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Word.
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.
Samantha Wilkins: How did you—?
Professor Hiles: Are you kidding me? You're not even wearing a mask.
Clark Kenting is the process by which a secret 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 (we all know someone who looks a little like a celebrity).
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.
Mind you, when a master actor like Christopher Reeve plays the identities, the disguise feels much more believable.
See also Sarcastic Confession, Cassandra Truth.
Examples
Anime
- 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. Fanon has concluded that it's magic. 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.
- Actually, the anime DID Hand Wave it as magic. Once all five girls were together, they transformed in front of each other and commented that "somehow" they couldn't recognize each other.
- The anime wasn't consistent about this. An early episode (not included in the dub) showed Sailor Moon hiding from her brother so he wouldn't recognize her, and she did it again later in the series despite that particular episode showing he already knew what Sailor Moon looked like 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Seishoujo Senshi Saint Valkyrie brilliantly skewers this — everyone recognizes that Ai Hayama is Valkyrie Ai, despite her frantic protestations to the contrary.
- 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).
- 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?"
- 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 days (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.
- And as the Great Saiyaman, Gohan wears a helmet which actually does do a decent job of obscuring his face. Which of course, makes the subversion even stronger.
- Not really. In the manga the helmet obscures his face but not his voice, which makes Videl recognize him immediately (coupled with the fact that he calls her by name).
- Don't forget that his "Golden-haired fighter" "costume" also helped with her identification of the last tournament winner.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Comic Books
- Superman, naturally.
- 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.
- In something of a subversion of the usual trope, in current continuity, even when in her Diana Prince disguise she's still seen as a tall, stunningly beautiful woman.
- An earlier retcon stated Wonder Woman co-opted the identity of an actual, deceased Diana Prince (who, miraculously, looked exactly like her).
- 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 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 his Superman robots, 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 resource, 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.
- 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.
 ◊
- 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 and not because he's got two 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.
- 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.
- His girlfriend, Amber, pretty much figures it out as well. When Mark's mom scolds him for letting so many people in on his identity, he protests that it's a lot harder fooling people in real life than in the movies.
- 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."
- 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.
- 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.
Film
- 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.
- As noted in the description above, Christopher Reeve was a master of Clark Kenting. 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.
- 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.
Literature
- Hans Christian Andersen's tale The Emperor's New Clothes, making this Older Than Radio — at least until The Untwist at the end.
- 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 — the one of the Magical Girl powers they possess is an inability to be recognised unless someone thinks about it really hard.
Live Action TV
- Referenced by name in Buffy's "Hush":
Forrest: We have a gig that would inevitably cause any girl living to think we are cool upon cool. Yet, we must Clark Kent our way through the dating scene, never to use our unfair advantage... thank God we're pretty.
- LazyTown villain Robbie Rotten wears at least one flimsy 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.
- 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 Tim Meadows 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 Tim?!"
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- Stephen Colbert has been known to drop hints. Mild-mannered reporter, hmm? The hair does look familiar...
Theater
- 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.
- Pick a Mozart opera, any Mozart opera — and many, many others.
Video Games
- 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. For this troper, the game's revelation was a big "duh," as he had already figured it out immediately after seeing the "alter ego".
- 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. Iroquois Plisskin, anyone?
- 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.
Webcomics
- 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.
- 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.
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 loved.
Western Animation
- 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.
- 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:
- 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 tohers 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?"
- Also, earlier in that episode, Lisa says "Dad, you're clearly the Pie Man. We've been getting his mail for weeks."
- The titular hero DannyPhantom/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 to pre-pubescent to actually be as "dangerous" as the ghost-boy.
- And his parents don't seem to cotton on to the constant accidental incorporeality, or the fact that their ghost equipment works on him. Such as the ghost detector — "Ghost directly ahead. You'd have to be some sort of moron not to see the ghost directly in front of you."
- 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.
Real Life
- Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmell pulled this off by disguising themselves as reporters respectively.
- This troper was once almost fired because of this. Had a new shirt on, and because of Blind Without Them had never come to work without this troper's glasses before they broke. I'm not sure which is more worrying, the boss did not recognize me or he apparently didn't ask about the extra person hanging about when they should have been down one.
- This troper pulled a really weird inversion the day he started wearing glasses. No one in his school, not even his best friends, realized he had glasses on at all, thus the glasses were using him to Clark Kent themselves. When he finally confronted one person about this, the comment he got was: "Oh, yes. I didn't notice. It just felt so natural for you."
- 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.
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