Line #39 Main/IncrediblyConspicuousDrag


1	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sherlock_holmes_drag.jpg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:I agree, it's not my best disguise, but I had to make do.]]
3
4	->''"How it becomes clear that he is not a woman is not nearly as interesting as how anyone could possibly have thought he was a woman in the first place. He plays a woman as if determined, in every scene, to signal to the audience that he's absolutely straight and only kidding."''
5	-->-- '''Creator/RogerEbert''' on [[Creator/MattLeBlanc Matt [=LeBlanc=]]] in ''All the Queen's Men''
6
7	Somebody passing for the other gender is a common trope in comedy, [[JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples all the way back to]] [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]]. However, it usually works only if the actor in question actually makes an effort to look and behave like a member of the opposite sex, otherwise the audience's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief is broken and instead of being about, say, a man trying to pass as a woman, the work becomes about [[IdiotPlot how a group of morons didn't realize they were trying to pick up a drag queen]]. Occasionally it works, if applied side by side with RuleOfFunny.
8
9	Of course, it's still all but obligatory for some clueless observer to [[AttractiveBentGender find the disguised person very attractive]], no matter how unconvincing the disguise may be.
10
11	The trope is [[DiscreditedTrope gradually becoming less common]] as it's often been used to mock UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} women who don't pass and as such has attracted outcry from trans rights advocates. On the other hand, it is still played straight by some {{Drag Queen}}s as {{camp}} to subvert gender role expectations.
12
13	Compare PaperThinDisguise. A SisterTrope to LarynxDissonance and (naturally) DisguisedInDrag.
14
15	----
16	!!Examples:
17
18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
21	* In ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', Kenshiro once confronted a gang of Ken-Oh's henchmen in a bar, one of them disguised himself as a nanny barkeeper. It doesn't take that much of an effort to discover the disguise as he didn't shave properly.
22	-->'''Kenshiro:''' The next time you want to play crossdressing, shave properly. No real woman in the world would have a '''beard'''.
23	* ''Anime/MagicalShoppingArcadeAbenobashi'''s Crossdresser "Ms." Aki. is never outed, but is rather obvious -- so much so that it seems the rest of the cast is aware of it and just treats him/her as a lovable eccentric.
24	* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
25	** All the crossdressers from the series are incredibly ugly and clearly don't shave, though they still behave much like women. The only exception so far is the secondary character Izou: The only thing that gives away his sex is his lack of cleavage.
26	** Another example is Igaram, who disguises himself as Vivi to serve as a decoy twice. Problem is; he's a 48-year-old man with broad shoulders, while Vivi is a slim teenage girl. The second attempt doesn't fool anyone, but it does leave the Alabasta citizens distracted long enough to allow Vivi to properly say goodbye to the Straw Hats.
27	* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'' gives us Joseph's famous attempt at infiltrating the Nazi lab in Mexico. The guards aren't fooled by an instant: no matter how hard he tries to act girly (and he tries a bit too hard for his own good), he [[HeroicBuild sure as hell can't look the part]].
28	* In ''Manga/PenguinRevolution'', the talents and managers of Peacock are required to dress in drag for a publicity event. Most of the actors pull it off remarkably well, but Kaneda, one of the managers, just looks like a man in a dress.
29	* ''Manga/MadBull34'' takes the cake, here. The "Mad Bull" himself, an eight-foot-tall muscular behemoth of a police officer with a full beard and mustache, goes undercover as a nun and as a female prostitute. He somehow expects this disguise to work.
30	* [[http://www.desertmoon.org/screen/blackcat/ep09/bc09_285.jpg Sven]] in the anime of ''Anime/BlackCat'' refused to allow Eve to serve as a DirtyHarriet in order to lure out a SerialKiller who targets women, so he does so himself and doesn't even bother shaving his beard.
31	* In ''Manga/LaughingUnderTheClouds'' Tenka disguises himself as a woman so he can spy on Chutaro. Since it's played for laughs it looks just way over the top and nobody's buying the disguise, anyway.
32	* In ''Manga/GugureKokkurisan'', Shigaraki's poor attempts to disguise himself as Kohina to appeal to her StalkerWithACrush Inugami fool no-one due to his muscular build and hairy legs, and it just disgusts Inugami more than anything else.
33	-->'''Shigaraki:''' ''[still in his Kohina disguise]'' The dog seemed down, so I tried being nice to him, but he cried and ran away.\
34	'''Kokkuri:''' In that situation, I'd run, too.
35	* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''Manga/FamilyCompo'' where Masahiko asks his [[{{Nephewism}} aunt and uncle/adopted parents]] (who are UsefulNotes/{{transgender}}) to come to his school entry dressed as their biological sex. The result is both of them appearing visibly uncomfortable in IncrediblyConspicuousDrag, when in fact RecursiveCrossdressing is what's really going on.
36	* The boys of ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' use this in order to keep Haruhi from transferring to the Lobelia Girls' Academy.
37	* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' has an incredibly masculine drag queen that shows up in both Jupiter Jazz episodes. [[{{Squick}} He tries to hit on Edward]] until being informed [[UnsettlingGenderReveal that Ed is a girl]].
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Comic Books]]
41	* The Beagle Boys in ''WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck'' comics. They still wear their masks, and don't shave.
42	* Subverted in a Don Martin cartoon for ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'': Men looking for an escaped convict at a train station see a hairy-armed, tattooed, stubble-faced person in a dress walk by. One of them pulls off the person's wig and they jump on the presumed escaped convict... but let her go with shamefaced apologies.
43	* Jokey Smurf in ''ComicBook/TheSmurfs'' one-page gag in "Romeo and Smurfette", who disguises himself as Smurfette (not perfectly) in order to fool a Smurf into a PrankDate. Needless to say, the Smurf is neither fooled nor amused.
44	* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Hypnota wore a mustache and turban to disguise that not only was they are physically a woman, but also the identical twin sister of their LovelyAssistant in order to pull off some of their tricks as stage magicians. Hypnota did not bind their chest, seemed to be wearing mascara, and otherwise just looked like a girl wearing a mustache, which seemed to fool audiences just fine. They keep this same costume as their supervillain outfit, but does even less to hide the fact that they've got a woman's body and doesn't actually seem to be trying to pass as a man. Their gender identity is left ambiguous as their sister refers to them using male pronouns but they really don't try to disguise their female features.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
48	* At the climax of ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' several of Mulan's male comrades join her in infiltrating the palace by [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/541837914_574.jpg disguising themselves as concubines]]. Yao doesn't even bother shaving his beard and one of Ling's breasts appears to be crooked, but [[TheBigGuy Chien-Po]] is the most passable of the three and simply looks like a very fat woman. Amazingly the disguises ''mostly'' work on some guards.
49	-->'''Guard 1:''' Concubines?\
50	'''Guard 2:''' ''Ugly'' concubines.
51	* ''WesternAnimation/OpenSeason'': In the "Scared Silly" special, Boog has to play a female Wumpus monster, to lure out the male species.
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
55	* As the page quote indicates, the WWII comedy ''Film/AllTheQueensMen'' (allegedly BasedOnATrueStory) completely destroys any possibility of seeming authentic because the actors (including Creator/EddieIzzard) make absolutely no attempt to be believable as women.
56	* ''Film/TheBirdcage'' features Albert (Nathan Lane) dressing up in drag to convince a conservative family that he and his gay partner, Armand (Robin Williams), are in fact a normal straight couple to cover for their son, who is getting engaged to the conservative family's daughter. Not only is his drag conspicuous, but Albert and Armand's house is full of tells that they are, in fact, a gay couple. At the end of the movie, the entire conservative family has to dress in drag in order to escape the titular gay nightclub owned by Albert and Armand without being noticed by the press.
57	* A number of the ''Film/CarryOn'' films involve Creator/SidJames or Creator/BernardBresslaw (or another similarly unmistakeably masculine cast member) wearing a dress, and the authority figure they're trying to evade falling instantly for him, despite the fact that he's clearly Sid James or Bernard Bresslaw wearing a dress. (The fact that the authority figure was frequently Creator/KennethWilliams may add [[TransparentCloset a bit of subtext to this]].)
58	* The Netflix documentary ''Disclosure'' discusses this trope as part of its history of transgender presentation in films and TV, particularly involving minorities. Black men in particular were regularly stuck into dresses as a means of mocking them in silent films (when they were portrayed by white actors in BlackFace). And if you were a black actor in Hollywood, for a long time it was pretty much a given that you'd have to accept a role that forced you into ugly drag as a means of emasculating the ScaryBlackMan.
59	* "Lavinia" from ''Film/DoctorInTrouble'' is clearly just Dr. Burke in a dress doing an effeminate voice, but it somehow manages to fool the Master-at-Arms for a while.
60	* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' when an incredibly obvious transvestite (stubble and all) shows up to a dance where males are paired with females. He, of course, goes to the "female" side.
61	* Zigzagged in ''Film/OlsenBanden'' (and its Swedish foreign remake ''Jönssonligan''). The protagonists are con men with a penchant for impersonating other lines of work and will occasionally disguise themselves in drag for their heists, but how well they manage to convince other characters depends on RuleOfFunny. In ''Jönssonligan får guldfeber'', Sickan is initially against the idea of "[being] a madame" to distract one of their marks, but gets convinced to do so a few minutes before they put their plan into action. Due to his lack of fitting clothes and inexperience with makeup (which Vanheden had to help him with after he tries to paint his glasses with the mascara), it's implied that the disguise only worked due to the mark's poor eyesight without his glasses. Later on, he voluntarily disguises himself as a formal elderly woman twice to ensure that his nemesis won't recognise him from afar. Even his acquaintance Doris is fooled by it, despite the [[LarynxDissonance high-pitched voice he puts on]]... The first time he tries this. But when he tries it again in the first licensed game, Doris instead calls him out for "dressing like a biddy".
62	* {{Subverted\|Trope}} in ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''. Frank N. Furter doesn't really try to pass off as a woman yet Brad [[EvenTheGuysWantHim ends up falling for his seductive charm anyway]].
63	* {{Averted\|Trope}} in ''Film/SomeLikeItHot''. Creator/JackLemmon and Creator/TonyCurtis actually walked around the studio lot in drag in order to make sure they could realistically pass for female. The scene where they try using mirrors in the public ladies' room in order to fix their makeup is based on something they actually did while on the lot. When asked why his "Josephine" was so much more feminine than Jack Lemmon's "Daphne", Tony Curtis explained that he was so scared to be playing a woman (or a man pretending to be one) that his tightly wound body language could be read as demure and shy, traditionally feminine traits, whereas Lemmon, who was completely unbothered, "ran out of his dressing room screaming like the Queen of the May," kept much more of his masculine body language.
64	* ''Film/SororityBoys'' is a textbook example. Back to Creator/RogerEbert:
65	-->What is unusual about ''Sorority Boys'' is how it caves in to the homophobia of the audience by not even trying to make its cross-dressing heroes look like halfway, even one-tenth-of-the-way, plausible girls. They look like college boys wearing cheap wigs and dresses they bought at Goodwill. They usually need a shave. One keeps his retro forward-thrusting sideburns and just combs a couple of locks of his wig forward to "cover" them. They look as feminine as the sailors wearing coconut brassieres in ''Theatre/SouthPacific''.
66	* In ''Film/TakingWoodstock'', Liev Schrieber plays Vetty von Vilma, a transvestite woman. In the part he's very muscular and has an apparent deep voice, in addition to very visible facial hair.
67	* There is a short from ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' where Curly dresses like an Indian maiden and a mountain man falls in love with him. Guess it's been a really long time since he last saw a woman.
68	* {{Averted\|Trope}} by Creator/DustinHoffman in ''Film/{{Tootsie}}''. He might not be the most ''attractive'' woman in the world ({{lampshade\|Hanging}}d several times in the film), but he at least ''looks'' like one. That Oscar nomination was well-deserved.
69	* The failure -- or prime source of comedy, depending on how you look at it -- of ''Film/WhiteChicks'' is generally considered to be a combination of this and [[UncannyValleyMakeup disturbingly unconvincing makeup]]. Shawn Wayans even admits in the DVD commentary that he makes "a very ugly woman."
70	* In ''Film/GentlemenOfFortune'', the crooks end up escaping in drag. Not only it's incredibly conspicuous, one of the crooks still tries to hit after girls and tries to use the men's bathroom.
71	* Averted with Zahara in ''Film/{{Bad Education\|2004}}'', who makes an effort to adopt feminine mannerisms, hair, and makeup on top of the women's clothing. And then played straight with the real Ignacio, who has stubble and an extremely deep voice.
72	* ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'' has Holmes disguising himself as a woman. [[JustifiedTrope Since it is a last-minute disguise, it isn't one of the better ones.]] But in the dark when the other guys could only glimpse it, it works.
73	* Madmartigan in ''Film/{{Willow}}'' tries this briefly to hide from the husband of a lady he's currently boning. It ends up making said husband grossly infatuated with "Hilda", letting him deliver his immortal line:
74	-->'''Lug:''' Wanna breed?!\
75	'''Madmartigan:''' Tempting but... No!
76	:: And when his disguise is quickly blown by the bad guys, Lug does ''not'' [[UnsettlingGenderReveal take]] it [[MegatonPunch well]]...
77	-->'''Lug:''' Not a woman?!\
78	'''Madmartigan:''' Gentlemen...\
79	'''Lug:''' ''NOT A WOMAN?!''\
80	'''Madmartigan:''' Meet Lug.\
81	'''Lug:''' ''RAAAGH!!''
82	* In the martial-arts films ''Come Drink with Me'' and its sequel ''Golden Swallow'', the female character Golden Swallow is able to pass as a man simply by wearing men's clothing. The fact that actress Creator/ChengPeiPei is an incredibly beautiful woman and makes no attempt to disguise her voice is unnoticed by almost everyone.
83	* In ''Just One of the Girls'', Chris manages to fool everyone into believing that he's a girl despite his disguise consisting only of him wearing skirts and fluffing up his short hair a bit. Even the guy who constantly bullied him before he donned the disguise doesn't recognize him and even [[AttractiveBentGender falls for his female guise]]!
84	* Mic gets hit on by one in ''Film/CrocodileDundee''. Being A) a rural Australian who doesn't know anything about crossdressing and B) somewhat drunk, Mic still fails to figure it out until his taxi driver informs him that the "lady" who's flirting with him is really a man. Mic checks... via inappropriate touching.
85	* The "men" attending the stoning of a blasphemer in ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'' are all obviously women with fake beards who forget to keep lowering their voices and constantly refer to each other as "she." But in a meta-twist these women were all played by ''men.''
86	* In both ''Film/{{Paddington\|2014}}'' [[Film/Paddington2 films]], Mr. Brown is forced at one point to dress up like a woman to get past security. Despite him obviously being a man in a dress and makeup, a security guard [[AttractiveBentGender falls for his disguise]] both times and refers to him an "incredibly sexy woman" even when he's actively ''shedding his disguise'' while running away.
87	* ''Theatre/MButterfly'''s plot is that a male Chinese spy/opera singer fools a French diplomat into believing that he's a woman and carries on a relationship with him for twenty years before the truth comes out. Unfortunately, as Roger Ebert commented in his review of the film adaptation, John Lone (who plays the Chinese spy in the film) is no [[Film/TheCryingGame Jaye Davidson]].
88	-->The film of ''M. Butterfly'' does not take hold the way the stage play did. Perhaps the camera is too cruelly realistic, reminding us at wrong moments that Song Liling seems to have 5 o'clock shadow. Perhaps it is Lone's voice, so low and monotonous.
89	* ''Film/ToWongFooThanksForEverythingJulieNewmar'': The three DragQueen leads are constantly mistaken for women even though Chi-Chi is the only one who comes close to convincingly passing, due to John Leguizamo being shorter in stature and having smaller facial features compared to his lantern-jawed costars.
90	* GenderInverted in ''Film/ShaolinSoccer'', where Team Mustache consists of women who disguise themselves as men just by wearing fake moustaches.
91	[[/folder]]
92
93	[[folder:Literature]]
94	* Averted/Lampshaded in ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn''. Huck goes into town disguised as a girl, but a woman he encounters immediately tells he's just a boy in disguise.
95	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
96	** Hilariously [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] in ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment''. Blouse takes the guise of a woman and is ridiculously bad at it, to the point where all the washerwomen notice right away but don't say anything because they think it's entertaining. But while the women aren't fooled by his awful, extremely stereotypical act, the male guards buy it completely. The funniest part is when the female soldiers masquerading as male soldiers decide to don women's clothing to also infiltrate enemy lines, they're immediately accused of being this trope, saying that they're obviously male and it's the worst attempt at drag they've ever seen.
97	** In ''Literature/TheTruth'', when the mountainous brain-damaged villain Mr. Tulip is disguised as a nun. It actually works until he starts swearing; as Sacharissa says, she's known genuinely female nuns who looked just as bad, if not worse.
98	** Averted and played with in ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'' by Nobby Nobbs, disguised as a harem girl for reasons [[ItMakesSenseInContext which aren't worth attempting to explain]]. The local women seem entirely fooled, though. (And if they aren't, well... he's still acting more sympathetic to their personal problems than the ''actual'' men in their lives...)
99	* ''Creator/DaveBarry's Only Travel Guide You Will Ever Need'' recommends that airline passengers who might fit the profile of a terrorist ("Sex: Male; Age: 15 to 74; Looks Suspicious: Yes") to draw away the attention of security personnel away by wearing a dress and "periodically remarking out loud to nobody in particular: 'I certainly have a lot of body hair, for a woman!'"
100	* ''Literature/LittleRedRidingHood'': A ''wolf'' disguises himself as LRRH's grandmother by putting on her cap and robe. LRRH does seem to notice that something is off, but cannot quite put her finger on it, as "granny" gives explanation for all the oddities in her appearance. And is... discussed (and deconstructed)... in ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'', where the titular trio decide the family was "as thick as teak". Of course, the stories were being magically enforced.
101	* ''[[Literature/ApprenticeAdept Split Infinity]]'': Stile is assigned an android fencing-instructor that's only programmed to teach women. Not only does it call him "lady", but it refuses to commence any lessons until Stile humors its limited programming and dons a protective bra ... which is his only item of apparel, being otherwise naked like all Proton serfs. Yes, he played this trope ''and'' FullFrontalAssault straight ''at the same time''.
102	* The Buffalo Brothers in ''Literature/{{Relativity}}'' are a pair of StupidCrooks. At one point, they need to get a message to the heroes, but they don't want to get caught, so they disguise themselves as old ladies. The disguises weren't very good, and probably wouldn't have worked anyway, but the fact that one of the brothers had a beard just made it beyond obvious.
103	* Subverted in ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'', who occasionally disguises himself as an old woman for a case. In one case the criminal actually got close enough to return "her" dropped umbrella and didn't notice a thing.
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
107	* Done on purpose in the short-lived series ''The Ugliest Girl in Town''.
108	* Conan wore pearls, lipstick and a wig to try to pass himself off as Callista Gingrich in ''Series/{{Conan}}''.
109	* There was an episode of ''Series/JeevesAndWooster'' where Wooster goes undercover as a woman for some reason, and later in the episode Jeeves does. It was far-fetched, even compared to the usual events of the series.
110	* ''Series/BarneyMiller'' - the detectives were assigned to disguise themselves in drag to catch criminals - Dietrich took to the job with good humor, but never realized he just looked like a big guy in a dress.
111	* Like many British comedies, ''Series/DoctorInTheHouse'' and its sequel series featured many episodes of men dressing as ladies, and never looking believable doing it.
112	** In "Doctor on the Box" from ''Doctor in the House'', three medical students dress a fourth up as an elderly female patient to sabotage an interview as part of a documentary on the hospital; the fact that he is supposed to be an old woman does not stop him from squeezing the female interviewer's bottom. Chaos ensues when the subjects of the documentary discover the deception and decide to administer an enema, and then the real patient returns.
113	** The ''Doctor in Charge'' episode "Mum's the Word" involves the board members having to choose between Dr. Waring and Dr. Bingham as a junior doctor representative on the board; Dr. Stuart-Clark claims that Waring's mother is a Countess (she is, in fact, a policeman's wife). As she is at the hospital as a patient, the board members decide to meet her, and Stuart-Clark dons a blonde wig, blue eyeshadow, and women's clothing and pretends to be Mrs. Waring while the real Mrs. Waring is kept out of sight. His disguise manages to charm the board members, and Waring gets the position on the board.
114	** "A Turn for the Nurse" from ''Doctor on the Go'' sees Stuart-Clark trying to enter a ringer for a "best nurse" competition so that no-one need find out the prize money doesn't exist; Waring persuades her to drop out of the competition, and when Stuart-Clark finds out and reveals the "prize money" quandary, Waring has to dress up in drag as their entrant. His boss, Professor of Surgery Sir Geoffrey Loftus, recognises Waring immediately, but bites his tongue; meanwhile, rival hospital Highcross board member Sir Edmund Steele takes quite a liking to Waring...
115	* This was Klinger's main schtick for much of the time on {{Series/MASH}}.
116	* This is a running gag with a background DropInCharacter on ''Series/GoodEats''.
117	* ''{{Series/Kaamelott}}'': One episode has Attila the Hun demanding the most beautiful women of Kaamelott as a BegoneBribe. He ends up with Arthur's Viking bodyguard Grüdü in a dress. It's not even remotely convincing, but it works out anyway.
118	* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'':
119	** The "Pepper Pots" are ''very'' obviously men playing the role of middle-aged or elderly women, in frumpy house dresses and shrill voices.
120	** For that matter, for the majority of the female characters in the series, no attempt is made to hide that they are played by the Pythons themselves in drag. (A memorable example: Creator/JohnCleese in a red skirt and pigtails as Literature/LittleRedRidingHood.) Creator/TerryJones proved particularly adept at drag roles, earning the title "the best Rat-Bag woman in the business."
121	** ZigZagged for laughs in the "Piranha Brothers" sketch. Dinsdale Piranha's girlfriend Gloria is portrayed by Creator/JohnCleese in even more ridiculously exaggerated drag than usual, but she appears to be just an ordinary character otherwise until she drops this line:
122	-->'''Gloria:''' Dinsdale was a gentleman. And what's more, he knew how to treat a female impersonator.
123	* A Series/FullHouse episode titled "Fraternity Reunion" centers around Danny and Joey dressing as women in order to sneak their way into a sorority house reunion in order to take back a stuffed fraternity seal that was stolen from them in college. In typical Joey fashion he gets too into character and loses his wig in a limbo contest. Danny makes a mad dash for the seal and is subsequently revealed to the women as also being a man. They're both taken down by the women and are arrested by one of them who turns out to be a cop through some sort of HollywoodLaw no doubt.
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Magazines]]
127	* The Film/NationalLampoon had a comic-book style ad for magazine subscriptions with two clearly middle-aged men (one had a moustache, the other stubble and a cigar) dressed like housewives at a supermarket. They addressed each other with female names, the employees regarded them as women, then the last panel had the police turn up and haul them off. None of this was explained in the least.
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
131	* There is a Myth/{{Norse\|Mythology}} story in which Thor must disguise himself as Freya in order to trick the giants and get his hammer back (and yes, the hammer stands in for exactly what you think it does). The giants, who are apparently not all that familiar with human(oid) sexual dimorphism, fall for every one of Loki's excuses about why "Freya" looks so haggard, has such a big appetite and can eat an entire cow, has a ''beard'' and can drink so much mead in a single gulp. Everything goes swimmingly until the hammer is brought out to bless the marriage, at which point Thor starts [[KickingAssInAllHerFinery Kicking Ass in All His Finery]].
132	[[/folder]]
133
134	[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
135	* Wrestling/SantinoMarella's appearances as "his twin sister from Italy", Santina.
136	* In 2003, thanks to a match stipulation, Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon had to engage in Hot Lesbian Action with another woman. Wrestling/EricBischoff said he found "the ugliest lesbian in the world" for her, but everyone (except Bischoff) knew the "lesbian" was Wrestling/{{Rikishi}}.
137	* In Memphis in 1987, Wrestling/JerryLawler disguised himself as a female fan at ringside so he could get close to and attack Tommy Rich. In his book, Lawler said that outside of a little lipstick, they didn't put any makeup on him for it.
138	* In the 1980's, Jimmy Valiant got Miss Atlanta Lively, "the toughest hooker in Atlanta", to be his tag team partner for a match. "Miss Atlanta Lively" was future NWA Champion Ronnie Garvin in a blond wig and a padded bra.
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	[[folder:Theatre]]
142	* Plump washerwomen take note, this is an absolute requirement for any Dame in any {{Pantomime}}! Never leave home without your obvious falsetto voice or bustle. Failure to produce bustle or react with extreme scepticism to cries of "they're behind you!" may lead to revoking of your 12x10 comedy-sized license.
143	* The character The Old Snatch in the musical ''Theatre/MeAndMyDick''-- there are other cross-dressing roles, but this one is played by a man with a gravelly voice and a beard.
144	* The original stage version of ''Theatre/{{Hairspray}}'' cast gravelly-voiced Harvey Fierstein as the mother, Edna Turnblad. The original movie and movie-musical also have the role played by a man, but they attempt to make the mother somewhat feminine and are not examples.
145	* It's quite common for modern productions of ''{{Theatre/Iolanthe}}'' to have The Fairy Queen played by a man in quite obvious drag, playing off the (modern) DoubleEntendre of the word "Fairy" to mean "gay."
146	* In ''Theatre/TheDesertSong'', the "French Military Marching Song" is introduced by Margot (singing "We're men, men, men" in a soaring soprano voice) and a group of ChorusGirls. The flimsiness of their [[SweetPollyOliver disguise as soldiers]] is {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d by the ensemble lyrics:
147	-->No one can hold a rifle\
148	And their coats are loose a trifle.
149	[[/folder]]
150
151	[[folder:Video Games]]
152	* In ''VideoGame/SNKGalsFighters'', [[spoiler:Iori Yagami]] has disguised himself as "Miss X" by wearing a long-skirted SailorFuku and a mask (in true [[JapaneseDelinquents sukeban]] fashion) and insisting he's a girl. Nobody who sees him believes it.
153	** ''VideoGame/SNKHeroinesTagTeamFrenzy'' brings him back as DLC; while he can appear genderbent [[spoiler:like Terry]], the original is also an option.
154	* Done for absurdity in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' with Hildebrand Manderville during the 2.3 side storyline. [[spoiler:Hildebrand disguised himself as the bride who's described as the "most beautiful in the land" to lure out the thief. Everyone is fooled apart from the player character and another inspector who the player is with (surprisingly so as it is very obviously a decidedly masculine character wearing a dress) until the veil comes off. While the effort failed the distraction was enough for the other inspector to identify the target in question who was magically (and more effectively) disguised as the groom.]]
155	* The '"Miss" Yasogami Pageant' in ''VideoGame/Persona4'', where the male members of the Investigation Team are unwillingly signed up for by the female members in revenge for putting them up in the actual beauty pageant. This results in the very burly Kanji ''poorly'' looking like Creator/MarilynMonroe, Yosuke awkwardly dressed as a schoolgirl with bad makeup and the protagonist somewhat convincingly dressed as a female JapaneseDelinquent. Teddie is the only aversion since he looks feminine enough to pass as a girl, leading him to landslide the competition dressed as [[AliceAllusion Alice]].
156	* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'':
157	** A {{sidequest}} has the player working for an animal wrangler named Margaret -- a mustachioed man who dresses as a woman because he thinks a female animal wrangler will attract a bigger audience.
158	** A later sidequest has you escorting the artist Charles Châtenay, who has dressed as a woman in an attempt to hide from the multiple enemies he's made. He doesn't even bother to shave his facial hair and his low-cut dress shows off his copious chest hair.
159	* ''VideoGame/FableI'' has a {{sidequest}} at the Darkwood Bordello to find the building's deeds in order to get rid of the abusive owner [[MeaningfulName Grope]]. While one method is simply getting the man drunk, another is to wear a dress and wig then sleep with him. Players are required to shave any facial hair, but they can still be giants with arms bigger than Grope's waist and more body hair than a bear while still successfully passing themselves off as a woman.
160	* In ''[[VideoGame/Yakuza1 Yakuza Kiwami]]'', Kiryu gets arranged to meet up with a girl at a hostess club named Goromi, which is just resident nutjob Goro Majima with a wig, a pink minidress, and bad makeup (beard and all). Amusingly, you play a dating mini-game with him just like with any other hostess before beating him up as usual.
161	[[/folder]]
162
163	[[folder:Web Animation]]
164	* Rapid Thunder (alias Codename: Albatross) in ''WebAnimation/{{Mappy}}'' is a male corporate spy disguised as the female personal assistant of Nyamco CEO Goro. His whole disguise is literally a wig that isn't on right; he doesn't even affect a voice.
165	[[/folder]]
166
167	[[folder:Web Comics]]
168	* Happens in ''Webcomic/TheNoob'', when [[TheBrute Your Name Here]], a large man with the FaceOfAThug, dresses up in drag for a story arc.
169	* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', the fairly bulky man Ollie dresses up as Judy for a humorous role in the pantomime like Heterodyne shows Master Payne's Circus of Adventure puts on in small towns as they travel. To be fair the real Judy ''is'' ripped, but she has a very feminine appearance.
170	[[/folder]]
171
172	[[folder:Web Videos]]
173	* ''WebVideo/PlayStationAccess'': "Rob's mum" is obviously a man in a dress speaking in a shrill voice. His face is always out of shot, but the body shape is a bit of a giveaway. Since they have several female members on staff, this is clearly a part of the joke.
174	* ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'': The Gatekeeper's wife is, like most characters on the show, played by Noah himself in a wig. He does have a funny bit on one of the commentaries about how difficult it was to find a bra the right size.
175	[[/folder]]
176
177	[[folder:Western Animation]]
178	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'', Bob makes friends with some fairly successful transvestite hookers, who look exactly like men in spandex dresses.
179	* Hefty Smurf disguises himself as Smurfette (also not perfectly) in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' episode "Smurfette for a Day" to protect her from a gnome who wants to marry her.
180	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
181	** In the "Black Friday" trilogy (and also in ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth''), Kenny dresses up as a princess... and still wears his parka underneath the whole thing, making it very conspicuous. Everyone just chooses not to question why he wants to be a princess in their game.
182	** In "[[Recap/SouthParkS13E9ButtersBottomBitch Butters Bottom Bitch]]", the police chief (Harrison Yates) dresses up as a female prostitute in a sting operation, but still keeps his mustache. The customers never notices it.
183	** Perhaps the all-time champion of this trope has to go to none other than Eric Cartman. In "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E3TheCissy The Cissy]]", he pretends to be a trans girl so that he can use the women’s restroom. Said disguise only consists of putting a pink bow on his hat. Literally nothing else about his appearance changes.
184	* Big Macintosh, a big, bulky, deep-voiced stallion, disguises himself as a SouthernBelle named "Orchard Blossom" in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Brotherhooves Social". It's such a shoddy disguise that it only fools exactly one old stallion who ends up getting a crush on him. Rainbow Dash recognizes him instantly, and while she doesn't verbally out him to anyone else that can hear, she turns up the snark and tells him not to expect her to take it easy on him in the competition because he's a stallion. Also notable in that it wasn't even necessary for him to dress up to begin with. It's explained by the judges that the competition has a "loose" definition of what qualifies as a sister (basically, a familial-like bond is all that's required), and they would've allowed him to compete as himself if he just asked. Rainbow is allowed to compete as Scootaloo's sister even though they aren't even related.
185	-->'''Apple Bloom:''' This is my... cousin, Orchard Blossom.\
186	''[beat]''\
187	'''Sweetie Belle:''' That's Big Mac in a dress.\
188	'''Rainbow Dash:''' ''[competing as Scootaloo's honorary sister]'' "[[PaperThinDisguise Orchard Blossom]]", huh? Well, I'm not going to take it easy on you just because you're a stallion.
189	* The "Wossamatta U" story arc in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfRockyAndBullwinkleAndFriends'' (which involved Bullwinkle becoming a star football player for the eponymous school and saving them from financial ruin) climaxed in Boris and Fearless Leader amassing a football team compromised of dangerous and big burly criminals and hooligans in order to take down the undefeated Wossamatta football team. In order to make things more humiliating in Wossamatta's supposedly impending defeat, Boris and Fearless Leader have their team do this. The disguises are terrible; mustaches and beard stubble are visible through the men's disguises, yet no one except Rocky catches on immediately (and thus allow the "girls" to get away with a lot of goals thanks to the team [[WouldntHitAGirl not wanting to hit a girl]] alongside other dirty tactics) until Rocky points this out to them.
190	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'':
191	** In an episode, Betty and Wilma enter a television contest for cooking the best cake, and they win. The prize is a huge amount of money, except that they have to bake the cake on television in the show. Unfortunately, right at the wrong time, Betty and Wilma get the measles and are quarantined. Seeing the prospect of great money slipping away, Barney and Fred "disguise" themselves as women. They successfully maintain their disguises, and successfully bake the cake, but blow it by using "Brand B" flour instead of the advertised brand.
192	** In ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsonsMeetTheFlintstones'', Fred and Barney are supposed to be working, but opt to attend a poker game against their boss instead. They don disguises, with Fred as a southern gentleman and Barney as his girlfriend. Barney makes some effort to pad out his chest and speak in falsetto, but keeps his five o'clock shadow.
193	--->'''Fred:''' Lucky I'm in disguise, because the real me would never be seen in public with such an ugly girlfriend.
194	[[/folder]]

Context Main / IncrediblyConspicuousDrag