History Main / OverlyStereotypicalDisguise

** Marty himself falls into this trap with the "something inconspicuous" outfit he bought with Doc's money in ''Film/BackToTheFutureII''.

In ''Film/TripleX'' a spy dresses up in a tuxedo to blend in at the "Monte Carlo Club" which turns out to be a punk rock nightclub.[[/folder]]

* In ''Series/FunkySquad'', one of the square cops attempts to pass himself off a hippy by dressing as a cop's stereotype of a hippy. Not helped by the fact that he arrives driving a police car where he has crudely painted over the word 'Police' on the door so it reads 'Peace'.
* ''Series/TheSarahSilvermanProgram'' played with this. [[CloudCuckooLander Sarah]] argued with a black man that being Jewish is harder than being black, and the two agreed to [[BlackLikeMe go through one day as the other ethnicity]] for a day to test it. Sarah dressed up in a [[{{Blackface}} horribly stereotypical and offensive way]], receiving very unpleasant remarks, thinking they actually thought she was black and their responses were genuine racism. When she met the man in the usual spot she and the gang get their coffee and said that she agreed that [[ComicallyMissingThePoint being black was harder]], the black man said he realised being Jewish was actually harder. He was wearing a yarmukle, peot, a long false nose, and a shirt saying 'I <3 Money'. The man left the place as the two exchanged suspicious looks.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Cartman pulls this twice:

[[/folder]]

* Admiral Aladeen in ''Film/TheDictator'' dresses head to toe in the American flag posing as an American tourist during a helicopter tour scene, where he and his cohort are MistakenForTerrorist.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'': Raiden's idea of an "Authentic Civilian Disguise" while in Mexico is a Mariachi outfit which consists of a gaudy hat and an even gaudier poncho, draped over Raiden's otherwise completely unaltered cyborg body.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comics, bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson often attempt to go undercover by wearing ridiculously stereotypical disguises of whatever country they're in. One early book has them dress up in garish Qinh-era garb (complete with pigatils) on a visit to Shanghai. They end up with a large crowd of pointing and laughing people following them. Another has them wearing traditional ceremonial garbs while undercover in Syldavia. As it turns out, they're wearing Greek costumes anyway.

* ''DiscWorld/{{Jingo}}'':

* In the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comics, bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson often attempt to go undercover by wearing ridiculously stereotypical disguises of whatever country they're in. One early book has them dress up in garish Chinese garb on a visit to Shanghai. They end up with a large crowd of pointing and laughing people following them. Another has them wearing traditional ceremonial garbs while undercover in Syldavia. As it turns out, they're wearing Greek costumes anyway.

* ''Series/PrivateSchulz'' is sent to infiltrate Britain wearing plus fours. It's only after he's been put on the plane that his superiors ask if they still wear plus fours in 1940's wartime Britain. This and a few other blunders soon give him away and the police are soon on the lookout for "the man in the plus fours" as a suspected German spy.

* ''Series/PrivateSchulz'' is sent to infiltrate Britain during WW2 wearing plus fours. It's only after he's been sent off on the plane that his superiors ask if they still wear plus fours in 1940's wartime Britain. They don't, and the British police are soon on the lookout for "the man in the plus fours" as a suspected German spy.

* Admiral Aladeen in ''Film/TheDictator'' dresses head to toe in the American flag posing as an American tourist during a helicopter tour scene, where he and his cohort are MistakenForTerrorist. Sasha Baron Cohen is frequently accused of abusing this trope in his films.

* In ''Literature/TheManWhoWasThursday'', Lucian Gregory repeatedly tries to infiltrate non-anarchist society by disguising himself as a capitalist, a priest, or a military man. It fails each time because, as he was raised on anarchist propaganda, he acts like an over-the-top [[TheWarOnStraw strawman]] of these groups.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* Admiral Aladeen in ''Film/TheDictator'' dresses head to toe in the American flag posing as an American tourist during a helicopter tour scene, where he and his cohort are MistakenForTerrorist.
** Sasha Baron Cohen is frequently accused of abusing this trope in his films.
* Marty's flamboyant cowboy attire in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'', which he did lampshade, but (1950s) Doc insisted it was fine to wear. Marty switched to more reasonable clothes as soon as he could.

* ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' has a funny subversion. The main character's job is to infiltrate into a Muslim terrorist group. He simply wraps a towel around his head, superglues hair to his face, and says, "Dirka dirka Muhammed Jihad." It works.

[[folder: Literature ]]

-->'''Gregory:''' When first I became one of the New Anarchists I tried all kinds of respectable disguises. I dressed up as a bishop. I read up all about bishops in our anarchist pamphlets, in Superstition the Vampire and Priests of Prey. I certainly understood from them that bishops are strange and terrible old men keeping a cruel secret from mankind. I was misinformed. When on my first appearing in episcopal gaiters in a drawing-room I cried out in a voice of thunder, 'Down! down! presumptuous human reason!' they found out in some way that I was not a bishop at all. I was nabbed at once. Then I made up as a millionaire; but I defended Capital with so much intelligence that a fool could see that I was quite poor. Then I tried being a major. Now I am a humanitarian myself, but I have, I hope, enough intellectual breadth to understand the position of those who, like Nietzsche, admire violence — the proud, mad war of Nature and all that, you know. I threw myself into the major. I drew my sword and waved it constantly. I called out 'Blood!' abstractedly, like a man calling for wine. I often said, 'Let the weak perish; it is the Law.' Well, well, it seems majors don't do this. I was nabbed again.
* Sergeant Colon does this in a downright racist manner in ''DiscWorld/{{Jingo}}'' (as well as {{Malaproper}}, calling the Klatchians "brothers of the ''dessert''" rather than the ''desert'' and asking "[[IsItSomethingYouEat Had any baksheesh lately?]]"), to the point that onlookers assume he's a spy for a country other than the one he seems to be from, since no actual spy would be so obvious. And ''especially'' Ankh-Morpork, being a ProudMerchantRace run by a MagnificentBastard, would never send such an idiot.
** 71-Hour Ahmed in the same book does this brilliantly. He keeps doing stereotypically "Klatchian" things (like offering to buy someone's wife for twenty camels) and speaking Morporkian badly, with a thick accent. It turns out that not only is he [[spoiler: the police chief of Al-Khali]], he was educated in the Assassins' Guild school and speaks Morporkian perfectly when he wants to. He actually puts on a slight Morporkian accent in Klatchian just to mess with people.

[[folder: Live Action TV]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'': Raiden's idea of an "Authentic Civilian Disguise" while in Mexico is a Mariachi outfit which consists of a gaudy hat and an even gaudier poncho, draped over Raiden's otherwise completely unaltered cyborg body.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

** He also acts like a stereotype of retarded people to get into the Special Olympics - [[spoiler: he [[LaserGuidedKarma loses so badly]] that he's given the MedalOfDishonor for it]].
* Peter Griffin in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' gets beat up after trying to disguise himself as a Jew, and doing this trope.

[[folder: Real Life ]]
* Ben Haggerty (AKA Music/{{Macklemore}}) caused controversy when he put on a disguise that included [[AmbiguouslyJewish a dark colored wig with long sideburns and a large nose]] (to get to a club undetected) and then performed the song "Thrift Shop"... [[AllJewsAreCheapskates which wasn't exactly a good idea]]. Though it is worth mentioning that he [[WordOfGod denies that he was intending to promote]] any sort of anti-Semitic caricature when he came up with the outfit.

* ''Film/AdeleHasntHadHerDinnerYet'' has Nick Carter, the most famous American detective, arrive in Prague in overly traditional Czech attire with bagpipes and all which makes him stick out like a sore thumb.

* In ''Literature/TheManWhoWasThursday'', Lucian Gregory repeatedly tries to infiltrate non-anarchist society by disguising himself as a capitalist, a priest, or a military man. It fails each time because, as he was raised on anarchist propaganda, he acts like an over-the-top [[StrawmanPolitical strawman]] of these groups.

-->'''Gregory:''' The history of the thing might amuse you," he said. "When first I became one of the New Anarchists I tried all kinds of respectable disguises. I dressed up as a bishop. I read up all about bishops in our anarchist pamphlets, in Superstition the Vampire and Priests of Prey. I certainly understood from them that bishops are strange and terrible old men keeping a cruel secret from mankind. I was misinformed. When on my first appearing in episcopal gaiters in a drawing-room I cried out in a voice of thunder, 'Down! down! presumptuous human reason!' they found out in some way that I was not a bishop at all. I was nabbed at once. Then I made up as a millionaire; but I defended Capital with so much intelligence that a fool could see that I was quite poor. Then I tried being a major. Now I am a humanitarian myself, but I have, I hope, enough intellectual breadth to understand the position of those who, like Nietzsche, admire violence — the proud, mad war of Nature and all that, you know. I threw myself into the major. I drew my sword and waved it constantly. I called out 'Blood!' abstractedly, like a man calling for wine. I often said, 'Let the weak perish; it is the Law.' Well, well, it seems majors don't do this. I was nabbed again.

* In ''Literature/TheManWhoWasThursday'', Lucian Gregory repeatedly tries to infiltrate non-anarchist society by disguising himself as a capitalist, a priest, or a military man. It fails each time because he's an over-the-top anarchist stereotype of these groups.

[[quoteright:350:[[Recap/TintinTheBlueLotus http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tintinbluelotustt_7165.jpg]]]]

* In the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comics, bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson would often attempt to go undercover by wearing ridiculously stereotypical disguises of whatever country they were in. One early book has them dress up in garish Chinese garb on a visit to Shanghai. They end up with a large crowd of pointing and laughing people following them. Another had them wearing traditional ceremonial garbs while undercover in Syldavia. As it turns out, they're wearing Greek costumes anyway.

* In ''[[Franchise/ThePinkPanther Revenge of the Pink Panther]]'', Inspector Clouseau goes undercover in Hong Kong in {{Yellowface}}, eye makeup for slanted eyes, a Fu Manchu mustache, a rice paddy hat, and a Qipao, while all the ordinary citizens around him wear business suits.

[[AC:Comic Books]]

[[AC: Film]]

[[AC: Literature]]

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]

* In ''FunkySquad'', one of the square cops attempts to pass himself off a hippy by dressing as a cop's stereotype of a hippy. Not helped by the fact that he arrives driving a police car where he has crudely painted over the word 'Police' on the door so it reads 'Peace'.

[[AC: VideoGames]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

[[AC: RealLife]]

** 71-Hour Ahmed in the same book does this brilliantly. He keeps doing stereotypically "Klatchian" things (like offering to buy someone's wife for twenty camels) and speaking Morporkian badly, with a thick accent. It turns out that not only is he [[spoiler: the police chief of Al-Khali]], he was educated in the Assassins' Guild school and speaks Morporkian perfectly when he wants to.