History Main / AlterEgoActing

* Related: sometimes avatars in the online virtual reality SecondLife refer to their "typists" (or similar terms), making a distinction between the character and the human playing him/her/it: e.g. "Sorry I have to go, but my typist is making me go to bed." The consistency with which this convention is applied varies greatly, with some always maintaining character and others using it as an occasional joke.

** Sarah Wilson [[http://www.formspring.me/PushingUpRoses/q/258306522151396189 admitted that]] PushingUpRoses is [[GenkiGirl happier]] and more childish than herself.

** It got really interesting at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, where the Fake!Colbert "[[TakeThat praised]]" UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush's administration ("'Oh, they're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.' First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg!").

* A lot of anniversary specials for cartoon characters (particularly the Warner Bros. characters) will portray them as actual people, even when interviews are done with the directors, animators, and voice actors, none of whom bother to continue with the charade (which make the proceedings all the more confusing). They even go as far as to have celebrities give anecdotes about occasions where [[{{Bugs Bunny}} Bugs]], [[{{Daffy Duck}} Daffy]], and the rest worked with them or met their families.

* The personalities on [[Website/{{Cracked}} Cracked.com]] are starting to fall into a very labyrinthine version of this. Dan O'Brien is [[http://www.cracked.com/forums/index.php?topic=71359.msg1642460#msg1642460 on record]] that his and Michael Swaim's characters in ''AgentsOfCracked'' (or their similar but more toned-down counterparts on ''After Hours'') are nothing like them. He ''also'' says that his column-writing persona and Swaim's ''Cracked TV''/''Does Not Compute'' character are ''also'' nothing like them either.

* Sometimes {{GWAR}} appears out of costume as RAWG; other times, they [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWRKlNlRsgI appear in costume and in character on daytime TV]], where HilarityEnsues.

* The major cast of ''TrailerParkBoys'' appear in character almost constantly, even including "behind the scenes" commentary on the DVD for the show.

** A strange example of this: on Australian program Rove Live, Sacha was playing Film/{{Bruno}} while promoting the film of the same name. When Rove did his usual "20 bucks in 20 seconds" questionnaire, his final question was for Bruno to tell Rove what he thought of a picture of Borat, to which Bruno replied that Borat was "an incredibly racist stereotype" and "he's played by Sacha Baron-whatever, right? Yeah, he really can't act", so that's what, a double subversion as well as playing it straight?

** Played with during the Muppet appearance on ''Series/TheWestWing.'' Nobody broke character or showed the puppeteers behind the puppets.

* The members of Finnish heavy metal band {{Lordi}} make all of their public appearances in the elaborate monster costumes they wear onstage, and have gone to unusual lengths to keep their real names secret from the public. (Indeed, the band's first demo video has never been released to the public because it shows the singer, "Mr. Lordi", with no mask.)

* John Lydon invented the [[Music/TheSexPistols Johnny Rotten]] persona to handle public appearances, as he (Rotten) says he's (Lydon) extremely shy in real life. Depending on whether he's promoting Music/TheSexPistols and gonzo work or PublicImageLtd, he appears as either Rotten or Lydon.

* Daniel Handler shows up at "[[ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents Lemony Snicket's]]" book signings as a [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis representative of Mr. Snicket]], or sometimes "Mr. Snicket's Handler", and tells fans that the author was detained by some unfortunate accident. This is a slight variation, since while Handler writes under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket, he never "plays" Snicket in public. He would occasionally give an interview where he acknowledged Snicket's fictionality, making him a type 3 as well.

** This one varies. Sometimes, the appearance on the talk show/cooking show/other show has the characters appear and does its best to hide the puppeteer(s). Other times (more rarely, but mostly with Henson himself, Frank Oz, and the majority of guest Muppet performers at the MuppetFest convention in 2001), the puppeteer and puppet will co-exist, with the puppeteers talking about their character while still slipping back into character to talk with the host/moderator(s), any other characters making an appearance, or [[TalkingToHimself the puppeteer him/herself]]. ([[MindScrew It's a little trippy, which is probably just how Henson liked it.]]). Lastly (and most rarely), it's just the puppeteer, which mostly happens on Muppet fansites (though even then it can slip into the second type).

*** But [[AvertedTrope averted]] by TheSpoonyOne, whom everyone has confirmed to be exactly the same [[BlackComedyRape (with a couple]] [[FanHater obvious]] [[http://spoonyexperiment.com/2009/02/19/fanboys-are-mine-to-toy-with-old-man/ exceptions)]] in RealLife as he is on camera. There is little functional difference between "Spoony" and Creator/NoahAntwiler.

* An odd example lies on the show ParksAndRecreation where the character Andy becomes "Bert Macklin, FBI agent" when approached with a situation that might involve some form of detective work.

** But [[AvertedTrope averted]] by TheSpoonyOne, whom everyone has confirmed to be exactly the same [[BlackComedyRape (with a couple]] [[FanHater obvious]] [[http://spoonyexperiment.com/2009/02/19/fanboys-are-mine-to-toy-with-old-man/ exceptions)]] in RealLife as he is on camera. There is little functional difference between "Spoony" and Creator/NoahAntwiler.

* Caused a major media shitstorm in the UK in 2014 when WebOriginal/{{Vine}} artist Dapper Laughs got his own [=ITV2=] show, ''On The Pull with Dapper Laughs'', a dating show in which he gave various men advice in getting girls. When {{Twitter}} had a collective meltdown about the [[UnfortunateImplications sexist]] content, Dapper Laughs' use of RapeAsComedy and the fact that a lot of his fans were the sort of people who [[{{GIFT}} send abuse to women online]], ITV pulled the show and Laughs was invited on the news to apologise. He appeared as 'himself' and explained that Dapper Laughs was just a character, that he didn't realise people took so seriously - prompting a certain amount of debate as to whether using an ironic 'character' made awful content acceptable.

In ''WebVideo/SomeJerkWithACamera'', the Jerk is at least somewhat fictional, but he has been referred to as "Tony Goldmark", and takes credit for pre-Jerk works of Tony's.

** WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows stated that "I may exaggerate my anger a little, but I'm not a good enough actor to adopt a different persona." There is still a difference between Todd Nathanson and Todd In The Shadows, as the real Todd is friendly with the real cast and dating [[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick Lindsay Ellis]],making him happy, romantic and positive about life, while the character is still a sad, pathetic, rather creepy StalkerWithACrush for WebVideo/ObscurusLupa and obnoxious to the rest of TGWTG.

** But [[AvertedTrope averted]] by TheSpoonyOne, whom everyone has confirmed to be exactly the same [[BlackComedyRape (with a couple]] [[FanHater obvious]] [[http://spoonyexperiment.com/2009/02/19/fanboys-are-mine-to-toy-with-old-man/ exceptions)]] in RealLife as he is on camera. There is little functional difference between "Spoony" and NoahAntwiler.

* Creator/TomBaker kept up the persona of the fourth Doctor during his time on ''Series/DoctorWho'', and if fans met him in the street, he always tried to make sure they met the Doctor. Even when speaking in first person about acting and doing the job, he would often refer to 'Tom Baker' in the third person to refer to the person who he ''used'' to be. The interview with him on ''Swap Shop'' (included as a special feature on the DVD of "The Hand of Fear") shows Noel Edmunds, the interviewer, becoming clearly disquieted by this, and several times asking Tom to drop the persona. There are also several points in the interview where confusion arises over whether people are asking the actor or the Doctor questions, causing Tom to give ambiguous answers in the Doctor persona with blatant RealitySubtext ("I can't remember my age... sometimes I feel like I'm over 700 years old and sometimes I feel like I'm 42"). Done in the long term that it was, and not helped by the fact that the Doctor's personality in that incarnation was based on his own, it caused the line between the Doctor and the real Tom to become very blurry to the point where even forty years later he occasionally speaks of his difficulty separating them. It also had deleterious effects on his mental health, causing InsecuritySuperiorityComplex, [[LostInCharacter occasional delusions]] and [[CreatorBreakdown drastic shifts in his on-screen personality]].

* Creator/TomBaker kept up the persona of the fourth Doctor during his time on ''Series/DoctorWho'', and if fans met him in the street, he always tried to make sure they met the Doctor. Even when speaking in first person about acting and doing the job, he would often refer to 'Tom Baker' in the third person to refer to the person who he ''used'' to be. The interview with him on ''Swap Shop'' (included as a special feature on the DVD of "The Hand of Fear") shows Noel Edmunds, the interviewer, becoming clearly disquieted by this, and several times asking Tom to drop the persona. There are also several points in the interview where confusion arises over whether people are asking the actor or the Doctor questions, causing Tom to give ambiguous answers in the Doctor persona with blatant RealitySubtext ("I can't remember my age... sometimes I feel like I'm over 700 years old and sometimes I feel like I'm 42").

* Anthony Fantano of the music review {{The Needle Drop}} has a slightly offbeat silly "roommate" Cal Chuchesta, that pops up [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXcbNP9i2jw time to time]] and sometimes gets [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm-Y6U3d7W8 his own reviews]].

* {{Larry the Cable Guy}} used to simply be a role Daniel Lawrence Whitney would use on stage in his comedy routine, but it eventually took over his entire persona in all work he did - film, television, interviews, et cetera. He even wrote a book in-character, littered with grammatical errors. Whitney will usually break character for a few seconds once or twice per show as part of a joke.