History Main / ThoroughlyMistakenIdentity

* In the Madonna/SeanPenn movie ''Film/ShanghaiSurprise'', when Penn's character, Glendon, goes to a fancy restaurant he's mistaken by all and sundry for another character named Phil -- who is never mentioned before or after this scene, nor is Glendon's resemblance. Nonetheless, the fact that Glendon looks like and is mistaken for Phil is a vital plot point without which the movie makes no sense (it's the reason Glendon was picked for the mission, it's how he gets an entree with a lady named China Doll, etc.).

* ''Series/GetKrackin'': In the final episode of season 2, Indigenous actress (and temporary host) Miranda Tapsell is continually mistaken for being Deborah Mailman (a completely Indigenous actress).

HilarityEnsues. Or else a horrific depiction of how far gone this person is.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': In "Resistance", an old man named Caylem thinks that Janeway is his daughter Ralkana, even though she lacks his species' [[RubberForeheadAliens features]]. It is later revealed that his wife and daughter are dead. When Caylem is mortally wounded, Janeway [[LetThemDieHappy pretends to be Ralkana and assures him that his wife is safe and forgave him for abandoning her]].

** Stan's grandfather constantly calls him "Billy". But then again, ''his'' grandfather called him Billy.

* In ''Manga/StarBlazers'', Queen Starsha initially mistakes Nova for her own sister Astra, who died in the first episode. (She's not the only one to notice the resemblance, which is very strong, but unexplained.)

* The player in ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' is approached by someone is certain that they recognize you, so certain that they suspect you of being on drugs when you don't recognize them. The only clue that they might actually know who you were is that [[StoryAndGameplaySegregation if you let her phone other friends about you, you lose Masquerade points]]. An alternate interpretation is that the PC only denies knowing the person because they don't wish to associate with their old life now that their vampire form demands a very different lifestyle. The game does make the point that people who associate with vampires often meet misfortune of one kind or another.
* In ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'', the player is mistaken for the Teller Of Places's dead lover, until the player is able to convince her that she is wrong.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', the two main protagonists, Fei and Elly [[spoiler:have been reincarnating since the dawn of "history", 10,000 years before the start of the game]]. As such there are several characters (such as [[BigBad Krelian]]) who are functionally immortal who [[spoiler:knew their previous incarnations]]. Emerelda was [[spoiler:also created by one of their past incarnations as a ReplacementGoldfish for the child Elly was incapable of having at that point in history]]. Emerelda refers to Fei as "Kim" [[spoiler:because she actually believes that Fei is Kim]] and is a legitimate case of this trope in action. Krelian meanwhile [[spoiler:knows full well that these are separate people from the ones he was friends with 500 years ago, but calls them Lacan and Sophia anyway because its his way of keeping their memory alive]].

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** Under [[AIIsACrapshoot a different definition of senility]], 343 Guilty Spark in the first game, ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', doesn't seem to see a difference between Master Chief and his long-extinct creators, talking to Master Chief as if they've met before and referring to past conversations they've never had. The [[{{Precursors}} matter of who his creators]] ''[[{{Precursors}} are]]'' is one of the first hints of many indicating a connection between them and humanity.
** ''Literature/HaloSilentium'' expands on this a bit by implying that Guilty Spark was, for whatever reason, [[spoiler:under the momentary impression that the Chief was his actual creator, the [=IsoDidact=], whom Guilty Spark hasn't seen in about 100,000 years]].

* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'': Absolutely ''[[TearJerker heartbreakingly]]'' done with [[DarkIsNotEvil The Fair Lady]]. She is completely blind, in massive amounts of pain, and the only person who ''even speaks her language'' is her sister, Quelaag. The player can understand her using the Old Witch's Ring, but you are a HeroicMime and can't talk back, so she therefore assumes that you must be Quelaag. Unfortunately, Quelaag is dead. Because [[ButThouMust you killed her]] during a BossFight, likely without even knowing she was anything more than just another random monster. ''YouBastard''.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' gives us the Wight Knight, who thinks that a princess is his lover from many years ago. [[spoiler:Said knight has been dead for god knows how long, and only recently had been raised. His lover, and even his hometown, has been dead for a very long time -- but the princess eventually plays along after hearing his plight, allowing his spirit to rest in peace.]]

* The Desert Princess stage from ''{{VideoGame/Shantae}}'' has the senile adviser mistake Shantae (And then Sky, Risky Boots and Rottytops), all svelte attractive women (Not to mention the last two are purple and a zombie) for the rotund, fish-faced actual princess. According to her, this happens a lot.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' a homeless woman convinces herself that [=DiNozzo=] Sr is her father. Over the course of the episode it gets revealed that the woman's father is long dead, and that the woman herself is suffering dementia as a result of a inoperable malignant brain tumor. At the end of the episode Sr [[TearJerker walks into the hospital room that she's likely to die in in the very near future and plays along with her delusion]] [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming so she could die believing that she'd finally reconciled with the father she hadn't spoken to in over a decade]].

** When UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli visited a nursing home, one man confused him with Joe Louis. When one of Ali's handlers started to protest, Ali [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming insisted on going along with it because it made the man so happy]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', Anju's grandmother mistakes Link for her son, Anju's dead father. [[spoiler:This is an act too.]] Then again, the ''Legend of Zelda'' timeline(s) are so screwy that goddesses know how many Links there have actually ''been.'' Mistaking Link might be a genuine accident, but she definitely uses this to trick her daughter into thinking she's senile as Anju is a terrible cook.

* A drunk goes up to a lady in a bar, thinking she looks just like his wife. After rebuffing him with increasing rudeness, the drunk coments that not only does she look like his wife, she sounds just like her too.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'': Absolutely ''[[TearJerker hearbreakingly]]'' done with [[DarkIsNotEvil The Fair Lady]]. She is completely blind, in massive amounts of pain, and the only person who ''even speaks her language'' is her sister, Quelaag. The player can understand her using the Old Witch's Ring, but you are a HeroicMime and can't talk back, so she therefore assumes that you must be Quelaag. Unfortunately, Quelaag is dead. Because [[ButThouMust you killed her]] during a BossFight, likely without even knowing she was anything more than just another random monster. ''YouBastard''.

* Several {{Harry Potter}} fics have Luna, her father or both firmly convinced that Sirius is "really" Stubby Boardman of the Hobgoblins. In ''Fanfic/InThisWorldAndTheNext'' he admitted having used his resemblance to the latter to pick up women.

* In the ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' special "Episode of Bardock", Bardock mistakes Chilled for Frieza.

* Enrico the Mole, from the Italian comic strip ''ComicBook/LupoAlberto'', [[BlindMistake has addressed the eponymous protagonist as "Beppe"]] ever since his first appearance. As years went by, Alberto went from his initial bemusement to desperate frustration and eventually to wry resignation. The real "Beppe" (supposedly a friend of Enrico's) has never actually appeared in the strip.

* In ''Manga/KongouBanchou'', [[DeceptivelyHumanRobots Machine Banchou]] mistakes little Tsukimi for "Dr. Tsukina", whose orders supersede all others, and she unintentionally alters his personality by giving him suggestions on how to be cooler. This is played for NightmareFuel when she realizes the one thing she can't make him do is [[spoiler:not kill Kongou.]] Also an unusual case of it, as, being a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin machine]], it is frequently pointed out that Machine Banchou identifies people with speech and retina recognition devices instead of, [[FridgeLogic you know]], ''[[DittoAliens looking at them]]''.

* In the western ''Film/QuigleyDownUnder'', Crazy Cora keeps calling Matthew Quigley 'Roy'. (Roy turns out to be [[spoiler:Crazy Cora's first husband, who left her after she accidently killed their child.]]) Which is what made it so significant [[spoiler:when she called him by his full name in the final moments of the film]].

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Justified}}'', Arlo mistakenly calls Boyd "Raylan." This is used to show that the elderly Arlo's mind is slipping as Boyd and Raylan are Bizzaro-like foils in the series. Raylan, Arlo's estranged, biological son, is a U.S. Marshal. Boyd, who Arlo treats like a son, is a career criminal and a series-long antagonist for Raylan.

* ''Series/EastEnders'' In an episode aired on 18th July 2016, Ian gets a phone call from the hospital to say his half-brother, Ben has been involved in a fight and is in a critical condition. At the hospital, Ian and Phil are told by a doctor that Ben has died. Phil sort of breaks down, leading to Phil and Ian identifying "Ben's" body. In a shock twist, [[spoiler: it turns out to be Paul's body, Ben's boyfriend.]] Phil and Ian come out of the morgue, with Phil yelling "that ain't my son!" Later, it's reveal by Ben that Paul and Ben got their coats and phones mixed up when coming out of a night club in Soho.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', the two main protagonists, Fei and Elly [[spoiler:have been re-incarnating since the dawn of "history" 10,000~ years before the start of the game]]. As such there are several characters (such as [[BigBad Krelian]]) who are functionally immortal who [[spoiler:knew their previous incarnations]]. Emerelda was [[spoiler:also created by one of their past incarnations as a ReplacementGoldfish for the child Elly was incapable of having at that point in history]]. Emerelda refers to Fei as "Kim" [[spoiler:because she actually believes that Fei is Kim]] and is a legitimate case of this trope in action. Krelian meanwhile [[spoiler:knows full well that these are seperate people from the ones he was friends with 500 years ago, but calls them Lacan and Sophia anyway because its his way of keeping their memory alive]].

Compare AccidentalMisnaming. Contrast NapoleonDelusion. Not to be confused with RecognitionFailure, MistakenIdentity, SustainedMisunderstanding or WrongfullyAttributed.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}, [[spoiler: from the True Lab onward, Asriel refers to you as whatever you named the fallen human as--which turns out to not be the player character's name, but actually the name of the original Fallen Child that Asriel befriended long ago. Asriel was projecting them onto you in a desperate attempt to not have to say goodbye again. He eventually realizes that you're not his old friend, but only after beating you to a billionth of a hit point in a desperate bid to kill you and make you reset so he can keep playing with you.]]

* In one episode of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' a homeless woman convinces herself that [=DiNozzo=] Sr is her father. Over the course of the episode it gets revealed that the woman's father is long dead, and that the woman herself is suffering dementia as a result of a inoperable malignant brain tumor. At the end of the episode Sr [[TearJerker walks into the hospital room that she's likely to die in in the very near future and plays along with her delusion]] [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming so she could die believing that she'd finally reconciled with the father she hadn't spoken to in over a decade]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "The Principal and the Pauper", returning soldier Armin Tamzarian visits Ma Skinner to deliver news of her son, his commander, being taken prisoner by Vietcong. She instead mistakes him for her son and he moves in, eventually becoming a school principal to honor his commander's dream. Judging from her behavior, she actually knows he's not her real son, but puts on the charade anyway. When the real Skinner returns and moves in, she doesn't like him as much.

* ''VideoGame/{{Halo}}''
** Under [[AIIsACrapshoot a different definition of senility]], 343 Guilty Spark in the first game, ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', doesn't seem to see a difference between Master Chief and his long-extinct creators, talking to Master Chief as if they've met before and referring to past conversations they've never had. The [[{{Precursors}} matter of who his creators]] ''[[{{Precursors}} are]]'' is one of the many hints across the lore of a connection between the two.
** It's made explicit by the end of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', where Guilty Spark comes out and ''says'' [[spoiler:that humans ''are'' the [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]], or at least their direct descendants]]. This does not, however, stop him from going AxCrazy when he realizes that in order to save the galaxy from the Flood, [[spoiler:Master Chief is planning on destroying "his" Halo ''again'']].
* A drunken [[BoisterousBruiser Oghren]] from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' can do this to the player character, mistaking them for [[spoiler: his ex-wife's lover]] Hespith and insisting that he won't let "some kind of [[UnusualEuphemism moss-biting poetess]]" march into the [[PlayerCharacter Warden's]] camp.

* ''Series/EastEnders'' In an episode aired on 18th July 2016, Ian gets a phone call from the hospital to say his half-brother, Ben has been involved in a fight and is in a critical condition. At the hospital, Ian and Phil are told by a doctor that Ben has died. Phil sort of breaks down, leading to Phil and Ian identifying "Ben's" body. In a shock twist, [[spoiler: it turns out to be Paul's body, Ben's boyfriend.]] Phil and Ian come out of the morgue, with Phil yelling "that ain't my son!" Later, it's reveal by Ben that Paul and Ben got their coats and phones mixed up when coming out of a night club in Soho.