Regardless of whether you're dealing with a Master Actor, a Master of Disguise, or a rank amateur at either, there will usually be a moment where their cover looks a little shaky, where people might even challenge their disguise. Usually, this is the point where a last-second flaw in the performance brings the whole thing crashing down... but on rare occasions, the apparent flaw turns out to do the exact opposite.
Here, the character just happens to have something about them that, when revealed at the moment of truth, makes them even more convincing. It can be a skill, a bad habit, an impulsive mistake, or even an emotional meltdown, but somehow, it accidentally makes them look exactly like the character they're pretending to be.
Needless to say, this rarely seems to happen to villainous masters of disguise, as most heroic infiltrators are known to the audience in advance and therefore usually have more drama invested in them evading capture at the last minute.
A Subtrope of Handy Shortcoming. May overlap with Chekhov's Skill.
Compare Recursive Crossdressing (where the convincing trait is being the actual gender they crossdress into), and Identical Stranger. Contrast Your Costume Needs Work.
See also Coincidental Accidental Disguise.
Examples:
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Advertising
- In one of the "Yes I am" commercials for Bud Light in the 1990s, our hero happens upon a family reunion being catered with Bud Light. When the catering staff incredulously ask if he's a member of the Lee family, our very American hero confidently responds, "Yes I am!" He then finds himself drinking Bud Light in the company of a very Chinese family. It doesn't seem to be going very well when one of the family elders asks if he's Chung's eldest son. But then the elder says, "You look just like him!" You can watch the ad here
. (The dude being able to reply in Chinese may also have helped!)
Anime & Manga
- Case Closed: An old man is suspected of being an impostor, stealing the identity of a wealthy family's great-uncle who moved to Brazil in order to obtain a share of the family inheritance, but the family is forced to accept his identity after he proves to have identical handwriting to the great-uncle, as well as a scar from an old sports injury. However, at the end of the case, Shinichi's dad and superior detective Yusaku reveals their initial suspicions were correct: the old man is an impostor, who got the scar in the same tornado that cost the real great uncle his dominant hand, forcing him to dictate all his letters to his future impostor.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders: Rubber Soul's Yellow Temperance would allow him to impersonate anyone perfectly... if he could act at all. Instead, his disguise is quickly given away by his bizarre mannerisms, violent behavior and vocabulary, and extreme smugness — all of which are conveniently displayed when he loudly rolls a cherry around on his tongue before eating it seemingly just to taunt Jotaro — except the real Kakyoin also does the cherry thing, comprising the sole detail that Rubber was close to getting right.
Films — Live-Action
- The A-Team: Murdock (who is white) and B.A. (who is black) have to get through airport security with fake passports and disguises as a rabbi and a Tanzanian citizen respectively. But Face accidentally gave them the wrong passports, and Murdock gets his passport checked by an actual Tanzanian guy who gives a Swahili greeting to his "fellow citizen." Hannibal, seeing from a distance what appears to be an impending disaster, quickly starts brainstorming a plan to violently take out the security staff and rush through, but it turns out Murdock also knows Swahili and responds in kind.
- In Coneheads, the titular aliens' go to excuse for their oddness is "We come from France!". A disguised Agent Seedling hears this excuse and tries to trap them by speaking in French. While they briefly look worried, they then continue the conversation in perfect French, clearly having prepared for this eventuality.
- Glass Onion: The ultimate twist of the film is that "Andi" is actually her twin sister, Helen Brand, tagging along with Benoit Blanc to help discover the truth behind Andi's murder. Though Helen has managed to replicate her sister's mannerisms quite accurately, The Reveal shows that there were a few glitches in her performance that ended up working in her favour: first, Helen suffered from a rather un-Andi-like bout of seasickness on the boat trip to Bron's island, forcing her to separate herself from the other Disruptors — accidentally making her seem aloof and cold, exactly as the real Andi would have been. Second, Helen was so nervous about playing the part that she got drunk on sambuca, but she turned out to be such a belligerent drunk that she unleashed a "The Reason You Suck" Speech on Bron and the Disruptors that perfectly captured the level of righteous anger and betrayal the real Andi would be feeling under the circumstances.
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: Early in the film, Harry Lockhart's attempted burglary of a toy store goes horribly wrong, resulting in his friend and partner-in-crime getting shot dead by the shop owner, while Harry himself is forced to hide in an audition for a crime thriller film with the cops hot on his tail. At first, Harry only fits in because he's dressed in the same gear as the other auditionees, being otherwise a terrible actor. However, just as the cops are about to walk in, the script brings up the line "you got your partner killed," prompting Harry to suffer a very real Heroic BSoD. Not only are the cops completely fooled, but Harry gets the part!
- The World Is Not Enough: While undercover at the ICBM site, James Bond impersonates a Russian nuclear physicist who was due to visit that day. The contact that the scientist was supposed to be meeting with, one Dr Christmas Jones, is a little suspicious of Bond, and at the end of their introductory chat, she remarks — in Russian — that Bond speaks English very fluently for a Russian scientist. Bond replies, "I studied at Oxford" — also in Russian, allaying her suspicions just long enough for him to get to work.
Literature
- Animorphs: After Tobias regains the ability to morph, he finds that his time spent trapped in the form of a hawk has left him in the habit of appearing nearly emotionless when he isn't concentrating — as hawks aren't known for expressing emotions. This works to his advantage in The Pretender when Visser 3 (masquerading as his cousin Aria) attempts to lure Tobias into a trap by offering to reveal the truth about his family, intending to infest him soon after. Tobias is meant to be pretending to be a self-interested delinquent throughout this scene, but he's left so shocked by the knowledge that his father was Prince Elfangor that he loses all human expression...which ends up making him come across as bored and uninterested, exactly as an ordinary street kid would be on hearing this frankly insane-sounding news. Consequently, Visser 3 is left so unimpressed by Tobias that he dismisses him as unworthy of infestation and lets him go free.
- This happens a few times in Harry Potter, when characters are disguised as somebody else, using Polyjuice Potion, and accidentally do something that puts them even more in character.
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: When Harry and Ron disguise themselves as Malfoy's less intelligent cronies Crabbe and Goyle, they struggle with the act at first. When Ron is surprised by something Malfoy says, his jaw drops so that Crabbe looks even more gormless than usual. Soon after this, they completely fail to laugh at Malfoy mocking Colin Creevey, and Malfoy demands "What's the matter with you two?". The narrative notes that perhaps Crabbe and Goyle are always slow on the uptake.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: When Hermione is disguised as Bellatrix, she meets another Death Eater, who is surprised to see her out and about. In reply, she sneers that the Dark Lord forgives those who have been faithful to him in the past, and adds that perhaps his credit with him is not as good as hers.
Live-Action TV
- Dog with a Blog: In the episode where Stan's puppies are born, the kids and Stan need to sneak into the exclusive dog spa where Princess (Stan's wife) is taken to have their puppies. Tyler dresses up like the famous French veterinarian Princess' owner hired to deliver the puppies. The receptionist doesn't believe that he's the real deal and tries to bust him by speaking French. He shocks his sisters by responding in fluent French, which convinces the receptionist. He explains that he has a fascination with French things and that he learned the language as a hobby.
- In From the Cold: After infiltrating the Calero estate under cover of darkness, Jenny assumes the form of Diego Calero, then presents herself to Felipe and Andres so she can get some information out of them. Given that Diego was last seen in the middle of a breakdown over Ramon's death, both men are suspicious of his suddenly upstanding behavior and decide to test "Diego's" composure and loyalty by having him play them something on the piano. By sheer luck, Jenny turns out to be a gifted pianist as well as a shapeshifter, and though the ex-FSB operative's repertoire is limited to Tchaikovsky (an odd choice for a Spanish terrorist), she's able to pass it off as a new piece she just learned, placating Felipe enough to involve "Diego" in the latest scheme.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "Time's Arrow: Part I", Data passes himself off in 19th-century San Francisco as a Frenchman. One of the locals knows French, and speaks to Data in it. Data, having apparently stored many languages in his neural net, replies in the same tongue.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In the episode "Apocalypse Rising" Captain Sisko and a small team are surgically modified to look like Klingons so they can sneak into Ty'Gokor, with Worf tagging along to make the disguise more convincing. Initially, the Klingon performance is a little dubious, but Sisko acquits himself quite effectively by managing to beat several Klingons in an arm-wrestling match; turns out that he used to be captain of the Academy wrestling team. Of course, this was over twenty years ago, so it's a rather painful victory for Sisko, but at least it allays the suspicions of the Klingon spectators.
Video Games
- Dishonored: At one point, Corvo has to infiltrate a party in order to find a target. He does this while wearing the mask he's donned while taking out several key political figures in Dunwall over the last several days, but because it's a Masquerade Ball for the rich and powerful, people assume that he's wearing it to make a statement of some form. As long as Corvo doesn't use any powers, draw his weapon for too long, or get caught stealing, killing, or trespassing, he doesn't arouse any suspicion. Corvo can even take Refuge in Audacity and sign the guestbook with his actual name; this gets referenced in a later level, where a character speculates it's some kind of sick joke.
- Hitman:
- Hitman: In "Club 27", Agent 47 has the option of impersonating prospective drummer Abel de Silva in the hopes of getting close enough to assassinate bandleader Jordan Cross. However, once he's reached the recording studio in the Himmapan Hotel's penthouse suite, 47 will have to demonstrate his skills to lull Cross into a false sense of security... and by an unbelievable stroke of luck, 47 turns out to be an incredibly skilled drummer. Impressed by his skills, Cross takes him aside for a private chat — leaving the rockstar-turned-murderer in the perfect position to be flung to his death from the hotel rooftop. This is averted slightly, in that it's established 47 always does intensive research on the job he's impersonating before he goes in, but in this case, he had no reason to impersonate the drummer, unless he considered it necessary to cover every possible base imaginable.
- Hitman 2: In "Chasing a Ghost", one possible method of taking out crooked Bollywood producer Darwood Rangan is to have Agent 47 pose as the artist that Rangan hired to create the latest portrait for his Shrine to Self, then keep the target in position until a sniper hired by fellow target Vanya Shah can kill him. However, this requires 47 to actually paint the portrait, and in yet another unexpected twist, 47 has enough skill as a painter to successfully complete the artwork, finishing at the very moment the sniper blows Rangan's brains out.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: After Zuko and Iroh become fugitives from the Fire Nation, they go on the run in the Earth Kingdom pretending to be war refugees. Since Zuko has his distinctive scar from when his sorry excuse for a dad burned him, no one questions the story because they assume he was attacked by the Fire Nation's military.
- In Miraculous Ladybug, Lila Rossi claims to be a descendant of a previous holder of the Fox Pendant. As luck would have it, the Fox champion in Master Fu's book happens to have red hair and green eyes like Lila. Season 5 reveals this may have been more than luck, as it turns out that Lila is neither a natural redhead, nor does she have natural green eyes.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In the episode "Dragon Quest", Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle wear a dragon costume to spy on Spike's efforts to be accepted by other dragons. The costume doesn't seem very convincing until one of the dragons mentions "he" must be the cousin of a dragon named Crackle... who looks just like the costume.
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: In the episode "Devil on Her Shoulder", Lunella manages to shrink Devil down to human size so he can attend a movie premiere with her and Casey. However, he still looks like a dinosaur. Luckily, the movie they're going to see is a kaiju film, meaning that they can paint "Dev" green and make him look like a dedicated cosplayer. Because he can only speak in dinosaur noises, at first it looks like the Paper-Thin Disguise will fail... except that everyone simply praises his amazing cosplay and begs for photos.
- Star Wars Rebels: In one episode, the Rebels need to infiltrate Hera's childhood home after it's taken by the Empire (specifically Admiral Thrawn). Ezra disguises himself as a trooper while Hera (since it's Ryloth and she's a Twi'lek) acts as a prisoner of war. To further sell the ruse, she speaks in the native, French-inspired Ryloth accent. It works for a while because the accent isn't faked: it's Hera's natural accent. The American accent she speaks in for most of the show is adopted (as she had to cut ties with her father sometime before the series due to their differing tactics to rebellion).
