History Main / WhichMe

* In ''[[Literature/TheStarDiaries The 7th Voyage of Ijon Tichy]]'' a.k.a. ''147 Vortexes'' by Creator/StanislawLem the titular space traveler cannot fix his ship alone and drives it into a gravity vortex to create a time loop that would bring another copy of him. Then into another to copy a spacesuit too. Unfortunately, [[PoorCommunicationKills the copies cannot agree on anything]], keep beating each other, stealing chocolate and lumping the blame on "the Sunday one". And the poorly controlled ship keeps running into more vortexes bringing more Ijons from different times, including an old man who the others try to pump for information (after all, if he exists, he got out alive ''somehow''), but turns out to be senile and forgetful, and 2 small children [[AdultsAreUseless who end up saving the day]].

** In Nagata's ''Vast'' Clementine is dismayed by the way Nikko and Urban casually create and destroy instances of themselves.
** In Stross's ''Accelerando'' there are numerous personality clashes between people who treat persinality as fungible and those who cling to a single persona.
** In Egan's ''Permutation City'' Peer spawns a clone of himself to enter the construct, and is faced with the decision of who will remain in the real world.

* Averted by the Fel clones in the ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' duology. They have major, ''major'' CloneAngst, but each of them has named himself something different, dresses differently, and has different hair. They keep a common family name, Devist, and let people think of them as just a really close and fairly insular family, because they're desperately afraid of being discovered and [[FantasticRacism killed for being clones]]. A brief stretch where one, Carib, is the viewpoint character and has a momentary existential meltdown ends as he strengthens his resolve by reminding himself what he's worked for.

** In ''Star Gate'' (1958), All the human colonists on Gorth evacuate the planet at the beginning of the book because TheWorldIsNotReady -- that is, the native intelligent species of Gorth (who call them the Star Lords) isn't ready for the humans' much more advanced technology. Some opt to search for an AlternateUniverse in which Gorth never developed intelligent life. They accidentally wind up in a MirrorUniverse in which their counterparts enslaved the natives rather than helping them. The HalfHumanHybrid protagonist refers to the MirrorUniverse counterparts of the Star Lords as the Dark Ones, the Dark Lords, or (in the case of individuals, such as Lord Dillan) "the false Lord X" or "the Dark Lord X" to distinguish them from the "true" Lord X. (''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' was less than 5 years old at this point, please note.) The eldest of the Star Lords has the hardest time adjusting to it when he finally sees the Dark Lords, because although he knew intellectually what they were, it hit him very hard to see (apparently) several people among them who in his universe were long dead and had meant a great deal to him. He had to be restrained from going to them until he got himself under control.

'''[[Film/SpiderManTrilogy Peter]], [[Film/TheAmazingSpiderManSeries Peter]], and [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse Peter]]:''' Yeah? ...Oh sorry, did you mean-...?

* Jamie "Multiple Man" Madrox from the Franchise/MarvelUniverse falls into this on occasion. For instance, when he found out one of his dupes had lived a full life without him (even to the point of having a son), he was stunned that "I named you after my father..."
** In an issue of ''ComicBook/XFactor'', Jamie Madrox split up into opposing groups of Multiple Men. Upon encountering each other, one of the Multiple Men said, "There I am! Get me!"
* Loki, when there are more of him around (whether it's due to time travel, alternate universes, or something else). Sometimes it's accidental, but he actually used this trope (and ThirdPersonPerson) to [[ExploitedTrope obfuscate]] which version of himself he is talking about (if any, and not for example some abstract connected to himself). Lo and behold from ''ComicBook/JourneyIntoMysteryGillen'':
-->'''Past Loki's ghost''': ...as I also made you understand, Loki would only sacrifice Loki to save himself...\\
[[spoiler:'''Kid Loki''': In Odin's name, is the wordplay trickery as annoying when I do it?]]
** For accidental gem also from there:
--->'''Kid Loki''': This must be the worst thing I've ever done.\\
'''Ikol (magpie shaped remnant of past Loki's consciousness)''': Ahem.\\
'''Kid Loki''': I meant ''me''.

** The Link(s) from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' play it straight. Within minutes of meeting each other, they establish that the one from the end of ''Ocarina of Time'' will be called Ocarina, and the one who experienced ''Majora's Mask'' will be called Mask. Unlike the Four Sword users, they acknowledge that they are the same person; Mask once acts on a bet that Ocarina made using that logic. WordOfDante / WordOfGod is that Ocarina is afraid that he isn't good enough to eventually become Mask.

'''A!Touma:''' On the contrary, how can you be me…when I am me? You are you and I am me.\\

'''Touma:''' …Such misfortune.

-->'''Maushold''': One of ''I'' is allergic to peanuts but ''we'' - ''I'' can't tell which it is, because any time any of ''I'' eat peanuts, ''me'' all get a rash!

--> And she – I – a pox on the pronouns of this situation

* A time machine in ''Film/AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe'' gets us two Austins from ten minutes apart - they get on quite well together.

* In Creator/CJCherryh's Literature/AllianceUnion universe, this is common in Union culture due to cloning.
** In the case where a clone needs to be distinguished to an earlier version of himself / herself who is no longer alive, the common usage in ''Literature/{{Cyteen}}'' and ''Regenesis'' is to refer to the original as "my / your predecessor" if they have the same name. Another usage is to refer to the elder of the pair as "senior", as in "Warrick" versus "Warrick senior".
** Azi - the [[UterineReplicator mass-produced clones]] who are the most common result of the technology - grow up knowing that there may be many copies of their particular geneset / psychset combination; that is, many clones with an identical environment, leading to very, very similar people. In ''Regenesis'', the current version of Florian has to discuss his predecessor. He reflects inwardly that time before he himself existed was not emotionally attractive to him; he has no trouble with the fact that they're really not the same individual, however similar they are.
** Parental replicates - clones of people who had a "normal" upbringing as opposed to the structured education of an azi - are much harder to replicate psychologically, and do sometimes have trouble coping with who's who. In the case of a parental replicate, where the original and the replicate have the same name, the latter may be referred to with the suffix PR attached to his or her name.
* The Creator/RobertAHeinlein short story ''Literature/AllYouZombies'' features [[spoiler:a [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] hermaphrodite who not only meets themselves multiple times but ultimately becomes their own mother and father.]]

** ''Literature/AndroidAtArms'' (1971): The protagonists wake on a strange world and learn that they have been kidnapped and stored as {{Human Popsicle}}s, while being replaced by [[RobotMe android duplicates]]. The question eventually arises, which one is the RobotMe (a RidiculouslyHumanRobot by necessity) and which is the original, and how to prove it? When the main character, Andas, confronts a much older version of himself on his homeworld, both are deeply shaken - each believes he's real, but how could a RobotMe be such a RidiculouslyHumanRobot as to do the various things each has done? (The protagonist refers to his older counterpart as "the false Andas"). [[spoiler:Another variation happens later, when he and one of his companions wind up in an AlternateUniverse, and he confronts a dying version of himself.]]
** ''Star Gate'' (1958): all the human colonists on Gorth evacuate the planet at the beginning of the book because TheWorldIsNotReady - that is, the native intelligent species of Gorth (who call them the Star Lords) isn't ready for the humans' much more advanced technology. Some opt to search for an AlternateUniverse in which Gorth never developed intelligent life. They accidentally wind up in a MirrorUniverse in which their counterparts enslaved the natives rather than helping them. The HalfHumanHybrid protagonist refers to the MirrorUniverse counterparts of the Star Lords as the Dark Ones, the Dark Lords, or (in the case of individuals, such as Lord Dillan) "the false Lord X" or "the Dark Lord X" to distinguish them from the "true" Lord X. (''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' was less than 5 years old at this point, please note.) The eldest of the Star Lords has the hardest time adjusting to it when he finally sees the Dark Lords, because although he knew intellectually what they were, it hit him very hard to see (apparently) several people among them who in his universe were long dead and had meant a great deal to him. He had to be restrained from going to them until he got himself under control.
** ''Victory on Janus'' (1966): BigBad THAT WHICH ABIDES creates [[RobotMe android duplicates]] of the Iftin and of some human colonists - not as {{Evil Knockoff}}s, but to frame the Iftin for apparently attacking the colonists. The Iftin refer to the [[RobotMe android duplicates]] as the "false Iftin", and can tell them apart from the true ones by smell. The worst problem the protagonist has is when duplicates turn up, not of himself, but of an old LoveInterest and an old friend, both probably, but not certainly, long dead.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

* When Willow is accosted by Vampire Willow in the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Doppelgangland":

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature "Human Nature"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood "The Family of Blood"]]: The human alter-ego which the Tenth Doctor temporarily assumed to hide from the Family of Blood is distinguished from Ten by his adopted name, Mr. John Smith.
** The two parter [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E5TheRebelFlesh "The Rebel Flesh"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E6TheAlmostPeople "The Almost People"]] brings us identical clones of various characters. These are referred to as Ganger!*insert-character-here*.
** In the [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor 50th Anniversary Special]], Eleven refers to Ten as "Sandshoes" and [[spoiler:the War Doctor]] as "Granddad" (despite Eleven being hundreds of years ''older'' than him, chronologically), which both take offense to.
** One memorable instance of confusion was in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors "The Three Doctors"]] anniversary special, when the Second Doctor met the Third Doctor and Jo Grant:

'''Second Doctor:''' Well quite! Well, not quite. Not...not just Time Lords. We're the ''same'' Time Lord.\\
'''Third Doctor''': Please, you're only confusing my assistant. Jo, it's all quite simple. I am he and he is me.\\
'''Jo:''' ''(confused)'' [[Music/TheBeatles "And we are all together koo koo kachoo"]]?
* Occurred briefly in the first season of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' between Hiro and Future Hiro, as highlighted [[Quotes/WhichMe on the quotes page]].
** And in the fourth season, [[spoiler:Hiro goes back in time to the period of the first, talks to his younger self, then calls him(self) a moron after sending him(self) off on a mission intended to avert paradox]].

* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Stasis Leak", multiple copies of the crew begin to accumulate in the same time period, leading to general confusion.

* Played for both laughs and drama in ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. In season 3 John is "twinned" by an alien device, and both Johns are perfect copies of the other, to the point that they can finish each others sentences and will have identical reactions to various situations. They only slowly start differing when they get separated and start experiencing different events. There is some humor derived from this situation, but it evolves into drama when the question comes up of which John will be able to romance Aeryn, and and culminates in a HeroicSacrifice for one of them, treated with all the gravitas due to the death of the main character of the series, despite the fact that there's still a John Crighton running around.

* Happens in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' episode "Ben 10,000" when Ben meets his older self.

* ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' has to suss out which of two Penfolds is real in "Penfold Transformed". Neither are--one is a robot duplicate planted by Dr. Crumhorn which converts into a menacing cyborg; the other is Stiletto in a Penfold outfit. The real Penfold was kidnapped by Dr. Crumhorn but managed to escape.

--->'''Evil DM:''' Time, my bland code friend, is standing stiil...except for you and me. Or should I say me and you. Or maybe even--me and me!\\

* The ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "Double Dipper" features a few instances of this joke among Dipper's photocopied duplicates. "Hey buddy, it's me, you."
* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "Steven and the Stevens", the titular character uses time-travel so that multiple copies of himself can all be in a band together, and base an entire song on this premise. Then they start fighting...
-->''Listen, Steven and I have been talking, and Steven agrees....''

* In ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', when Future!Shego explains the plan to her past self:

'''Future Shego:''' No this is mine! OK, well actually it's yours too...

* Creator/TheFiresignTheatre's audio play "AudioPlay/TheFurtherAdventuresOfNickDanger" features a flashback told by Catherwood the butler - twenty years earlier he surprises his bride Nancy with a time machine, intending to honeymoon in ancient Greece. He tries it on himself first and when he returns minutes later he's a shaky-voiced 1,000 year old codger, to her horror. Present-day Nick bursts in unexpectedly and uses the time machine to travel forward 20 years back to the present, taking the couple and shady character Rocky Rococo with him. Back in the present they're shocked at finding there's two of all of them - they fight with their other selves, except the two Catherwoods who enjoy having someone their own age to talk with.

* Happens to Candace in WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb after the boys' latest invention splits her desire to be with Jeremy and her desire to bust the boys into two distinct people.