History Main / BeneathNotice

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': Sideral Exalted occasionally [[MasterofDisguise cast themselves]] as forgettable extras, such as a town drunk or local guardsman, and even gain massive bonuses for doing so. [[AncientConspiracy And yet it is through these disguises]] that they essentially [[TheManBehindtheMan rule Creation from behind the scenes]].
* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': While other Demon Princes rant, rave and monologue, Kronos stands quietly in the background, ignoring the politics of the Pit and slowly turning the world to rot.
* ''TabletopGame/JamesBond007'': It's [[PointBuildSystem more expensive]] to build an average-looking character than a good-looking one, partly for game balance (blending into the crowd is [[InvokedTrope a very useful tactic for a spy]]) and partly to encourage players to go along with the larger-than-life genre.
* ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'':

* In ''TabletopGame/SeventhSea'', the Servant skill has a Knack (sub-skill) called Unobtrusive, which relies on this trope.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': Often used by runners infiltrating corporate facilities.
** Common in Shadowrun fiction also. In one of the first short stories written for the setting, a fugitive from the yakuza is successfully smuggled past a cordon of street thugs, all of them on high alert, because her escort [[spoiler:bribed a pizza deliveryman to let them borrow his van]].
* Mostly averted in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', where many Inquisitors use disguises to get around without raising suspicion but due to a regrettable lack of imagination, many of them go around as [[IntrepidMerchant Rogue]] [[SpacePirate Traders]], and there's [[Literature/CiaphasCain one]] whose cover was a DumbBlonde GlamorousWartimeSinger. She was smart enough to get an actual Rogue Trader to hang around and be suspicious.

** "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS1E5BrokenMirror Broken Mirror]]" and "The Crossing" both deal with erotomaniac stalkers, people who have casual contact with a person (or even just see them on TV) and become convinced that they're secretly in love or even in a relationship. The team has to delve into the victims' lives and look at ''everyone'' they've been in contact with since the harassment started, and the stalker never even registers. In "Broken Mirror," the victim's father is aware of the stalker, but considers him a casual associate at best and doesn't think to mention the access that he and his coworkers have to the family; in "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS3E18TheCrossing The Crossing]]", the victim only remembers her previous meeting with the stalker after the adrenaline of the final confrontation wears off, and [[OnceMoreWithClarity a chilling montage plays scenes from earlier in the episode]] showing that, not only was he always around without her being noticed, he was always around in situations where she was casually (albeit somewhat reluctantly) discussing personal information: confirming her address at a pharmacy, giving her phone number for account tracking at a dry cleaner, etc. so not only was the stalker beneath notice, the ways he was able to track and violate her didn't even register as concerning.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Eviless enjoys that her slaver position is so low in the Saturnian Empire's hierarchy that her failures will be blamed on her superiors and they will get punished for them while she goes free. She spends her first several appearances just blending in with the other slavers and not bringing any extra attention to herself, not even being named, even though she's far more sadistic than the rest and has developed a business deal with Hypnota that gets her loads of human slaves with their minds already broken packed like sardines in boxes letting her be far more effective than other slavers for far less effort.

* In the ''Series/{{Alphas}}'' episode "Rosetta" the team encounters an autistic woman during a raid on a terrorist safe-house who has the power to understand and translate all languages she hears, instantly, and figure that the terrorists have been exploiting the woman to encode and decode their secret messages. The woman volunteers to assist them in catching the terrorists and seems to be helping until Gary notices she's been intentionally mistranslating the encoded messages by just enough to make it look like she was making minor mistakes. Turns out she wasn't being exploited by the terrorists... she was the leader of this particular terror cell and no one considered she was anything but a victim because of her autism.

** Cassian himself tells about using this trick as a way to steal valuable and sensitive military technology and parts from the Empire. When he describes stealing a valuable MacGuffin in Episode 3, he says that all it takes to steal from the Empire is a [[JanitorImpersonationInfiltration maintenance worker's uniform]], dirty hands, and a standard tool kit, and he can go wherever he wants to at an Imperial shipyard or naval base. He derisively describes the Empire as being too arrogant and complacent to imagine that a petty crook like him could so easily infiltrate and steal from them, or to bother vetting every common worker who comes onto a job site.

* On ''Series/{{Babylon 5}}'', the pak'ma'ra were frequently reviled by other races due to their bizarre cultural and dietary habits. They also tended to be everywhere, often working menial jobs where their presence was ignored as much as possible. Delenn reasoned that this characteristic made them ideal couriers and even infiltrators.

* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': In [[Recap/BrooklynNineNineS4E05HalloweenIV Halloween IV]], Gina was able to spy on everyone else for her plan by wearing one of Amy's pantsuits.

* ''Series/ABlackLadySketchShow'' has "[[https://youtu.be/pULIUqK8Bt4 Invisible Spy]]", in which Trinity exploits this to hilarious effect, including simply walking past a security guard, and is even asked to sign ''her own birthday card'' by a coworker..
-->'''Creator/GinaTorres''': Trinity is incredible. Her regular-looking face makes her nearly invisible in the field, but around here, she's a real legend.
* In Season 1 of ''Series/BreakingBad'', DEA agent Hank is able to trace a stolen gas mask to Walt's inventory, but it never crosses his mind that it was Walt who stole it because he knows him personally and thinks him too meek to be capable of that. Instead, he keeps investigating under the assumption that it was Walt's ''students'' who stole it and never seriously questions him.
* A common tactic on ''Series/BurnNotice'', Michael will sometimes don the uniform of a maintenance worker or such, since nobody thinks to question why a guy from the phone company is fiddling with phone connections.
** A trait it seems he inherited from his dad - Mr. Weston Sr. used to do the same to steal equipment off of work sites.

** A heavily-lampshaded early example is the Tommy Killer in "Plain Sight." The team quickly explains that he has to be white because a black person would stick out in the neighborhoods he's targeting. He turns out to be a utility man: Of course he's moving around in locked-down areas--a service call's a service call. Of course he's carrying duct tape, binding cords, etc. and is able to remove them from the scene--he needs his supplies for work. Of course he's poking around people's houses--he has to check their connections. Of course he's up on utility poles where he can peek into women's bedrooms--that's quite literally his job description.
** "Broken Mirror" and "The Crossing" both deal with erotomaniac stalkers, people who have casual contact with a person (or even just see them on TV) and become convinced that they're secretly in love or even in a relationship. The team has to delve into the victims' lives and look at ''everyone'' they've been in contact with since the harassment started, and the stalker never even registers. In "Broken Mirror," the victim's father is aware of the stalker, but considers him a casual associate at best and doesn't think to mention the access that he and his coworkers have to the family; in "The Crossing," the victim only remembers her previous meeting with the stalker after the adrenaline of the final confrontation wears off, and [[OnceMoreWithClarity a chilling montage plays scenes from earlier in the episode]] showing that, not only was he always around without her being noticed, he was always around in situations where she was casually (albeit somewhat reluctantly) discussing personal information: confirming her address at a pharmacy, giving her phone number for account tracking at a dry cleaner, etc. so not only was the stalker beneath notice, the ways he was able to track and violate her didn't even register as concerning.
* In an episode of ''Series/DealOrNoDeal'' the contestant's daughter, who lives overseas, was one of the "models" holding a case as a special surprise for her mother. Howie had to literally yell at the contestant to look at the model before she caught on.
* An episode of ''Series/Deception2018'' reveals that "Sasha," an infamous Russian mobster, has been posing as the bartender for the club his gang hangs out at. When arresting him, FBI agent Kay openly lampshades how brilliant this was as no one would give the bartender a second look, let alone think he was the boss.
* On ''Series/DesignatedSurvivor'', Hannah is told that a virus in NASA computers was planted by "the plumber." She assumes that's a nickname for some ultra-slick and genius hacker. Partner Chuck informs her that he meant the guy is ''literally'' the plumber, who has security clearance to get into NASA but no one would ever pay attention to, making him the perfect guy to do this.
-->'''Chuck''': All this high-tech security and it's pierced by the guy who unclogs the toilets.
* On ''Series/DropDeadDiva'', Kim is suing a famous Music/LadyGaga style pop diva of stealing her dance routines from a school group. When the defense claims only the star comes up with the routines, Kim claims the woman must have personally videotaped the school performances. The diva's attorney argues that everyone knows the woman on sight so there's no way she could have done this...until Kim forces the woman to remove her outlandish wig and makeup in court. Without those, the diva looks like any average person no one would give a second glance to.
* Invoked by Fallon on ''Series/Dynasty2017'' in how she's surprisingly good at undercover work when she's not flaunting her uber-wealth.
-->'''Fallon''': Digging up insider info is even easier when they assume you work for the airline, instead of owning the plane.

* On ''Series/GoodGirls'', gang leader Rico is ready to kill main characters Beth, Annie and Ruby for unwittingly stealing from the store he was using as a front. Beth manages to talk him down from it by pointing out that killing three suburban mothers is going to bring too much attention to him. Her words make Rico realize that a trio of women with no criminal records and rather plain lives are perfect for him to use for running errands and laundering money in a variety of small-time scams.
** Season 4 proves how well it works as FBI agent Phoebe has been slowly building a case on the girls and hunting them. In a meeting with her superiors, Phoebe is shocked to realize her bosses are operating under the belief that Beth's husband, Dean (an utter sad sack who openly says he doesn't want to know what his wife is up to) is the real criminal mastermind and the wife isn't even on their radar.
* On ''Series/{{Hustle}}'', Ash uses this fairly often in terms of setting up their cons.

* One of the big reasons Villanelle from ''Series/KillingEve '' is such a good assassin is that she's able to blend in as just another random, unassuming, pretty twenty-something woman.

* On ''Series/{{Leverage}}'', while [[ManipulativeBitch Sophie]], [[LargeHam Hardison and Nate]] are more likely to show up people of importance, [[ClassyCatBurglar Parker]] and [[TheBigGuy Eliot]] generally fly under the radar by posing as irrelevant workers. Parker and Eliot are also much less likely to be captured, though that is also due to their respective skill sets allowing them to get out of danger more easily.

** Parker apparently learned this from her mentor [[GentlemanThief Archie]], as he also does this in "The Big Dam Job." As he says, "Nobody ever cuts the cake until someone tells them to cut the cake." [[spoiler: He was stealing a sword from an exhibit on opening night by smuggling it out through a fake cake, appearing as part of the catering staff. Once inside the party, he removed the white catering jacket and was just another gentleman at a nice party with a cane.]]
** This is ''inverted'' in "The Girls' Night Out Job" by the assassin the team is trying to catch. He disguises himself as a waiter, but doesn't put any effort into convincing ''the other catering staff'' that he belongs, which is what gets him caught. Parker's friend Peggy, who coincidentally is in charge of the food for this event, quickly realizes something is off with him after having to correct him on multiple basic errors (like carrying glasses with his fingers ''inside'', a big food service no-no), and points out "the worst waiter ever" to Parker.

* Willy Armitage of ''Series/MissionImpossible'' routinely infiltrated the target location by disguising himself as a janitor or repairman.
* On ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'', most of the guards are busy keeping the opposing factions of white, black and Latina inmates in check, which grants Mei Chang, one of the very few Asian inmates, the freedom to do basically whatever the heck she wants.
* ''Series/{{Poirot}}'', "The Yellow Iris": The murderer at a FancyDinner is revealed to have [[spoiler:slipped away from the dinner table,]] disguised himself as a waiter, and poisoned the victim's wine while refilling people's drinks. When a man at the SummationGathering [[LampshadeHanging voices doubt]] that no one would recognize the murderer, Poirot points out that the waitress serving them coffee is also one of their friends, disguised in uniform.
* Parodied in ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' when Jim Parsons played the Dance Floor Killer. He was a dancer in Soul Train but no one noticed that he is a serial killer no matter how obvious he was. He got so popular that he even got his own dance show. He was only caught when he admitted live on the air that he is a killer. [[KarmaHoudini He has since gotten out of prison and is on Dancing With The Stars]].

** The very first episode has Sherlock and John chase down a cab because they believe the passenger is a murderer. He isn't, [[spoiler:but the driver is. Nobody ever looks at a cabbie]]. Gets a CallBack in season 2, when Sherlock catches a cab and despite his HyperAwareness, fails to realize that it's being driven [[spoiler:by Moriarty]].
** In ''The Great Game'', Sherlock barely glances at [[spoiler:Molly's boyfriend Jim, who turns out to be Moriarty]].
** In [[spoiler:''The Empty Hearse'', when Sherlock returns from the dead]]. He pretends to be the waiter at the restaurant where John is waiting for his girlfriend, intending to suddenly reveal himself and surprise John. Unfortunately for Sherlock's plan, John is so distracted that he pays almost no attention to his "waiter", going so far as to question Sherlock about wines without actually ever looking at him, and Sherlock's initial attempts at a sudden reveal fall completely flat.

** Then done again in the very next episode, ''The Sign of Three'', where [[spoiler:the wedding photographer is the (attempted) murderer. His cover allowed him to go anywhere, not be in any pictures, and no one could describe his face since it was typically hidden by a camera]].
* In the second episode of ''Series/{{Supergirl}}'', Kara worries that ClarkKenting might fool the average person, but surely not her boss, who sees her every day. James points out that Cat ''never'' really sees her.

* ''Fanfic/AGameOfCatAndCat'': The serial killer is [[spoiker:the ghost of a little girl]]. The only reason anyone noticed something's wrong is because [[spoiler:her breath doesn't fog in the cold.]]

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', droids are analogous to slaves. They are bought and sold as property, and almost nobody recognizes them as individuals with rights. Heroic droid R2-D2 turns this to his advantage.
** This saves Artoo and Threepio as they escape Leia's ship at the beginning of ''Film/ANewHope''. An Imperial Gunner is about to destroy their escape pod, but holds his fire when a scan reveals there are no life forms aboard. Surely this Imperial is aware of droids, but considers them no threat.
** Later, Artoo and Threepio can walk the corridors of the Death Star with no disguise. To the imperial troops, the droids might as well be furniture.

* A number of villains in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' operate like this to get away with their schemes, with varying levels of success. [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicStarlightGlimmer Starlight Glimmer]] got away with running a cult for years on the outskirts of the country until the Cutie Map was created and pointed out her town's existence. Ahuizotl's schemes only attract the attention of Daring Do who subsequently passes the stories off as pure fiction, [[spoiler:and it's later revealed the princesses likely leave him alone because he's actually a good guy and probably would have intervened to stop Daring Do had they known the stories were true]]. And [[spoiler[[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicCozyGlow Cozy Glow]]]] managed to make it to the final stages of her plan due to being nothing more than [[spoiler:a child]].

* ''Series/{{Andor}}'': Cassian's mother, Maarva, becomes a radicalized Rebel halfway through the series. Everyone, from the Imperials to her neighbors to her own son, all ignore her as a silly old woman who can't do anything. The Imperials and the Rebels both keep an eye on her in case Cassian comes back for her, but Maarva herself is discounted as unimportant. [[KilledOffScreen Then she dies]], and the climax of the series revolves around her funeral, once again expecting Cassian to come back. Maarva herself is completely ignored (understandably, since she's dead). [[spoiler:Yet it is her final speech, delivered via hologram at her own funeral, that incites the townspeople to riot against the Imperials. This throws every plan into absolute disarray... except for Cassian, who uses the cover to quietly rescue Bix from Imperial custody]].

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Munchkin}}'', some powerful monsters will [[LowLevelAdvantage allow low-level characters to retreat]] without having to make a roll to successfully run away. (However, it's both legal and within the spirit of the game for opponents to play "Go Up a Level" cards to raise your level above the automatic-escape threshold....)

* Sidereal ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' occasionally [[MasterofDisguise cast themselves]] as forgettable extras, such as a town drunk or local guardsman, and even gain massive bonuses for doing so. [[AncientConspiracy And yet it is through these disguises]] that they essentially [[TheManBehindtheMan rule Creation from behind the scenes]].
* In the 1980s ''TabletopGame/JamesBond007'' RPG, it's [[PointBuildSystem more expensive]] to build an average-looking character than a good-looking one, partly for game balance (blending into the crowd is [[InvokedTrope a very useful tactic for a spy]]) and partly to encourage players to go along with the larger-than-life genre.
* The ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'':

* The proletariat, or proles, in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' fall under this trope. Briefly: the novel takes place in the most oppressive police state imaginable, where even ''thinking'' unorthodox thoughts is treason. The whole Party - or ruling caste - is under intense, unending scrutiny. The proles, who are powerless nobodies, are considered too inconsequential to even worry about. Winston and Julia, the protagonist and deuteragonist, consider invoking this trope to evade the Thought Police. This is tevealed to be a subversion in later chapters: The Party is aware that the proles form the bulk of the population, and they know that if they keep proles ignorant by promoting a lifestyle of booze, gambling, and cheap pornography while giving them the impression that they can get away with things Party members can't, the proles will never pose a threat. And just to be totally sure, [[spoiler:they have Thought Police spies embedded within the prole population, one of whom turns in Winston and Julia after he rents them a room over his shop to privately have sex for pleasure (a banned activity)]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', contrasting Bruce's tactic as intentionally masking his identity by creating an IdleRich persona, Terry puts in little to no effort to hide who he actually is simply because nobody ([[SecretKeeper except Max]]) would believe in a million years the nondescript somewhat-delinquent high school student with a part-time job as "Bruce Wayne's house boy" (as one villain described him) could possibly be Batman. Even though he runs around doing ''blatantly'' [[BuffySpeak Batmanesque]] fighting and acrobatics, even when he openly makes the astute observations of a detective, even when he makes absolutely no effort at all to mask or hide his voice and fits the physical description of the new Batman to a T, nobody puts two and two together because he's just so nondescript and such an everyday teen nobody ever even thinks about the possibility. The one time a character took notice that he frequently ditched school and acted suspiciously merely assumed he was running with The Jokerz, she needed a program to do it, and the only reason she noticed at all is she was friends with the guy, and the time he blatantly told his family he was Batman made them crack up with laughter.

* A number of villains in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' operate like this to get away with their schemes, with varying levels of success. Starlight Glimmer got away with running a cult for years on the outskirts of the country until the Cutie Map was created and pointed out her town's existence. Ahuizotl's schemes only attract the attention of Daring Do who subsequently passes the stories off as pure fiction, [[spoiler:and it's later revealed the princesses likely leave him alone because he's actually a good guy and probably would have intervened to stop Daring Do had they known the stories were true]]. And [[spoiler:Cozy Glow]] managed to make it to the final stages of her plan due to being nothing more than [[spoiler:a child]].

One way for a character to evade detection from someone who is looking for them is to disguise themselves, not in a highly elaborate way, but rather as an incredibly plain, ordinary-looking person who isn't worthy of attention. The idea behind such subterfuge is that even if an authority figure comes looking around, they wouldn't demean themselves by looking a commoner straight in the face. Blending into your environment works for chameleons, after all, so why shouldn't it work for humans, too?

This trope appears in many settings with its use generally depending on the values of the time period. In a class-stratified society, it is literally unthinkable for an aristocrat to even consider [[KingIncognito pretending to be a commoner]] simply for the sake of honor, so the idea never even occurs to anybody to look for a commoner. Contrast a modern setting, where rather than a whole underclass, usually certain peripheral professions will be utilized for this. In either case, the SelectiveObliviousness of characters can become a plot point if a character declares that EveryoneIsASuspect in hope of keeping others from failing to notice those usually Beneath Notice.

This is how TheButlerDidIt became such an attractive trope for mysteries that it became an utter cliché: ''Nobody'' notices the butler, and he's usually the most trusted member of the household help.

TheNondescript may be this. May result in TheDogWasTheMastermind. Related to TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse and JanitorImpersonationInfiltration. BeneathSuspicion is a subtrope, but should not be confused with this trope. FlawExploitation and BatmanGambit are supertropes, as successfully pulling this off depends on exploiting the pride of the one being evaded. See also HiddenInPlainSight, RoomDisservice, BathroomSearchExcuse.

* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', [[SerialKiller Yoshikage Kira]] exploited this trope to such an extreme to the point that he's considered TheGenericGuy by many. He deliberately came third in many competitions so he won't get noticed.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}''. Often used by runners infiltrating corporate facilities.
** Common in Shadowrun fiction also. In one of the first short stories written for the setting, a fugitive from the yakuza is successfully smuggled across town past a cordon of street thugs, all of them on high alert, because her escort [[spoiler:bribed a pizza deliveryman to let them borrow his van]].
* Mostly averted in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', where many Inquisitors use disguises to get around without raising suspicion (well, [[Literature/CiaphasCain those who don't go around like a grox in a ceramic shop]], at least), but due to a regrettable lack of imagination, many of them go around as [[IntrepidMerchant Rogue]] [[SpacePirate Traders]], and there's [[Literature/CiaphasCain one]] whose cover was a DumbBlonde GlamorousWartimeSinger. She was smart enough to get an actual Rogue Trader to hang around and be suspicious.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Hitman}}'' series, disguises like repairmen, chefs, waiters, or janitors raise less suspicion from guards. They are, however, a disadvantage to some degree, by restricting the areas you can enter while wearing them.

-->You see, part of the reason an assassin droid is so effective is because it is a droid. [[CallAHumanAmeatbag Meatbags]] tend not to notice us, we are treated as furnishings. [...] Droids tend to blend into the background. Like a bench. Or a card table.

* Then dictator of Mexico General Antonio López de Santa Anna attempted this trope after the Mexican Army lost the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution. He hoped that the Anglo-Texans and Tejanos would be so busy looking for an [[BlingOfWar officer in a flashy uniform]] that they would overlook a simple peasant farmer. It didn't work.

* ''Literature/AMasterOfDjinn'': At first, no one suspects [[spoiler:Abigail is the lead imposter, because Al-Jahiz was male and they portrayed him as such in his "return", but also she's a seemingly harmless woman.

** The tv series ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' includes an homage to this, except he uses the homeless people of London instead of young street urchins. They prove invaluable when he needs to find a specific piece of graffiti that could be almost anywhere in the city. He gives them burner phones to contact him and pays generously with cash for whoever can find what he's looking for.
** It's also used to great effect by the sympathetic AntiVillain of ''A Study in Scarlet'', who finds a profession that allows him to go anywhere in London and transport his victims (of their own free will) to isolated spots ideal for a murder.