Markup View

Author: liz99

May 20th 2013 at 10:28:36 AM

I think it's similar to "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" adage. This is where characters think they are talking to one person when they are not the person they represent.

Three examples come immediately to mind:

Film: Live Action

You've Got Mail: The two antagonists disliked each other but were starting a romance online under their AOL usernames. The resolution of the movie rested on whether the woman would accept the man for his online persona rather than the negative first impression she had of him and what he represented (big box stores).

TV: Live Action

How I Met Your Mother: It's revealed that Ted met his date "Blah Blah" online. In the short epilogue, it's shown that they met on World of Warcraft where Ted's character is a sexy female and hers is a hulky warrior.

Friends: Chandler carries on an increasingly intense online romance with a woman he met on the Internet. It gets to the point where they think they should meet and it turns out that the dream woman is his old girlfriend, the annoying Janice.

I looked for an existing trope on this plot twist--fictional relationships based on online identities that are ambiguous or that obscure a person's real name/gender--but I couldn't find one.