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Most Definitely Not A Villain
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Mr. Verres's "ingenious methods to cover up the presence of aliens"
"My fellow bad guys, I, Lex Luthor, your leader, will speak now about my, Lex Luthor's, plan. My villainous, villainous plan. Question the plan at your peril. Uh... any questions?"
A character is put into a position where they must act like X (for example, they are The Mole, or are going through a Freaky Friday). Somehow the character, instead of simply acting like X, attempts to do this by constantly announcing they are X, like doing X things because that's what X does, and there is not the slightest chance that they could ever not be X. Did they mention they're X?
Despite the character's total failure at being X, nobody seems to catch on. Ever. They may notice that "X" is Not Himself today, and suspect that he/she is not feeling well, but it takes some sort of massive reveal to for them actually put two and two together and come up with anything other than five. Even if they've known X for years. Guess that they were handing out free Idiot Balls that day.
Compare Master Of Delusion, Clark Kenting, Blatant Lies and Hugh Mann. If a zombie were to say they aren't a zombie, well then it would not be a zombie, now would it? Kind of a subtrope of Bad Bad Acting, although it isn't deliberate. Tends to fuse with Suspiciously Specific Denial.
Named for a line in the Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series spinoff Cr@psule Monsters; "My name is Dr. Alex Brisbane. I'm definitely not a villain."
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Sousuke does this in the Full Metal Panic! novel Dancing Very Merry Christmas when masquerading as a ship hijacker. Naturally, the hostages have a bit of trouble taking them seriously.
Sousuke: Anyway, we are a cruel and unusual terrorist organization that will not show mercy towards women and children. Resistance is death!...Though our guns are loaded with rubber stun bullets, they are enough to make those opposing us cry-
Kurz: No, they're real bullets, remember?
Sousuke: Oh, that's right. These are brutal slab bullets. They will kill a target in one shot. I am not lying.
Comic Books
- Legion Of Superheroes had a storyline involving shape-shifters Chameleon Boy and Ronn-Karr sucessfully infiltrating each other's teams. Both were telepathically conditioned to believe they were who they were imitating, meaning both did it TOO well - Cham, imitating Persuader, went on a homicidal rampage, while Ronn-Karr, imitating Superman, helped bring him down.
- A scene
 in a Buck Godot: Zap Gun For Hire comic has Buck disguised as an alien Pog, sauntering down the street singing a song about how he's just a Pog, no, really. Mind you, in this instance having the disguise fail is actually part of the plan.
- For context, Buck Godot is at least eight feet and probably a half ton of muscle, bio-engineered for life on heavy gravity planets. Your typical pog may, generously, top four feet.
Film
- In This Island Earth, a dinner conversation with Exeter quickly makes it clear he's not from Earth. When it was chosen to be the experiment for Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, Tom Servo repeatedly riffs on this part, concluding, "Then I ram my ovipositor down your throat and lay my eggs in your chest. But I'm not an alien!"
- From The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra:
"Sometimes my wife forgets she is not a space alien."
- The otherwise forgettable Corky Romano gives us this wonderful gem from the titular character attempting to infiltrate a gang of skinheads: "I was wondering if I could purchase some heroin and then we could go out and commit some hate crimes and stuff."
- Cats And Dogs: "Yes, I am your employer, Mr. Mason. NOT an evil cat bent on taking over the world."
- Lampshaded in Bedknobs And Broomsticks.
Villager: It said on the wireless to paint out the sign posts in case the Nazis drop in!
British officer: I'm not a Nazi!
Villager: That's what you'd say if you was a Nazi, isn't it sir?
Literature
- In More Information Than You Require, John Hodgman makes it very clear that he does not have an elephant's brain pickled in a jar.
- In Warrior Cats Hawkfrost manages to badmouth his superiors and abuse his sister, as well as occasionally lapse into a random world domination rant, without anyone taking much notice (Well, except for Squirrelflight and Leafpool). At one point he even yells about how one day he will be in charge in public, and yet no one even looks his way. Even after he helps organize a failed coup d'etat in Starlight, everyone still loves him.
- Winnie The Pooh pretends to be a little cloud when he tries to use a balloon to steal honey for a beehive. This includes having his friend Christopher Robin walking back and forth below him with an umbrella and loudly proclaim that it will be rain soon.
- I'm not sure about the novel, but in the Russian cartoon Winnie even went as far as singing a "little cloud's song".
- I can hear parts of the English language version of that song in my head. I used to listen to that story on a record.
Live Action TV
Video Games
- In Star Control II, one of the many Planet Of Hats species in the game comes under the mind control of a malevolent being, who stiltedly attempts to impersonate their particular Hat when encountered by the player. Naturally, the player is expected to not be stupid and investigate.
- This is the key mechanic for an entire level in Psychonauts, "The Milkman Conspiracy", where the player must collect objects being used by a series of trenchcoat-clad
"government operatives" plumbers, road crew workers, gardeners, housewives, grieving widows, and assassins, among other, increasingly unlikely roles, and use them as a Paper Thin Disguise.
- The G-men tend to use the props in very interesting ways too. The gardeners do a sword-swallowing routine with their hedge clippers and the grieving widows play invisible golf with their flowers.
- Sample dialogue: I am a Sewer Worker. The finest sewers are found in Paris, France. Although I often smell of excrement, I perform a valuable public service.
- And, because this particular troper lacks the discipline to restrain his quoting urge... In time my husband will desire me less sexually... but he will always enjoy my pies.
- There's also Crispin Whytehead, the inmate running the asylum, who explains that he is an orderly, not an impostor.
- In Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, Furio Tigre's impersonation of Phoenix consists of having spiky hair and declaring himself to be Phoenix Wright. Despite his otherwise completely different appearance, his noticeable accent, and his wearing a fake attorney's badge made of cardboard, he fools an entire courtroom, including a judge, prosecutor, detective, and defendant who are all familiar with Phoenix. Phoenix himself is, of course, not amused.
- There's a possible Lampshade Hanging on this, after hearing the excuses Tigre gave to Maggey ("He said he took a trip to Hawaii"):
Phoenix: I can see why he managed to fool everyone.
That is if we take that as part of his usual tendency to Snark.
- Kind of justified in that Tigre made continued threats to anyone that implied he was not Phoenix Wright. And he's kind of scary, according to, well, everyone in the courtroom.
- Except Godot. Godot was calm the whole time. This troper thinks Godot is a pretty cool guy. Eh drinks coffee and DOESN'T AFRAID OF ANYTHING.
- Also Godot was the only one NOT fooled, however he didn't say anything as he wanted to spite Phoenix
- Also didn't help that Godot didn't do the case where Tigre faked his attorneyship. Apparently, Payne did that one.
- At one point in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, a shape-shifting ghost called Doopliss, but it won't help you assumes Mario's identity and runs off with all of his party members. Aside from a few party members pointing out his somewhat different personality, they buy his impersonation without question. (In a Mythology Gag, Mario is a Heroic Mime in this game, while the ghost loudly proclaims that he is Mario and shouts phrases from Super Mario 64 to prove it.)
- Somewhat justified in that Doopliss did the Martian Manhunter trick mentioned above and changed places with Mario when they defeated him, leaving Mario unconscious and going back to town with the others. Being a doppleganger, he has a perfect disguise, at least until he opens his mouth.
- And Mario's appearance changes as well. He turns black and shadowy.
- In Sam and Max: The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball, Ted E. Bear's Mafia-Free Playland and Casino is a Mob-themed Chuck E. Cheese's-esque arcade/restaurant that doesn't seem to try very hard to convince the outside world that it's not a front for the Toy Mafia.
- Then there's the theme song, which is catchy as hell:
Ted E. Bear's is oodles of fun
Slots and sandwiches and poker and guns
And look, no mobsters, nary a one,
Just you and me and Ted E. Bear!
- Not a villain, in Super Robot Wars the pilot Rastel Feinschmecker is Most Definitely Not Elzam Branstien or Rai's brother. May overlap with The Goggles Do Nothing, as he trys to use them to Clark Kent. No one is fooled
- He's definitely not a villain.
- Ratchet And Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal had Ratchet going undercover with the Tyrrhaguise, and loudly proclaiming himself to be "certainly not a Lombax". Yes, he's a Lombax.
- This guy is totally not a spy.
Web Comics
- Belkar the halfling got on stilts to disguise himself as a human in Order Of The Stick.
Belkar: Hello, fellow Medium-sized creature! How are you enjoying being Medium-sized, like me, on this lovely day?
Man who looks suspiciously very much like O-Chul: Just fine, thanks for asking!
- Also, Nale disguising himself as Elan. Though his repeated statements of "I'm Elan" don't raise any eyebrows since that is deemed in character for Elan. Nale's high bluff skill also helps. Example:
Sabine: He was just speaking to me, a police officer, about his brother Nale's treatment in prison.
Nale: Right! Because I am Elan, and I am foolishly and inexplicably merciful to enemies who would gladly butcher me, against the better judgement of my allies.
Vaarsuvius: Hmmm. Well, that certainly is one of your more puzzling qualities. Very well.
- On the other hand, immediately after that exchange, Vaarsuvius reveals that he's noticed that the two had been making out (incidentally, Sabine's "police officer" form was male).
- This Bob And George comic.
- In Gunnerkrigg Court, the Robots try to hide their presence from the humans by labeling their secret entrance and their spare part storage room "Boring Door" and "NO spare robot parts", respectively. Appropriately enough, Annie adopts the same strategy (in conjunction with a Paper Thin Disguise) to sneak past Doorbot:
Antimony: We are looking for a particular robot. A... fellow robot. Because we are also robots.
- Because clearly she's a robot...
Antimony: Also robots never lie.
- Lord "Smith" is Most Definitely Not Lord Milligan.
- In Terror Island, Theorem 183, Demon-Jame tries to pass himself off as Jame.
Demon-Jame: Yes, I am your friend. I run a non-demon restaurant here in your space-time manifold, of which I am a native.
- In these 8-Bit Theatre strips, Warmech is Most Definitely Not A Robot.
- This Amazoness! strip. Ekphobippe is a master of disguise.
- RPG World subverts this mightily, by having a character who looks almost exactly like the main villain show up out of nowhere and ask to join the hero's party for no real reason. Only one party member suspects that he might actually be hiding something, but no one believes her... and then it turns out she was wrong and he actually is a good guy who just happens to look like the villain.
- In El Goonish Shive, all you have to do to convince everyone that you're a normal, everyday human being is to wear a T-shirt that says so on it. In fact, Tedd's father makes a living covering up supernatural or alien entities in such a manner, as seen, for example, here.
- Jymre of Hitmen for Destiny is probably the worst shapeshifter of all time. He doesn't bother to try to act like the people he's impersonating, and when questioned, he panics severely.
- This Penny Arcade strip features a Most Definitely Not A People-Possessing Ghost.
- In Dorothy Gambrell's guest strip for Scary Go Round, The Boy shows Erin some kind of unidentifiable...thing he's found. He keeps it behind a shed, with a sheet over it, and a handy label on the sheet which reads: "nothing".
Western Animation
Web Original
Real Life
- Tourists. Their "I ♥ NY" T-shirts give them away EVERY time.
- I just came back from NYC, and personally I would have thought it was that they were the only ones waiting for the pedestrian lights.
- Actually Lampshaded in CSINY. When they find a victim wearing such a shirt, they immediately assume it's a tourist. They are right (although he was actually wearing it because he spilt coffee down his shirt and was there to rescue his daughter from a brothel rather than sightseeing). In a subversion, Danny mentions he wanted one as a kid (when he got one, it got him beaten up at school).
- If they DON'T wear "I ♥ NY" T-shirts, the accent will reveal the truth.
- Yeah... Or, as Tom Lehrer so briliantly put it some 40 years ago:
Tom Lehrer: ''If you take the various popular song forms to their logical extremes, you can arrive at almost anything from the ridiculous to the obscene, or — as they say in New York — sophisticated.''
- This picture. Definitely, absolutely not a telemarketer.
- My Dad grew up in a country town (In Australia) and he tells me that he's NEVER heard anyone from the country yelling "Kooo-eee", only people from the city pretending they're from the country
- And while I'm on the subject, I have NEVER had shrimp or any crustacean at a BBQ, that's actually an American thing. We don't even call them shrimp. And the only places I know of where you can even GET hats with corks hanging from them is tourist places.
- Canadians do not wear Canadian flag pins or shirts when visiting other countries.
- Everyone in Britain just assumes a Canadian it an American with the sense not to admit it anyway.
- The increase in "staycations" (not a word I use) means that some Britons will act like this while they only in another part of Briton (even their own country). When This Troper was on a trip to London at the age of about 13 his grandmother chastised him for acting like an American tourist for considering annoying one of the palace guards (you know, the kind who aren't allowed to move unless they want to give a particularly annoying tourist a slap).
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