History Main / ImpostorExposingTest

* In one ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' Omi has to watch Dojo, who is a risk due to a problem that occurs every few thousand years. Eventually, Dojo manages to fool him and escapes. Leaving Omi in the cage. When the other monks return...

-->'''Omi''' ''[[BerserkButton (very angry)]]'' I am AT my post! Actually I am ''inside'' my post! That Dojo has pulled the carpet over my eyes!

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/34346623/chapters/98283696#workskin Hawkmoth Gets a Reference]]'', [[UncannyFamilyResemblance Felix]] had disguised himself as his cousin Adrien and sent out an insulting message to the latter's friends. Adrien's friends [[OutOfCharacterAlert realize that "Adrien" is an imposter because of this behavior, especially since he called Marinette a bitch]], and all of them sans Marinette get Akumatized into the monstrous Revealer to hunt him down. When Revealer finds that Adrien and Felix still look like each other, they play back the clip of Felix insulting Marinette, relying on Adrien getting enraged on Marinette's behalf and Felix's shock that Adrien is dating Marinette to figure out who is who.

* PlayedForLaughs in an episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''. Two Ditto have snuck into the group's camp by impersonating their Pokemon. In an attempt to weed out the impostors, they return some of their Pokemon to their Poké Balls, but when one of the Ditto impersonates Piplup, Ash's Gible uses Draco Meteor, which has a tendency to home in on Piplup.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/37792666 Oh, You Don’t Have to Do That. (Communication)]]'': After Lila uses an Akuma to disguise herself as Marinette so she can try (and fail) to frame her, Nino and Kim come up with a test to figure out which one is the real one by asking Ms Mendeleiev to create a strange liquid and asking both girls to drink it. [[spoiler:The drink turns out to be a concentrated sour flavoring, which knocks out Lila but leaves Marinette unaffected since she can't taste sour]].

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/37792666 Oh, You Don’t Have to Do That. (Communication)]]'': After Lila uses an Akuma to disguise herself as Marinette so she can try (and fail) to frame her, Nino and Kim come up with a test to figure out which one I'd a real test by asking Ms Mendeleiev to create a strange liquid and asking both girls to drink it. [[spoiler:The drink turns out to be a concentrated sour flavoring, which knocks out Lila but leaves Marinette unaffected since she can't taste sour]].

%%Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16688719220.15004900&page=1
%%See thread to discuss a replacement.

* ''Animation/HappyHeroes'':
** In episode 27, the gang asks several questions to the two versions of Happy S. to find out which one is the fake one. The fake one wins the test, much to the utter shock of the real Happy S.
** Trying to distinguish the two Doctor Hs in the first movie, they pose to them the challenge of fixing a large, complex spaceship. (It was also a convenient way to get that spaceship fixed since they didn't have the funds to do so otherwise.)

* In the LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero fanfiction ''Fanfic/TheSteepPathAhead'', the Vampires Amethyst and Daphne test the blood of whoever comes to claim to be Karin's daughter. They're giddy when they taste Louise's blood, confirming it's her. Likewise, her manticore familiar can smell whether or not they are the real deal.

If the impostor is an alien, they can cut themselves and see who has AlienBlood. If it's a vampire, they can dip their hands in holy water and see who gets burned. If it's [[LegendaryImpostor someone impersonating a famous figure]], perhaps ask them a question about some little known detail of that figure's life.

* During the episode Dale Beside Himself in ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' Dale comes across DTZ who upon a brief conversation takes on his shape and form. When Dale realizes what DTZ has done he attempts to confront DTZ. However, this is interrupted by the alien visitors who are looking for DTZ. Neither the Rescue Rangers nor the Aliens are able to tell which one is DTZ. [[spoiler:Dale remembers something the aliens stated earlier during his time on the mothership and returns with a plate of Erkburgles to entice DTZ who upon seeing the Erkburgles is helpless to overcome his desire for Erkburgles and untransforms and reveals himself.]]

'''Infiltrator:''' ''[confused]'' Cubs? A cub is a small animal, a bear...\\

* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S3E14Foothold Foothold]]", Melbourne cuts himself in front of Carter to prove he's human after an alien impostor is shown to have purple blood.

* ''VideoGame/AmongUs'' has this when task animations are turned on. Certain tasks will trigger an animation when completed, visible to all players. Most notably, the Medbay Scan is an actual test to prove your identity as a crewmate; other crewmates viewing you complete the task will know you are the real deal. Impostors ''can't'' complete this task, and so trying to avoid scanning is seen as ''extremely'' suspicious.

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E15TheTroubleWithTribbles The Trouble with Tribbles]]", the Tribble dislike for Klingons is used to identify the Klingon spy disguised as a human. It's one of the reasons the Klingons embark on a "glorious" campaign to slaughter every Tribble in existence (although the fact that they utterly destroyed the biosphere of any planet they landed on was slightly more pressing). They succeed. Then, in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", someone brings a few Tribbles from the Kirk era, and given that they're {{Explosive Breeder}}s...

* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Psirens", a mind-reading shapeshifter takes on Lister's form. The crew manage to discover who is who by asking them to play the guitar. The Psiren reads Lister's mind, unwittingly picking up on Lister's delusion that he is a virtuoso, rather then a lousy player, and plays brilliantly. The Cat and Kryten then shoot him.

* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Foothold", Melbourne cuts himself in front of Carter to prove he's human after an alien impostor is shown to have purple blood.

** Played straight the first time it was used ("The Adversary") in an obvious ShoutOut to ''The Thing''; the shapeshifter escapes the moment it's asked to take the test; presumably a means of passing the test had not been worked out yet--''or'' possibly [[XanatosGambit they did it deliberately to convince those present, if they should survive, that the test works]].
* In the season 1 finale of ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', Burnham tries to ask [[spoiler:"Captain" Phillipa Georgiou]] a series of questions about her background in order to expose her as [[spoiler:ex-Emperor Phillipa Georgiou of the Terran Empire]]. However, Burnham fails, as [[spoiler:Mirror!Georgiou]] has studied up on [[spoiler:her dead Prime counterpart]].
** A milder version, earlier in the series: having already read up on him, Lorca quizzes Ash Tyler, recently freed from a Klingon prison, about his history in the guise of polite interest and small talk. Lorca points out a minor inconsistency (he grew up outside Seattle, but just said he was from the city when asked). Lorca lets it pass, as it's an obvious shorthand to use, and he got everything else right. Ash also quickly figured out what was going on and [[InvokedTrope both acknowledged that it was what they were doing.]]

** In "The Trouble With Tribbles", the Tribble dislike for Klingons is used to identify the Klingon spy disguised as a human. It's one of the reasons the Klingons embark on a "glorious" campaign to slaughter every Tribble in existence (although the fact that they utterly destroyed the biosphere of any planet they landed on was slightly more pressing). They succeed. Then, in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', someone brings a few Tribbles from Kirk era and, given that they're {{Explosive Breeder}}s...
** In "The Paradise Syndrome", Kirk is knocked out and afflicted with LaserGuidedAmnesia while visiting a planet inhabited by Native Americans, transplanted there by AncientAstronauts. When they find him at the "holy" Precursor monolith, everyone (including Kirk himself) thinks he's the god "Kirok"... until one of them cuts him, and contemptuously exclaims, "A god who bleeds!"

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', the player can encounter a small town called Covenant that has a test designed to root out Synths[[note]]In a MythologyGag, said test is the G.O.A.T. from ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' minus the question about the Overseer[[/note]]. The question that supposedly trips Synths up is "What position would you want to play on a baseball team?"; Synths will instinctively answer "Catcher" even if they don't know what catcher actually does. However, the test's efficacy is questionable at best, which is used to show how paranoid the people of Covenant are since they're willing to treat a single multiple-choice question as damning evidence.
* ''VideoGame/TheJackboxPartyPack'': "Push The Button" from ''Party Pack 6'' involves players taking a series of tests, which range from drawing a picture to answering a question (mutiple choice, agree/disagree, or fill-in-the-blank) to determine which of them are aliens and which are human. Aliens are given prompts to answer that are different from other players (with prompts later in the game often becoming wildly different), but they also get a limited number of "hacks" they can use to give a correct prompt to another alien player or an incorrect prompt to a human player.

* ''Series/{{Haven}}'': Played straight and subverted in two separate instances in the episode "As You Were," when a shapeshifter decides to do a KillAndReplace at Audrey's birthday party. Subverted when the group decides to suss out the imposter by having everyone reveal what gift they brought, since none of them are open yet. Nathan fails this test and is restrained, but he isn't the imposter: his girlfriend rejected his gift idea and replaced it without telling him. Played straight when Audrey unties him after this information is revealed. Nathan [[FeeNoPain can't feel her touch]], though with Audrey's AntiMagic against the [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Troubles]], he should be able to. He asks if she trusts him, and then kisses her. He can't feel it, meaning the ImposterForgotOneDetail and ''this'' Audrey is a fake.

[[quoteright:291: [[WesternAnimation/FraidyCat https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a044c1f8_1a12_4f29_bfaf_6d586047b0b3.jpeg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:291:An impostor cat posing as a famous cat and the famous cat are given food. The famous cat turns his nose, and the impostor downs the plate. Problem solved.]]