History Main / BeneathNotice

* In Season 1 of ''Series/BreakingBad'', Hank is able to trace a stolen gas mask to Walt's school, 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 working under the assumption that it was Walt's ''students'' who stole it and never seriously questions him.

* In Season 1 of ''Series/BreakingBad'', Hank is able to trace a stolen gas mask to Walt's school, 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 such a thing. Instead, he keeps working under the assumption that it was Walt's ''students'' who stole it and never seriously questions him.

* In Season 1 of ''Series/BreakingBad'', Hank is able to trace a stolen gas mask to Walt's school, 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 such a thing. Instead, he investigates under the assumption that it was Walt's ''students'' who stole it and never seriously questions him.

* In Season 1 of ''Series/BreakingBad'', Hank is able to trace a stolen gas mask to Walt's school, but it never crosses his mind that it was Walt who stole it because he knows him personally and knows him to be a feeble man who would never be capable of such a thing. Instead, he investigates from the direction that it was Walt's ''students'' who stole it and never seriously questions him.

* ''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]].
* In ''TabletopGame/SeventhSea'', the Servant skill has a Knack (sub-skill) called Unobtrusive, which relies on this trope.

* 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.
* 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.

* Although he ''is'' a [[AlmightyJanitor janitor]], Roger Wilco from ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest'' fame dresses up ''as'' a janitor of an EvilInc in ''Space Quest 3''.

* ''Franchise/DragonAge'':
** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', free mage Merrill finds that she doesn't have to do much to stay hidden from the Templars in Kirkwall; as long as she doesn't use magic, she's just another [[EnslavedElves elf in the Alienage]] to them.
** The Friends of Red Jenny are a loosely-organized network of ordinary people trading favours in order to get back at nobles who abuse their power. The mysterious name is just to give their targets something to wonder about, ensuring they'll never suspect their cook or gardener.
** The Iron Bull is a spy whose main cover is that of a renowned mercenary. While certainly higher profile than other versions it allows him to travel across the land and hobnob with high society (who see him as just another sellsword) for any worthwhile rumors or info that he writes back to his superiors.
* The core game mechanic of ''VideoGame/WeHappyFew'' revolves around this to survive the townsfolk. Wearing the proper clothing, doing what everyone else is doing, popping a Joy when necessary, not trespassing, and not being out after curfew will allow you to move around completely unhindered. Draw too much attention and be outed as a Downer, though? Better get ready to run or fight for your life.

* Taken to the extreme in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' with the Stone Mask, which magically makes its wearer so thoroughly uninteresting and unremarkable that they effectively become invisible since nothing pays any attention whatsoever to them. A number of people are observant or disciplined enough to still notice, however: a number of the Gerudo pirates will still engage you, remarking "That mask won't fool me!" as they attack.
* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'': When asked why the [[EvilCounterpart HK-50s]] are masquerading as mere protocol droids, assassin droid HK-47 explains it thus:
--> 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.

* In ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'' this is how [[spoiler:Delta]] avoids suspicion. [[spoiler:After all, there's no way a blind and deaf old man in a wheelchair could be the BigBad, [[ObfuscatingDisability right]]]]?

* In ''WebComic/AwfulHospital,'' greyzoners (humans) are extremely vulnerable to [[WeirdnessCensor perception filtering,]] but since we only have five (maybe six) senses across a narrow spectrum each, it's usually considered a waste of time, allowing certain characters, such as Fern and Dr. Man, to slip through the Parliament's net.
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': The Heterodyne Spymaster infiltrates the target's army by [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20180704 signing up as some sort of low-ranking private]] and acting as a innocuous, bored grunt.
-->'''Tarvek:''' Oh, ''of course''. You're actually a member of Her Majesty's military forces, ''aren't you?'' An able seaman or a gunsmith or somesuch. Something low-level. ''Innocuous''. You're probably on the rolls of half the armies of Europa. It ''would'' be ''child's play'' for you, I suppose--after all, you've had [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld lots and lots of practice]], haven't you?

* In ''WesternAnimation/KulipariAnArmyOfFrogs'', Killara's army has sandpaper frogs as their servants. Because of how unhygienic and insane they are, they're despised by everyone and no one pays attention to them, short of throwing an insult here and there. Darel sneaks through Marmoo's camp (and even burns it down and saves Gee) all while pretending to be one of said frogs.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', it turns out this was Thomas' entire purpose as TheGenericGuy for being an intern; he was actually [[TheMole a spy for Russia]] sent to steal the park.
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/RecessSchoolsOut'' when TJ and Principal Prickley disguise themselves as two of Benedict's faceless mooks. It doesn't work because TJ is 10 years old and Prickley well into his 60s, making it obvious that they aren't supposed to be there.
* In season 7 of ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'', the cast is hired to help protect a valuable set of emeralds at a charity benefit, which they do undercover, half as high society guests and the others as waiters. It doesn't go very well because the characters are more interested in standing around and sniping bitterly at each other or gossiping, but they don't blow their cover. Not that it matters because the benefit is hijacked by a group of armed robbers looking for the jewels [[spoiler: later revealed to be part of an insurance scam by the lawyer who hired the cast]].
** Also done in season 4 when they're hired to be undercover at a ''Series/HellsKitchen'' parody to protect the Albanian ambassador who is dining there that night [[spoiler: which AGAIN turns out to be a scam, this time on behalf of Malory who faked a bomb threat so she could get a table at the exclusive restaurant. The Albanian ambassador gets killed anyway, by the ''star chef'', having been paid off by Russian cyborgs Katya and Barry]]

---> '''Wonder Woman:''' Let me understand this. You possess the most powerful object in the world and yet all you wished for is money and women?\\

---> '''Lex:''' [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome I have no idea who this is...]]
* 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]].
* 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.

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* ''Manga/Golgo13'': One way the titular hitman infiltrates or does reconnaissance is to disguise himself as some sort of menial worker and pass right under his opponents' noses.

* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', a comic-book publisher who got in a lot of trouble for basing comics on the actual superheroes and supervillains in the setting decides to switch to comics focusing on cosmic entities, thinking that any such beings wouldn't bother reading comics. [[spoiler:He turns out to be wrong about this.]]

* In ''[[https://www.tthfanfic.org/story.php?no=30534 The Passing of the Shades of Black]]'', it's explained multiple times to prospective agents of [[Film/MenInBlack MIB]] that everything about them, from their suits to their cars, is to keep people from noticing them. At one point, Agent L informs [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander]] aka Agent A that the company cars will be replaced in roughly ten years because, at that point, an '80s car will be unusual enough to notice.
* ''Fanfic/FirstTrySeries'': Sasuke has trouble achieving this because, ironically enough, he felt learning to pass as a servant or peasant was beneath him.
* In ''Fanfic/MastermindStrategistForHire'', Izuku's public life as a bullied Quirkless teenager helps throw off police suspicion regarding the new villain Mastermind. Izuku notes that even if police look past his youth and Quirkless status, they'd assume he doesn't have the right attitude for plotting murder since he's never lashed out against his bullies, even indirectly.
* ''Fanfic/RiseOfTheMinisukas'': [[EldritchAbomination Matarael]] infiltrates Shinji's class and keeps the whole student body fooled for weeks. It is unclear how Matarael managed this, but it involved, at least partially, he posing as a quiet, friendless, unassuming new student who is too awkward to talk to, too insignificant to pay attention to...and definitely not a multi-eyed, bowl-headed giant spider.

* Both the titular ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' and Jasmine get away with {{Paper Thin Disguise}}s owing to this. With Aladdin, as a street rat, nobody ever paid him enough attention to recognize he is "Prince Ali", except for Jasmine who ''did'' and quickly surmises who he really is. With Jasmine, dressed as a street ''mouse'' (as Razoul puts it) nobody looks at her long enough to recognize her until she actually points out she is, in fact, the princess.

* In ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', Mystique disguises herself as the building's regular janitor, which causes the real one to do a DoubleTake when he sees her.
* In ''Film/TheFugitive'', Dr. Kimble dresses in baggy, drab-colored clothes, making it easy to slip into a hospital disguised as a janitor.
* In ''Film/FistOfFury'', Creator/BruceLee disguises himself as an AsianAndNerdy telephone repairman in order to infiltrate the home of the man who arranged his teacher's death.

* Lampshaded in ''Film/BlackSheep1996''. Mike Donnelly plans to sneak into a party dressed as a caterer using this trope.
-->'''Mike:''' Nobody looks at a caterer's face. It's always "Whaddaya got in the tray?"
* ''Film/TheTerminal'': Gupta fled India after he stabbed a cop who kept extorting him, and chooses to work as a janitor. As he puts it, "As long as I keep my head down, and my floor clean, they have no reason to deport me, they have no reason to notice a man like me." Losing his job is a major BerserkButton for him.

* Film/{{Tron}}: This bites Dillinger ''and'' Master Control in the ass within the first half hour of the film. They considered [[TheSmartGuy Alan Bradley]] to be a paper-pushing Boy Scout who couldn't actually pose any kind of a threat and was too naive to actually know there was anything wrong. And then, Alan lays out very casually that...oh, he's been working on new security software (the title character!) that is going to monitor all the network traffic at Encom. Yes, the software is going to run independently. Yes, it's capable of shutting down Master Control if necessary. Yes, he submitted all the proper paperwork and kept his conduct squeaky-clean. Is any of this going to be a problem? After realizing that this naive Boy Scout rank and file programmer just pulled a whopper of a XanatosGambit, Dillinger all but pushes Alan out of the office in a panic. Made much more obvious in the {{Novelization}}.
* ''Film/TheShapeOfWater'': Elisa and Zelda are able to get away with what they do in a high-security government facility because they're cleaning ladies, it's TheSixties, and therefore pretty much nobody will give them a second glance. After [[spoiler:the Asset is broken out]], [[TheHeavy Strickland]] berates himself for wasting time questioning the "piss wipers", blissfully unaware that he's got the actual culprits right in front of him.

* ''Film/AGoodWomanIsHardToFind'': No one suspects that Sarah, who so far as most know is just a single working mother of two kids, would be behind a Dublin crime boss and his men's killings, along with the body parts found in a rubbish center. The news report at the end attributes this to a [[MobWar rival gang]].

* In ''Forever Amber'', one Duke is highly renowned for being a master of disguise, such that when it comes to light that he was involved in a treasonous plot, he disappears easily. We see the effect social class has on his abilities--the only time we see him disguised is when he dresses up as a musketeer and successfully [[BatmanGambit manipulates]] his cousin Barbara Villiers into coming onto him.
** [[spoiler:He does this to gain a private audience with her without blowing his cover, for those of you with sick minds.]]
* ''Literature/TheDarkForest'': In Shi's lecture to Luo Ji near the start of the book, he identifies this as the foundation of real shrewdness. This becomes key to Luo Ji's ultimate plan at the end of the book, when he convinces everyone around him, including the Trisolarans, that he has no way to stop the invasion, and is only working on an ultimately meaningless project in order to escape reality. It works and he saves the day.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** A large part of Lu Tze's success as a History Monk is attributable to the fact that no matter how heavily guarded the evil lair, a harmless old man sweeping up is just part of the scenery.
*** In ''Literature/ThiefOfTime'', one of his students reflects that the best way for a monk to become invisible is to stand on a street corner holding a begging bowl. [Paraphrased]
*** In ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'', Vimes questions how the History Monks can be a secret organisation when they dance through the streets of Ankh-Morpork banging drums, and Lu-Tze replies that you'd be amazed how hard people work to avoid noticing loony monks banging drums.
** In ''Literature/InterestingTimes'', Auriental society is so rigid that costume changes to a lower class entirely confuse pursuers. Rincewind is able to evade pursuit by dressing as a peasant with a really big hat (although he struggles with it because being a wizard is an important part of his identity, and ''[[UnSorcerer looking]]'' [[UnSorcerer like a wizard is practically the only thing that makes him one]]). He also runs into an examination room and screams at the guards to go away when they come in (the exams being a very important part of Agatean society).
* Creator/GKChesterton's ''Literature/FatherBrown'':
** In the story "The Invisible Man", a man is murdered and witnesses say they saw nobody. Father Brown figures out that the murderer [[spoiler: was dressed as a postman,]] and the witnesses didn't think he was important.
** An even sneakier two-way example appears in "The Queer Feet", in which a clever thief disguises himself in an evening suit at a posh function and acts unobtrusively so that the guests mistake him for a waiter, and the actual waiters mistake him for a guest.
* In ''Literature/TheFlyingCloud'', Jenkins often takes on the job of infiltrating buildings to steal documents, because he is a master of making himself seem like a boring functionary that no one should pay attention to. It's so effective that the command crew calls it the Cloak of Invisibility, though it does have its limits: it only works if someone who sees him ''will'' pay no attention to a boring functionary, so it doesn't work in ''complete'' no-go zones and is of limited effectiveness against other, less subtle intruders.
* Literature/TheShadow used to disguise himself as the janitor at police headquarters to gain access to information and no one paid him the slightest attention.
* In the ''Literature/JamesBond'' short story "[[Literature/ForYourEyesOnly From a View to a Kill]]", M thinks that perhaps the enemy has disguised himself as a gardener or garbage man or such. Someone that's hidden in plain sight. Then, [[spoiler:it is told that it isn't possible as those jobs on the base are done by enlisted military personnel]].
* ''Literature/TheExecutioner''. Mack Bolan once spent a day crouched in a rice paddy wearing a black poncho and a straw hat pretending to be a peasant farmer while enemy soldiers searched the area all around looking for him. He uses the tactic routinely during his war against TheMafia, knowing that no-one will suspect the friendly telephone repairman as the notorious black-suited OneManArmy.
* ''Literature/TheOdyssey'': Odysseus goes "Old Man" mode, and checks if Penelope is still faithful with the aid of his son. Turns out she is, but heads roll anyways.
* In the [[Literature/JackRyan Ryanverse]] story ''Without Remorse'', where the reader discovers the origin of legendary CIA agent John Clark, he takes revenge against drug syndicate that killed his lover. He manages to successfully elude the police and the syndicate, despite very publicly murdering a total of 8 people,[[note]]there were more, but he dropped the disguise for those[[/note]] by disguising himself as a street wino. His internal monologue even makes a comparison to the camouflage he used in Vietnam.
** Tom Clancy often makes the point in his books that one of the best disguises is a uniform of some kind because people only really see the uniform, not the face.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'':
** Servants, beggars and other people who go unnoticed are an important source of information and are frequently secretly employed as spies. Smart characters make sure each member of their household is vetted for, and ensure potential outside observers are identified.
** Moghedien -- one of the [[TheAntiGod Dark One]]'s most [[TheDreaded dreaded]] and powerful servants -- spends some time undercover as a merchant's maidservant, keeping an eye on a group of Dark-aligned [[MagicalSociety Aes Sedai]]. She repeats the trick later by posing as a refugee doing menial labour in the rebel Aes Sedai headquarters.
** Verin manages this even among her fellow Aes Sedai by presenting herself as a bookish DitzyGenius who ignores worldly matters to putter around doing research. This works so well that Siuan and Moiraine ignore Verin taking notes while they discuss their top-secret project to find TheChosenOne. [[spoiler:Fortunately, this serves Verin well as a triple agent, collecting intelligence to bring down the evil AncientConspiracy she was forced to join.]]
* Literature/SherlockHolmes occasionally makes use of the "Baker Street Irregulars", a gang of young street urchins, who because they are typically ignored by ''everyone'', can serve as his eyes and ears on the streets of London. He was also a MasterOfDisguise among his many other talents, and in several stories dressed as a LowerClassLout that most people wouldn't look twice at.
** 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.
* A variant occurs in the ''Literature/EnolaHolmes'' series: in order to hide in plain sight from her brother Literature/SherlockHolmes, Enola disguises herself as the one thing Sherlock will never look twice at: a beautiful woman!
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', it is explained Harry's parents tried to hide their house from Voldemort with the use of the Fidelius Charm. Said charm magically hides a location using someone's mind as a hiding place; the so-called Secret Keeper. The only way the location can be found is when the Secret Keeper chooses to divulge the information. Harry's parents invoked this trope by choosing the rather unassuming [[spoiler:Peter Pettigrew]] as Secret Keeper rather than the obvious choice of [[spoiler:James's very best friend and Harry's godfather Sirius Black]], thinking Voldemort wouldn't possibly even consider going after him. Unfortunately, said person [[TheMole willingly gave up the location]] to Voldemort.
** According to Nearly Headless Nick, a proper House Elf is never noticed when doing his job. Because of this, House Elf Dobby knows stuff that really comes in handy for Harry. [[spoiler:Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as Moody,]] even invokes this trope in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' by making Dobby do chores in the staffroom, while talking to the other teachers about how Harry could solve the second Triwizard Task. Dobby, who is fanatically loyal to Harry, overhears this and helps him to a solution, while no one ever suspects Dobby of helping him.
** Unfortunately this house elf trait applies to the way Sirius views Kreacher's absence during the Christmas holiday in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''. Sirius' lack of wanting to track down where in the house Kreacher has gone to is at least partially motivated by how vile, argumentative and rude he is and the way he has been contributing to Sirius going stir crazy while being stuck under house arrest in a house he loathes. [[spoiler: This leads directly to Sirius' death as Kreacher took a 'get out' meaning out of the room to meaning out of the house and gave Bellatrix and Narcissa everything Voldemort needed to lure out both Harry and Sirius]].
* In ''Literature/{{Everworld}},'' [[spoiler:the goddess Brigid]] lives in our world, disguised as an old [[AmbiguouslyBrown Polish/Mexican]]-[[EthnicMagician looking lady]]. People who see her coming or going from her mansion assume she's the maid.
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'':
** ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'': Elhokar (the king) survives an assassination attempt, and Kaladin (his bodyguard) needs to put him somewhere safe while he goes off to save someone else. He obviously can't stay in the palace; all the guards are suspect. For similar reasons, he can't go to the royal safehouse or even Kaladin's barracks, since those are the first places anyone will look. Where does he take him? [[spoiler:A little house in the slums, belonging to the mother of one of Kaladin's crippled subordinates. Said mother proceeds to treat her king like an uppity child, insisting he gets a good night's sleep and eats breakfast before the guards come to escort him back]].
--->'''[[JewishMother The Nanha]]:''' I'm not going to have them come and get you and find you not properly fed! I'll not have people saying that [[FantasticHonorifics Your Brightness]], no, I won't! Eat up. I've got soup cooking.
** ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'': Discussed. Lift notices that nobody pays attention to street urchins and homeless people. It is the job of an Edgedancer to avert this, which is why their third Oath is "I will listen to those who have been ignored."

** In the Literature/TommyAndTuppence spy novel ''The Secret Adversary'', Mr. Brown runs his organization via menial roles and tasks, letting his underlings attract the attention and serve as its face. Tuppence even ''sees'' Mr. Brown, posing as an office clerk passing along a phone message to so-called company owner Whittington, but she can remember absolutely nothing remarkable about him. [[spoiler: It's what makes the reveal that Mr. Brown is the extremely popular and charismatic Sir James so shocking later.]]
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' it's implied that most of Varys' "little birds" who gather information for him are a group of tongueless but literate children who hide in the secret passages running through the Red Keep.

* Lampshaded in ''Literature/TheDinosaurLords'', when Pilar outlines why she and Montserrat are the best choices to aid imprisoned Melodía.
-->"And that's the thing: you know how people overlook children and servants?"\\
Montse nodded. It was like asking if she knew what ''breathing'' was.
* In ''Literature/TheMachineriesOfEmpire'', drones can go anywhere and spy on everything because people underestimate how smart they are and therefore don't pay any attention to them whatsoever.

* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': The protagonists don't want to attract attention to themselves, so they disguise themselves as commoners driving a few wagons. One of their number, who goes by the name Silk, actually makes a point of making money by using these wagons to transport common goods like turnips and wool, even though the group doesn't really need the money, and they're mostly taking the goods on to avert suspicion.
* 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)]].
* ''Literature/VillainsByNecessity'': Arcie and Kaylana infiltrate Mizzamir's castle by disguising themselves as servants hired on as temp workers for the multinational wizards' conference that Mizzamir is hosting at the time. When they need to get into the archmage's personal tower, Arcie grabs a tray of wine glasses and asks one of the permanent staff for directions, to which the butler's only reaction while giving the directions is annoyance over the fact that this meant that yet another part of the castle would need extra cleaning when the conference was over.

* ''Literature/StarWarsQueensShadow'': Padme's handmaidens are chosen and trained based on their physical similarities to the Queen. They are trained with imitating her to near perfection, with only those who are very close to the Queen able to detect the different. In turn, Queen Amidala also masquerades as her handmaidens when necessary and has fooled many into believing she is just one of many. Of note is her handmaiden Sabe who calls herself the [[TitleDrop Queen's shadow]]. As handmaidens, no one notices them because they are often in the background assisting other characters. More so, senators and other aristocrats don't even notice them when they are standing in front of them since they do not deal with them directly, and are literally beneath their notice, putting this into full effect.

* In ''1942'', an alternate history book in which the Japanese occupy Hawaii after Pearl Harbor, the US Government covers up the existence of MAGIC (a signals intelligence unit capable of breaking Japanese encrypted messages) by claiming that the actual source of their intelligence was members of the serving staff of various clubs the Japanese officers coopted for themselves, who the enemy spoke freely in front of over meals and drinks without considering that the waiters - especially not the ''black'' waiters - might be bilingual.
* ''Literature/GirlsDontHit'': Joss' cover as an ordinary businesswoman, wife and mother is designed for her to be this overall, along with acting normally on jobs. Her being female likely also helps, as hitwoman really don't figure in most people's expectations.
* In Michael Gilbert's ''The Amateur'', a man trying to rescue a child from kidnappers smuggles weapons into their hideout in a mailbag. The only crook who notices him believes him to be a mail carrier.

* In the Literature/NeroWolfe novel ''Literature/TooManyCooks'' the murderer disguises himself as a hotel servant, complete with {{Blackface}}.
* Creator/DickFrancis uses this trope very well in ''The Edge''. The British Jockey Club sends special investigator Tor Kelsey to spy on suspected bad guy Julius Filmer, aboard the Canadian Transcontinental Race Train. Kelsey joins the train crew as a waiter, and it works a treat - no one suspects his real identity, and he can go pretty much anywhere he wants on the train.
* ''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.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', contrasting Bruce's tactic as intentionally masking his identity by being a RichIdiotWithNoDayJob, 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.

* ''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. [[OffscreenDeath 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]].

* ''Series/V1983'': Ruby is able to burn a V shuttle using a Molotov cocktail because V soldiers and human cops collaborating with them are focused on searching young men, not an older woman like her. Only one cop realizes she did it, but lets her go because he secretly agrees with the resistance, chuckling in amusement at her feat.

* ''Series/{{V1983}}'': Ruby is able to burn a V shuttle using a Molotov cocktail because V soldiers and human cops collaborating with them are focused on searching young men, not an older woman like her. Only one cop realizes she did it, but lets her go because he secretly agrees with the resistance, chuckling in amusement at her feat.

* Film/{{Tron}}: This bites Dillinger ''and'' Master Control in the ass within the first half hour of the film. they considered [[TheSmartGuy Alan Bradley]] to be a paper-pushing Boy Scout who couldn't actually pose any kind of a threat and was too naive to actually know there was anything wrong. And then, Alan lays out very casually that...oh, he's been working on new security software (the title character!) that is going to monitor all the network traffic at Encom. Yes, the software is going to run independently. Yes, it's capable of shutting down Master Control if necessary. Yes, he submitted all the proper paperwork and kept his conduct squeaky-clean. Is any of this going to be a problem? After realizing that this naive Boy Scout rank and file programmer just pulled a whopper of a XanatosGambit, Dillinger all but pushes Alan out of the office in a panic. Made much more obvious in the {{Novelization}}.

* Part of the title character's success as an assassin in ''Manga/HappyKanakosKillerLife'' is because after years of being bullied in school and sexually harassed at work, Kanako has gotten extremely good at making herself seem unremarkable so as to be left alone. This means that when she kills people as K, there are no witnesses because nobody noticed that she was there.

* Sasuke has trouble achieving this in the ''Fanfic/FirstTrySeries'' because, ironically enough, he felt learning to pass as a servant or peasant was beneath him.
* A number of ''Anime/CodeGeass'' stories have Zero gaining information from guards or servants as nobles never pay any attention to them.

* Unfortunately averted by UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette during UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution. The royal family actually had the chance to escape the peasants during the rebellion, but [[UpperClassTwit Marie insisted that they travel with all their royal accouterments and luxuries]]. [[TooDumbToLive Needless to say, the peasants swiftly caught them]].

* Subverted and then played straight in ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'': In the ''Exiles Duology'', Alberich and crew need to find a spy who has recently arrived in Valdemar's capital. Alberich speculates that the spy has gone undercover as a servant in a noble house, but the other Heralds explain that he can't have done that--the nobles certainly wouldn't notice, but that's immaterial because the ''servants'' would never have let him in the door. The households of the wealthy are a tight-knit subculture, and getting hired without being related to or at least knowing someone who already works there is basically impossible. [[spoiler: It turns out their man is posing as a actor, which allows him to mix with his noble "fans" (i.e., the slimy prince he's passing intel to) but still causes him not to be taken seriously (as acting, in a semi-feudal setting, is not a high-status job, and he takes pains to be seen as a frivolous womanizer).]]

: In the Literature/NeroWolfe novel ''Literature/TooManyCooks'' the murderer disguises himself as a hotel servant, complete with {{Blackface}}.

* 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.

** [[spoiler: The Keepers who operate the Citadel are another example of this. Even the ''player'' will have likely forgotten about them by the time their ''true'' purpose is revealed; silently maintaining the Citadel until the time is right to open the Relay and allow the Reapers to return from Dark Space.]]

: In the Literature/NeroWolfe novel ''Literature/TooManyCooks'' the murderer disguises himself as a hotel sercant, complete with {{Blackface}}.

: In the :iterature/NeroWolfe novel ''TooManyCooks'' the murderer disguises himself as a hotel sercant, complete with {{Blackface}}

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 and BathroomSearchExcuse.

* This is how Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the ComicBook/IncredibleHulk gets into labs generally speaking. He needs the equipment or access to machinery, he dresses up as a janitor. Plus it's the added bonus of being there after hours.

* ''Literature/GirlsDontHit'': Joss' cover as an ordinary businesswoman, wife and mother is designed for to be this overall, along with acting normally on jobs. Her being female likely also helps, as hitwoman really don't figure in most people's expectations.

* In ''Literature/TheFlyingCloud'', Jenkins is a master of making himself seem like a boring functionary that no one should pay attention to. It's so effective the crew calls it the Cloak of Invisibility, though it does have its limits: it only works if someone who sees him ''will'' pay no attention to a boring functionary, so it only works during business hours and is of limited effectiveness against other, less subtle intruders.