Thou shalt not pass...as some who can recognize a famous actor from a homeless man.
Walter: What the hell happened to your hair? It looks like you were in a freakin' car wreck.
Jeff Dunham: Well, they said it makes me look hip.
Walter: I think it makes you look homeless!
— Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity
People do not always look their best. This could cause someone to be mistaken as homeless or destitute, even though they are not. This could be because they are wearing clothes that are dirty or ragged, or because they happened to be holding out a cup or hat like a beggar would.
This may result in other characters offering things such as money, food, or shelter to the character who is mistaken to be destitute. Depending on the circumstances, the character may accept these offers, or treat them as Unwanted Assistance. Of course, they could just be Secretly Wealthy and are simply Slumming It. Simply living in a van might make others think the van dweller is poor.
This is usually a comedy trope, although it has happened in Real Life. Mock Millionaire could be seen as the opposite of this trope. See also Informed Poverty, where we are told the person is poor even though it doesn't look like they are.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Buso Renkin: Downplayed. Kazuki is surprised to find Tokiko living in a nice hotel. She asks him if he imagined that she lived in the clouds sipping mist. He shows an Imagine Spot of her living in a cardboard box huddled under an old blanket. Tokiko, less than amused about that, shouts, "You're damned rude!"
- One Piece: A short, anime-only subplot in Loguetown has Tashigi mistaking Zoro for a drifter, and "gifting" him a job as a janitor at the local Marine base. Ironically, while the Strawhats as a whole usually aren't that good at holding on to money, in this case Zoro actually had a decent amount on him (borrowed, at highway-robbery interest, from Nami).
Comedy
- In the Jeff Dunham show Spark of Insanity, Walter comments that his new haircut makes Jeff look homeless.
Comic Books
- Acts of Vengeance: The Grey Hulk was hired to take out Spiderman. After the first fight, and the Hulk turns back into Bruce Banner, Bruce was afraid that the policeman would arrest him for vagrancy, due to being shirtless and having ragged pants due to having been the Hulk.
- Archie Comics: In one Pat the Brat story, Pat's parents realize they spoil their son too much, so they decide to buy less toys for him. He misses the point and thinks this means they're poor, so he complains about this to the neighbors. The neighbors then offer charity to Pat's family, to the annoyance of Oswald, who sets the record straight for all of them.
- Cedric: Cédric's grandfather's clothing is so old style that, once, while resting on a public park seat, a passer-by put a coin in the hat he had placed near him, believing him to be a beggar.
- Tintin: The story Flight 714 has our protagonists meet a Corrupt Corporate Executive named Lazlo Carreidas, who is slovenly and rather sickly-looking. When he first appears in the story, Captain Haddock confuses him for a homeless man who managed to wander into the airport's lobby and sneaks some money into Carreidas' hat when a gust of wind takes it off his head. When Carreidas appears a couple of scenes later, Haddock confuses Carreidas' assistant for the man himself and thinks (but thankfully doesn't say aloud) that "Carreidas" must be quite the humanitarian if he decided to help that "helpless old man".
Films — Live-Action
- Creep (2004): At the end of the movie, the traumatised protagonist finds herself dishevelled in the (now active again) train station, where a stranger hands her some money, ironically echoing her own treatment of a homeless person near the beginning of the movie.
- The Happiest Millionaire: During the Fortuosity number, John Lawless at one point extended his hat as a beggar would at the end of a songline; a prosperous man drops some money into it.
- Scrooged: Bill Murray's character goes to visit his ex-girlfriend at the homeless shelter where she works, but he starts ranting and raving about the Christmas ghosts tormenting him, which causes the other volunteers to treat him like another crazy homeless guy.
- Sisters (2015): At the beginning of the movie, Maura is seen giving money to a man sitting outside of a building, believing he's homeless. He turns out to just be a construction worker and promptly leaves with his coworkers moments later.
- In The Trip Across Paris, Marcel Martin (Bourvil) thinks his temporary Black Market smuggling operation partner Grandgil (Jean Gabin) is a humble painter (as in "house painter") who needs as much money as he does. Turns out Grandgil is a well off artist.
Jokes
- "I didn't want anyone to think I was homeless, so I slept near a Ticketmaster".note
- Their eyes met as they rode a late-night bus. "He works in IT", thought the college student. "She is a college student", thought the homeless man.
Literature
- Dirty Bertie: In "Beg", Bertie dresses up as a beggar for a historical cosplay day at school, and then has to wait outside with Whiffer the dog while his mother goes shopping since the store doesn't allow pets. When strangers pass by, they think he really is a beggar and give him money, causing Bertie to go along with it and pretend to be one.
- In A Little Princess, little Donald Carmichael gives Sara a sixpence, thinking she is a beggar, but his sisters convince him she isn't since she doesn't speak like someone from the streets and since she didn't react as a beggar would have. The Carmichael children end up nicknaming Sara "the-little-girl-who-is-not-a-beggar". Downplayed, since though Sara indeed isn't technically a beggar, she is utterly destitute and constantly hungry. In the ending, Mr. Carmichael outright says she would have been better off in the streets than at Miss Minchin's school.
- Roys Bedoys: Subverted in "Don't Gossip, Roys Bedoys!", where Roys thinks Wen is poor because she always wears the same clothes. Everyone in the whole series wears the same clothes, which the others point out, but later it turns out that Wen is poor anyway.
Live-Action TV
- The Big Bang Theory: In "The Pancake Batter Anomaly", one of Penny's co-workers at the Cheesecake Factory warns her that a crazy homeless guy came in. She takes a look, and sees Sheldon dressed in multiple layers and blowing his nose.
Penny: No, just crazy.
- Columbo: One episode sees the titular character visit a soup kitchen in order to talk to someone. One of the nuns running the soup kitchen sees his shabby coat, assumes that he's a homeless man, and has him sit down for a bowl of soup.
- The IT Crowd: In one episode, Roy gets stuck outside the office with no shirt on for several hours. Several passersby assume that he's a homeless man.
- Impractical Jokers: Played With. A Running Gag in the series is the other Jokers comparing Q's looks to that of a homeless person. There have been times when Q was unable to participate in a challenge, such as one of the House Sitters challenges (because no one answered his ad), and the other Jokers cited his appearance as the reason why. He has also used this to his advantage though, such as one challenge where he was told to fall asleep on someone in a park, and he was able to do so because he looked homeless so people left him alone.
Q is in a restaurant, holding a large bowl of mashed potatoes
Joe: You know, it's really nice of Redd's, with their Food for the Homeless program they're doing, with the big bowls of mashed potatoes...
Q: I'm dressed exactly like Sal.
Murr: I mean, you're wearing the same outfit, you both have a beard, you both have a good head of hair, but somehow, you still look homeless. - The Righteous Gemstones: When Peter believes his son Chuck died in an explosion, he slumps by the wall of a convenience store and cries to God for help. A passerby drops some change into his cup, ruining his coffee.
- Saturday Night Live: Parodied in a high school theater sketch, in which the Soapbox Sadie teenage actors put on a scene to demonstrate why not to judge a book by its cover. They ask someone hunched over and warming up his hands if he's homeless, to which he replies, "No, I'm just cold. I'm actually very rich." Then they ask someone standing up proudly if she's rich, and she replies, "No, I just have good posture. I'm homeless."
- Seinfeld: In "The Gymnast", George spills coffee on a man's windshield and tries to wipe it off with a newspaper. His girlfriend's mother sees him doing this and thinks that he's a vagrant.
- 3rd Rock from the Sun: Due to his mismatched clothing, Harry is mistaken for a beggar by a passerby who puts change in his coffee cup. At first indignant that they put money in his drink, Harry decides to continue panhandling, until he's confronted by real panhandlers.
- Victorious: On her first day at Hollywood Arts, Tori decides to give who she thinks is a homeless man some money. This "homeless man" turns out to be her Hippie Teacher Mr. Sikowitz.
Theatre
- A Very Potter Sequel: Ron and Harry assume Lupin is a homeless man who hitched a ride on the train. Lupin's response: "I'm not homeless... anymore."
Video Games
- Hitman: Contracts: Before entering Chinatown, Agent 47 passes by a seemingly homeless man and tosses a coin in his coffee cup without even looking at him. The man starts yelling at him, calling him an asshole but 47 doesn't pay him any attention.
Western Animation
- One episode of Family Guy sees Meg take a job as a waitress while also having to babysit Stewie. The restaurant patrons all think she's a teenage mother and thus leave her bigger tips, and she tries to milk this for all it's worth, claiming that she's very poor and Stewie is a special-needs child. This ends up backfiring when Child Services decides to investigate Meg's family, at a time when they happen to be embroiled in a feud with the neighbors. The neighbors all paint the Griffins in a negative light, and consequently, Stewie is taken away.
- The Loud House In "Roadie to Nowhere"; Luna's roadie Chunk appears to live in his van, and upon seeing this Luna fears this might be her future too if she fails as a rock star and can't find another job. However, we find out later that Chunk does have a home and he only sleeps in his van the night before a big gig with his band.
- The Proud Family: "Seven Days of Kwanzaa" has Oscar and Penny getting drenched in mud while looking for an actual (maybe) homeless family at the local shelter. The desk lady condescendingly assumes them to be homeless, even accusing Oscar of making Penny lie when she protests.
- The Simpsons: In "The City of New York Vs. Homer Simpson", Homer is stuck at the World Trade Center Plaza while he waits for a police officer to unlock his booted car. While he sits on the sidewalk, people passing by start to drop change at him. At first Homer tells them he's not homeless and doesn't need their change but since they don't listen, he decides to take the change and actually calls a passing woman a cheapskate for not giving him any.
- Wally Gator: In one episode, Wally tries to give a handful of money to a seemingly homeless man (due to his raggedy-looking clothes) in an attempt to get rid of it, only for the man to angrily point out that this is his "Sunday Best".
Real Life
- Ian McKellen was dressed as a homeless man while practicing for Waiting for Godot in Melbourne, Australia when a lady gave him a coin as he was taking a break outside.
- Other famous people who claimed to be mistaken for homeless include Nicolas Cage, Richard Gere, Paris Jackson, Post Malone, and Daniel Radcliffe.
