Basic Trope: A character, needing a false name, looks around and uses objects they see to form a fake name.
- Straight: Bob, while talking to Jake, needs a fake name. So he glances around and sees a wall and a hammer. He says his name is Wally Hampton.
- Exaggerated: Bob looks around and sees a computer, a piano, a television, a drum set, and a dog. He calls himself Compiano T. Drummerdog.
- Downplayed: Bob sees a book written by Jason Smith, and uses that as his name.
- Justified:
- Bob is horrible at thinking things up on the spot.
- Bob only realized that he needed a fake identity during the conversation (for example, it turns out that Jake is on a mission of killing him), so after he's heard the news, he is too panicked to think clearly.
- Inverted:
- Jake looks at random objects and puts them together to guess Bob's name.
- Bob reads a list of names and puts them together to create a name for an object.
- Subverted:
- Bob looks at several objects to come up with a fake name but just decides to use his real name instead.
- Bob looks around, sees a few random objects that seem to suggest a plausible pseudonym, and blurts out the name of the friend who gave him all of those objects as gifts.
- Jake notices the wall and hammer and gets suspicious of "Wally Hampton"...but Wally Hampton is his companion's actual name.
- Double Subverted: Then Jake, who also needs a fake name, plays the trope straight.
- Parodied:
- Bob looks at random objects and puts them together to create an obviously fake name, such as "Carpet Bedsidetable". Jake falls for it.
- Bob puts objects together to create a false name ... and accidentally comes up with his real name instead.
- Bob does this when coming up with an Internet handle since he doesn't want to risk Trolling his friends and them figuring it was him by analyzing his speech pattern and what he usually calls himself. His friends find him out after being invited home to him and taking one look at his desktop.
- Bob comes up with a female name.
- Bob does this after Jake calls him out on his pre-planned fake name. Jake buys Bob's object-based name.
- Bob looks in a mirror and comes up with his own name.
- Bob looks at a coffee mug and comes up with "Mugmuggug M. Muggyug".
- Zig-Zagged:
- Bob looks at different objects to come up with a false name, but decides against that and uses his real name. His friend Peter, though, looks around to come up with a fake name. Then Bob's girlfriend, Alice, introduces herself with her real name, and Jake looks around to come up with a fake name for himself.
- Bob uses this process to create a pseudonym for himself at the café, reuses that alias at the park, uses this process again at the library to create another pseudonym, and just uses his real name at the gym.
- Averted:
- Bob uses his real name.
- Bob already has a fake name planned.
- Enforced: "It's time for Bob to meet Jake, but Jake shouldn't know his real name. Let's have him think one up on the spot."
- Lampshaded: "That's a rather odd name..."
- Invoked: "I'm about to meet Jake, but I don't have a false name yet. Eh, I'll think of something."
- Exploited:
- Bob is looking for intruders in the party/facility, and when Aerith comes up with a ridiculous name, he realizes that this trope is in play and he looks her up in a list.
- Bob decorates the facility with objects that could easily be turned into names. He keeps track of the people who look at his collection of glass swans and call themselves "Drake Swanson."
- Defied: "Stop trying to make a name up. Just tell me your real name."
- Discussed: "So I'm talkin' to this beauty at the bar, and she wants to know my name. You know me, I can't have her knowin' my real name. She was drinking a Harvey Wallbanger, so one thing leads to another, and I have her believin' I invented the thing."
- Conversed:Reporter in the show: Tonight's top story, police are looking for a man in his thirties, approximately five foot nine, with light brown hair. Witnesses report his name as Banky Stacksomoney.Genre Savvy news viewer: I'm gonna guess the others he's been using before are things like Robert Gasstation, Reggie Gimmemoney, and Jimmy Jewelrycase. Can't they just take fingerprints next time and skip the name-calling?
- Implied:"I met some guy, he looked at the fiver in my hand and the keychain in my other hand and said he was..."
- Deconstructed:
- Since Bob takes time to come up with the name, and Jake is smart enough to notice how similar the name is to the scene, he doesn't believe him.
- It's not the items that give Bob away, but the long pauses he takes when giving his name.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob and Jake talk in a language that Bob knows fluently, but that he's pretending not to know as well as he does. After Jake asks him what his name is, Bob pretends not to understand, buying him enough time to come up with a name without Jake noticing anything.
- Jake is blind, and if Bob comes up with the name quickly enough, he never notices that he's creating his name using this trope.
- Played for Laughs: It's a Running Gag that Bob does this when he comes to his friends' parties, and it amuses them, so why stop?
- Played for Drama: Bob is a spy who goes into his situation unprepared, whether independently or due to his employer's apathy/incompetence. When he has to think up an impromptu alias in this way, he's really just thinking "Oh, Crap!"
Head back to ... uh, Line ... er, of ... Sight ... um, Alias. Yeah. Line-of-Sight Alias.
