History Main / RacialFaceBlindness

* In the Harry Potter films, British Indian twins Padma and Parvati Patil are portrayed as non-identical twins by English Bangladeshi Afshan Azad and Welsh Bangladeshi Shefali Chowdhury. However casual viewers of the films get shocked to realise the actresses are not even related in real life [[note]] they dont even share the same accent [[/note]] and that neither are Indian. Not helping is that Padma is changed from her books house Ravenclaw to her film house Gryffindor to make seem more identical to Parvati [[note]] who Gryffindor in both books and films [[/note]]

* The website [[http://alllooksame.com/ AllLookSame]] invokes this trope and challenges you to tell the difference between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean individuals.

** In "Conspiracy", a member of a Black nationalist group snarks that he can't identify a White man accused of killing the group's leader, because White people all look alike to him. {{Subverted}} though when he does identify the suspect.

** A member of a Black nationalist group snarks that he can't identify a White man accused of killing the group's leader, because White people all look alike to him. {{Subverted}} though when he does identify the suspect.
** In an episode, a defendant's lawyer tries to argue that a key witness, who is Korean, is incapable of telling non-Asians apart and could therefore not correctly identify the Puerto Rican defendant.

* ''Series/{{Community}}'': * RacialFaceBlindness: When Jeff finds a photograph of Pierce with a black man on his black professor Kane's desk, he assumes getting kicked out of class was a scheme by Pierce and Kane...only to realize that it was a different black man.

* Bizarrely this happened with Littlemox members being confused in an article by Metro which mistakenly used an image of Jade Thirwall (who is half Arabic), but the article was about her bandmate Leigh-Anne Pinnock (who is half Black Caribbean). Even more so the two look nothing alike being heights, having different body types, hair colour, hair styles, facial features with only medium shade of brown skin being their only visual similarity.

* In a comic series about Myth/KingArthur, the protagonists are on an expedition to the East to find [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prester_John Prester John]] and are brought before the Khan. Unfortunately the Khan has a grudge against Prester John. On seeing our hero, he says this is unmistakably Prester John and orders him executed. It's then pointed out that the other Westerners look like him, so the Khan orders them ''all'' executed, as one of them must surely be Prester John! Fortunately their NativeGuide is able to persuade him otherwise.

* RacialFaceBlindness: ImpliedTrope. One of the white men in Charlie's circle assumes Howie and Noah (who are both East Asian but look nothing alike) are dating and comments that it's cute when [[LookalikeLovers couples look alike]].

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': Michael Bluth, trying to prove what a good person he is, offers a ride to his mother's Latina housekeeper when he sees her waiting for the bus. Unfortunately, she is actually a total stranger who speaks no English and thinks she is being kidnapped. Michael is eventually arrested for kidnapping, but walks free when she is unable to pick him out from a police lineup with four other white guys.

* ''The Guardian'' got in [[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/09/mistakes-identities-dismayed-readers-change deep trouble]] when they illustrated a column with what they thought was a picture of Black British rapper Music/{{Kano}}, which was actually a picture of Black British producer and rapper Music/{{Wiley}}. To add embarrassment, the subject of the column had been racism.

* ''Franchise/StyarWars'': In ''[[Literature/TheHanSoloAdventures Han Solo's Revenge]]'', Han and a [=CorpSec=] agent are waited upon by a StarfishAlien who can't tell them apart or even their genders. When they leave Han tries to skip out on the bill by exploiting the waiter's species face blindness and claiming to be different people.

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Exploited in ''Manga/{{Monster}}''. A young German cop denounces the protagonist Tenma (a Japanese doctor wanted for murder) to his superiors, but after Tenma saves his mother's life, he then lies to his superiors by telling them that his suspect was called Dr. Chang and that he mistook him for Tenma because of his oriental features.

* In the first issue of ''ComicBook/SteelgripStarkeyAndTheAllPurposePowerTool,'' the JerkAss foreman Arty Blasko tries to identify Sharri's ethnicity using a variety of Asian slurs (she's Filipino).
* ''ComicBook/RedEars'': There's a gag where a white woman has sex with a short Asian guy in his apartment, then after they're done he says that he's ready to go for another round but has to crawl under the bed first (it's "tradition"). He emerges on the other end and they have sex again. This repeats about six times until the woman gets curious and checks under the bed, only to find about 10 identical-looking Asian guys sitting there.
* In a comic series about Myth/KingArthur, the protagonists are on an expedition to the East to find [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prester_John Prester John]] and are brought before the Khan. Unfortunately the Khan has a grudge against Prester John. On seeing our hero, he says this is unmistakably Prester John and orders him executed. It's then pointed out that the other Westerners look like him, so the Khan orders them ''all'' executed, as one of them must surely be Prester John! Fortunately their NativeGuide is able to persuade him otherwise.

* Played with in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/111005/wise-beyond-her-years Wise Beyond Her Years]]''. Twilight Sparkle shows portraits of several different zebras who had a large impact on pony history, and Pinkie Pie points out that they all look like their mutual friend Zecora. In response, Twilight explains the different psychology of the two species: how ponies are wired to recognize each other based on colors, while zebras use stripe patterns, so members of either species can have difficulty distinguishing between examples of the other. And Pinkie replies that she understands all that, but she means these zebras look ''exactly like Zecora''. She convinces the rest that this isn't just face-blindness by pointing out how all of the zebras have an identical jawline, and matching stripes in their face and mane. The ponies conclude that all these zebras must be related. [[spoiler:What's actually happening is they're all the same zebra. Zecora is immortal, and has changed aliases multiple times to prevent the ponies around her from catching on.]]

* In a DVD commentary for ''Film/HouseOfFlyingDaggers,'' director Zhang Yimou admitted that he added in a new introduction scene for Andy Lau's character, who was originally supposed to be introduced already on an undercover mission, so that Western audiences wouldn't think he was two different characters. He and costar Zhang Ziyi then stated that they sometimes had trouble telling Western movie stars apart. In a separate commentary, he mentioned that he also had Lau eat peanuts in all his initial scenes in order to help audiences subconsciously identify him in his different roles.
* In ''Film/{{Help}}'', Swami Clang can't tell the Beatles apart: "They look all the same in their similarity and language!"
* Parodied in a DeletedScene from ''Film/{{Mimino}}'': the two protagonists, a TallDarkAndHandsome PornStache-wearing Georgian and a short, plump, barefaced Armenian, ride in an elevator of a Moscow hotel with two Japanese men, who happen to resemble each other like identical twins. One of the Japanese men tells the other: "Those [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Russians]] all look the same!"

* ''The Cat's-Paw'': Creator/HaroldLloyd's character Ezekiel Cobb, raised from childhood in China as the son of a missionary, returns to America to seek out a wife. He remarks that all white women look alike to him.
* ''Film/TheDouble'': When it's pointed out that James and Simon look identical, Simon's coworker notes that they're not even Chinese.
* ''Film/StarskyAndHutch'': A Chinese suspect admits he can't tell the titular detectives more about the guys that hired him because they were white and "all you guys look alike to me". Hutch doesn't take any offense at the comment and notes white people have the same issue with "orientals".

* From ''[[Website/TheOnion Our Dumb World]]'''s entry on China: "1999: NATO mistakenly bombs the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, claiming all the buildings look exactly the same."
* Demonstrated in ''Tangerine'' with the South Asian twins Maya and Nita, whose names in the paper following a soccer match are wrong, to Paul's dismay.

* In ''[[Literature/TheHanSoloAdventures Han Solo's Revenge]]'' Han and a [=CorpSec=] agent are waited upon by a StarfishAlien who can't tell them apart or even their genders. When they leave Han tries to skip out on the bill by exploiting the waiter's species face blindness and claiming to be different people.

* ''Series/{{MASH}}'':
** In a season two episode, the Korean liaison officer semi-sarcastically explains the difficulty in finding the father of a half-American baby as, "You all look alike to us." There are also several episodes that deal with or make reference to the difficulty in people being able to tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Korean people. An Asian blackmarket salesmen posing as a general even uses the trope to deflect suspicion away from himself, claiming, "We all look the same."
--->'''Frank Burns:''' The Chinese are an exceptionally tricky people, you know. They don't all look alike by accident!
** In the finale, Klinger's Korean fiancée (played by Rosalind Chao, ''Chinese''-American) is looking for her family, whom she describes several times as "Short, dark hair?"
* In an episode of ''Sullivan & Son'', Steve's mom (who is Korean) says all white people look alike to her.
* Parodied in an episode of ''Series/ThirtyRock''. Jack Donaghy has a meeting with a group of scientists from India, who accidentally call him "John Donovan" and dismissively remark that all American names sound alike to them. For added humor, a delivery boy who looks ''[[IdenticalStranger exactly like]]'' Jack (and who like Jack, [[ActingForTwo is also played by Alec Baldwin]]) later shows up, and one of the scientists wonders aloud if it's racist to think the two white guys look alike.
* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', Ando and Hiro see a precognitive painting of Matt Parkman. When Hiro asks if they know him, Ando responds that all white people look the same to him. Hiro scolds him for being racist.
* ''Series/InspectorRex'': This stereotype is present in the chapter "Ombre cinesi" (Chinese shadows). A bus driver who helped Shu Lin to escape from the villain tells Morini that all Chinese are similar, but the girl [Shu Lin] is beautiful. Fabbri is not content with that stereotype.
* In the American version of ''Series/{{The Office|US}}'' episode "A Benihana Christmas", Michael Scott (after several drinks) was confused as to which of the two Asian waitresses brought back from the episode's eponymous restaurant was with him. They even switch actresses when the waitresses come to the office. Michael goes as far as to mark the arm of the correct waitress with a sharpie.
-->'''Michael:''' You know how all... [[LastSecondWordSwap waitresses]] [[DiscriminateAndSwitch look alike]].

* ''Series/ChappellesShow'' featured a sketch where Dave had an attractive white woman sing all his prejudiced thoughts, one of which was "All Asian people look alike." He then went on to admit that pretty much everyone who isn't black looks alike to him.

* ''Series/BarneyMiller'': When an Asian prostitute has been purse-snatched ("[[Recap/BarneyMillerS3E10 Christmas Story]]"), she looks through the mug books. When she comments to Sgt. Yemana that "they all look alike," he responds, "I know, I'm Japanese too."

* ''Series/AirCrashInvestigation'': The captains of Japan Airlines Flight 123 and Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509 are both portrayed by Japanese-Canadian actor [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Akiyama Denis Akiyama]].
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'', Sierra [[MuggedForDisguise mugs and replaces]] a Japanese-American NSA agent named Ms. Sato. Somehow, nobody is able to tell them apart despite the two women looking nothing alike (and [[Creator/DichenLachman Sierra's actress]] being visibly biracial to boot). Though she does infiltrate the building among a large number of employees.
* The BigBad of ''Series/AlteredCarbon'' (ironically also played by Creator/DichenLachman) sneeringly says this about the Grounder who's holding her at gunpoint. She lives in a [[ExtremeSpeculativeStratification world where the poor live on the ground while the megarich like herself live in hoverships]] and {{starscraper}}s.
-->'''Reileen:''' Oh, it's Elliot. Honestly, all Grounders look alike to me. Must be the film of dirt.\\
'''Elliot:''' You may wanna reconsider insulting the guy with a bolt gun pointed at your head.
* ''Series/LawAndOrder'':
** A member of a Black nationalist group snarks that he can't identify a White man accused of killing the group's leader, because White people all look alike to him. {{Subverted}} though when he does identify the suspect.
** In an episode, a defendant's lawyer tries to argue that a key witness, who is Korean, is incapable of telling non-Asians apart and could therefore not correctly identify the Puerto Rican defendant.
** Another episode had a Japanese defendant argue that a Chinese-American witness was unable to tell non-Chinese Asians apart.
* ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'': In one episode, a white woman is raped by a black man and initially identifies one suspect before correcting herself and identifying another. The defense attorney brings in the first suspect to accuse her of this trope; since the two men don't look much alike, he argues that she's racist and just looking to blame a black man. She counters that the room was dark, and the one characteristic besides race that they have in common--their build--was all that she could see.
* In ''Series/KimsConvenience'', a customer in "Rude Kid" thinks Mr. Kim (a Korean immigrant and owner of titular store) looks Japanese, "like [[Creator/KenWatanabe that guy]] in ''Film/TheLastSamurai''".
--> '''Mr. Kim''': Creator/TomCruise?
* ''Series/InspectorMorse'': Invoked in "The Settling of the Sun", where the VictimOfTheWeek is Japanese, and another Japanese man is used to establish a false time of death. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that the victim is NotQuiteDead; overpowering his {{doppelganger}} and switching places with him. Apparently none of the conspirators noticed the difference.]]
* ''Series/{{Rome}}'': Cleopatra does this with Marc Antony as part of their [[BelligerentSexualTension verbal sparring]] when they meet again in Season 2. Cleopatra claims not to remember him from when he was with Julius Caesar in Egypt. "It's those uniforms you wear. You all look alike."
* ''Series/DadsArmy''. While guarding an Italian POW camp, the platoon use a CircularDrive to convince an officer that there's a full headcount, by running the same Italians through the same hut. This trope inevitably comes up.
* Lampshaded in an episode of ''Series/TheMusketeers'', with black rather than Asian people. Porthos's manipulative and evil blood father gives him a miniature painting of a random black woman claiming that it was of his mother. Porthos of course knows exactly what his mother looked like, and the incident causes him to recognise what a villain his father is.
-->'''Porthos:''' You thought I was too young to remember her, but the one thing you never forget is your mother's face. You probably bought this in some junk shop somewhere, thinking I wouldn't know the difference between one black woman and another.
* Lampshaded in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang "The Talons of Weng-Chiang"]] when the Doctor first meets TheDragon Li H'sen Chiang at the police station. When he asks whether they've met before, Chiang deadpans "I understand we all look the same." Of course, they ''haven't'' actually met before, the Doctor merely recognised Chiang from seeing a poster for his theater act.
* In ''Series/ThePinkertons'' episode "The Fourth Man", one of the murder suspects refers to the Japanese Kenji Harada as "some Chinese fellow".

-->'''Colin''': (''Sees picture of Nigeria's President'') [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Oh god]]. Nigeria's President Mohammed Buhari for the first time denied months-old rumors that he had died and been replaced by [[BodyDouble a look-alike]] from Sudan. See? Even Africans can't tell black people ap-(''cuts himself short and starts Corpsing at having [[CrossesTheLineTwice crossed the line]]'')
* ''Series/JustShootMe'': Jack gets {{mistaken for racist}} due to misidentifying a Chinese-American man in his employ for a Japanese-American businessman he was set to meet. Both of them later express annoyance after the two meet in an elevator.
* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': Michael Bluth, trying to prove what a good person he is, offers a ride to his mother's Latina housekeeper when he sees her waiting for the bus. Unfortunately, she is actually a total stranger who speaks no English and thinks she is being kidnapped. Michael is eventually arrested for kidnapping, but walks free when she is unable to pick him out from a police lineup with four other white guys.
* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. In "Need to Know", Special Branch arrest a high-ranking [=MI5=] executive who is spying for the Chinese. The KGB decide to snatch and interrogate him, figuring the Chinese will be blamed, and bring in a couple of Soviet Asiatics for the job. It's downplayed as a KGB man says they don't really look Chinese, but his boss says that they'll have facial disguises to further sell the illusion.

* It was clear that Wrestling/WorldWonderRingSTARDOM intended for Leah Vaughan to be seen as an EvilCounterpart(or rather, [[ALighterShadeOfBlack eviler counterpart]]) to Kellie Skater. What she wasn't supposed to be was a Kellie Skater impersonator, but fans mistook her for Skater until Vaughan stopped wearing green. They are both pale skinned brown eyed blonde women of European descent, but Vaughan is a Canadian and Skater an Australian.[[/folder]]

* ''But a Jape'' has [[https://www.butajape.com/comic/asian-superman/ "The Adventures of Asian Superman"]]. Perry White notices that Clark Kent and Superman look exactly alike and gets suspicious, but when he points it out, everyone around him just thinks he's being vaguely racist.

* WebVideo/JennyNicholson's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7QzSnDNiNM A Star Wars Story]]" video hinges on this. Throughout the story, the protagonist is travelling with a BountyHunter twi'lek woman who has bounty on him, as well as evading other alien bounty hunters. After the pair are finally captured, she shows him his wanted poster... and it's a completely different human. He then asks the alien guards to show their wanted poster, and it's a ''third'' completely different human. It turns out, every alien in the galaxy has face blindness to humans. [[spoiler:Shortly afterwards, the protagonist gives a rousing speech to a random twi'lek [[BoomerangBigot because he thought she was his companion.]]]]

** In "The Plot to Frozen 2," Anna mistakes a random black background character in a green dress for [[WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog Princess Tiana]], referencing [[EpilepticTrees cross-movie theories in the fandom]]. Elsa thinks that's racist and exiles Anna.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
** Played with in an episode where Homer is in a Chinese orphanage, trying to find a specific baby. It might not be that all Asians look the same, but all ''babies'' look the same -- or more likely, both at once making it extra confusing.
** When Homer is in India trying to find Apu's cousin, his difficulties are mainly due to the vagueness of Apu's description: "medium height, dark complexion, brown eyes, black hair." Somehow, he manages to find him in about two tries.
** Less forgivably, in one episode Homer mistakes Music/LittleRichard for both Music/{{Prince}} and Music/MichaelJackson ''within thirty seconds''.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''
** In "Conjoined Fetus Lady", all the Chinese kids look alike. One Chinese commentator remarks to the other that he is unable to identify a member of the South Park team, as "[[HypocriticalHumor all Americans look alike]]." Also, bizarrely, Kevin Stoley is said to be Chinese-American yet looks totally white.
** Mr. Lu Kim and the [[Recap/SouthParkS15E6CitySushi City Sushi]] owner try to explain the differences between Japan and China to the townspeople.
** All Canadians [[StylisticSuck look alike]] to everyone but other Canadians (and possibly UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein), who can recognize [[InformedDeformity Ugly Bob]]'s horrible disfigurement.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'', Princess Clara wears a helmet that lets her see how Asian people view the world. One test is a picture of two identical Asian men which she now sees as "two guys who look completely different".

-->''"So my father, who was a 25-year old Vietnamese kid at the time, he goes and he steals a high-level Communist soldier's uniform and paperwork. He walks right through the front door of the jail and he says, [[BavarianFireDrill 'I need to take these two with me right now.']] And they let my uncles go. My father pulled off a fantastic rescue with another guy's ID, right? [[NWordPrivileges It goes to prove even Asians think all Asians look the same.]]"''

* ''ComicBook/RedEars'': There's a gag where a white woman has sex with a short Asian guy in his apartment, then after they're done he says that he's ready to go for another round but has to crawl under the bed first. He emerges on the other end and they have sex again. This repeats about six times until the woman gets curious and checks under the bed, only to find about 10 identical-looking Asian guys sitting there.

* One Literature/SherlockHolmes parody comic has an Asian henchman claim all white people look the same to him.
* ''ComicBook/ScoobyDooTeamUp'': When Mystery, Inc. goes to Gorilla City, Daphne is worried because all gorillas look the same to her and apologizes for saying it. King Solovar accepts it and says all humans look the same to him. When they meet Gorilla Grodd, he doesn't recognize the gang from the time they helped the Justice League to defeat the LegionOfDoom because all humans look the same to him as well.

-->“That’s racist, Silver Spoon. [[EveryoneHasStandards Not cool.]]”

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* ''Series/{{MASH}}''

-->'''Reileen:''' Oh, it's Elliot. Honestly, all Grounders look alike to me. Must be the film of dirt.
-->'''Elliot:''' You may wanna reconsider insulting the guy with a bolt gun pointed at your head.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]

[[folder:Theater]]

* Parodied in ''Theatre/AvenueQ'' with the FantasticRacism against monsters. Princeton asks Kate Monster if she's related to Trekkie Monster due to their shared last name, and she calls him racist and asks if he thinks all monsters look the same.

* WebVideo/JoueurDuGrenier:
** He starts making such a joke while commenting on the Japanese ''[[Series/SpiderManJapan Spider-Man]]'' series, but he is cut short by a censoring alarm.

* In the Website/QuestDen quest ''Return to Sender'', to avoid telling bounty hunters he met [[TechnologicalPacifist runaway scientist]] Faspan, Pascoe lies that non-chimeras look too much alike to him.

--> '''Ember:''' I'm sorry, but you can't blame me. You both look and act so much alike. [...] I'm just saying you're both purple ponies with purple hair. You both have cutie marks with sparkly things!\\

** Another episode, "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E9SweetAndSmoky Sweet and Smoky]]", had Ember mixing up Fluttershy with Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, even though they are all different colors and the latter two don't have wings.

* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFPWwx96Kew this spoken word video]] by Rachel Rostad, in which she criticizes the FlatCharacter [[Literature/HarryPotter Cho Chang]], more than a few commenters mistake her for Katie Leung, aka Cho's actress in the films.
* The pictures of 2013's [[http://jezebel.com/plastic-surgery-means-many-beauty-queens-but-only-one-480929886 Miss Korea contestants]] have gone viral and provoked discussions of plastic surgery and how one particular type of face is idealized.
** The viral image turned out to be the product of makeup and photo editing erasing all the detail from their faces. The women in question [[http://www.thegloss.com/fashion/miss-korea-2013-contestants-plastic-surgery-photoshop/ are actually a fairly diverse group]].

* In the 2011 remake of ''Film/TheGreenHornet'', Kato was played by Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou, but several sources, included IMDB, mistakenly credited Creator/JohnCho, who is Korean-American and around 10 years older. The confusion might also have had something to do with their similar-sounding names. However, Cho was a good sport about it, saying on Website/{{Twitter}}, [[DeadpanSnarker "I am beginning to suspect that I am not in the Green Hornet movie."]]

* Wrestling/AngelaFong has said that when she and Wrestling/GailKim were both on the main roster in WWE, they were often mistaken for each other - as the only two Asian females in the company. Angela is Chinese, and Gail is Korean. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint They are both Canadian though]].
* [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Kunal Nayyar]] discusses in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SyC3nbESFU this interview]] about getting mistaken for other South Asian actors, such as [[Series/SiliconValley Kumail Nanjiani]], Creator/KalPenn, and Creator/AzizAnsari. He is not even the same nationality as any of them, as Nanjiani was born in Pakistan and Penn and Ansari were both born in the US to Indian parents.

* One ''{{Website/Cracked}}'' article has [[https://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1460-5-insane-realities-my-life-as-dwarf.html a casino worker with dwarfism]] being mistaken for another dwarf working at the same place. A ''woman'' with dwarfism, mind you.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': The Pakleds confuse Captain Beckett, who's black, for [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Captain Janeway]], who's white, because both are female humans in Starfleet. Then again, the Pakleds aren't exactly the sharpest crayons in the box.