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Pwned.
Peter Parker: I used to be so much better at this whole secrets thing...
Betty Brant: Don't kid yourself, Peter. You always sucked at it. We were all just too blind to put it together.
Clark Kenting is the process by which a Secret Identity and/or cover story is maintained — goofy and obvious in execution, but ultimately and sometimes infuriatingly successful.
Someone has a secret they want or need to keep from somebody else. It doesn't matter whether the Secret Keeper or the kept-from are individuals or groups, nor does the size of the groups matter. It can be a small group that's forming a secret club, or an entire town performing a masquerade for the benefit of one person. It doesn't have to be the Masquerade, though. It can just as easily be a disguise the villains are putting on for the heroes.
The secret and any associated cover story are presented in such a way that (a) the truth is transparently obvious to the audience/reader/player, and (b) there seems to be no apparent reason why it is not transparently obvious to the kept-from.
Bonus points if the kept-from, someone in the kept-from group, or someone associated with the kept-from goes to the effort of finding the truth out ... but then just rejects the truth out of hand. Makes you wonder why they bothered searching in the first place.
Takes its name from Clark Kent, Superman's alter ego, who basically looks like Superman in a suit and glasses. His nemesis Lex Luthor once even hired a private investigator to find out Supe's identity, but later fired her because he didn't think someone as powerful as Superman would take such a wimpy alter ego. It has been claimed that, as Clark Kent, Superman unconsciously used a mild form of super-hypnosis to make himself appear un-Superman-like, although this explanation was eventually dropped because it raised more questions than it answered. The first episode of Lois And Clark provides the alternate explanation that the tightness of Superman's shorts keeps onlookers from taking too much notice of his face. Less tongue-in-cheek was a similar explanation — offered by Ma Kent in an early Post Crisis story — that the big, bold "S" design on his chest tends to draw the eye away from his face. And one comic proposed that the thick glasses blurred what were very intense and almost literally blazing eyes. Most Superman canon, from the 1970s to the current batch of comics, puts forth that the disguise is in a great deal of things that simply aren't conveyed on a comics page, and that he uses utterly different body language, mannerisms, and tones of voice as Clark Kent, making his acquaintances think he was just some guy who kind of looked like Superman ( Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman runs with this to great effect, and anyone who watched Christopher Reeve in the movies knows it can be effective). In addition, in Post Crisis continuity, Superman and Clark Kent have been seen together at the same place and time several times (thanks to shapeshifters and the like), thereby making Clark Kent = Superman that much harder to put together.
Furthermore, it is also suggested that the Kent disguise works in part because no one really knows Superman has a secret identity in the first place; after all he does not wear a mask like most superheroes, which suggests to most people he has nothing to hide. (As opposed to the Silver Age when everyone just seemed to know he had one.)
Mind you, when a master actor like Christopher Reeve plays the identities, the disguise feels much more believable. It also helps if the superhero in question is constantly being Mistaken For An Imposter.
See also Sarcastic Confession, Paper Thin Disguise, Cassandra Truth, Awkward Ability.
Examples
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- Spoofed at the end of the Pretty Sammy TV series, where the entire class reveals that they knew that Sasami was Sammy, but figured they weren't supposed to talk about it.
- In fact, most Magical Girls look similar to their civilian counterparts, and before the 2000s, they usually looked exactly the same. Modern series like Tokyo Mew Mew, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch and Futari Wa Pretty Cure tend to change the characters' hair colour, eye colour and hairstyle to something extravagant enough that it would certainly distract any onlooker enough not to notice the magical girl's identical face. Maybe it wouldn't matter much if they did, anyway.
- Tokyo Mew Mew is a particularly odd case, considering that, in their Mew Mew forms, the Mew Mews only add a 'Mew' to their first name (e.g. Mew Ichigo) and somehow that prevents people from figuring it out — granted, in the manga (the original Japanese version anyway), the names aren't written the same, but this doesn't matter anyway. Though, in both versions, Ichigo's crash Masaya nearly recognizes her in her transformed form, and later figures out her identity. Another exception is that Minto was able to recognize the mysterious Mew Mew as her idol/crush Zakuro.
- Every disguise put on by Team Rocket for the main characters in Pokemon, ever. In fact, the only "disguise" the main characters didn't fall for was "invisible suits" consisting of black suits with veils over their faces, and those managed to fool James's parents (the joke is somewhat Lost In Translation, as said "invisible suits" are actually outfits worn by bunraku puppeteers, who by tradition are ignored by the audience as they perform).
- Except when they're using a disguise for something wholly nonthreatening, like Pokemon contests. During the contest they just sit in the stands, MIGHT mention it's her to themselves, then hand wave it. Mostly because Jessie only ever has two useful pokemon at a time and the heroes always recognize them when used.
- Spoofed in Mai-HiME. Akira tries Clark Kenting as the "Secret Ninja of the School", but is immediately recognized by Takumi and proceeds to deny her true identity.
- In Detective Conan, after being shrunk to a grade-school kid, the title character does the same thing as Clark Kent: wears a pair of glasses to hide his identity. It ususally works well, until he slips up and says information he shouldn't have known unless he was really Shinichi Kudo, who was supposed to be a distant relative. This leads to his girlfriend, Ran, becoming suspicious of him several times, but she always ends up discrediting her own finds because the evidence doesn't quite match up, due to some outside interference (usually planned by the protagonist himself). In one scene, when the character Ai Haibara returns to her original age, Conan offers her his glasses as disguise, saying that they work well enough for Clark Kent. The response from Ai is, "So are you saying you're Superman now?"
- Spoofed in Dragon Half: A giant, winged demon tries to disguise himself by putting on a pair of glasses. Nobody is fooled for a moment.
- Subverted with brutal swiftness in Dragon Ball Z. Not only does Gohan's future girlfriend/wife Videl figure out that he is the "Great Saiyaman" in about 2 minutes (slightly longer in the anime version), she also figures out that he's the son of the last winner of the "Strongest Under the Heavens" tourney before her dad. His classmates take a little longer, but only just.
- Gintama's Katsura Katora does this frequently. He most often dresses up in a pirate costume and calls himself "Space Captain Katsura" (yes, he actually uses his real name), though he has also also used "Katsuo" on an occasion (as in, Mario from Super Mario Brothers) with his pet/companion Elizabeth taking on the role of Luigi. With the exception of the the three main characters, no one else ever recognizes him.
- Exception: When he briefly disguises himself as Elizabeth in order to infiltrate Takasugi's ship and actually succeeds in hiding his true identity during the Benizakura Arc. Ironically enough, Elizabeth also briefly dresses up as Katsura during this Story Arc by putting on a wig.
- In Moetan (a parody of magical girl anime featuring a protagonist who tutors students in English), the magical girl of the show almost blows her own cover. One of her first lessons to her classmate/crush is, in Japanese and English, "Don’t you think that magical girls look the same even after they transform?"
- Exception: In Lyrical Nanoha, the only reason the characters aren't recognised on sight is the fact they tend to fight slightly out of phase with reality - on the one occasion a non-mage saw them, they proceeded to spend the remaining two episodes of the series raving about how nothing made any sense any more.
- Pokemon's Jesse James and Meowth. And Ash and his frieds have failed so many spot checks that it gets plain irritating
- Ranma 1/2: Ranma was able to trick Ryoga into thinking that female Ranma was his sister, just by putting on fake fangs and a head band. This was neither the first, nor the last time Ryoga fell for such a disguise.
- The detailed example is actually somewhat justified; Ryoga's entire family has No Sense Of Direction, so for all Ryoga knew, he could have had one or more siblings roaming Japan that he'd never actually met.
- Doesn't change the fact that said lost relative/maid always happens to look exactly like Ranma's female form. And that Ranma has gotten away with this multiple times. Sense of direction isn't relevant here. Ryoga is just an idiot.
- Subverted in Mahou Sensei Negima. During the badge collection game, Yuna tries to trick Nodoka and Yue out of their badges, disguising herself with a mask during a festival. However, the two quickly realize who it is, as her distinctive side ponytail is quite clearly visible.
- Later justified when Jack Rakan is shown to disguise himself while in a busy place by putting on Clark Kent glasses... which are specifically labeled in author's notes as being a magical item with the effect of making the wearer unrecognizable.
- Later again Asuna and Nodoka uses the same glasses... though it appears that Yue at least to a certain degree is able to see though it, when they meet each other.
- It's stated that the glasses only work indirectly, once you make direct contact with someone by talking to them, it breaks the effect. The glasses are supposed to help the wearer blend into the background.
- Justified, in Powerpuff Girls Z, anyone wearing the clothes one of the girls gets during her Transformation Sequence will appear to be that girl implying that the clothes have some kind of disguising power.
- Suberted in Moldiver, when, once he has a hint of it, Professor Akagi only needs a few minutes to match the body shape of Hiroshi and the full-body-costumed Moldiver to confirm that they're the same person.
- Puni Puni Poemi and Poemi Wantanabe look different enough for this to possibly work, except that they sound the same, have the same way of talking, both refer to themselves by the name of their voice actress, and the first time Poemi transforms into Puni Puni Poemi, she does it right in front of the Aasu sisters. Oh yeah, and they have the same name! And yet the Aasus are still surprised that Poemi is a Magical Girl
- Minami-Ke has Makoto dressing up as a girl so that he can keep visiting Haruka. His entire (very convincing) disguise consists of a hairclip and skirt.
- After the successful hijacking of a plane with Yutaka Takenouchi headed towards the US, one of the hijackers tries to avoid arrest by going to Cromartie High School and disguising as Takenouchi himself. The hijacker's disguise is actually his own mask with the kanji for 'Take' in 'Takenouchi' imprinted on it, but it somehow fools everybody in Cromartie into thinking he is Takenouchi. His disguise is a setup for some crazy situations, one in which Masked Takenouchi tells a story that gives the impression that Takenouchi has changed his character for the better, as if he had a rough life and a big criminal record. (The imposter is in his 30's.)
- Hayashida finally figures out at the beginning of Cromartie Volume 4 that there are TWO Takenouchi's, as the real one has finally come back to the US...on a bullet train with Cromartie's students on it. It doesn't help at all then, that Masked Takenouchi suffers from motion sickness as well.
- Princess Tutu is another Magical Girl anime that uses this trope. Ahiru doesn't really look all that different from Princess Tutu at first glance—even her Idiot Hair is still there, although the rest of her hairstyle seems to be cut shorter. However, Fakir is actively looking for the girl that's Tutu and never notices the resemblance until Ahiru behaves so suspiciously (while wearing the necklace that Fakir knows Tutu needs to transform) that Fakir CAN'T deny it anymore. However, the trope is justified similarly to Christopher Reeves' Superman—While Ahiru is klutzy, an awkward dancer, an scatterbrained, Princess Tutu is graceful, poised, and expresses herself easily. Also, Tutu looks like an older version of Ahiru, including gaining a few inches of height and a more womanly figure.
- This trope applies to Dark Magical Girl Princess Kraehe, as well—the only difference between her and Rue is a different hairstyle, slightly narrower eyes, and heavy makeup, yet none of the characters seem to make the connection until Rue reveals herself.
- Also to most people, Princess Tutu appears to be an enormous swan.
- Not only doesn't anyone deduce any main character's secret identity in Sailor Moon (despite them using no disguise at all, with the exception of Tuxedo Mask and Sailor V), but most of the time the villains don't even bother to try. Notable exceptions are Nephrite and Zoisite: The former tried to find Sailor Moon by sending fake love letters from Tuxedo Mask, but eventually followed a false trail in the form of Naru; the latter discovered Tuxedo Mask's identity by pulling off his mask, proving that Clark Kenting seems to work on everyone but him. Most other adaptations don't seem to use the trope explicitly, although there they tend not to meet people they know while in costume anyway.
- The manga dodged this trope completely - many people do recognize the Senshi out of costume, most notably Mamoru when he meets Usagi again after having seen her as Sailor Moon, Haruka and Michiru, who deliberately keep their distance, and numerous villains that target the Senshi one by one outside of battle without ever having met them before. A few minor characters also recognized the girls if they knew them as civilians and then later saw them as Senshi. Yet oddly Zoicite even notices that Usagi has the same hair-style as Sailor Moon, yet shrugs it off as the current fad. Also, most of the later villains could sense the Senshi by their energy, rendering the whole secret identity thing pointless.
- The manga scene referenced above has both Mamoru and Usagi recognizing each other as Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon while in civilian clothes — or at least noticing the similarity. The key difference is that Usagi denies the possibility of Mamoru being her Mysterious Protector, while Mamoru actually takes the fact into account, suggesting that the ability to recognize the characters in disguise really depends on the person. (In contrast to the anime version, where Mamoru seemingly fails to draw a parallel between the Moon Princess, Usagi and Sailor Moon almost until she actually transformed in front of him.)
- In the Live Action Adaptation Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, the Sailor Senshi have black or brown hair and more or less plausible hairstyles in civilian forms, but the Transformation Sequence changes their hair to resemble the the styles and colors seen in the anime. It never explains why, but it's a lot more plausible as a disguise.
- And the best part? Even when they're transformed, they address each other by their civilian names. In front of everyone. Go figure.
- This was possibly carried over from the original edition of the manga, where they do call each other by their real names, although with some of the manga villains being able to recognize them anyway, this was at least excusable.
- Lampshaded in Samurai Pizza Cats, where in one episode the narrator remarks "No one recognizes our samurai heroes in their secret identities! Don't ask why, just one of the quirks of the show."
- Seishoujo Senshi Saint Valkyrie brilliantly skewers this — everyone recognizes that Ai Hayama is Valkyrie Ai, despite her frantic protestations to the contrary.
- In Wedding Peach, The Power Of Friendship actually acts as a shield to keep the devils from seeing who the love angels are. So this is justified... sort of.
- In Zeta Gundam, Char Aznable adopts the pseudonym "Quattro Bajeena", but his true identity is something of an open secret. The fact that he still uses a mobile suit in his signature color of bright red doesn't help.
- Kenshiro Kasumi in Fist of the Blue Sky disguises his true identity as "Yan-Wang" in public by giving himself a nerdy hairstyle and glasses.
- Usopp when disguised as Sogeking. The mask still reveals his long nose and he still wears his everyday clothes under his cape. The only two people fooled by this are Chopper and Luffy.
- The Kunoich character Kaede uses a pair of glasses to disguise herself, Everyone sees through it except the ninja's chasing after her who's disguises are just as minimalistic (One is wearing a surgical mask, the other just painted two stripes on her eyepatch, and the ancient clan leader is also wearing glasses.)
- The only difference between Meimi and St. Tail is the hairstyle (St. Tail's signature ponytail) and the clothes. Subverted because Meimi has to take special care to keep people from seeing her face to keep her identity a secret.
- In Eyeshield21, Sena is the titular Eyeshield 21, a running back with unbeatable speed. Sena is the only one with a build and height even remotely close to his "secret" identity. Most of the time he doesn't even bother coming up with a good excuse for not being there when Eyeshield 21 is. Mamori, his childhood friend and the team's manager, really takes a while to figure things out, given the clues she has on hand.
Comic Books
- Superman, naturally.
- In earlier Superman comics, he had minor Shape Shifting abilities that allowed him to look ever so slightly different as Clark Kent. This was back when Super *insert anything here* was his power. As they began to widdle out the weird super hypnosis and super ventriloquism stuff from his back story they removed his shape shifting powers. His not needing a disguise is actually a throw back to powers he used to have and no longer does.
- Said shapeshifting was attributed to his fantastic "facial muscle control", a Hand Wave previously used by several Pulp Magazine heroes to explain their Master Of Disguise ability without making them seem too unmanly by wearing makeup. Readers of the time would have been much more familiar with the concept than we are now when it's mostly a Forgotten Trope (well, used in the movie Innerspace in 1987, but still not commonly known).
- Other versions have stated that he at least avoids being recognized from photographs by vibrating slightly to mess with the details. Of course, Batman didn't recognise Clark Kent as being Superman until trying, and failing, to tranq him in order to change costume.
- An early John Byrne Superman story had Lex Luthor hiring a computer expert to analyze the data as to Superman's secret identity. The analyst's work determines that Clark Kent is Superman. Luthor immediately fires the analyst, and berates her for being so stupid, because he could not accept that anyone could be so incredibly powerful and not use it for personal gain.
- In another Byrne story, Batman floated the theory that, since Superman doesn't wear a mask in public(and kinda wears a mask as Clark) that no one really thinks that Superman has a secret identity to begin with. Most superheroes in the DCU wear something over their heads. Superman doesn't. As far as the public is concerned, What You See Is What You Get.
- Wonder Woman also uses glasses as a disguise, although she changed her hairstyle as well. The fact that her abilities are magic-based may also help.
- Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, wore a helmet and a jumpsuit, but didn't have anything covering his face. It was later stated that he subtly vibrated at super-speed in public to make his face less recognizable.
- The Jay Garrick technique was also briefly employed by Superman after his Post Crisis reboot in 1986.
- In addition to above items suggesting why Superman's disguise works, he has managed to have Superman and Clark Kent show up in the same place at the same time on numerous occasions over the decades using Identity Impersonators like his Superman robots (they keep getting emotions and rebelling, though), shapeshifting allies like Martian Manhunter and Supergirl/Matrix, and Batman disguising himself. In Lois and Clark, where he had no access to any of these resources, he once used a hologram projector to have Superman and Clark appear at the same time after a reporter discovered Clark's hidden stash of costumes in his apartment. Though the hologram didn't convince everybody, perhaps because it was designed by Ma and Pa Kent.
- During the Silver Age of comics, Superman would run into lookalikes often —from his Kandorian cousin to a movie actor— who were so similar to him that they could (and did) pass for him. Of course this was an intentional plot point.
- These days, we chalk it up to the fact that Clark is an Oscar-worthy actor.
- On the other hand, what explanation is the average Joe going to believe, that it's his secret identity or just a chance likeness?
- Possibly partially subverted in the Silver Age comics, when Lois often suspected and made various attempts to prove Clark Kent and Superman were one and the same, leading to some of the variously mentioned attempts by Superman to prove Lois "wrong" (shape-shifters, robots, etc.).
- One explanation involved the subconscious use of super hypnosis, which was magnified by his glasses, which he made from Kryptonian glass so they could withstand heat vision. This explanation included the phrase "this ship was indestructible, but now it's in pieces."
- This troper prefers a more logical (and simpler) explanation: Clark Kent is a newspaper reporter (who, unless he has a syndicated column, does not have his picture in the paper regularly) in a major city, which no doubt has hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people in it. The total amount of people that know him personally in the city is going to be less than 20. The reason the disguise works so well is because nobody knows who the hell Clark Kent is except a name that they spot on the newspaper when they occasionally glance at the byline. As for the people who do know him, most of them know Clark as a big dork who could never be a superhero like the man of steel, and the remainder is either his family, fellow superheroes, or Lois.
- Averted perfectly in DCAU piece Superman Doomsday, Lois knows full well that Clark is Superman and is getting annoyed with the fact that he refuses to tell her.
- It can get pretty infuriating at times when guys who should no better are fooled by the disguise. In Legends Superman finds himself on Apokolips and Darkseid fails to recognize that he's Superman wearing glasses. Its ridiculous enough that a sharp-nosed reporter like Lois Lane is fooled by it but you'd expect a telepathic god who's fought Superman many times would see through it.
- Viciously parodied in the 1980s-vintage independent comic book Megaton Man, in which the title character is a grotesquely over-muscled hulk, whose attempts to hide behind a Kent-like blue suit and glasses fool no one but himself.
- Parodied in The Tick, in which the title character attempts to adopt a secret identity by donning thick glasses, a tie and a flowered purse — while still wearing his antennaed blue spandex super-suit.
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- This is parodied constantly on the Tick, because the characters never appear outside their costumes. One episode featured him and American Maid posing as normal hotel guests, taking on assumed names, and the hotel concierge (working for the villain) only suspects something is up because the Tick picks an obviously made up name ("Nick Soapdish") and not because he's got two completely undisguised superheroes standing in front of him.
- Subverted in Green Arrow, in one issue a cop that had been working with the hero turns up unexpectedly at Oliver Queen's home. Oliver asks in surprise "How did you know who I was?" The cop replied "Was it supposed to be a secret?" After that Oliver stopped even wearing a mask.
- He was also instantly recognized by Mia Dearden, who pointed out that he uses a tiny little mask, has a one-in-a-million beard, and doesn't even bother to alter his voice when in costume.
- Another straight version is Captain Marvel Jr. He is somehow able to keep a secret identity despite the fact that his Marvel form, apart from not needing his crutch, has a unmasked costume and otherwise looks exactly the same as his normal form. At least the modern Mary Marvel typically becomes an adult in her Marvel form like her brother. Again, magic is involved in the transformation; the spell may include a non-recognition caveat.
- Golden Age superhero Captain Battle stretched the trope to the breaking point. In his civilian identity, he was William Battle, a World War I veteran who used to be a captain in the army. It didn't help that he didn't wear any disguise whatsoever while operating as a superhero. It doesn't help that he wears an eyepatch in both identities.
- I wonder how the intros for those stories went. "In his civilian guise, he is William Battle, the retired Captain! But when crime rears its ugly head, he puts on no disguise and becomes Captain Battle, man of mystery!"
- Subverted in Invincible, best friend William figure out who Invincible is the first time Mark (Invincible) tries this in front of him.
- Alluded to/averted in The Authority. At one point, Apollo and Midnighter attempt to settle down in San Francisco, in order to give their daughter, Jenny Quantum, a vaguely normal childhood. As Apollo (a Superman Expy, who for this scene wears glasses) attempts to explain the concept of secret identities to Jenny, Midnighter ruins the whole charade by throwing the real estate agent 500 feet into a lake when he upped the asking price of the house they were looking at.
- Parodied in an issue of The Avengers. Quasar, a member of the team, shows up at the mansion in his civilian identity and wearing a pair of glasses; every Avenger he meets thinks "I hope Quasar doesn't think those glasses are disguising anything."
- Parodied in the comic Gold Digger in the school days of one of the main characters. When some of the school staff turn out to be evil and try and conduct mind control experiments on the student body, Brittany 'Cheetah' Digger's best friend convinces her to join her as a superhero as "Pink Avenger and the Cheets". Despite the fact that Brittany is the *only werecheetah in the world*, and the only non-human student in the school and probably city, the evil villains never saw through the disguise during their entire school stay. The rest of the student body, on the other hand... figured it out in about five seconds making it a big The Not Secret to them, but keeping quiet out of approval.
- Perfectly demolished in a recent Spider-Man story in which Ben Urich places a call to Peter Parker's cell phone, implies that he knows Peter's secret, and requests a meeting. Once on the roof of the Daily Bugle, Spider-Man asks how Urich could have figured this out. Ben's response goes on for several panels. Some of the highlights: "Peter, I'm an award-winning investigative journalist at a major metropolitan newspaper. We've been working out of the same offices, and frequently assigned to the same stories, for something like eleven years now. I'm honestly insulted you thought I was never going to figure this out." "You frequently smelled like smoke. You know who else always smelled like smoke? Matt Murdock. You told me once that you knew Daredevil was Matt Murdock. Now, how could a substitute science teacher and part-time photojournalist possibly know that Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer in Hell's Kitchen, was the vigilante Daredevil. Oh, right."
- And yet, people even CLOSER to Peter than Ben, some of whom also are journalists, never figured it out. This was obviously just a way to make Urich look Bad Ass.
- This trope was further spoofed in another Spider-Man comic where Spider-Man briefly meets another hero, who is clearly a Marvel Comics parody of Superman. When this hero shows up without a mask on his face, Peter Parker asks how he disguises himself. The man's response is to pull out a pair of glasses and put them on. It fails.
- Touched on in yet another issue where one of Spider-Man's contacts offhandedly refers to him as a New Yorker. When Peter responds with "How do you know I live in the city?" the man just smirks and replies "Ask me again with that Queens accent how I know where you're from."
- How did this conversation go this far without mentioning Mary Jane? The writers realized no amount of Clark Kenting was going to get Peter after an attack by the Puma, tried a particularly common lame attempt at it, and the writers pulled one hell of a Subversion by having her say she always knew.
- In the 1960s Disney comics spoofing Superman, no one could ever figure out why they never saw Goofy and Super Goof in the same place. This was carried over into animation through an episode of House Of Mouse; at the end, Mickey thought that Super Goof's secret identity was Dumbo. For those not familiar with the character: Super Goof is basically Goofy in long underwear and a cape. He doesn't even wear a mask.
- Conversely, Brazilian hero Morcego Verde (Green Bat) has a hard time convincing anyone that he's not José Carioca. In fact, when he's in costume, his friends still call him "Zé" or, at their most secretive, "Hey Zé...I mean, Morcego!".
- In one issue of the uncanny X-Men the beaten up father of Bobby Drake/Iceman, while lying in a hospital, asks Gambit a few questions. Bobby's father doesn't understand why some people engage in the X-men although some of them are perfectly fine looking, just like him, he seems to ignore Gambit's pretty unusual eyes. One can't blame him for that, even many colorists forget that he doesn't have normal eyes, or make them blue instead of red.
- One cover of Batman had Batman, as Adam, hiding the fact that he is Batman. Eve believes him!◊
- That's not a real cover. It's from a parody. I believe it's the same parody that included the story with Superbaby in the microwave that got pulped.
- Like everything else about Superman, this was parodied/deconstructed in Supreme Power. Mark Milton tells his government handlers he can disguise himself— and puts on a pair of glasses. The agents just shoot him that look.
- His original Squadron Supreme counterpart wore a tiny domino mask as Hyperion that covered no more than glasses would, and when the Squadron "went public", he removed it on television as if it were a dramatic Reveal.
- Samaritan's civilian disguise in Astro City is just a pair of glasses and change of hair colour, but it's actually quite convincing, even to the reader. Of course, there is the fact that his civilian name is Asa Martin, an anagram of Samaritan.
- In the early Silver Age Human Torch, "everybody knows that Sue Storm is the Invisible Girl, but no one knows her brother Johnny is the Human Torch". After the writers realized how stupid this plot point was, they retconned it into everyone knowing, but since they were aware of Johnny's attempts at hiding it, they respected that he didn't want them to talk about it. An earlier story where the brilliant Wizard tries, and fails, to learn Johnny's identity is quietly ignored, and he knows perfectly well who the Torch is in his next appearance.
- Parodied in The Inferior Five, where even though only Awkwardman wears a mask nobody knows their true identities. Heck, even Awkwardman is pretty obvious. "Nobody suspects clumsy, oafish Leander Brent is really clumsy, oafish Awkwardman! ...I wonder how come?"
- More subtly parodied in The Intimates. The teacher of the Secret Identity class is Mr. Hyde (referring to the dual identities), who greatly resembles Superman and wears glasses. Lampshaded by one of the series' signature infoscrolls in the final issue after he finally uses one of his powers: "Can anyone guess what kind of 'vision' does Mr. Hyde have? (Hint: It's temperature based, as well as being the complete opposite of 'cold'."
- Lampshaded in The Trouble with Girls. In one storyline, Lester Girls decides to try disguising himself using a pair of glasses and the pseudonym Leroy Gals. Though his internal dialog also mentions that he's also subtly altering his posture, voice, etc. Of course he promptly meets and begins a romance with his reocuring foil who's disguised herself by wearing a brunette wig.
- Conner Kent, the second Superboy, is one of the more ridiculous examples. He uses glasses like Clark Kent does, but he doesn't wear a freaking costume. His "costume" as Superboy is a black S-symbol t-shirt, jeans and work boots. That's right, he takes off his glasses and changes shirts, and no one recognizes him. Does the DC universe just have something in the water?
- Cassie Sandsmark, the second Wonder Girl, wears a similar ensemble, but this troper isn't sure if she actually has a secret identity.
- In her new series, Power Girl carries on the Kryptonian tradition, simply wearing a slightly different hairstyle in her civilian guise. Given that the clothes she wears as Karen Star showcase her famous figure almost as much as her Power Girl suit, it's really hard to believe no one's made a connection, although the most recent issue indicates that someone has. (with some Lampshade Hanging from Terra)
- Black Canary doesn't wear a mask either.
- Red Arrow has one of the tiniest masks in comics. Seriously, it conceals about as much of his face as a pair of sunglasses would.
- One could say that this was subverted in the classic Richard Donner Superman film: Christopher Reeve's vastly differing (not to mention EXCELLENT) portrayals of Clark Kent and Superman really made you feel that he could get away with the disguise. To play the role of Clark Kent, he wore the glasses and slicked his hair back, sure, but he also slouched, stammered, and raised his voice by an octave so that there was a tangible difference between Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent and Christopher Reeve as Superman. This is most obvious in the scene from Superman 2 where Lois finds out. All Reeve does is stand up straight and speak in his normal voice and suddenly he's another person.
- Brandon Routh also gets this portrayal spot on. This Troper remembers watching Superman Returns for the first time and remarking after one scene of stammering Clark, "God, he's such a dork," when it hit me, that was the whole point.
- Doesn't stop it from being highly unconvincing that both can disappear for five years and return on the exact same day and no one notices. The way the idea was laughed off by Lois and Richard turned this into an idiot plot for me.
- Routh also had too many physical giveaways for the disguise to be believable. The teflon-coated black hair and out-of-place blue contacts were just too noticable.
- Parodied in Mystery Men, as one of the character realizes that Captain Amazing looks identical to his "benefactor", but without glasses. The theory gets shouted down, as without glasses, he couldn't see anything.
- Semi-Film, Semi-Real Life Example: Albert Walker of The Agony Booth has twice admitted that he was fooled by the disguises of characters in some of the bad movies he's reviewed, which is shameful given the otherwise low quality of everything else in the given films. Specifically: Gene Simmons in Never Too Young To Die, who dresses up as a friendly agent despite his character being a flagrantly over-the-top transvestite, and Paul Freeman in Shanghai Surprise, supposedly dead and disguised, again, as an ally.
- Count Olaf (played by Jim Carrey) in the film version of Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events disguises himself as a scientist named Stephano (false mustache and a shaved eyebrow) and a sea captain called Captain Sham (wooden leg, and a beard). Although in the books Olaf can easily be recognised when in disguise because he has a tattoo of an eye on his ankle, his disguises are still comically inept.
- This troper, while watching a Zorro movie, explained to his father that "concealing his identity with a mask that covers less than half of his face" is Zorro's super power.
- Lampshaded in the movie Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi: total nerd Suri disguises himself as fashion victim Raj by shaving his moustache, changing haircut and putting other clothes on. He later explains to a friend that if he managed to fool his wife with the disguise, it's only because god decided to help him. The trope is also slightly subverted because, like in Donner's Superman movies, it's not just the clothes that change but the character's whole behaviour. Suri and Raj talk, move and behave differently, which later leads Suri to become jealous of Raj because he wonders if people do not prefer him (why hello there, Split Personality!).
- Played utterly and painfully straight in Public Enemies. John Dillinger walks into the FBI office dedicated to hunting him down, plastered with his own picture and talks (briefly) to a detective there. Needless to say, no one recognizes him. Apparently Johnny Depp with a tiny beard, sunglasses, and a straw hat is insdistinguishable from cleanshaven Johnny Depp with a fedora. This also happens to a much less extent at another point in the movie where he's sitting in a movie theatre that broadcasts a public announcement urging the theatre goers to look for This Man, turning left and right in their seats to look around for him. Once again, he goes unnoticed.
- The first is more Refuge In Audacity than anything. I mean, would the police really expect their number one target to just walk into the office in charge of hunting him down? Plus, none of the cops get a good look at him. They're all huddled around the radio, and the one he talks to only turns his head briefly to acknowledge his presence; he doesn't exactly study his face. In the second case, A. the people closest to him on either side were his friends and Allies; B. he makes a point not to look anyone else in the face, and C. he's practically a folk hero at this point, so it's likely that even if he was recognized, the people who recognized him wouldn't turn him in anyway.
- In It Happened One Night, Peter and Ellie fool the detectives who are sent by Ellie's father with acting like a low-class married couple.
- The villains in A Series Of Unfortunate Events seem to be quite good at this, possibly because most of them are identified by a few distinguishing features— such as a monobrow, baldness, or very pale faces.
- Averted in the Whateley Universe stories. In the beginning of the third Phase book, on the first day of school at the Whateley Academy, the headmistress Mrs. Carson gives a speech to the new students. Before the end of the talk, Phase has figured out that the headmistress is also the superheroine Lady Astarte. By the end of the book, Phase has figured out that Mrs. Carson is also a former superheroine of the 80's, Ms. Might. By the end of the fourth book, Phase has figured out that the early-thirties-looking Mrs. Carson is actually in her mid-seventies and has had at least two other superhero identities over the decades.
- Justified in Sailor Nothing — one of the Magical Girl powers they possess is an inability to be recognized unless someone thinks about it really hard.
- Cleverly averted in The Shadow Pulp Magazine, where readers are first led to believe his secret identity is Lamont Cranston (as he is in the radio show, an early case of Adaptation Decay) but the very next novel has the real Lamont Cranston wake up to The Shadow, Master of Disguise, in his room, quite perfectly borrowing his face. The Shadow also commonly goes by five other identities, some borrowed, some invented, as well as single-use identities in many stories. Readers had to wait seven years to find out his real backstory in "The Shadow Unmasks," which involved faking the dead twelve years beforehand and arranging to be miraculously "found" when he needed a new primary identity.
Live Action TV
- LazyTown villain Robbie Rotten wears at least one Paper Thin Disguise in all but a few episodes, yet is never recognised even by the adult characters until he is 'unmasked', usually due to his hat falling off. In one episode, he removes all but the headpiece of his costume, yet is not recognised until the headpiece comes off, and in another episode serves free ice cream to the townschildren unquestioned while wearing just a false moustache.
- Lampshaded in The Laziest Town where Robbie walks in the mayors office wearing one his disquises. The Mayor had this to say:
Mayor: Hi Mr.Rotten. Did you grow a mustache?
- Teri Hatcher, appearing on Saturday Night Live during the run of Lois And Clark, got the opportunity to mock this during her opening monologue. She starts by telling the audience about the teasing she gets for playing the clueless Lois Lane, but explains that it's just part of the show and nobody is really that dumb. Then Will Ferrell comes on and asks if he can make an announcement. He puts on a pair of reading glasses...and Teri starts panicking, asking "Oh my God, who are you?! Where's Will?!"
- In terms of the secret identity even being an issue, Lex Luthor's realization that Superman has a secret identity and "walks among us" is a key turning point for Luther's antagonism toward Superman partway through Lois And Clark's first season.
- In an episode of Lois And Clark Lois gets Supe's powers and dons a costume as 'Ultrawoman'. Just before facing Jimmy and the Chief she jitters, "They'll recognize me." "No they won't." Clark says calmly - and they don't!
- In another famous scene in Lois And Clark, Tempus, a man from the future, comes back in time and tells Lois that she's famous for being "the most galactically stupid woman who ever lived.", demonstrating by putting on and taking off a pair of glasses over and over saying "I'm Clark Kent! No, I'm Superman!" Turn that light down, would you?
- Jack Styles from Jack Of All Trades wears a hat and mask to obscure his identity as the Daring Dragoon, but doesn't do anything to hide the fact that he's the only one on the island with an American accent, that he has the same style of ridicule toward the captain, and showed up the same day Jack did.
- Hilariously referenced in the live-action Tick series, where a Superman-like hero dons a pair of glasses (still wearing his costume, mind you), and The Tick immediately mistakes him for someone else.
- At the end of the episode, the hero was taking off and putting on his glasses every few seconds right in front of everyone, and The Tick forgot who he was each and every time.
- In Dark Angel (towards the beginning anyway), Logan isn't recognised as Eyes Only by his contacts (and in one case his kidnappers!), even though all he does is take his glasses off when broadcasting. His voice stays the same.
- Keep in mind that when he broadcasts as Eyes Only, all he shows is his eyes. White guy with brown eyes and no glasses could fit the description for a lot of people.
- I thought the part showing his eyes was actually broadcast as monochrome, with his own master feed staying in colour. I'd like to see anyone find the correct guy when the only description is 'non-oriental, possibly caucasian , probably male, with two eyes and no glasses'...
- Stephen Colbert has been known to drop hints. Mild-mannered reporter, hmm? The hair does look familiar...
- Regularly parodied in Allo Allo with LeClerc. Whenever he arrives in one of his pathetic disguises, he pulls Rene aside and says "It is I- LeClerc!". He confirms this by raising his glasses, which is a bit absurd since he normally wears glasses anyway. On occasion, he has revealed himself by removing a false moustache...exposing the nearly identical real mustache he always has.
- The Power Rangers. Their idea of keeping their identities secret is to always hang out together and wear clothes that, in some way, correspond to which Ranger color they are.
- There are also some episodes wherein people try to find out the Rangers' secret identities, but once the truth glares them in the face they ignore it. Then what was the point of trying!?
- Many is the time the team members call one another by name in front of civilians with nary a consequence. Hilariously subverted in Power Rangers RPM, where the "Ranger (Color)" designation is often used in combat when they are one of the teams that DON'T have secret identities.
- Don't forget Wild Force, whose members ran around Turtle Cove in jackets emblazoned with the respective designations of their Ranger and Wildzord. Word Of God has stated that since the Rangers so seldom interact with society since acquiring their powers, people assume they're just weird knockoff souvenirs named for the Power Rangers... or "Surging Sharks" and "Soaring Eagles" are thought of as gang affiliations, and do you really want to mess with a meth user?
- Hannah Montana. All the girl does is put on a wig and sparkly clothing and she is instantly unrecognizable.
- To be fair, the show is aimed at people who are distracted by Shinies.
- Also, Miley Stewart does tend to act a bit more "small town country girl" when she isn't Hannah. Maybe not Christopher Reeve level, but still a possible example of personality making a difference.
- Her best friend and sidekick disguises herself by wearing multi-colored wigs and dressing up in punk(ish) clothes. Her father disguises himself by wearing a fake mustache. When Miley's male friend was let on the secret, he adopted his own on-stage disguise, wearing a fake goatee and dressing in sports/stereotypical rap clothes. And amazingly enough, no one is the wiser.
- Her father's disguise is the weakest of all of them. He doesn't even wear the mustache all the time. Does he even care if anyone figures out that Hannah and Miley are the same person?
- Let's not forget Chandler and Monica's Secret Relationship.
- Done for laughs, of course, on the second-rate (or third-rate, if you listen to Kermit) variety act The Muppet Show by Mark Hamil when he came on the show. He walks in first in full Skywalker costume, and gets pegged as Hamil right off the bat - only to run out the door to get his "cousin" and reappear seconds later dressed casually as Mark Hamil. And of course, at the end of the episode, both appear onscreen just to mess with Kermit's mind.
- Played straight in Battlestar Galactica with Gina, the Number Six Cylon who assassinates Admiral Cain and later hides out on Cloud Nine, hidden only by a wardrobe change and glasses. RDM admitted in the podcast that it wasn't one of their best moments.
- This is Older Than Steam: in Shakespeare's play King Lear, the Earl of Kent (!) returns from banishment in a fairly flimsy disguise to help the king. Even before he goes mad, Lear fails to recognize him along with everyone else, despite having known him for years.
- Later in the play, after Edgar is accused of plotting against his father the Earl of Gloucester, he tears at his clothes and covers himself with mud to disguise himself as a "Bedlam beggar". The disguise is good enough to fool his father, his godfather King Lear, the Earl of Kent (who is also in disguise and who Edgar fails to recognize) and the King's fool (easily the smartest person in the whole cast). In the final scene of the play, Edgar dons another disguise that fools his half-brother Edmund, though the stage directions imply that he may be masked.
- In fact, many of Shakespeare's plays use this, including most of the comedies. In Measure for Measure, the Duke, who rules the city, wanders around speaking to all the main characters with no attempt at disguise other than a priest's robe. In Twelfth Night and As You Like It women dress as men with little effort other than wearing men's clothing. Rosalind (the protagonist of As You Like It) remarks, in short, that no one will pay attention so long as she wears breeches and carries a sword. Orlando, the man in love with her, doesn't recognize her, even when she "pretends" to be Rosalind so he can practice courting. Most scholars agree these disguises would have been useless and flimsy, so the audience could easily see through them.
- This, mostly, is the joke, because women were not allowed to act in Shakespearian times; you would have a man who was playing a woman who pretended to be a man imitating a woman and so on.
- Also, keep in mind that, until roughly the 1950s, clothing was pretty much how you told who was a man and who was a woman. People just went with the gender suggested by the clothing.
- Pick a Mozart opera, any Mozart opera — and many, many others.
Video Games
- Justified in Psychonauts, in the level "The Milkman Conspiracy", where holding a particular item causes the conspiracy agent things to believe that you are a character type that would normally be seen carrying such a thing. Since the agents are themselves mental constructs doing the same thing, you might expect that they'd see through this quicker. Then you remember that they are the mental constructs of an insane conspiracy theorist, and all makes sense.
- In Edgar's mind, sinoritas at their windows will see you as a pervy flasher or a dashing ladies man depending on weather you are holding a rose.
- You can also (in the real world) slip by the very nearsighted Crispin by wearing a straight jacket, an award statue that looks like a claw-hand and a framed portrait of his boss.
- Played with in Super Robot Wars Original Generation 2, where Elzam's disguise as Rätsel Feinschmecker is utterly transparent, and even he knows it. But because it gives the rest of the group Plausible Deniability about the fact that an ex-Dragon is working with them, everybody goes along with it. This mostly consists of substituting "Rätsel" for "Elzam", even when talking about something that was officially done by Elzam.
- He even gets away with just ditching the disguise when he has to go to a funeral. It would be tacky to wear the disguise to the funeral, after all.
- Elzam's disguise is a pretty blatant Char/Quattro homage. There's a line where he introduces himself that's exactly the same as Quattro's in Zeta.
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has the spy EVA very obviously disguised as a girl named Tatyana. The only difference is adding a pair of glasses and making her hair a little neater. The game treats this like some amazing secret, with Snake & Co. repeatedly wondering who on earth that girl could be, and even dropping little hints.
- Could be justified by Snake's staring down EVA's first person view cleavage thanks to her Stripperific outfit instead of looking her in the eyes. Her alter ego wears a less revealing outfit, so maybe then Snake finally notices she has a face (which he hasn't seen before).
- Of course, being Metal Gear Solid, the absurdity of the disguise is probably the whole point. After all, Hideo Kojima's stated purpose behind Iroquois Pliskin was to see if he could actually fool anyone with such a Paper Thin Disguise.
- Hell, consider the entire exchange about the Raikov mask. "It's the only mask in the world that can actually blink!" "But I can't move the mouth." "Why would you want to do that?" I love wearing that thing during cutscenes.
- In the video intro to Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Rayman infiltrates the Rabbids' ranks by donning a disguise consisting of a pair of Rabbid-style googly eyes on a headband, a sink-plunger loaded into his gun, and a lungful of helium. One of the senior Rabbids is on the lookout for Rayman, carrying the CD slip-case for the previous game as a reference image, and comes close to rumbling him - until Rayman lets loose a Rabbid-like manic "BWAAAHHH!", which dispels the Rabbids' remaining doubts.
- In Mega Man Star Force, nobody seems to figure out that Geo Stelar is Mega Man unless he's explicitly transformed (Or changed back) in front of them. Combine the hairstyle, the voice, the eyes and the fact that Geo is close to the scene every time before and/or after something goes wrong would kinda make people think. In the anime, Bob Copper actually puts two and two together... And, in a moment of unbelievable stupidity, actually asks if Geo is one of Mega Man's groupies (Much to Geo's own surprise). In the same anime, when Luna finds out, she goes into a state of complete denial, despite the insistence of Bud and Zack and Omega-Xis showing up in front of them at times. Granted, her denial faded in the final episode of Tribe, but still.
- City Of Heroes features a mission in which your character has to infiltrate a Freakshow base. In order to facilitate this mission, you're given a disguise. What is the disguise? Your normal costume with random bits of metal attached to it.
- Early on in Final Fantasy VII, the characters disguise themselves as enemy troops to steal passage aboard a boat. For the most part, this works quite well, as Shinra troops are covered in head to toe with armor and baggy combat jumpsuits, but there are two major exceptions: Barret, the big black dude with a gun for an arm dressed as a sailor, and Red XIII, a cat/wolf-like creature who can't walk very well on two legs and whose tail sticks out of his uniform!
- They actually play with it some in this case. Upon Arrival, one conversation option results in Mr. Gun Arm being described as looking like 'a bear wearing a marshmallow suit', and he ends up hogging up the bathroom looking at himself in the mirror, wearing said sailor suit, if he's not in your party. As for Red XIII... he dances back and forth from foot to foot, obviously having issues standing on two legs, but comments that he 'makes a pretty good human being' when you talk to him... after which he turns to the side, allowing you to see the tail (Flaming tip and all) sticking out of his pants.
- Played with in Mana Khemia Alchemists Of Al Revis. The resident superhero, "The Flay", fights crime in the school, alongside his sidekick, who is The Hero in the main story. Their costume? It's a mask that covers only their eyes, while still wearing their Custom Uniform. And everyone is fooled...
- Done both ways in TF 2, depending on the team. Spies wear a mask that consists of the face of the class they're disguised as. If you're on their team, you can see them as a spy. If not, well, it's a perfect disguise. (until the shooting starts)
- The Gray Fox pulls this in Oblivion through the means of an enchanted cowl which makes it impossible for anyone to connect him to the secret identity, even if he tells you his real name several times. If he pulled it off in front of you, you wouldn't make the connection between Gray Fox and the person holding the cowl in his hand.
- Parodied in the "Punyverse" arc of Sluggy Freelance. As a Running Gag, characters keep noting, "Who would have thought that Princess-Princess is the secret identity of Secret Angel Princess Princess-Princess? Boy, that sounds stupid when I say it out loud."
- Lampshaded in the webcomic Smithson, Micki has met both the local superhero and his alter ego, Chuck, but hasn't figured it out yet, despite having seen Chuck without his glasses. Chuck is astonished at that.
- Happens in El Goonish Shive, to the point where Tedd can fool Will and Gill without even meaning it — they call him an impostor when they see him without his glasses. To be fair, though, those are really big glasses and they seem not to know what glasses are.
- Also massively parodied with an incredibly lame (but apparently successful) government campaign to hide the presence of aliens on earth by such methods as having them wear T-shirts that say "Homo Sapiens"
- Parodied in the "superhero fantasy" arc of Boy Meets Boy: one character points out that Foxman's roommate Collin looks identical to his nemesis His Mind Kills, but wholeheartedly accepts Foxman's explanation that they can't be the same because His Mind Kills wears goggles.
- Played straight in Girl Genius when Agatha, Wooster, Zeetha, and Krosp ride right in through the gate of Mechanicsburg just after a giant hologram of Agatha has been seen and discussed from as far away as China with Agatha wearing no disguise of any kind, instead relying on the cover story they came up with. Only von Mekkan figures it out and because the Castle rather blatantly points her out, even the fake Hetereodyne doesn't notice.
- In Mechanicsburg's defense, there's a big difference between "discussed" and "discussed accurately". And Agatha wasn't wearing that dress....
- Parodied in this strip.
- In Lost In Space, a (fat, smoking) cherub tries to infiltrate a group of Super Soldiers loyal to the Chaos God of Disease and Decay, which he succeeds in by *coughing*.
- Bad Guy High has Super Dan, his costume is him putting on a cape.
- PS238 uses an interesting variation - Tyler is given a secret identity as part of his training as a Badass Normal. Metahumans,even those who go to school with him,can not recognise him once he changes into the costume. Only outright telling them to their face convinces them otherwise. Normal people who know him recognise him instantly and wonder why he's wearing a costume. Tyler wants to know how and why the hell this works,because it doesn't make any sense.
- Parodied and subverted in Fans! when one of the main characters notices the obvious similarity between new superhero Hyperman and up-and-coming reporter Lance Clarkson. When she confronts Clarkson about it, it turns out that they aren't the same person, and that Clarkson has been playing it up to make people think that they are.
- Parodied and subverted in PVP. Two characters are speculating on the identity of LOLBAT, when one suggests it's Rex Roffle and another says that's obviously silly. Besides the obvious Meaningful Name, he looks and acts just like LOLBAT, complete with the mask. Then, the next day, we find out that LOLBAT ia actually Butler, so unless he's keeping up three identities, Rex Roffle is just a random Identical Stranger.
- Everyday Heroes has Uma and her father (aliens stranded on Earth) disguise themselves by wearing glasses and doing their best to blend in with humans ... despite the fact that they resemble cows.
Web Original
- Played straight and subverted with Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, in which, while Penny apparently does not recognize Villain Protagonist Dr. Horrible as her laundromat buddy Billy, his Arch Nemesis Captain Hammer does, likely from having seen his video blog, and uses this opportunity to ruin Billy's life even further by trying to steal Penny, the girl that he loves.
- Penny finally 'mistakes' Dr Horrible for Billy the end when she is delirious and near-death, leading her to reassure him with the painfully ironic line, "Captain Hammer will save us".
- Shadow Hawk of Epic Tales may have a full body costume, but he uses his birth name as his superhero identity. His logic is that it's such an obvious connection, that people will think it's too obvious. So far everyone who has met both of his identities has been able to figure it out, as well as a few who have only met one of his identities, but know of the other.
- Parodied in Cow and Chicken. When anyone entertains the thought that Cow and Supercow could possibly be the same cow (being the only Sentient cows in the Universe no less) that idea is always shot down by the fact that Supercow speaks Spanish.
- The Hooded Claw does this routinely in The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop, even when Penelope should be reminded of his alter ego, Sylvester Sneekly.
- In the original He-Man cartoon, characters would often note how Prince Adam would run away whenever the Monster Of The Week showed up, but would never take that line of thought any further. In the more recent revival, he still gets away with this behavior, but more realistically, some think he's a coward who's been running off to hide. It helps that this version of He-Man looks almost nothing like Adam. Also, magic.
- Many sillier kids shows do this to the point of parody; Wig Dress Accent and you're good to go, no matter what glaring characteristics are still visible:
- Bugs Bunny can fool anyone who was just chasing him by hiding his ears and tail, even though he's still a six-foot gray-furred rabbit. They may be distracted by other things, however.
- The Beagle Boys in Duck Tales, who walk around with their masks still on.
- Speaking of Duck Tales, there was an episode when the triplets tried to figure out Gizmo-Duck's secret indentity. Fenton was offended when they got it wrong. That didn't even tip them off.
- In another episode, Scrooge himself takes up a superhero identity, only to have a Jerk Ass reporter ruin it by showing apparent footage of said hero turning to crime. No one notices that not only is this costumed duck not the same one, but it clearly is the reporter instead.
- Boris and Natasha from Rocky And Bullwinkle. Though this might be because Bullwinkle is dumber than a rock. Rocky... has no excuse.
- Lampshaded in Superman The Animated Series when Supergirl attempts to disguise herself with a pair of glasses and a wig - Superman/Clark Kent sees right through her Paper Thin Disguise despite the fact that it's a more elaborate disguise than Superman himself uses.
- Transformers are sometimes guilty of this. Not only do some robots have parts of their alternate modes easily identifiable in robot mode, but often their faction symbol is visible even in their alternate mode, and this doesn't seem to be a dead giveaway, even to those who know what the symbols mean.
- Sources indicate that at least some of the fiction-writers (comics, cartoons) would like to have the disguises actually be disguises, but Hasbro demands that faction symbols be visible in both modes as a form of "brand recognition" (read: Viewers are morons). In fact, pretty much the only Transformers toys that didn't have blatantly obvious faction logos in alternate mode were those from the Alternators toyline, which was based on licensed cars (and even then, most of them still sported faction logos on their license plates anyway). Imagine if DC Comics would insist on having Clark Kent wear a Superman "S" somewhere on his clothes so he could be easily recognized by readers/viewers/buyers (in the case of action figures)...
- Interestingly, in the Generation 1 episode "Making Tracks", Tracks disguised himself as a regular car by making his Autobot symbol invisible. Makes you wonder why none of the others ever thought to do that.
- But you are forgetting the most famous instance of this. In the third episode of the original series, the Autobots decide to set up an ambush for the deceptions. Hound uses his holographic projector to make a fake "rocket base" and the Autobots will be in it, under disguise, to attack the Decepticons when they show up to raid the base. What disguise do the Autobots go for? If you guessed "In their car mode in the base's parking lot." Congratulation, you're smarter then an Autobot. They decide to don labcoats and pass for the human scientists. Despite the fact that even the smallest of them is twice as tall as a human and about 3 times as wide. And made of metal. With shoulder-mounted guns. Yes, that plan failed.
- With all this talk about symbols, it's easy to forget that many of the vehicle modes themselves are obvious giveaways. On the reasonable side of things, Prowl and Streetwise become the only Japanese highway patrol cars in the United States. At the opposite extreme, Blast Off is a ludicrously undersized undersized purple and olive green space shuttle orbiter, a disguise that can only be made worse by the addition of—of course—Decepticon symbols.
- And it gets better/worse. In an episode of a Japanese version of transformers, Optimus Prime tried to disguise himself as a Budha statue. The face was alright, but he out his huant metal robot handsin the position of the budha statue.
- Undercover Elephant on CB Bears wore disguises that primarily relied on a single prop (a chef's hat, a pink tutu, etc.) and a thin ribbon-mask. They nonetheless worked, at least until his sidekick Loudmouse "blew his cover" ... despite being, well, an elephant.
- Mercilessly parodied in the Animaniacs short Chicken Boo. Despite his ability to masquerade as anything from a rocket scientist to an idolized leading man movie star with nothing more than a pair of glasses or a wig, he is a naked 6-foot-tall not-anthropomorphic-at-all rooster that talks only in clucks. Attempting to blend in with humans in this fashion, he succeeds perfectly (with the exception of one derided outcast in each cartoon that keeps saying [[he's just a giant chicken until his disguise falls off, at which point he is driven away by screaming mobs.
- One of the few segments that altered the scenario ever so slightly was a crossover between Chicken Boo and Katie Ka-boom, a girl who has very violent moodswings. In this episode EVERYONE except Katie herself is able to see that her boyfriend is actually a giant chicken. This results in her turning monstrous when her parents tell her this, not believing them until the end where Boo's disguise is removed... at which point she turns monstrous again and destroys the entire house, sending Boo flying because he didn't tell her he was just a chicken.
- The penguin Feathers McGraw in the Wallace And Gromit short The Wrong Trousers disguises himself as a chicken by wearing a large red rubber glove on his head.
- Despite wearing her Jem Star Earrings in both of her identies, no one expects the mysterious Jem to be Jerrica Benton—must be because of the pink-colored Eighties Hair she gives her rock-star identity.
- The titular character of Invader Zim has a disguise consisting of a pair of contacts and a wig that manages to fool everyone but The Jor El Dib. Partially justified in that everyone on the planet is perpetually holding the Idiot Ball.
- Don't forget that episode where he lost one of his contacts in front of a crown of classmates. People were suitably shocked, until he explained it away as a very bad case of pinkeye.
- Also happened in reverse with the Irkin fry cook lord Sizz-Lor. He wore a gas mask while kidnapping Zim and then proceeded to take it off. Zim didn't recognize Sizz-Lor at first (even after he put on an apron with his name on it) until he put on his little white fry cook hat.
- There was also an episode wherein two aliens tried to abduct Zim. Their disguises were worse than his (if that's possible).
- And this time, Zim noticed
- Becky Botsford is Word Girl, but nobody, not even her friends and family realize this (except once or twice; still long after they should've realized it). Even though she has the same height and build, and she doesn't cover her face at all.
- The show, being an Affectionate Parody of superhero cartoons, goes out of its way to parody this, too. Becky's friends and family are constantly commenting on how Beck "just missed" seeing Word Girl, or that she sure looks a lot like her, etc. One villain, Tobey, actually even caught on right away when he was introduced to Becky and purposefully put her in a situation where she had to reveal herself—but she sent her monkey sidekick out in her costume instead. In the episodes after his introduction he constantly hints to Becky that he still believes she's really Word Girl—he just has no way to prove it, considering he supposedly saw them together in the same place.
- From Gargoyles - The Hunters wear a mask with three large red diagonal slashes across the face. The original Hunter, Gillecomgain, has three large diagonal scars across his face courtesy of Demona, which is the reason he chose the symbol. Macbeth, who knows and bears grudges against both, is completely shocked by the relevation that they're the same guy.
- Spoofed all to hell in Drawn Together - when Captain Hero adopts his "Secret Identity", Tim Tommerson, literally the only change he makes is to put on glasses - he doesn't even remove his costume.
- Parodied in the 'Pie Man' episode of The Simpsons "Simple Simpson".
Marge: "I knew it was you all along."
Homer: "Was it the [Spider-Man parody] kiss?"
Marge: "No, it was clearly you in that costume! I mean you would have to be an idiot not to see it."
- Also, earlier in that episode, Lisa says "Dad, you're clearly the Pie Man. We've been getting his mail for weeks."
- There was also the episode where Homer was making up conspiracies and posting them on the internet. The homepage showed a picture of Homer with a black bag over his head with a white "X" on it. The photo is an animated picture that clearly shows Homer putting on said bag. Later when Homer tries to reveal himself at a press conference, nobody believes him until He puts the bag on in front of them.
- The titular hero Danny Phantom/Fenton. White hair, a jumpsuit, different-colored eyes, and a shared first name do not a good disguise make, kid.
- Lampshaded twice, once with his father suggesting that it would be better to call him just "son", since there's a second boy called "Danny", and a second time by Danny's Superpowered Evil Side from the future, who points it out explicitly and laughs over his parents and friends stupidity. Also justified once, by a Guy in White, claiming that Danny was way too pre-pubescent to actually be as "dangerous" as the ghost-boy.
- Teachers Pet
- Mercilessly parodied, along with a bunch of other Superman-related tropes, in The Real Ghostbusters episode "Captain Steel Saves The Day".
Peter: All he did was change clothes and put on a pair of glasses! Some disguise!
Winston: Hey, don't knock it, man. It works.
Peter: Let's hope Dr. Destructo's near-sighted.
- Parodied in the Superhero Episode of Futurama where Fry, Leela, and Bender become superheroes. Somehow the public does not realise that the only one-eyed woman with purple hair in the entire city of New New York is, in fact, the one-eyed purple-haired superheroine Cloberella. Even her own parents are fooled.
- This is made even more blatant by the fact that Leela and her mother are the only purple-haired female cyclopes in the entire universe.
- Teamo Supremo's leader Captain Crandall never really changes his appearance between his superhero and civilian identities, costume aside. This makes one wonder how his own mother can't seem to put two and two together and figure out why there's some superhero running around who looks exactly like her son, though in the last episode it's revealed she's been aware of him being a superhero the whole time.
- Captain Caveman in his segments on the early 1980s The Flintstone Comedy Show featured Cavey working alongside Wilma and Betty at the newspaper "The Daily Granite" under the guise of Chester, the copy boy. Cavey's "disguise" consisted of a pair of glasses, a bow tie, and speaking in a higher-pitched voice... and that's it. Apparently nobody suspected the only two guys in Bedrock resembling walking hairballs, Chester and Captain Caveman, of being one and the same (with Wilma and Betty criticizing Chester for his clumsiness and telling him he "should be more like Captain Caveman").
- Parodied in reverse on an episode of The Fairly Odd Parents. The Tooth Fairy makes Timmy a dental themed Wonder Woman parody in order to stop an evil dentist. His only disguise is a tiara that inexplicably prevents anyone from discovering his "secret identity". It's implied that the reason no one can recognize him is because the Tiara replaces his trademark pink hat.
- The Crimson Chin does it better. He wears glasses and a hat...over his mask, and does nothing to hide his comically large Lantern Jaw Of Justice.
- The Swat Kats used to work for Commander Feral, but he can't figure out their identities. Its even worse when you realize that they work at a salvage yard owned by Feral and use his throwaways to save his tail.
- In Mighty Orbots, geek inventor Rob Simmons is also the leader (and pilot) for the titular Combining Mecha. His costume change consists of simply removing his glasses and swapping his lab coat for a flight suit.
- In one episode of Striperella, someone points out the other old cliche of how the titular hero and her actual alter ego (the stripper Erotica) have never been seen together, and someone else responds that that a lot of people have never been seen with Stripperella. But how many of those other people are also blondes with incredibly large boobs?
- ...You did NOT just ask that. Ignoring the many fake blondes and silicone implants, many combined, there's a reason there's a link there called "Most Common Superpower".
- Lilo and Stitch. Have you ever seen a blue dog, or a tourist with four eyes?
Real Life
- Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmell pulled this off by disguising themselves as reporters
respectively.
- Because of the controversy surrounding his election Abraham Lincoln dressed up as an old woman for his own safety. Since he was 6'4" he had to hunch over to pull this off.
- Did he have his trademark beard at the time?
- Most of Sacha Baron Cohen's characters are this. Like Borat, which consists of a fake mustache and accent.
- How come Andy Kaufman and Doug Cliffington haven't been mentioned?
- Harold Lloyd, an inspiration for Clark Kent found that he took off his stage glasses of his most famous film character, no one recognized him.
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