Series / The Masked Singer

The Masked Singer is an American reality singing competition Talent Show that began airing on Fox in January 2019. It is based on the South Korean series King of Mask Singer.

Like many other series of its ilk, the premise involves a total of anywhere from 12 to 22 singers going head to head with each other in each season, with a panel of judges (usually Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger, Ken Jeong, and an occasional rotating guest panelist; with The Masked Singer (UK) judge Rita Ora replacing Nicole for Season 11) and the studio audience voting on which ones are best, with the one with the lowest votes being selected for elimination.

The twist here comes from the contestants all being known celebrities performing anonymously, wearing elaborate costumes and only being referred to as their persona: the identity of the contestant is only revealed after they are eliminated. Their non-singing voices are also synthesized to further obfuscate them. Viewers and the judges are given clues (primarily in the form of a short video introducing the contestant and alluding to their personal life, as well as physical clues brought on stage), and the judges are encouraged to share their speculation on who each contestant might be.

Its premiere was an unexpected hit, with Fox claiming it to be their biggest non-scripted premiere (without an NFL game as a lead-in) since The X Factor.

A spinoff series, The Masked Dancer, aired between December 2020 and February 2021. Craig Robinson hosts the show, while the panel consists of Ken Jeong, Paula Abdul, Brian Austin Green, and Ashley Tisdale.

Winners

• Monster (T-Pain)
• Fox (Wayne Brady)
• Night Angel (Kandi Burruss)
• Sun (LeAnn Rimes)
• Piglet (Nick Lachey)
• Queen of Hearts (Jewel)
• Firefly (Teyana Taylor)
• Harp (Amber Riley)
• Medusa (Bishop Briggs)
• Cow (Ne-Yo)

Runner-Ups

• Peacock (Donny Osmond)
• Rottweiler (Chris Daughtry)
• Turtle (Jesse McCartney)
• Mushroom (Aloe Blacc)
• Black Swan (JoJo)
• Bull (Todrick Hall)
• Ringmaster (Hayley Orrantia)
• Lambs (Wilson Phillips)
• Macaw (David Archuleta)
• Donut (John Schneider)

Third Place

• Bee (Gladys Knight)
• Flamingo (Adrienne Bailon)
• Frog (Bow Wow)
• Crocodile (Nick Carter)
• Chameleon (Wiz Khalifa)
• Skunk (Faith Evans)/Banana Split (David Foster and Katharine McPhee) ^note Due to the way Season Six worked, there were only two people in the finals due to both groups whittling themselves down to one singer before merging. As a result, these two singers are both considered to have placed third due to being the last singers cut before the finals in their respective groups.
• Prince (Cheyenne Jackson)
• Snowstorm (Nikki Glaser)
• California Roll (Pentatonix)
• Gazelle (Janel Parrish)

After the smash success of the first season, the format of the U.S. version has been picked up by multiple international networks.

International versions of The Masked Singer

• Argentina (Quien es la Mascara Argentina)
• Armenia (Դիմակահանդես)
• Australia (The Masked Singer Australia)
• Austria (The Masked Singer Austria)
• Belgium (The Masked Singer)
• Brazil (The Masked Singer Brasil)
• Bulgaria (Маскираният певец)
• Cambodia (The Masked Singer Cambodia)
• Canada (Chanteurs Masqués)
• Chile (¿Quién es la máscara?)
• China (King of Mask Singer)
• Colombia (¿Quién es la máscara?)
• Croatia (Ispod Maska)
• Czechia & Slovakia (Zlatá Maska)
• Denmark (Hvem holder masken?)
• Estonia (Maskis Iaulja)
• Finland (Masked Singer Suomi)
• France (Mask Singer)
• Germany (The Masked Singer Germany)
• Greece (Masked Singer Greece)
• Hungary (A maszkos énekes)
• Indonesia (The Mask Singer Indonesia)
• Israel (הזמר במסכה)
• Italy (Il Cantante Mascherato)
• Japan (ザ・マスクド・シンガー)
• Kazakhstan (Maska)
• Latvia (Balss Maskā)
• Lithuania (Kaukas)
• Malaysia (The Masked Singer Malaysia)
• Mexico (¿Quién es la máscara?)
• Morocco (The Masked Singer Morocco)
• Myanmar (The Masked Singer Myanmar)
• Netherlands (The Masked Singer Netherlands)
• New Zealand (The Masked Singer NZ)
• Norway (Maskorama)
• Panama (¿Quien es la Mascara?)
• Peru (¿Quien es la Mascara?)
• Philippines (The Masked Singer Pilipinas)
• Poland (Mask Singer)
• Portugal (A Máscara)
• Romania (The Masked Singer Romania)
• Russia (Маска)
• Slovakia (Zlatá maska)
• South Africa (The Masked Singer South Africa)
• South Korea (King of Mask Singer, the original version.)
• Spain (Mask Singer: Adivina quién canta)
• Sweden (Masked Singer Sverige)
• Switzerland (The Masked Singer Switzerland)
• Thailand (The Mask Singer Thailand)
• Turkey (Maske Kimsin Sen?)
• Ukraine (Маска)
• United Kingdom (The Masked Singer (UK))
• Uruguay (¿Quién es la Máscara?)
• Vietnam (The Mask Singer Vietnam)

This show provides examples of:

A-E

• Aborted Arc: In Season 5: After Bulldog turns out to be just a stunt for Nick to resume hosting, he suggests he might wear the costume next week. He ends up not doing so, probably because the costumes are very hot inside.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Played for Laughs in season 1; after correctly guessing that Tori Spelling was under the Unicorn mask, Ken Jeong spent a good chunk of the next episode acting full of himself, even wearing a crown and claiming the trophy meant for the season's winner as his own.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Invoked and enforced, with videos known as "clue packages" dropping all sorts of hints as to who the singers really are, from obscure to rather blatant.
    Pineapple: Life is short, man. You gotta seize the day before your dreams go up in smoke. (The last three words are a movie title. It stars Cheech & Chong.)
  • On the panelists' side, Nick Cannon often refers to Ken Jeong as Dr. Ken.
  • The opening number of the Andrew Lloyd Webber episode of Season 8 has Nicole Scherzinger singing "Memory" from Cats. She's no stranger to this song, as she played Grizabella in the 2014 London revival of the show.
  • On TV Theme night the week before, Robin opens the show singing the theme to Growing Pains, which starred his dad Alan Thicke.
• Adaptation Distillation: The U.S. version of the format features a number of differences in comparison to the original Korean version (and versions patterned off it), including replacing the Korean version's returning champion model (with eight new contestants introduced bi-weekly, competing for a chance to dethrone last week's champion, the existing king/queen) with a tournament-style format with heats and weekly eliminations more in line with music competitions such as The Voice (allowing the expensive costumes to be used on more than one episode), and a larger emphasis on speculating the contestants' identities.
  • Season 8 switched to a format with a returning champion element, but still a little different. There are now three contestants per-episode, with two new contestants competing to dethrone the king/queen from last week's episode; the contestant in last place after the audience vote is eliminated, and then the remaining two compete in a one-on-one battle to determine the winner. The champion after every third episode qualifies to the semi-final round, after which three new contestants are present on the next episode.
• Amicable Exes: It was brought up in season 2 that Nicole and Nick actually used to date - by this time all five of the regulars had been pretty much cemented as True Companions (the shipping of Nicole and Thingamajig even became a Running Gag).
• Anthropomorphic Food: Several costumes on the show are based on various types of food.
• Art Shift: In Season 4, the clue packages are animated (undoubtedly due to COVID-19 causing issues with live filming). Of course, the masked characters are pretty cartoony to begin with, so it's not too much of a stretch. Season 5 returns to the usual live-action packages.
• Ascended Fanboy: Several unmasked singers have admitted that the reason they joined was because they were already fans of the show themselves.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • With Jamie Foxx brought on to promote Beat Shazam, they do their own take on the game by playing part of a song and making everyone guess the title - and the song is quite clearly Beethoven's 5th Symphony. It's actually a sampling of that tune for the intro of "When I Get You Alone" by Robin Thicke.
  • Season 3's April Fools episode begins with the reveal that Snoop Dogg would be a guest panelist. However, the panel realized after a few seconds that "Snoop Dogg" is just a random friend of Nick's, posing as the rapper as the first April Fool's prank of the night (the episode ultimately went without a guest panelist).
  • During Season 9's British Invasion Night, Nick reveals after the first performance that Gerard Butler would be the night's celebrity clue-giver. The clue-giver comes out... and it's revealed to be a Man in Black named Gerard the Butler, with the actor himself making no appearance.
• Baritone of Strength: While a vast majority of the costumes have their voices pitched up while they're speaking there's a few with specifically-"manly" designs that go the opposite route and have deeper voices—up through Season 7, White Tiger, Elephant, Rhino, Dragon, Grandpa Monster, Bull, and Ram all have this mechanic.
• Berserk Button: Nick Cannon will tolerate jokes about his many children but gets more worked up if you tease him about his past relationships, as seen when Ken brings up Kim Kardashian:
  Ken: What was your [Portmanteau Couple]invoked name? 'Kick'?
  Nick: I'm about to kick you!
  • In the Season 11 premiere, Nick loses it when the Book unmasks himself early, revealing himself to be Kevin Hart.
• Big Applesauce: One of Season 9's episodes has New York as its main theme.
• Big Bad Ensemble:
  • The season 5 wildcards, while not evil in the slightest, are depicted this way, observing and commenting on contestants from a secret lair.
  • Similarly, the Bad costumes in Season 7 are depicted as this, although they aren't truly evil.
• Bling of War:
  • One of the strongest contenders of Season 1, the Lion, is very gold.
    JB Smoove: If I was a rapper I would be wearing that around my damn neck.
  • Sun from season 4 is not only just as gold, but mimics a lot of Lion's dress sense and singing style.
• Book Ends:
  • Peacock delivers the first song in the first episode, and thanks to making it to the finals, the first song of the last episode of the season.
  • "Stay With Me" was one of the first songs heard due to being featured prominently in the earliest trailers - upon winning season 1, Monster opted to sing "Stay With Me" instead of an encore of his last song as per the usual practice, making "Stay With Me" the last song of season 1.
  • The Fox is the last performer introduced and is also the last performer standing thanks to winning Season 2.
  • The Sun in season 4 was the very first performer, and after winning, gave the very last performance of the season.
  • Also in Season 4, the first and last unmaskings were of Busta Rhymes and LeAnn Rimes.
  • Much like "Stay with Me", one of the first clips of season 6 was a preview of Queen of Hearts singing "La Vie En Rose" and, much like Monster before her, she opted to sing "La Vie En Rose" as her final song rather than an encore of one of her finale songs.
  • Just like Sun, Harp was the first performer to sing and, due to winning, was also the last performer to sing.
• Breaking Old Trends: For the first three seasons, the show pretty much followed the same pattern (with the only major addition being the Smackdowns). Starting from Season 4 onwards, the show began to stray away from what came before it, in a multitude of ways.
  • Season 4:
    • The Snow Owls are the first duo costume in the series—two celebrities compete and are unmasked as one. On a lesser note, it's also the first mobile costume, meaning it needs to be controlled via handlebars.
    • Serpent is the first costume to be part-animatronic. The six tail-like appendages attached to it are controlled animatronically.
    • Baby Alien is the first puppet costume on the show. The costume is puppeteered by the celebrity from the inside of the costume, making Baby Alien akin to a Muppet. As an added bonus, it hides the stature of the celebrity inside the costume.
    • While Gremlin doesn't add anything innovative, he is the first contestant to outright quit the show.
  • Season 5:
    • Season 5 introduces Cluedle-Doo, the first (and so far only) clue-meister costume—a costume that doesn't compete on the show, but instead gives out clues relating to the competing contestants. As a side note, he's also the first costume to be a reused design from another international version of the show (this costume is Mexico's Rooster).
    • Snail is the first fully-motorized costume on the show. While the Snow Owls had a mobile component to it, it still housed two regular costumes inside of it.
    • The Russian Dolls costume was the first costume that hid how many singers there actually were.
    • All the finalists are from the same Group, the first time this happened since Season 1.
    • During Season 5 as a whole, the identities of some costumes broke new ground on who could be on the show: Snail was the first fictional celebrity on the show, Phoenix was the first transgender celebrity, and the Russian Dolls were the first actual band to be on the show as well as first to have more than two people.
    • The first to recycle a song from a past season.
  • Season 6:
    • The first season with no costumes based off Monster.
    • The first season to not have a boy band member under any of the masks.
    • Regarding panel guesses, it's the first time no one guessed Jamie Foxx as one of the contestants. He was not.
    • The first to have a multiple-person contestant to not share a costume with Banana Split.
    • The first to have a contestant where one never sings with, again, Banana Split.
    • The first to have more than one multiple-person contestant with both Banana Split and Beach Ball.
  • Season 7:
    • The first to not have Marina Toybina as the costume designer (Tim Chappel from the show's Australian version replaces her).
    • The first to have more than one female singer in the finals.
    • The first season since Season 3 not to have a contestant who specializes in rap songs.
    • The first season to have all the costumes follow a theme, as all of them fit into the Good, the Bad and the Cuddly categories the season was pushing as the main theme.
  • Season 8:
    • The first season to have contestants' unmasked performance be songs they didn't perform in the competition, so far only done when the unmasker celebrity has their own signature song. The only who didn’t go with this rule are Fortune Teller, Robo Girl, Milkshake, Avocado, Snowstorm, and Harp.
    • The first season to have a former contestant who wasn't a winner return as a guest judge.
    • The first season to have a group costume make it to the finale.
    • The first season to have all finalists be the same gender (in this case, female).
  • Season 9:
    • The first season to have a group costume consisting of five people.
    • The first season to allow a previously eliminated singer to return to the competition.
  • Season 10:
    • The first season to have a four singer finale.
    • The first season not to have any group costumes since the introduction of the concept.
• Brick Joke: The Cold Open of season 3 episode 14 has some much needed Lampshade Hanging when the Night Angel complains that her odd gaping mouth design means she's swallowed several bugs. During the competition, every singer has an edible dish for a physical clue, and the Night Angel brings out a plate of fried bugs. (Also a bit of Bait-and-Switch if you were expecting the Frog to be the one with a bug dish.)
• …But He Sounds Handsome: During the Season 6 special episode where the Top 10 performances were counted down, Turtle's real identity, Jesse Mc Cartney, introduces his performance at fourth (His take on "Fix You" by Coldplay) and talks about how great Turtle was and how he totally should have won.
• Butt-Monkey: Ken Jeong. Nick and the rest of the panel rarely fail to crack a joke at Ken's expense when the opportunity comes up. He usually takes it in good humor, though. He also tends to get all but the most obvious singers wrong.
• Call-Back: Crossing with Bait-and-Switch, as some popular guesses during the first season show up for real as second season contestants.
• The Cameo: Starting with Season 3, some of the characters from past seasons (but not the celebrities that portrayed them) make brief appearances in some way.
  • Robot appeared on the background screen when Night Angel namedropped him before she sang "how to love" by the artist who was the robot earlier in the season.
  • Miss Monster's debut performance includes a surprise appearance from the original Monster. Monster also appears in a couple of her clue packages, as well.
  • The Alien appears in a couple of Astronaut's performances.
  • Episode 10 has every singer deliver an additional "super clue" in the form of some item—for Kitty it's an appearance by the Tree.
  • The Eagle appears in the Cold Open for Episode 14.
  • Season 4 episode 8's Group B Finals does this with all four contestants that week, with four past costumes (Astronaut, Bee, Ice Cream, and Eagle) with some connection to the contestants appearing on stage to provide game-changing clues.
  • The Eagle appears again in Season 5 in the Snail's clue package, as a reference to the Muppets' own American eagle, Sam.
  • Skeleton reappears in Bulldog’s clue package, but we still haven’t determined how that references Nick Cannon.
  • Regarding the celebrities and not their characters, T-Pain (formerly the Monster) appears as a guest panelist in seasons 2 and 3, Wayne Brady (the Fox) is a guest panelist in Season 4, LeAnn Rimes (the Sun) is a guest panelist in Season 5 and Donny Osmond (the Peacock) is a guest panelist in Season 8.
  • Season 6 began a trend of the Men in Black wearing the masks of previous contestants during performances. They wear the masks of Flamingo and Pineapple during Octopus' sole performances, and makes a blink and you’ll miss it moment wearing Bulldog's mask during Dalmatian's sole performance. Two of them wear Frog and Chameleon's masks while playing beer pong in the fourth episode's opening, and one wears Mouse's mask during Hamster's performance. During Mallard’s final performance, Bulldog’s mask gets worn again and Orca's mask gets shown as the end of the performance, since the song Mallard sang was one of his songs.
  • Also in Episode 4 of Season 6, White Tiger returned to do some D Jing for that episode's party.
  • The fifth episode of Season 6 saw Lips return at the start of the show.
  • Season 6's eighth episode started with a parody of the Thanksgiving Day Parade hosted by Taco.
• Calvinball: Each season is structured differently than the others. For example, Season 6 does not have any rounds where the groups merge, rather having each group compete until only one contestant remains. The people behind it said that this was intentional, as they didn't want the show to get stale.
• Catchphrase:
  • As a Large Ham, Ken has several:
    • In the first couple seasons, "I know EXACTLY who this is..." As early as Season 2, the audience anticipated it coming and said it along with him once. (Its use has since dropped off, but it still comes up from time to time.)
    Jenny: [to the audience] Don't encourage this behavior!
    • On a lesser note, Ken tends to say "Let me finish!" and "Hear me out!" as he talks about his guesses. He also sometimes defends his facts by directing skeptics to "Look it up!"
    • By Seasons 5 and 6, he's started regularly saying "How dare you!", with varying degrees of mock-seriousness, in response to his constant teasing.
    • In later seasons, Ken has started introducing outrageous guesses by saying "This is [x] and I'll tell you why..."
  • Nicole has "Come on!" which is often yelled out when she's really enjoying a singer's performance.
  • Nick will often say "Sit yo'ass down!" or lead the audience in a chant of "NO, KEN!" in response to Ken's ridiculous guesses.
• Character Filibuster: Ken has become known for his rambling deductions of the performer's identities. At one point, his explanation for who he thinks a contestant is went on for so long it put the contestant and the other panelists to sleep.
• Christmas Episode: Season 2, a week ahead of the Finale, had a two night "Holiday Event", the second part featuring Christmas (and other December Holiday themed) music, decorations, and costuming galore. Season 4 also does a Holiday Sing-a-long episode. The trend has continued for every even-numbered season since, combining new songs with clips from earlier installments.
• Cliffhanger:
  • Season 6's first episode ends just as Mother Nature is about to complete her unmasking, forcing viewers to wait until the following day to find out who she is.
  • Similarly, the first episode of Season 8 postponed Hummingbird's unmasking until the next episode the following week.
• Clip Show: Generally used Once a Season, when a number of prior performances are compiled and repackaged as a new episode.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Ken. Most of the time, he makes completely out-there guesses using Insane Troll Logic, which usually backfire on him.
• Clueless Detective: All four of the judges can come off as this due to most of their guesses being way off, especially Ken Jeong, partly because of his over-the-top predictions and partly because he has an especially bad track record at identifying people he's personally worked with. He also sometimes seems to employ Insane Troll Logic. But he'll also every now and then make some educated guesses, and has been spot on once per season in seasons 1-3 and 5, twice in season 6, and three times in season 4, and notably was the only one to correctly guess that person in season 1 (Unicorn), season 2 (Thingamajig), one in season 4 (Whatchamacallit), once in season 6 (Octopus) and once in season 7 (Lemur). In addition, he's had two First Impression guesses correct in both season 5 and 6 and nearly won the Golden Ear trophy in those seasons too.
• Clueless Mystery: Because the contestants come from incredibly varied walks of life, deducing their identities can often be this - not to the actual panelists, but to the everyday folks watching at home. Some of the contestants (mainly the Living Legends) are famous enough to be almost universally recognizable; but viewers who are not interested in specific music genres or sports might not have any idea who these people are even after they're unmasked.
• Cool Old Lady: Bee (Gladys Knight), who competed aged 74; Flower (Patti LaBelle), who competed aged 75; Cupcake (Ruth Pointer), who competed aged 76; and Mouse (Dionne Warwick), Mermaid (Gloria Gaynor) and Royal Hen (Billie Jean King), who all competed aged 79.
• Cool Old Guy: Wolf (Michael Bolton), who competed aged 70; Ugly Sweater (Charlie Wilson), who competed aged 71; Venus Fly Trap (George Foreman), who competed aged 73; one half of Hydra (Teller) and Moose (George Wendt), who both competed aged 74; Anteater (John Oates), who competed aged 75; Raccoon (Danny Trejo), who competed aged 77; Beetle (Jerry Springer), who competed aged 78; Hedgehog (Eric Idle), who competed aged 79; Pineapple (Tommy Chong) and Broccoli (Paul Anka), who both competed aged 80; Gopher (George Clinton), who competed aged 81, Knight (William Shatner), who competed aged 91; and Gnome (Dick Van Dyke), who competed aged 97.
• Commercial Break Cliffhanger: Often done to delay the results of the individual matchups.
• Confusion Fu: The Rabbit in Season 1 claimed to be deliberately switching his song styles, from Latin pop to country rock to old school hip-hop, for this very reason. Piglet in Season 5 and Bull in Season 6 also covered different genres and singing styles of music, making it more difficult for the panel to pin down their voices.
• Costume Porn: The costumes for this show are gorgeous, each being detailed and eye-catching, reflecting the contestant's chosen persona while still allowing for a lot of showmanship. The designer, Marina Toybina, has done costumes for superstars such as Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Ariana Grande, and Britney Spears in the past.
• Cryptically Unhelpful Answer: When pressed for clues by the judges, a few contestants give these — for example, the Poodle stating, "I'm here for your honor." Turns out that "your honor" is said a lot in courtroom scenes on Drop Dead Diva, featuring Margaret Cho.
• Decapitation Presentation: Season 4's Popcorn presented an unusual clue item, matzo ball soup with rabbit ears sticking out of it - because she'd already beaten Season 1's Rabbit in a different competition. Yowch.
• Did Not See That Coming:
  • In the season 5 premiere, nobody was expecting the Snail to be unmasked as Kermit the Frog.
  • Also, in the fifth episode of season 5, nobody was expecting the Bulldog to be unmasked as Nick Cannon. This was mainly because a lot of fans thought he was Cluedle-Doo, which turned out to be impossible because Nick Cannon had tested positive for COVID-19 (the reason he was absent from the first several episodes).
  • When Cluedle-Doo was unmasked in season 5 semifinals, nobody was expecting it to be Donnie Wahlberg, Jenny's husband...including Jenny herself!
• Dramatic Unmask: One of these concludes every episode, with the eliminated contestant(s) having their identity revealed.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Happened a couple of times in Season 5:
  • Nicole guessed Grandpa Monster as Jake Paul, citing his troublemaker behavior, boxing history, and Internet personality vibe. All those clues are valid, except she picked the wrong Paul brother - Grandpa Monster was Jake's big brother Logan instead.
  • Similarly, in the Super Eight, Crab's Food clue are marshmallows, which Robin deduces refers to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and thus guessing him as Ray Parker Jr. As it turns out, he did guess right that the marshmallows were a Ghostbusters reference, but he got the wrong movie - Crab (aka Bobby Brown) contributed to the soundtrack of the sequel.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: Many costumes incorporate some amount of glitter, rhinestones or jewels.
• Even the Guys Want Him: In season 3, during The Turtle's performance of "Jealous" by Nick Jonas, two of the male judges fainted upon hearing his singing up close.
• Exact Words: Sometimes used in the clues. For instance, Season 2's cast was boasted as having, among other things, "7 Super Bowl appearances". None of the stars revealed that season were football players; this actually referred to their halftime/national anthem performances.

F-O

• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • During Fox's rap when he sings "Try A Little Tenderness", he lists off some of the primary guesses that the judges have had for him throughout his run on the show, but attentive viewers will notice that the only person whose full name he says is his true identity, Wayne Brady. Fox including a new verse in the song may also be this for fans of Whose Line Is It Anyway? given the many times Wayne has improvised full song verses on the show.
  • In the second last episode of season 4, Robin mentioned that they had yet to see the one Olympic champion touted in the teasers, and was confident that it was Jellyfish. While he was right, it was Ken who was the first to figure out which Olympic champion exactly.
  • In season 5, the third wild card, Bulldog, is immediately booted, and in a rarity for this show, needs zero assistance in getting his own mask off. Since Nick Cannon has witnessed four whole seasons' worth of unmaskings, he'd probably learned how it was done by now.
  • In season 11, following a smackdown between Lizard and Spaghetti and Meatballs, the cheers for the former are all you can hear. Sure enough, Lizard was the saved singer.
• Foreshadowing: Notice how the Peacock quietly laughs every time Jenny McCarthy suggests that Donny Osmond is his true identity? The first time it happens, everyone assumes that her guess is way off and he just found it amusing. Turns out, he was laughing because she was 100% right.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: One during the Frog's first clue package in Season 3. It's not a hint towards his identity, but a paragraph lampshading how some people will look for clues everywhere.
• From a Certain Point of View: Some clues are deliberately broad.
  • When all the first season masked singers presented physical items with some meaning to their real identities, Peacock presented a shaggy wig and claimed that it got him thrown into prison. This is part of the plot of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, known for once having Donny Osmond in the title role.
  • In a similar misdirect, the Flamingo in Season 2 claimed to have been baptized in Israel. Israel is her husband's name.
  • Also in Season 2, Thingamajig talks about spending time in rehab. Physical rehab, for his knee.
  • In season 5, Snail mentions that he's better known for recruiting talent than showcasing his own. It's been repeatedly stated that Kermit is the one who hired the rest of the Muppets for their various projects.
• The Good Guys Always Win: Season 7 had the singers divided into "Good, Bad, and Cuddly" teams, and all of the finalists came from Team Good.
• Guest Host: Niecy Nash hosts the first few episodes of season 5 as a result of Nick Cannon coming down with COVID-19.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Various seasons allow the bottom 2 singers of the week another chance to stay in the competition. Both get approximately a minute to sing another song and the panel members vote and decide who stays.
• Halloween Episode: Weirdly subverted-Season 8's Fright Night seems to have all the trappings of one-the obviously creepy theme, the Once a Season monster costume showing up (in this case-Sir Bug A Boo), the other new costume having what is basically a jack-o-lantern for a head, all performances having a spooky element to them and the two celebrities introduced also having something to do with the holiday (Linda Blair was the star of The Exorcist and Ray Parker Junior wrote and sang the iconic Ghostbusters theme song)-yet the episode aired in the middle of November.
• Hidden Depths: The premise leads to this, with several celebrities involved saying that they're not known for their singing prowess. Indeed, three of the first four to be revealed in Season One (Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, comedian Tommy Chong, quarterback-turned-NFL announcer Terry Bradshaw, and comedian Margaret Cho) aren't singers at all, ^note (although Cho has released a comedic music album in the past) and Bradshaw's musical days were long behind him until he signed on for the show.
• The Host: Nick Cannon, formerly of America's Got Talent, and now with more hair.
• Imagined Innuendo:
  • Host Nick Cannon has been encouraging the audience to loudly chant "TAKE IT OFF!" at the unmasking stage. Raccoon in Season 5 was the first contestant to take the phrase literally and started undoing his belt before Nick stopped him.
  • Season 3 contestant Taco has Nicole uttering "I looove Taco," which causes everyone else on the panel to meltdown.
• Incredibly Long Note: Mushroom manages to hold a note for about ten seconds at the end of their second performance in Season 4.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • Ken Jeong is not just the star of Dr. Ken but actually a qualified doctor, which has led to Nick Cannon calling him "Dr. J" or "Dr. Ken". Ken, meanwhile, frequently calls Nick "Daddy." Similarly, in the episodes when Niecy Nash hosts, he refers to her as "Mommy."
  • Nicole gets dubbed "Sherlock Scherzinger" for her penchant for picking up on clues and guessing correctly.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Hollywood is fairly well-connected, and several of the singers and judges have worked with one another before:
  • One recurring guest panelist is Joel McHale, Ken Jeong's co-star from Community. In season 3 they add Yvette Nicole Brown, who's not just from Community, but appeared with Ken in Avengers: Endgame!
  • Ken also frequently makes references to his friends and people who have been his costars in various films and shows (though a number of such claims, like "Of course I know him; he's in my book club!" are Blatant Lies). In season 5, Niecy Nash tells him that he's the greatest name-dropper she's ever known.
    Ken: That's exactly what Barack Obama told me!
  • Starting in Season 2, one round of hints each season has the singers refer to a time they've met one of the judges before:
    • Season 2: Not everyone had actually met a judge, but of the ones that did; the Tree said she received a standing ovation alongside one of them, Flamingo "shared some couch time" with one of them in 2013, and Fox claimed to spend one of the best weekends of his life with a judge. Only the Tree's was openly explained: Ana Gasteyer was in A Christmas Story Live! with Ken.
    • Season 3: Episode 3, the Valentine's Day special, had all the remaining singers write valentines for certain judges, revealing something they did together once.
    • Season 4: In the Super Six episode, the Seahorse had been on a prior show that Nick hosted, Crocodile had been on-screen with guest judge Craig Robinson, Mushroom had worked with Robin, Jellyfish had tried to meet Ken (she explained at the end of the episode that she'd texted him once), Popcorn had talked to Jenny, and the last time the Sun had encountered Nicole was in a ladies' restroom.
    • Season 5: Yeti had met Nicole in Santa Monica, Black Swan met Robin at an afterparty, Chameleon shared a stage with guest judge Darius Rucker, Piglet was at a charity event with Jenny, and Cluedle-Doo and Ken had "worked with animals" before. Regarding that last one, Donnie Wahlberg had co-starred with Ken in Zookeeper — leaving unsaid the even bigger connection that he's married to Jenny.
    • Season 10 had a few episodes with this clue theme. Episode 9 reveals that S'more has been inside Robin's house, Cow spent some time with Jenny's husband, Donnie Wahlberg and Gazelle "holds the islands close to her heart" like Nicole. Episode 10 has Tiki reveal he ran into Nicole in Japan, Husky "shared the stage" with Nick and Sea Queen co stared in a movie with Ken while also implying she knows Jenny. Finally, Episode 12 reveals Candelabra partied with Nicole at an industry party, Anteater had "the greatest conversation" with Jenny, and Donuts hung out with Robin's father, listening to the same mix tape each time.
    • Season 11 brings this clue back during each group's finale. Group C has Clock reveal that Nick interviewed her, Rita and Lizard won the same award and Poodle Moth has worked with Robin's dad. Group A has Ugly Sweater mention how he gave Nick "baby advice", Starfish gave Jenny tickets to her next show the last time they hung out and Goldfish worked with Ken.
  • In Episode 4 of Season 1, the Poodle is revealed to be Margaret Cho, who plays Ken Jeong's sister in Dr. Ken.
  • In episode 8 of Season 1, the guest panelist is Kenan Thompson, who may be known for Saturday Night Live now (on a rival network!), but worked with host Nick Cannon long ago in their Nickelodeon days.
    • Season 3 has another All That alumnus, Gabriel Iglesias.
  • Season 2 has Anthony Anderson as the guest panelist and the Black Widow is revealed to be Raven-Symoné who plays his sister on black•ish. He also dismissed other judges' guesses that it was her.
    • Speaking of whom, Flamingo was later revealed to be Adrienne Bailon. Yes, two of The Cheetah Girls were competing against each other the whole time, and they never even knew!^note On her YouTube channel, Bailon claimed she recognized Raven-Symoné from the years they spent working together. Bailon also claimed that, despite appearing incognito and not being able to speak with one another in their shared trailer, she and Michelle Williams recognized each other.
  • Fox also claimed in one clue to be friends with the Rabbit (Joey Fatone) from the previous season.
  • The first episode of Season 3 had Robin's past collaborator Lil Wayne.
  • From season 3, Taco is Tom Bergeron, who has worked with all the judges except Ken to some degree. That's just taco sauce in the wounds, considering none of them guessed right.
  • Another failed guess for Ken in season 3 when the Swan turned out to be Bella Thorne, one of his co-stars in The Duff.
  • T-Rex turns out to be JoJo Siwa, who worked with Nick Cannon before as co-host on the Nick show Lip Sync Battle Shorties.
  • Episode 13 of Season 3 has Sharon Osbourne, who previously worked with Nick Cannon on America's Got Talent, as a guest panelist. It was later revealed that one of that night's singers was also part of this connection: the Kitty was Jackie Evancho, who rose to fame on Got Talent during Nick and Sharon's shared time on the show.
  • Also regarding Sharon Osbourne, Banana is revealed in that episode to be Bret Michaels, who competed with Osbourne on Season 3 of Celebrity Apprentice.
  • Season 4's Giraffe was revealed to be Brian Austin Green, a close friend (and former bandmate) of Robin's.
  • A Season 4 clue teased that the Popcorn is BFFs with another former contestant.
  • Season 4's Serpent was revealed to be Dr. Elvis Francois, a real-life orthopaedic surgeon who sang a cover of "Imagine" during the COVID19 pandemic period that went viral, and who sang a duet with Nicole during one of Season 3's "After The Mask" post-shows.
  • The first contestant unmasked in Season 5, the Snail, turned out to be Kermit the Frog. Ken had a bit part in The Muppets (2011). Nick was out sick at the time, but he's connected to the Snail, too; he was hosting America's Got Talent when "Snail" made some guest appearances. This later applied to one of Season 8's theme nights as well, as it was Muppets Night and Ken had to remind guest panelist Miss Piggy that he had worked with her before. Plus, one of the unmaskings that night was Jerry Springer, who also met the Muppets while he was hosting Got Talent.
  • Turns out Season 5's Seashell had not only worked with Flamingo before, but appeared one time with Fox. Tamera Mowry is a co-host of The Real with Adrienne Bailon, and performed an impromptu duet with Wayne Brady on Whose Line Is It Anyway?. She also grew up with Nick Cannon, as he stated when she was unmasked; she admitted that pinching his cheek in one episode was probably a huge giveaway (to him) as to her identity.
  • A Season 5 guest panelist was Rob Riggle, who had been in The Hangover with Ken.
  • Also from Season 5, Robopine was revealed to be Tyrese Gibson who's known for his work on The Fast and the Furious franchise. He was later interviewed on the show's official podcast—hosted by the Frog (Bow Wow), who co-starred with Tyrese in F9 later that year. Later on, Chameleon is unmasked as Wiz Khalifa, who also contributed several songs to the series.
  • In the Date Night episode of Season 6, Banana^note of Banana Split, different from the solo Banana of Season 3 reveals that he and Ken went to Costco together once. He's also revealed to be David Foster, who was incredibly close to Robin's father. Naturally, Robin is the only one who didn't guess correctly.
  • Hamster of Season 6, who was unmasked to be Rob Schneider, co-starred with Ken in the infamous Norm of the North.
  • During Season 7, Eric Stonestreet was a guest judge in order to cross-promote Domino Masters, and the Ram indicated that they knew each other. It turns out that it was sportscaster Joe Buck, who was also part of Domino Masters!
  • Season 7's Ringmaster outright invokes this by saying that it was good to see Nicole again. Once she's unmasked as Hayley Orrantia, she reveals what she meant: Nicole was a judge on The X Factor when Hayley competed.
  • Season 8's Fortune Teller has a connection with Ken: Daymond John made a guest appearance As Himself in Dr. Ken.
  • Beetle was unmasked in Season 8 as Jerry Springer—and he and Nick both hosted America's Got Talent at some point (though not at the same time). And, as noted above, this was on Muppets Night; and the Muppets had made guest appearances on Got Talent during both of their times as host.
  • In the same Season 8 episode as the Beetle, Robo-Girl was revealed to be Kat Graham, who explained that she was close friends with both Nick and Nicole (of course, Nicole didn't guess it was her).
  • Season 8's Snowstorm (Nikki Glaser) explained that she was inspired to sign up for the show by Season 4's Squiggly Monster (Bob Saget), as they were good friends and she had seen how much he enjoyed the experience.
  • There are many contestants who were on Dancing with the Stars both before and after their time on the show (with even the show's host appearing in Season 3). Nicole herself participated in (and subsequently won) one of those seasons.
  • Rock Lobster of Season 9 was revealed to be Howie Mandel—a judge on America's Got Talent during Nick's tenure as host.
  • Also from Season 9 is the Wolf. He was revealed to be Michael Bolton, who previously appeared on the show three seasons ago to duet with the Skunk.
  • One episode of Season 9 was themed around Sesame Street. Jenny and Ken both appeared on the show, respectively discussing the words "insect" and "deciduous". One of the singers from that night also has a connection to Sesame Street, but it wasn't revealed until the unmasking the following week: the Fairy is Holly Robinson-Peete, daughter of Sesame Street's original Gordon.
  • Also during the Sesame Street episode, Squirrel's clue reveals that she's worked with Ken in the past, namely in Couples Retreat. Naturally, Ken failed to get it.
  • Jackalope from the same episode revealed that she and Nicole had partied together before. And upon getting unmasked as Lele Pons, she points out that she and Nick hosted the Teen Choice Awards together.
  • The Lamp's identity was revealed to be Melissa Joan Hart. As Ken himself stated, he and Melissa worked together in The Casagrandes. Additionally, one of Nicole's first acting gigs was on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which starred Melissa as the titular character.
  • Both the Mantis and Nicole worked together on an animated show. Specifically, the two of them did voiceover work for the show Trese.
  • Rubber Ducky from Season 10 was revealed as Anthony Anderson, who previously appeared on the show in Season 2 as a guest panelist.
  • Also from Season 10, Hibiscus is revealed to be Luann de Lesseps, who appeared on the previous season as a celebrity clue-giver.
  • Rita Ora, who replaces Nicole as a panelist in Season 11, actually worked with Ken on the show's UK variant, where Ken was a panelist on its first season.
  • Book of Season 11 was revealed as Kevin Hart, who has a connection with both Nick and Robin. Not only were they his co-stars on The Real Husbands Of Hollywood, but they both appeared on his show, Celebrity Prank Wars.
• Irony: The Take It Off Buzzer was used on Pepper and Caterpillar, but both attempts failed, keeping them in the competition... until they were eliminated naturally in those respective episodes.
• The Jeeves: During Season 9's British Invasion, one of The Men in Black takes on this role throughout the episode, befitting the British motif.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: As early as Season 2, everyone casually mentions who was on the show and what costume they wore, spoiling those who haven't seen past seasons. This also extends to Season 6's list of the best performances on the show, where the reveal the identity of each singer like it was common knowledge.
• Letting the Air out of the Band: The first time the Buzzer is used by Ken, it looks as if he’s gotten it right, only for "Who Are You" to stop and Nick to announce that Ken's guess was wrong. This also applies the other time Jenny uses it.
• Living Legend: A few of the contestants are this, fitting with the show's premise. In order of unmasking:
  • Season 1: Bee (Gladys Knight) and Peacock (Donny Osmond).
  • Season 2: Flower (Patti LaBelle).
  • Season 3: Miss Monster (Chaka Khan) and Mouse (Dionne Warwick).
  • Season 4: Broccoli (Paul Anka) and Popcorn (Taylor Dayne).
  • Season 5: Snail (Kermit the Frog) and Crab (Bobby Brown).
  • Season 6: Pufferfish (Toni Braxton), Cupcake (Ruth Pointer), and Jester (Johnny Rotten).
  • Season 7: Miss Teddy (Jennifer Holliday).
  • Season 8: Knight (William Shatner), Hedgehog (Eric Idle), Mummies (the three Brady brothers), Mermaid (Gloria Gaynor), and Gopher (George Clinton).
  • Season 9: Gnome (Dick Van Dyke), Polar Bear (Grandmaster Flash), Wolf (Michael Bolton), and Doll (Dee Snider).
  • Season 10: Royal Hen (Billie Jean King) and Anteater (John Oates).
  • Season 11: Ugly Sweater (Charlie Wilson) and Miss Cleocatra (Jenifer Lewis).
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Played for laughs in season 2.
  • Guest judge Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (a rottweiler himself) "confessed" to walking out on Rottweiler's mom.
  • The Monster got to be guest judge due to winning season 1, whereupon he outright addressed Thingamajig as "son". Granted he was out of costume and judging as T-Pain, but still.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: Most of the time, after a contestant's performance, Nick addresses the panel, telling them: "Talk to the [X]".
• Mask of Confidence: Many singers have commented on how liberating it is to perform anonymously and get away from their existing reputations.
• The Men in Black: The show started out by selling its heavily-guarded nature, with bodyguards in the appropriate black suits and shades - who just goof around during clue packages, give out the occasional physical clue, and act as Living Props during the whole show, while certain behind-the-scenes videos show that the actual security is a lot more mundane and less obtrusive.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Strip away all the theatrics and you have what is, in practice, a televised and hyped up game of karaoke.
• Muppet Cameo:
  • Kermit's appearance as the Snail in Season 5 is one of the more insane ones.
  • Season 8 had an entire Muppet-themed night, so appearances from the troupe was inevitable: Miss Piggy appeared as a guest panelist, Kermit performed the opening number and made other sporadic appearances, Fozzie was a backstage correspondent, and Uncle Deadly, Crazy Harry, Animal, and the Snowths made additional cameos.
  • Season 9 similarly had a Sesame Street night, with many of the Muppet cast appearing and themed performances.
• Mythology Gag: In the final episode of each season, Nick Cannon proudly declares each winner as the "king/queen of the Masked Singers", alluding to the original show title.
• No OSHA Compliance: There's something to be said about Nick being allowed to fire a t-shirt cannon at the panel in Season 5. Apparently the intention was to make the t-shirts unravel and catch enough air to reach a harmless speed, but two of the shots end up going wide, and not at a harmless speed at all.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Turns out, Nicole knew from the very beginning of Season 6 that Bull was Todrick Hall, she just kept it under wraps until it was revealed as her First Impression guess so as to not tip the others off.
• Once a Season:
  • Joel McHale is a guest panelist in at least one episode of each season (with the exception of the seventh).
  • Ken Jeong making at least one spot-on guess, as well as being unable to guess when it's someone he actually knows personally. For the former, he managed to sniff out Unicorn, Thingamajig, Rhino, Squiggly Monster, Whatchamacallit, Jellyfish, Crab, Octopus, Banana Split, Lemur, Fortune Teller, Rock Lobster, and Dandelion^note and was the only person to guess Unicorn, Thingamajig, Whatchamacallit, Octopus, Lemur, Fortune Teller, Rock Lobster and Dandelion. For the latter, he failed to identify Poodle, Tree, Swan, Cluedle-Doo, Hamster, Squirrel and Lamp. Ironically, Jellyfish revealed that she tried to DM Ken one time and he never even knew, technically putting her in the latter category.
  • At least one Living Legend is hidden among the singers in each season (the full list is detailed above).
  • From seasons 1-5, Jamie Foxx being brought up in some way. He's been guessed as possible contestants for seasons 1, 2, 4, and 5, and season 3 had him as the first guest panelist, possibly to dispel the idea he was competing that season. During that appearance he goes on rant about how such attention from the show has been affecting his personal life, including his mother placing bets on him being a contestant. And Season 5 featured a "swear jar" equivalent in which he's one of the names that offending panelists have to put money in every time they make a most often heard celeb guess. Subverted in Season 6 when no one guessed his name nor did he turn out to be a contestant.
  • There's at least one Monster-type costume among most seasons' ranks.^note Season 1 had Monster, Season 2 had Thingamajig, Season 3 had Miss Monster, Season 4 had Whatchamacallit and Squiggly Monster, Season 5 had Grandpa Monster, Season 7 had Thingamabob and Cyclops, Season 8 had Sir Bug a Boo, Season 9 had Gargoyle and Season 10 had Cuddle Monster. Subverted in Season 6 where no Monsters are present.
  • A Clip Show packaging prior performances.
  • A contestant who specializes in rapping is common since season 3 (Frog, Dragon, Whatchamacallit, Chameleon, and Dalmatian).
• One-Hit Wonder:invoked Season 10 has an episode dedicated to these songs.
• Opening Shout-Out: Season 11's TV Theme Song Night concludes with a duel featuring The Masked Singer's own theme song, "Who Are You" by The Who.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Some rounds, especially as the season nears it's end, have no bad or mediocre performances, meaning that instead of being the worst that night, the person going home is often the one with the "least good" performance.

P-Z

• Phrase Catcher:
  • Whenever it's time for each contestant to unmask themselves, everyone encourages them by saying "TAKE IT OFF!".
  • Starting in Season 7, Ken is occasionally met by the crowd (and panel) shouting "NO, KEN!" (sometimes egged on by Nick) when he makes an exceptionally bad guess of someone's identity.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: "New Masks on the Block" and "Another Mask Bites the Dust".
• Pre Cap: Every episode has at least one of them, at the beginning and before/after the commercial breaks.
• Product Placement: Parodied with Season 7's clue packages (affectionately called "cluemercials").
• Pun-Based Title: The fifth episode, "Mix and Masks". It's become more common in Season 2, with titles like "Mask Us Anything", "Mask-ish", "Mask and You Shall Receive", and "A Pain in the Mask".
• Propeller Hat of Whimsy: The Piglet, a contestant in season five, has a perpetually spinning propeller beanie as part of his costume, which is deliberately designed to look childish.
• Pungeon Master:
  • Robin Thicke is primarily a songwriter, so this comes naturally for him.
  • Nick often gets up to this as the host, and in Season 3 Episode 10 he earns some kind of gold medal with this one:
    (re: Frog) Did you find our judges' guesses a tad pole-arising?
• Punny Name: Season 5 episode 6 has Nick dealing out physical clues by shooting them out of a dolled up t-shirt cannon, which he named "the Nick Cannon". Also overlaps with Visual Pun.
• A Rare Sentence: Episode 6 of the first season.
  Nick: Up next, the Raven and the Monster... On what other show can you say that?
• Recap Episode: Sing-alongs are generally just repeat performances by contestants while recapping some of what happened before. The first was introduced as a sort of filler episode to help pad out season 3, which was being enjoyed by countless families at home during the COVID-19 quarantine, and it was a popular enough concept that it's been done in each season since.
• Refuge in Audacity: The Masked Singer is the only show where you can see Sarah Palin in a bear costume rapping "Baby Got Back" and Larry the Cable Guy as a big baby singing the theme song from The Flintstones!
• Right for the Wrong Reasons:
  • In the Season 3 semifinals, Ken Jeong, who had been adamant for a while that Rhino was once on the show JAG, deduces that the globes shown in one of Rhino's clues refers to JAG being the best show in the world at that time. Not surprisingly, no one takes it seriously. While the globes refer to baseball pitcher Barry Zito going to the World Series, Ken not only correctly guessed it was him, but Zito had in fact guest-starred once on JAG. Along those lines, right afterwards Nicole dismisses Ken's Rhino guess, saying he has to be a singer with his vocal skills. Zito is more widely known for baseball, but also began a music career, having released a few recordings and written multiple song tracks.
  • Early on in Season 5, Nicole guesses that the Chameleon is Nick Cannon, who had been away from hosting due to illness. While she was wrong about that particular guess, she was right to suspect that Nick was one of the contestants - specifically the Bulldog.
  • Similarly to the above, in Season 6, Robin's first impression guess for Mallard is Larry the Cable Guy and while he was wrong about him being the Mallard, he was correct Larry was competing, only as the Baby.
  • In Season 8, Jenny picked up on some Ghostbusters clues for Sir Bug a Boo, and began to guess that he was Ernie Hudson (Winston's actor) as a result. While she was correct about the Ghostbusters clues, Bug a Boo turned out to be Ray Parker Jr. (who sang the titular theme song) instead.
  • In Season 9, Robin found some clues related to the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers in the Gargoyle's clue packages, and used them as his reasoning for both of his final guesses for him: Antonio Gates and Joey Bosa. While Robin was correct about the Chargers clues, they ultimately were referring to another member of the team, Keenan Allen.
  • In Season 11, Rita picks up on a couple clues for Spaghetti and Meatballs that hint towards them being a celebrity chef with a big show, leading her to guess Gordon Ramsay. It's actually Gordon's fellow MasterChef host, Joe Bastianich.
• Running Gag:
  • Ken hamming up his predictions. Season 4 extends the gag in some episodes, where he goes on for so long that everybody falls asleep or the other judges start trying to physically shut him up.
  • Nick's former marriage to Mariah Carey comes up a lot, especially in the second season. By Seasons 8 and 9, this has shifted to teasing him about the number of kids he's fathered.
  • Nick getting swatted by some of the more elaborate costumes.
  • Robin's puns.
  • During the Championships of each group in Season 3, the four contestants from each group give three of the judges and the guest judge something (a Valentine, a friendship bracelet, and a LEGO model) that connects them to their identity. Ken Jeong is left out for all twelve of these gifts, which actually leads to another running gag - thanks to Nick Cannon throwing a few bones his way as a direct result, Ken started calling Nick "daddy", which has lasted in future seasons. And in the season after that, guest host Niecy Nash gets to be Ken's "mommy".
  • Starting from Season 7, whenever Ken makes a particularly ridiculous guess, the audience proceeds to yell out "No Ken!".
• Running Gagged: Season 5 starts off with the absence of Nick Cannon, who made sure to send a "swear jar" of sorts to the set that offending panelists have to put money in every time they make one of the most often heard guesses from the series thus far, like Jamie Foxx and Bjork. Eventually the guys start treating it like a betting pot.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • After his first performance in Season 4, Gremlin decided to unmask himself then and there and quit the competition, having had enough of the uncomfortable costume.
  • This was Ken's reaction to seeing Rudy Giuliani on Season 7, since he wasn't too fond of the contestant.
• Secret Identity Vocal Shift: When not actively singing, each of the contestants speak with a usually high-pitched (or in some cases lower-pitched) electronic voice filter.
• Serial Escalation:
  • The costumes slowly get more and more bizarre with each season, as does the A-list factor of the competing celebrities. Additionally, each season adds at least one new thing to the show's formula. Even the production team went on record saying that they had to elevate themselves and push the boundaries with every season.
  • For the first three seasons, the costume count increased with each passing one. The first season has 12 costumes, the second had 16, and the third had 18. Afterwards, the following seasons fluctuated between 14 and 16 contestants—until the eighth season surpassed the third in terms of costumes, with 22, thanks to a new format with more eliminations per episode.
  • The first group costume on the show, the Snow Owls, consisted of two people. The following season, the Russian Dolls gave us a three-man group. Afterwards, group costumes fluctuated between two and three people, until the California Roll gave us a group of five (notably, the largest group costume in the history of the Masked Singer franchise).
  • Originally, Thingamajig was labeled as the tallest costume in the show's history. This record would be broken every one to two seasons: first by White Tiger, then by Giraffe, Octopus, Venus Fly Trap, and Cuddle Monster.
• Series Mascot: Two unofficial ones:
  • The Monster, the winner of the show's first season, who is usually front and center in promotional material starring himself. Each following season aside from 6 also had their own versions of him.
  • Ken Jeong, who's not only in The Masked Dancer as a panelist again, but was also a panelist on the first season of The Masked Singer (UK), and appeared a guest on the Korean series.
• Shipping: Comes up In-Universe.
  • Several contestants have jokingly flirted with Nick, but none more so than the Leopard (who, it should be noted, is a male in drag), who claimed that they'd gotten married and presented house plans for their new "dream home" as a clue one week. Nick gleefully plays along with this.
  • Upon hearing his gorgeous singing voice, Nicole immediately tells the Thingamajig that she'd gladly date him, even in the mask. Cue the two flirting for several episodes, including Thingamajig singing "I Just Haven't Met You Yet" and dedicating it to her, and her referring to him as her "future husband." When he's unmasked, Thingamajig's secret identity, Victor Oladipo, is quick to say that, on the off-chance she was serious, he'd be happy to go out with her.
• Shout-Out:
  • Piglet's clue package reveals that someone (represented by a spider) in his past gave him a new lease on life, nodding to the premise of Charlotte's Web.
  • Cluedle-Doo interrupts the show itself with a hijacking frequency that creates fuzzy static and an old-fashioned "Please Stand By" message, similar to the then-recent WandaVision. What sells the reference is that the episode introducing him to the panel includes a jaunty little Villain Song in the same vein as "Agatha All Along".
    • In a similar vein, season 6 introduces a foot-wide animated mascot called Miss Masky, a blatant Captain Ersatz of Miss Minutes from Loki.
  • A promo for season six is a reference to Squid Game, where Baby takes the place of the girl robot from "Red Light, Green Light" and blasts anyone who had been unmasked at that point in the game.
  • Season 7 separates the singers into 3 groups for the first time, designated as The Good, The Bad and The Cuddly.
  • Episode 4 of Season 7 has Nick ride in on a microphone themed variant of the Iron Throne.
  • When they're introduced, the Lambs are stated to dislike silence—as in The Silence of the Lambs.
  • On 80's Night, Nick's outfit is said to be styled by Rainbow Brite.
  • Before Movie Night's Battle Royale, Nicole does a reenactment of AMC Theatres's famous commercial starring Nicole Kidman.
  • The clues for British Invasion Night is delivered by a Man in Black named Gerard the Butler. In fact, Gerard's introduction fully lampshades this trope.
• Sinister Silhouettes: The four Wildcards are depicted this way during the Season 5 introduction.
• Small Reference Pools: Season 3. Rhino's Navy-related clues led to Ken guessing that he was somehow connected to JAG, a show that nobody else on the panel seems to remember - which bites them in their collective asses when Rhino is revealed as Barry Zito, who did indeed have a guest appearance in that show. Even he was baffled as to how Ken worked that out.
• Spin-Off:
  • In January 2020, Fox announced that it had ordered a dance-centric spin-off, which will be executive produced by Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen had already done The Masked Dancer as a segment on her talk show to parody the series, always noting that Fox hadn't sued them yet. The series debuted in December, after Season 4 of Singer ended.
  • Fox acquired another South Korean music format, I Can See Your Voice (a game show where contestants must distinguish good and bad singers without ever hearing them sing), put Ken in as host, and aired it alongside Season 4 — seemingly positioning it as a de facto sister.
  • Alongside Season 6 came Alter Ego (2021), a similar "masked" singing competition. Fox aired them alongside one another and they shared a special preview episode.
• Squee: Jenny reacts like this in the Season 1 finale when Monster is revealed to be T-Pain.
  • Ken also gets a squee moment when Poodle is revealed to be Margaret Cho, his one-time co-star.
  • Jenny squees again in Season 5 when Cluedle-Doo is revealed to be none other than her husband, Donnie Wahlberg.
• Still Got It: While it isn't out right said by anyone, several older or retired singers prove that they can still sing just as good as in their prime in spite of singing in different genres and wearing heavy costumes. Easily the best example is the Bee aka the 76 year old Gladys Knight who came in a very close third place in Season 1.
• The Stoic: The Men in Black usually have the same stone-faced expression whenever they appear during the show, befitting their occupation. That being said, they do express more during the clue packages and performances themselves.
• Studded Shell: Season 3's 2nd place contestant was the Turtle, who sports a shell adorned with large silver spikes. Downplayed as it's a singing competition, and the spikes are for aesthetics rather than combat: the Turtle goes for a punk-rocker theme, dressed in all black leather with silver studs and the spikes on his head shaped like a mohawk. Unmasked in the finale and revealed to be Jesse Mc Cartney.
• Technician vs. Performer: Season 6's final contestants are Queen of Hearts and Bull. Both are good singers, but they each have a different style. Queen of Hearts is the Technician, relying solely on her voice to carry her performances with most of her movements on stage being walking or swaying, leading to a series of heartfelt performances. Bull is the Performer as, while he is a very talented singer, he also works a ton of dancing and choreography into his songs, leading to a series of energetic and fun performances. The revelation of their identities explains why: Queen of Hearts is Jewel, best known for her stripped-down, vocal-focused performance style and songwriting, while Bull is Todrick Hall, who has a background in YouTube videos, acting, and visual albums. It was ultimately Jewel who won the competition.
• Tempting Fate: One week after Ken Jeong managed to guess who was the Unicorn, he's strutting around proudly with a gold crown and shades, and insisting on being called "Dr. Reigning Champ". To nobody's surprise, he guesses wrong at the end and Robin Thicke, who makes the one right guess this time, seizes the crown.
  Ken: I demand a recount!
• Thematic Theme Tune: The Who's "Who Are You", fitting for a series where the identity of each contestant is concealed until their elimination. (To drive this home further, it's also played during each unmasking.)
• Token Evil Teammate: In Season 7's "Good, Bad, and Cuddly" setup, Jenny is the sole judge to be supporting team Bad.
• Top Ten List: A special episode aired during season six counted down the top ten best performance of the show so far. In order, the list was:
  • 10. Peacock's "The Greatest Show"
  • 9. Yeti's "Lonely"
  • 8. Seahorse's "My Heart Will Go On"
  • 7. Thingamajig's "Rainbow"
  • 6. Frog's "Jump"
  • 5. Bee's "Wrecking Ball"
  • 4. Turtle's "Fix You"
  • 3. Sun's "When The Party's Over"
  • 2. Fox's "Try A Little Tenderness"
  • 1. Monster's "Stay With Me"
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • Due to some performances being used in trailers, it reveals that the singer has to make to until at least the round they sing that song in.
  • Not only was Monster's "Stay With Me" one of the first ones in the promos and one of the songs in the second last episode, it was widely agreed to be one of the high points of the season.
  • The YouTube channel for the show spoiled that Chameleon would be taking third place by showing his first impression guesses with a glimpse of the other two contestants heading backstage.
  • For the eight, ninth, and tenth episodes of Season 6, the full images of the elimination ceremony were shown with all the contestants on stage, revealing that the Take It Off Buzzer would fail to eliminate anyone. In Episode 8, Jenny decides not to press it at the last minute for Caterpillar, in Episode 9, Ken presses it on Pepper but guesses wrong, and in Episode 10, Jenny presses it on Caterpillar but also guesses wrong.
  • A video for Season 7 spoiled that Group A's finalists would consist of Thingamabob, Cyclops, and Firefly.
• Triumphant Reprise: When the winner is announced, one of their songs is played as they take their trophy. Averted in Season 7, where the show just plays "The Greatest" instead of one of Firefly's songs.
• The Trope Formerly Known as X: After each unmasking, Nick always refer to each unmasked celebrity as "the artist formerly known as [the name of their costume]".
• True Companions: In spite of how much they all like to raze each other, several episodes make it clear that the panel and Nick are all as close as can be and they all openly refer to each other as family.
• The Unmasking: The contestant who receives the fewest votes is eliminated, and gets to take off their mask to reveal their identity.
• The Unreveal: Due to the nature of their eliminations, it was never revealed what the first impression guesses for Gremlin and Bulldog were.
• Vaudeville Hook: In a Season 4 episode, while Ken (as always) does his prolonged guess for Baby Alien, Jenny ends up doing this to him so he could stop.
• Visual Pun: In season 7, special guest Eric Stonestreet is here to promote Domino Masters, strutting on stage with a huge domino over his face. It's literally a Domino Mask.
• The Voiceless: The Men in Black, as well as nearly any clue-giver that isn't a celebrity (the exception being the magician from Queen Night), never speak on the show.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: McTerrier's first and only performance ended in him accidentally stumbling, resulting in his mask falling off. Thankfully, he managed to turn away the moment the mask fell off, allowing for his identity to not be prematurely revealed.
• Waxing Lyrical: At some point the song choices were confirmed before the clue packages were filmed, allowing for this.
  Peacock: I want this [trophy] so much, I can't feel my face.
• Wham Episode:
  • Season 4, episode 2. For the first time ever, a contestant willingly eliminates themselves out of the competition.
  • There's been a lot of buzz over season 4 having the strongest lineup yet, and episode 8 reflects that by raising the stakes with a double elimination that reduces the Group B singers by half.
  • Season 5, episode 5. During the elimination ceremony, guest host Niecy Nash reveals that she will choose who gets unmasked, rather than the panelists and audience. She chooses the Bulldog, who made his debut in the episode, and tells him to unmask immediately without even allowing the other contestants to leave the stage. Bulldog complies... and reveals himself to be none other than Nick Cannon, ready to resume duties as the show's host!
• Wham Line:
  • One line from Gremlin that changes everything on the show: "I wanna take this off right now."
  • Another from the contestant formerly known as Porcupine that reveals that names are subject to change, too. "I’m so sorry. Porcupine? That is not my name. Y'all don't know? My name is Robopine."
  • During Season 6's Group A semifinals, Ken appears to be going on another spiel about who he thinks Pepper is—but then he says something that shows that it isn't just another madcap guess: "Where's the Take It Off Buzzer?" Fortunately, he turns out to be wrong.
• Wham Shot:
  • Snail's unmasking in Season 5. "Who Are You" finishes playing, the big hat is removed... and there's no one in the costume. The entire set goes dead silent in bewilderment. This is followed by two rather familiar green hands creeping out onto the Snail's shell... and everyone watching goes wild.
  • From the Season 6 Wham Line above, it might be hard to buy, considering that there was a fake out with Jenny the prior episode relating to the buzzer. So it might come as a shock to see Ken actually press it.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Several costumes are outwardly female, yet the singers inside them are male. So far, these include the Leopard, the Mushroom, the Russian Dolls, the Maize, the Bride, the Doll, and the Cow.
• Wild Card: Several seasons included the concept of wildcard contestants. These contestants are not part of the original lineup of the season; rather, they appear at the end (or, in one case, beginning) of several episodes of the season to try and join the competition for the Golden Mask.
• World of Pun: Puns are all over the place, be they from Robin, Nick, or the clue packages. The show's social media accounts take this trope into overdrive, with nearly every post of theirs containing a pun relating to one of the many costumes on the show.
• Yank the Dog's Chain:
  • When it came time for the Phoenix's unmasking, Ken's First Impression guess was revealed to be Caitlyn Jenner. At the last minute, Ken changes his final guess to RuPaul. Lo and behold, Caitlyn Jenner was unmasked at the Phoenix, costing Ken a correct final guess. That being said, he still manages to earn a point for the Golden Ear due to his First Impression being correct, softening the blow.
  • Both Pepper and Caterpillar were both subject to the Take It Off Buzzer, risking an early elimination for both of them. Thankfully, the guesses for both costumes were wrong, allowing them to stay in the competition... only for both of them to be eliminated properly those same nights.
  • In an almost literal version of this, McTerrier had an elimination scare due to tripping and knocking his mask off. He narrowly managed to hide himself and it was confirmed that no one saw him, allowing him to remain in the game... only to wind up getting booted that night and unmasked for real.

---