History Main / CharlieBrownFromOuttaTown

* Who can forget the 1980's CaptainAmerica storyline under Mark Gruenwald where he was stripped of the Captain America identity by the US government and forbidden to act as a superhero by [[spoiler: a commission whose acts were an EvilPlan by the Red Skull]]. His reaction? Create a new costume and identity which was dubbed "The Captain" after he stopped himself awkwardly from calling himself Captain America. The government also appointed a new [[AntiheroSubstitute Captain America]], who later when on to wear the new costume as U.S.Agent.

* If there is a masked or semi-masked character named after the Buddhist monk Tenkai in a Warring States-based game (such as ''[[VideoGame/{{Onimusha}} Shin Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams]]'' or ''[[VideoGame/SengokuBasara Sengoku Basara 3: Samurai Heroes]]''), expect them to be at least rumored to be this trope [[spoiler:for either a character named after AkechiMitsuhide or a relative of said character]]. This is taken off the popular theory that [[spoiler:Tenkai was this for Mitsuhide [[TruthInTelevision in real life]]]].

* One week after Wrestling/TheMiz was fired from Raw (thanks to special guest Jeremy Piven) after losing to Wrestling/JohnCena, a pole match was made where the winner would grab a contract and become a new Raw Superstar. The participants were the returning Eugene and Calgary Kid, a masked Canadian wrestler (after all, the show was in Calgary). After Calgary Kid grabs the contract, he attacks Eugene and tears off the mask to reveal... The Miz.

* [[Wrestling/CheerleaderMelissa Melissa Anderson]] at one point was appearing in TNA as two separate people - Alissa Flash and Raisha Saeed (under a burka and veil) and this carried over into the Indian TV show Ring Ka King. There was even a match booked as Alyssa Flash against Raisha Saeed though it was extremely obvious that it was a man under the veil, playing Raisha. In the next episode, Melissa was clearly playing Raisha again.

* Melissa Anderson at one point was appearing in TNA as two separate people - Alyssa Flash and Raisha Saeed (under a burka and veil) and this carried over into the Indian TV show Ring Ka King. There was even a match booked as Alyssa Flash against Raisha Saeed though it was extremely obvious that it was a man under the veil, playing Raisha. In the next episode, Melissa was clearly playing Raisha again.

* As mentioned, it has been used many, many times in wrestling: Wrestling/DustyRhodes became the Midnight Rider, Wrestling/BruiserBrody became Red River Jack, both Brian Pillman and Wrestling/BarryWindham, at different points, became the Yellow Dog, and Wrestling/HulkHogan became Mr. America.

*** At one point during the storyline Wrestling/OwenHart's former partner Koko B. Ware did a run in to help "prove" Owen wasn't the Blue Blazer. For those who don't know, B. Ware is African American.

** Hogan/Mr. America. No-one aside from Hogan and his absolutely closest ally took it seriously. And it ended with not even Hogan taking it seriously; after a show went off the air, he lifted his mask and raised a finger to his mouth, telling the audience not to tell [=McMahon=]. The next week it was shown that despite the show being off the air, cameras were still rolling, and Hogan was fired. As mentioned above, this was a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot; the original plan was for Hogan's Charlie Brown From Outta Town gimmick to continue for a while longer. People who attended other ''[[Wrestling/{{WWESmackDown}} WWE SmackDown!]]'' tapings from that time have said this after-show unmasking routine for the benefit of the live audience, once the cameras and the heels were gone, was a regular occurrence.
** A more recent, heel example happened when Paul Burchill feuded with the Hurricane; Burchill was trying to prove that Hurricane was really Gregory Helms (which isn't this trope, Hurricane is a superhero gimmick with a secret identity), so they had a match with the stipulation that if Burchill won, Hurricane would unmask, if Hurricane won, Burchill would retire. Hurricane won, and a week later he was assaulted by a masked villain known as The Ripper (as in Jack. because he's British, get it?). A week after that, Hurricane won again, demasking Burchill and sending him home. Sort of a lost opportunity, really; Burchill was an outstanding performer, and the storyline was so ridiculous that it couldn't help but be funny.

* As mentioned, it has been used many, many times in wrestling: Wrestling/DustyRhodes became the Midnight Rider, Wrestling/BruiserBrody became Red River Jack, both Brian Pillman and Barry Windham, at different points, became the Yellow Dog, and Wrestling/HulkHogan became Mr. America.

* In the U.S. version of ''{{The Office}}'' season 7 finale "Search Committee", Dwight interviews for the vacant Regional Manager job disguised as "Jacques Souvenir", a burn victim with his hands and face covered in bandages. According to his resume, he's a former Assistant to the Regional Manager in a French paper company that burned to the ground. After a bit of baiting, Jim and Jo see through the ruse, and Dwight takes off the disguise to their mock-shock.

*** It may be a moot point, but there was the instance where [[Wrestling/BobHolly Hardcore Holly]] and Wrestling/CodyRhodes lost to the team of the debuting [[Wrestling/TedDiBiaseJr Ted [=DiBiase=] Jr.]] and... Wrestling/CodyRhodes, who turned on Holly. This may be the only instance where a wrestler has both won AND lost the title simultaneously to himself.
** In 1986, after Wrestling/AndreTheGiant was suspended for no-showing, a new Japanese tag team was introduced called The Machines made up of the masked Super Machine (who looked and sounded like the Masked Superstar) and the Giant Machine. The weird part about this is, since there were not that many giant Japanese wrestlers, the WWF promoted the Giant Machine as potentially being Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling founder Shohei "Giant" Baba; ironically, Andre would have his final run teaming with Baba in AJPW.
*** In fact, the storyline The Machines were involved in was about Wrestling/BobbyHeenan trying to prove that Giant Machine was Wrestling/AndreTheGiant.
*** This team eventually included such mysterious members as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Hulk Machine and Piper Machine]], as well as [[Characters/WWETagTeams Big Machine (Robert "Blackjack Mulligan" Windham)]], [[Wrestling/GeorgeSteele Animal Machine (George "The Animal" Steele, real name William James Myers)]] and [[Wrestling/TheCrusher Crusher Machine (Reggie "The Crusher" Lisowski)]].[[note]]Interestingly, Hulk and the Crusher had both been enemies of Bobby Heenan in the AWA and, in Da Crusher's case, back to the 1960's in Dick the Bruiser's World Wrestling Association in Indianapolis. Crusher was in fact the first one to call Heenan "The Weasel." At the same time, Heenan had managed the Blackjacks in Indianapolis, and the Masked Superstar (Bill "Super Machine"/"Demolition Ax" Eadie) (see below) in Georgia.[[/note]]
*** Super Machine later went on to be Ax from Wrestling/{{Demolition}}, interestingly enough.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 4'', along with many other changes, [[WhiteHairedPrettyBoy Lee Chaolan]] is nowhere to be found. There is, however, a guy named Violet who looks almost exactly like him, only with [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair dark purple hair]]. He also wears sunglasses that can be knocked off during a fight. And he has Lee as an unlockable alternate costume. Lee wasn't fooling anybody and dropped the act for ''Tekken 5''.

* Comicbook/{{Spider Man}} got in on the act too when he was accused of murder; Peter Parker temporarily retired Spider-Man and took on no less than ''four'' new superpowered personas with technology to fake new powers (a brilliant move, as he realized a "new" superhero with similar powers showing up so soon would be blatantly suspicious, and using four identities meant that if one of them was exposed[[hottip:*:and sure enough, one was]] he'd have others to fall back on) - superheroes Prodigy and Hornet and, in a rarity for this trope, super''villains'' Dusk and Ricochet. [[StickySituation The Trapster]] was heartbroken when he found out the real identity of his new BFF Dusk.

* Parodied, as with so many tropes common to {{Shonen}} anime, in ''BoboboboBobobo''. After Jelly Jiggler gets disqualified from a battle after being thrown out of the coin machine it was taking place in (ItMakesSenseInContext...as much as ''Bobobo'' can, anyway, Don Patch proceeds to stick a mask on him ''in full view of their opponent'' and passes him off as a new competitor named "Masked Jelly".

* Parodied, as with so many tropes common to {{Shonen}} anime, in ''BoboboboBobobo''. After Jelly Jiggler gets disqualified from a battle after being thrown out of the coin machine (ItMakesSenseInContext...as much as ''Bobobo'' can, anyway), Don Patch proceeds to stick a mask on him ''in full view of their opponent'' and passes him off as a new competitor named "Masked Jelly".

*** This team eventually included such mysterious members as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Hulk Machine and Piper Machine]], as well as [[Characters/WWETagTeams Big Machine (Robert "Blackjack Mulligan" Windham)]], [[Characters/WWERockNWrestling Animal Machine (George "The Animal" Steele, real name William James Myers)]] and [[Wrestling/TheCrusher Crusher Machine (Reggie "The Crusher" Lisowski)]].[[note]]Interestingly, Hulk and the Crusher had both been enemies of Bobby Heenan in the AWA and, in Da Crusher's case, back to the 1960's in Dick the Bruiser's World Wrestling Association in Indianapolis. Crusher was in fact the first one to call Heenan "The Weasel." At the same time, Heenan had managed the Blackjacks in Indianapolis, and the Masked Superstar (Bill "Super Machine"/"Demolition Ax" Eadie) (see below) in Georgia.[[/note]]

*** This team eventually included such mysterious members as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Hulk Machine and Piper Machine]], as well as [[Characters/WWETagTeams Big Machine (Robert "Blackjack Mulligan" Windham)]], [[Characters/WWERockNWrestling Animal Machine (George "The Animal" Steele, real name William James Myers)]] and [[Wrestling/AmericanWrestlingAssociation Crusher Machine (Reggie "The Crusher" Lisowski)]].[[note]]Interestingly, Hulk and the Crusher had both been enemies of Bobby Heenan in the AWA and, in Da Crusher's case, back to the 1960's in Dick the Bruiser's World Wrestling Association in Indianapolis. Crusher was in fact the first one to call Heenan "The Weasel." At the same time, Heenan had managed the Blackjacks in Indianapolis, and the Masked Superstar (Bill "Super Machine"/"Demolition Ax" Eadie) (see below) in Georgia.[[/note]]

** Junkyard Dog actually did the exact same gimmick (and the same name) just a year or so before in the Mid-South wrestling scene.

*** This team eventually included such mysterious members as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Hulk Machine and Piper Machine]], as well as [[Characters/WWETagTeams Big Machine (Robert "Blackjack Mulligan" Windham)]], [[Characters/WWERockNWrestling Animal Machine (George "The Animal" Steele, real name William James Myers)]] and [[Wrestling/AmericanWrestlingAssociation Crusher Machine (Reggie "The Crusher" Lisowski)]].[[note]]Interestingly, Hulk and the Crusher had both been enemies of Bobby Heenan in the AWA and, in Da Crusher's case, back to the 1960's in [[http://www.rasslinrelics.com Dick the Bruiser's World Wrestling Association in Indianapolis.]] Crusher was in fact the first one to call Heenan "The Weasel." At the same time, Heenan had managed the Blackjacks in Indianapolis, and the Masked Superstar (Bill "Super Machine"/"Demolition Ax" Eadie) (see below) in Georgia.[[/note]]

** When Wrestling/{{Edge}} and Wrestling/{{Christian}} lost a third [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-world-t.html WWE World Tag Team Title]] match in a row against the [[Wrestling/MattHardy Hardy]] [[Wrestling/JeffHardy Boyz]], they were denied any more title matches until the Hardys lost the tag team titles. So then Los Conquistadors (who were in fact an actual tag team in the late 80's played by longtime jobbers José Estrada and José Luis Rivera) challenged the Hardys using the same in-ring tactics as Wrestling/{{Edge}} and Wrestling/{{Christian}}. The Hardys complained that the Conquistadors were Wrestling/{{Edge}} and Wrestling/{{Christian}} in disguise, but the two had hired local jobbers (one of which was Wrestling/ChristopherDaniels) so that the four could be seen at the same time. Once the Conquistadors won the titles, they allowed Wrestling/{{Edge}} and Wrestling/{{Christian}} to challenge for the titles. But, during the match it was revealed that these Conquistadors were the Hardys in disguise. This can be the only time in WWF/E history that a tag team has technically lost the titles to themselves.

*** This team eventually included such mysterious members as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Hulk Machine and Piper Machine]].

* {{Metabots}} (aka MedaRot) anime played with this in its second season with the mysterious Space Medafighter X, a snappy-dressed kid with a golden smiling mask. Totally not related to the local clerk Henry / Hikaru. Also refuses to be associated with snappily dressed Phantom Renegade (himself an homage to Tuxedo Mask) who dons a white smiling mask.

* Sogeking from ''Manga/OnePiece'', who appears after [[spoiler:Usopp left Luffy's crew when they decide to get rid of their original ship as it had fallen into disrepair. It was a gift from one of his loved ones, and he considered it part of the crew. Also, he realized his case of CantCatchUp right about this time.]]
** A subversion, in that Sogeking was trying to hide his identity from the GOOD guys; the villains had no idea who he was with or without the mask.
*** [[spoiler:Of course, the only people he actually fooled were Luffy and Chopper, but the rest of the crew and people he had only met once that day played along anyway.]]
*** [[spoiler: Although the ''from out of town'' part of the trope has completed, Sogeking is still around to function for a [[{{Lets Get Dangerous}} different trope]]]].

* A version of this happens in ''AKnightsTale'' when Ulrich von Leichtenstein comes back to joust as Sir William Thatcher.

* In Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Wrestling/JimCornette was able to get face Commissioner "Bullet" Bob Armstrong fired from the company. Cornette, as only he could, was happy as a pig in slop about it. However, less than a month later, a new wrestler debuted under a mask called "The Bullet" who walked like, talked like, and wrestled like Armstrong, even coming out to Armstrong's entrance music "Bad to the Bone".

Charlie Brown From Outta Town is a pretty standard storyline in ProfessionalWrestling; the face, who's been unjustly barred from the promotion, takes up a disguise and works to get himself reinstated and take revenge on the heels who cheated him. The trope's named for the particular implementation of the storyline on Jimmy Valiant; after he lost a LoserLeavesTown match, a new wrestler, calling himself Charlie Brown from Outta Town, showed up, wearing a mask, but oddly enough, with Valiant's signature three-foot beard.

* ''SpongebobSquarepants'' did a similar subversion, where Spongebob is trying to get into a tough guy bar. Shortly after someone tells him that only people with cool haircuts get in, somebody looking just like Spongebob shows up with a pompadour and a leather jacket. After the bouncer tries to pull his wig off, the real Spongebob shows up wearing a rainbow-colored clown wig.