History Main / ObviousStuntDouble

Made deliberately obvious in ''[[Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg Epic Movie]]'' during the fight between Silas and Aslo to the point where Aslo's stunt double is a thin bare-chested Asian guy in an obvious wig. For reference, Aslo is played by Fred Willard.

* Invoked in ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'' when Scott has to battle Lucas Lee's stunt doubles, some of which are roughly [[OneHeadTaller one head shorter]] than Lucas Lee himself and a few of which appear to be of different ethnicities. Note that the Lucas Lee's stunt doubles are played by Chris Evans' actual stunt doubles.

* Near the start of ''Film/TheAvengers'', the BlackWidow is being awesome. Only, Creator/ScarlettJohansson isn't. It's a really buff dude in a ginger wig. Usually, you'd be too enthralled by the fact they're flipping around strapped to a chair, but the lack of boobs, change in hair color and the actress' weight in additional muscle makes it a bit obvious.

* In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', it is ''amazingly'' obvious that the guy who jumps the motorcycle into the LosAngelesRiver drainage canal is ''not'' ArnoldSchwarzenegger.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfTarzan'' has an episode in which a director is filming a movie about a wild man raised by monkeys in the very jungle the protagonists live in. Since the actor playing the wild man is lousy at filming the action scenes, Tarzan ends up roped into being his stunt double. Not only do Tarzan and the actor look noting alike, but their outfits are different.

* In the ''Manga/{{Mitsudomoe}}'' anime, one episode is almost entirely A ShowWithinAShow PowerRangers parody, complete with its own stunt driver (though surprisingly only during scenes with no actual stunts).

* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': Kristen Wiig and ''MikeAndMolly'''s Melissa [=McCarthy=] do a jazzy dance behind a sheet, so we only see their outlines. [=McCarthy's=] is about 150 lbs thinner than she is.

* ''Series/WonderWoman'': Lynda Carter's doubles were all not-particularly-effeminate men.

->SFDebris' review of [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Space Seed]]

* ''Film/DiamondsAreForever''. In the scene where Willard Whyte's two female captors dive into the pool after JamesBond, Thumper is clearly not the same woman as the actress who was playing her earlier.

* The not-that-good film ''Robo Vampire'' (reviewed [[http://www.encyclopedia-obscura.com/moviesrobovampire.html here]]) has the white, blonde heroine replaced in one scene by a stunt double who is... a dark-skinned, gray-haired short man with a moustache. The reviewer has a field day imagining what hiring this stunt actor must have looked like.

* AdultSwim's ''NTSF:SD:SUV'' makes it very obvious, although it's really the editing that gives it away, not bad continuity. Such as cutting to a sudden, awkward, far angle shot just for Trent to do a spin kick (with his hair covering his face, no less).

* ''[[TheSmokingGunPresentsWorldsDumbest World's Dumbest...]]'': In an episode of "World's Dumbest Partiers", John Enos and Loni Love watch "their" wedding video (a couple's wedding video with their faces plastered over the bride and groom) involving an accident with the bride and groom crashing into each other on a zipline. Loni comments, "Good thing I used that white woman as my stunt double!"

-->''"Khan and Kirk battle heroically, while meanwhile in an identical room, two men dressed the same also have a fight. Problem with [[TechnologyMarchesOn forty years of television enhancement]]: What you could get away with on a small grainy screen becomes rather obvious on a large digital one, especially when presented in loving 1080p."''
-->SFDebris' review of [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Space Seed]]

* Website/{{SfDebris}} highlights this in his reviews when it pops up, but also explains ''why'' it does with older shows. Basically on old, small, fuzzy tv sets of yesteryear the technology meant that even the most superficial resemblance could be gotten away, but as technology advanced and we got better and bigger televisions it became more noticeable when a non-lookalike stunt "double" was used.

* The not-that-good film ''Robo Vampire'' (reviewed [[http://www.encyclopedia-obscura.com/moviesrobovampire.html here]]) has the white, blonde heroine replaced in one scene by a stunt double who is... a dark-skinned, gray-haired short man with a moustache.

A subtrope of PaperThinDisguise or SpecialEffectsFailure, depending on whether the example is in-universe or not. It often overlaps with FightSceneFailure. TheOtherDarrin is something similar, where a character gets a new actor because the previous one left the show.

* ''WetHotAmericanSummer'': Whenever Neil climbs on the motorcycle it ''not so seamlessly'' cuts to another man who looks nothing like him wearing the same costume, in a cheap wig riding away. At one point the double even slowly and awkwardly rides the motorcycle directly toward the camera. After panning away to others, it whips back to show the actor now straddling the bike.
* An infamous scene from ''MenInBlack'' reveals that Will Smith's stunt double during the "Remember the little red button? Push the little red button" gag was Caucasian.

* Averted in the climbing scene at the beginning of ''MissionImpossible 2''. Even in the interviews in the DVD extras, Tom Cruise's climbing double looks ''exactly'' like him.

* In ''TheGreatMuppetCaper'' as Ms. Piggy is racing to the gallery on a motorcycle there are several shots of a full body driver on the bike which is obviously a real person. Though they are careful to never show the face, the difference in size between a human and a Muppet is blatantly obvious. (and this is the same film that had some of the most elaborate actual Muppets riding bicycle scenes).

* The most infamous example from ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' might be the fight in "Amok Time", which featured a stunt double that looked nothing like William Shatner fighting an equally non-Leonard-Nimoyish stuntman.

* This happened frequently on ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' but was particularly noticeable during the [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness first season]].

* This is why female rangers in SuperSentai[=/=]PowerRangers have skirts on their outfits, to hide the the fact that most of the in-costume work is done by stunt''men''.

* An InUniverse / BreakingTheFourthWall example in ''{{Spaceballs}}'' when the Spaceballs capture the heroes' stunt doubles. Princess Vespa's is a man.

* Played for laughs in ''ImGonnaGitYouSucka''. When Jack Spade's mother fights Mr. Big's toughs in the diner, she's replaced by a blatantly obvious stunt double - a guy in a wig, ''with a mustache''. You can watch the scene [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuuXYfjv3q0#t=0m55s here]].
* Invoked in ''[[Film/ScottPilgrim Scott Pilgrim vs. The World]]'' when Scott has to battle Lucas Lee's stunt doubles, some of which are roughly [[OneHeadTaller one head shorter]] than Lucas Lee himself and a few of which appear to be of different ethnicities. Note that the Lucas Lee's stunt doubles are played by Chris Evans' actual stunt doubles.

* ''SaturdayNightLive'': Kristen Wiig and ''MikeAndMolly'''s Melissa [=McCarthy=] do a jazzy dance behind a sheet, so we only see their outlines. [=McCarthy's=] is about 150 lbs thinner than she is.

* In the second ''BrokenSword'' game, George wanders onto the set of a movie where the actors' stunt double is significantly fatter than the star he's doubling for. [[spoiler: When said double is injured George serves as one as well.]]
* In ''[[VideoGame/TheMovie The Movies: Stunts and Effects]]'' your films are penalized by critics if you use a stunt double who is of a different race or gender than the actor they are representing.

* Parodied in a [[HomestarRunner Strong Bad email]] where a reader asks if Strong Bad has ever [[http://homestarrunner.com/sbemail80.html used a stunt double]]. [[BlatantLies "I've always done my own stunt work!"]]

* {{SfDebris}} highlights this in his reviews when it pops up, but also explains ''why'' it does with older shows. Basically on old, small, fuzzy tv sets of yesteryear the technology meant that even the most superficial resemblance could be gotten away, but as technology advanced and we got better and bigger televisions it became more noticeable when a non-lookalike stunt "double" was used.

* In ''[[FamilyGuy Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story]]'', there's a scene of Stewie leaping out of a hotel window. It cuts to what appears to be Dennis Franz in red overalls making the dive.
* Subverted in ''KickButtowski'' when Kick takes Scarlett's place as Teena's stunt double. It's fixed in editing so Kick looks exactly like Teena. Later, when Kick winds up in hospital, he's replaced with [[ButtMonkey Emo Kid]].
* In ''SpongebobSquarepants'', it's obvious Sandy's doubling for Mermaid Man in the unofficial movie they make.
* Used in the ''LooneyTunes'' short "A Star is Bored", where Daffy is Bugs' stunt double for any dangerous scene. He's dressed in a rabbit outfit but you can still see his duck face.

* In-universe in an episode of ''FamilyGuy'', Neil shows his class an episode of ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' and points out in a fight scene when it's WilliamShatner and when it's his stunt double.

* In the pilot for ''SheepInTheBigCity'', sheep finds himself cornered on a rooftop by Far Mer John and General Specific, though while Far Mer John and General Specific argue over the General's penmanship (or lack thereof) on the cue cards, Sheep uses this opportunity to escape: he unravels his wool, creating a rope for him to swing over to the roof of the building across the street. Cut to a shot of a man wearing a Sheep costume swinging from a rope to the other building, only crash against the facade, and tumbled down to the street below (all in slow motion, and with added film grain), before cutting back to Sheep, who is now lying on the cracked sidewalk in a daze.

* A meta-example of sorts in ''{{Film/Titanic}}''. While Jack is drawing Rose in-story, James Cameron did the sketch being filmed. Not very obvious. What ''is'' obvious is that another artist was then hired to redo the sketch, as the one that is drawn by Cameron doesn't look much like the sketch seen at the film's beginning. So a stunt double for a stunt double, in a sense.

* A meta-example of sorts in ''{{Film/Titanic}}''. While Jack is drawing Rose in-story, James Cameron did the sketch being filmed. Not very obvious. What ''is'' obvious is that another artist was then hired to redo the sketch, as the one that is drawn by Cameron doesn't look much like the sketch scene at the film's beginning. So a stunt double for a stunt double, in a sense.

* Near the start of ''Film/TheAvengers'', the BlackWidow is being awesome. Only, ScarlettJohansson isn't. It's a really buff dude in a ginger wig. Usually, you'd be too enthralled by the fact they're flipping around strapped to a chair, but the lack of boobs, change in hair color and the actress' weight in additional muscle makes it a bit obvious.

* The not-that-good film ''Robo Vampire'' (reviewed [[http://www.encyclopedia-obscura.com/moviesrobovampire.html here]]) has the white, blonde heroine replaced in one scene by a stunt double who is... a dark-skinned, gray-haired short man with a moustache.

* The central joke of ''Webcomic/TheBMovieComic'' is that it's recreating {{B Movie}}s in all their cheesy, low-budget glory. Part of this is the variety of behind-the-scenes bonus comics, explaining how they accomplished the numerous stunts and special effects. Turns out that Snuki's actor does his own stunts, and ''everyone else's stunts'', regardless of how little he looks like them.

* {{Buffy}}'s stunt double was quite a bit larger than she. During one commentary, JossWhedon says of the switch that Buffy "straps on her fightin' boobs". Perhaps the most egregious, however, was when a heavyset cafeteria lady was replaced by a stunt double half her size.