotage the eponymous MasterComputer, only to find it's already been taken over by alien invaders planning to conquer humanity. Blake is assumed to be a human traitor who's helping the aliens; as Blake himself points out, the location of Star One is OverTheTopSecret (those manning it have literally been marooned there) so who else would be turning up? Unfortunately the real traitor does show up, and being an old enemy of Blake instantly attacks him.
** In "Warlord", Avon and Soolin are escorting Warlord Zukan's daughter back to her homeworld, but [[RebelliousPrincess she teleports off the ship before they arrive]]. On reaching the planet they discover the place swarming with Federation soldiers and realise Zukan has sold them out. Soolin immediately draws a gun on Avon and takes him prisoner, telling the soldiers that she's Zukan's daughter. The ploy works, but later backfires in a different way -- having been told his daughter is safe on their homeworld, [[ThisCannotBe Zukan refuses to believe]] she's on the rebel base which he has sabotaged.

[[folder:Theater]]

* The play ''MoonOverBuffalo'' featured a variation of this, where a theater couple was expecting Frank Capra to show up, but their daughter also had her fiance (who was also a weatherman) showing up for the first time. Which leads to a situation where the fiance is mistaken for Frank Capra without him knowing it, creating lines like
-->'''Theater Wife''': ''remembering Capra movies'' It Happened One Night
-->'''Fiance''': ''thinking that she is referring to the weather broadcast'' Well, actually, it happens every night at 6 and 11.
* In ''Theatre/AccidentalDeathOfAnAnarchist'', the police are expecting the arrival of a judge, that none of them have ever met, to investigate the death of the anarchist. The Maniac takes advantage of this to pose as the judge and wreak havoc.

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[[folder: Real Life]]

** This inspired similar events in ''The IT Crowd'' when Moss, appearing on Dragon's Den under a pseudonym, is mistaken for an MP and taken into an interview about the Iraq war.

** This presumably inspired similar events in ''The IT Crowd'' when Moss, appearing on Dragon's Den under a pseudonym, is mistaken for an MP and taken into an interview about the Iraq war.
*** This is exactly where the inspiration for that scene came from as confirmed by the writer, Graham Linehan in an interview with Charlie Brooker on an episode of ''Screenwipe''.

* ''Series/TheEricAndreShow'' once did a prank segment where Eric fooled around at the 2016 Republican National Convention. While there, he ran into Creator/AlexJones, who mistook Eric for Creator/TrevorNoah and invited him on-stage at a rally. To say things went hilariously downhill from there is [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pud_ql9xJAg an understatement]].

** In "Star One", Blake turns up to sabotage the eponymous MasterComputer, only to find it's already been taken over by alien invaders planning to conquer humanity. Blake is assumed to be a human traitor who's helping the aliens; as Blake himself points out, the location of Star One is AboveTopSecret (those manning it have literally been marooned there) so who else would be turning up? Unfortunately the real traitor does show up, and being an old enemy of Blake instantly attacks him.

* A Creator/{{Terrytoons}} ''WesternAnimation/DeputyDawg'' short had Deputy Dawg and his friends determined to give a good showing to the Governor to ensure the completion of a dam. Unfortunately, they accidentally show a photographer around the dam instead of the Governor, who is angry enough at the snub to cancel the dam project. Fortunately, the photographer works for a major magazine and he repays the gang for the great photo opportunity to persuade the Governor to change his mind.

* A Creator/{{Terrytoons}} DeputyDawg short had Deputy Dawg and his friends determined to give a good showing to the Governor to ensure the completion of a dam. Unfortunately, they accidentally show a photographer around the dam instead of the Governor, who is angry enough at the snub to cancel the dam project. Fortunately, the photographer works for a major magazine and he repays the gang for the great photo opportunity to persuade the Governor to change his mind.

** In "Star One", Blake turns up to sabotage the eponymous MasterComputer, only to find it's already been taken over by alien invaders planning to conquer humanity. Blake is assumed to be a human traitor who's helping the aliens; as Blake himself points out, the location of Star One is AboveTopSecret (those manning it have literally been marooned there) so who else would be turning up? Unfortunately the real traitor does show up.

** In "Warlord", Avon and Soolin are escorting Warlord Zukan's daughter back to her homeworld, but she teleports off the ship before they leave. On arriving at their destination they discover the place swarming with Federation soldiers and realise Zukan has sold them out. Soolin immediately draws a gun on Avon and takes him prisoner, telling the soldiers that she's Zukan's daughter.

If the mistaken guest is TheFool, that's SeeminglyProfoundFool.

* Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt, the legendary "Captain of Kopenick". In 1906, he bought a German military uniform at a second-hand shop and noted the almost-instinctive German deference to uniformed authority. So he commanded some ''real'' soldiers to accompany him, and did an "inspection" of the town of Köpenick. He fined them over 4,000 marks (and signed a receipt) and almost made a clean getaway.

** Also happens on ''TheLoveBoat'', when the crew is expecting an inspector from the cruise line. [[spoiler: But he'd missed the boat.]]