History Main / DateMyAvatar

[[folder: Webcomics]]

[[MemeticMutation On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.]] Actually, nobody knows ''you'' at all. So it's easy to create an Internet identity that reflects what you ''want'' to be -- someone much smarter and sexier then you are in real life. Just lie a bit about yourself and use a photo that is photoshopped, misleadingly cropped, or not of you at all.

* ''Anime/{{Belle}}'': Played around with when our protagonist Suzu falls in love with the Beast, a lonely hacker pursued by the moderators of [[VirtualReality U]], even nearly kissing him before he cringes away in alarm. [[spoiler:He's right to do so, because in reality, he's younger than Suzu.]]

* In ''Anime/DotHackSign'', Tsukasa and Subaru start a relationship while Tsukasa's consciousness is stuck in the virtual reality game called "The World". As it turns out, [[spoiler:Tsukasa ends up being a girl in the real world, instead of the boy her avatar was. Luckily, Subaru doesn't mind and after the anime, when Tsukasa is freed from the game, they get together in the real world]].

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* In ''Anime/DotHackSign'', Tsukasa and Subaru start a relationship while Tsukasa's consciousness is stuck in the virtual reality game called "The World". As it turns out, [[spoiler: Tsukasa ends up being a girl in the real world, instead of the boy her avatar was. Luckily, Subaru doesn't mind and after the anime, when Tsukasa is freed from the game, they get together in the real world]].
* ''Manga/{{Btooom}}'': Ryota's and [[spoiler: Himiko]]'s Btooom! avatars are married [[spoiler: and it turns out they really are who they thought they were!]]
* ''Manga/RecoveryOfAnMMOJunkie'' revolves around two MMO players who fall in love, but with a twist; they're both using avatars of a different gender, and neither wants to admit it. However, the main issue for both of them is their guilt over lying rather than worrying about the other's identity - in fact, Moriko already seemed to be crushing on Lily before realising she was played by a guy, but didn't mind at all when she found out.

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''Film/{{Catfish}}'' is a {{Documentary}} all about this. A New Yorker strikes up a romance over Facebook with a girl from Michigan [[spoiler: only to find that she, and all of her friends, and all of their friends are [[SockPuppet Sock Puppets]] for an eccentric middle-aged mother]].

* The impetus of the plot of ''Film/SexDrive'', where the main character has been lying about being some handsome buff guy and owning a classic [[CoolCar 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge]]... which actually belongs to his brother. {{Subverted}} in that she was lying about many of her details and assumed he was too. [[spoiler: DoubleSubverted because it was [[HoneyTrap all a plot]] to steal his car.]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In ''Slave Jade'', the protagonist is a [[CasualKink sexually submissive]] woman who start spending online time with a sexually dominant man. She likes the things he writes to her about BDSM; she finds it insightful and sexy. However, the guy is a totally clueless social misfit who only manage to comes across as insightful and sexy by copy-pasting insightful and sexy things that ''other'' people have written and pretending that he wrote it himself. When he kidnaps her, the author portrays him as a total creep. [[spoiler:She ends up shooting him, and after barely surviving the wound and blood loss from the bullet he ends up in jail. The book ends with her having recovered and decides to start looking for a new master - determined to find [[SafeSaneAndConsensual a good one]] this time, and concluding that giving up BDSM because of the bad experience with the creep would give him far more power over her life than he's worth.]]

* In ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'', [=Art3mis=] breaks off her relationship with Parzival because she feels that he doesn't know the real her at all. [[spoiler: Her personality is exactly the same, and her looks are the same except for a birthmark on her face. He loves her anyway.]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Music ]]

[[folder: Web Animation]]

--> '''Sci-Fi Greg:''' So, So and So, I'm so sorry [[{{Geek}} Open Source Greg]] [[StoodUp stood you up]] so... \\

** Dave once had an online girlfriend who turned out to be [[spoiler: an artificial intelligence.]] He didn't consider this a dealbreaker, but it still didn't work out.
** Hilariously subverted with Artie the literal IntelligentGerbil, who had a brief bout of mutual-UST with someone he met via BBS. [[spoiler: She broke it off to avoid revealing she was really an Intelligent Hamster.]] It wouldn't have worked anyway, as a few story arcs later Artie would eventually come to terms with the fact that he was gay.
* The {{ComicStrip/Dilbert}} character Wally [[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2012-04-08/ takes this one step further]]. When approached by an attractive real life female, he refuses - explaining that real people can never be as good as technology. He then proceeds to take her photo, so that he may photoshop it and date it online instead of dating the real her.
* ''Webcomic/{{Keiki}}'' has a Valentine's comic in which Ivan courts a "Cassandra Catfish" over the Internet. [[spoiler: He eventually discovers that Cassandra [[ReallyGetsAround has claimed several other men as her boyfriends]]. The news then expose her as not a high school cheerleader who resembles Emmy Rossum, but Music/TaylorSwift with a fake name and profile picture. Ivan ultimately becomes disgusted that he briefly became a boyfriend to a singer he doesn't like.]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

[[folder: Web Video]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

* These days, online relationships (platonic and romantic) are getting to be more and more common. Sadly, some people invoke this trope and decide to act and look nothing like their offline selves (hence the term "catfishing"). On the other hand, the relationship sometimes works out anyway.
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* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E8IRobotYouJane I Robot, You Jane]]", Willow once dated her nice charming chat-buddy Malcolm... who was actually a incorporeal murderous demon possessing the computer system.

* In ''Slave Jade'', the protagonist is a [[CasualKink sexually submissive]] woman who start spending online time with a sexually dominant man. She likes the things he writes to her about BDSM; she finds it insightful and sexy. However, the guy is a totally clueless social misfit who only manage to comes across as insightful and sexy by copy-pasting insightful and sexy things that ''other'' people have written and pretending that he wrote it himself. When he kidnaps her, the author portrays him as a total creep, averting the RomanticizedAbuse trope BastardBoyfriend. [[spoiler:She ends up shooting him, and after barely surviving the wound and blood loss from the bullet he ends up in jail. The book ends with her having recovered and decides to start looking for a new master - determined to find [[SafeSaneAndConsensual a good one]] this time, and concluding that giving up BDSM because of the bad experience with the creep would give him far more power over her life than he's worth.]]

* A ''{{Website/Cracked}}'' column imagines the world without the internet, including the appearance of women who crawl on the ground and those who hold portraits of celebrities over their faces all the time (Trick-photography and avatar substitutes respectively).

* ''WebVideo/FiveSecondFilms'': {{Inverted}} in "[=WoW=] Date". A geeky girl is eager for a date with someone she's met in VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft. When they meet in person, she seems disappointed that he looks ''exactly'' like his avatar (a purple-skinned [[OurElvesAreDifferent night elf]]).

* The whole point of the documentary ''Film/{{Catfish}}'', about a New Yorker who strikes up a romance over Facebook with a girl from Michigan [[spoiler: only to find that she, and all of her friends, and all of their friends are [[SockPuppet Sock Puppets]] for an eccentric middle-aged mother.]]

* A variation in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother''; Ted meets a girl through World of Warcraft. She turns out to be completely crazy.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' has this come up as part of its ChainOfDeals. One part of the chain has you taking a letter from a lady (who asks you to after you give her a hibiscus flower) to Mr. Write, her pen pal on the other side of the island. When you deliver the letter to him, he lets you see that it's a picture of her. The only problem? The picture is of [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Princess Peach]] - but his actual pen pal is an anthropomorphic ''goat''.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Web Animation]]

* ''WebAnimation/TeenGirlSquad'': In #15, the squad attends a HighSchoolDance.
--> '''Sci-Fi Greg:''' So, So and So, I'm so sorry [[{{Geek}} Open Source Greg]] [[StoodUp stood you up]] so... \\
'''So and So:''' ''[looking angry]'' Oh, he didn't. He just sent his avatar "in his stead". ''[at her side is a feminine robot with the text "xxUBUNTUFAN91xx" above its head]''

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* Inverted in one ''WebVideo/FiveSecondFilms'': A girl agrees to date a guy in [=WoW=]. When he shows up, he is the actual avatar (as in, he shows up as a purple-skinned [[OurElvesAreDifferent night elf]]).
* A ''{{Website/Cracked}}'' column imagines the world without the internet, including the appearance of women who crawl on the ground and those who hold portraits of celebrities over their faces all the time (Trick-photography and avatar substitutes respectively).

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* ''Manga/RecoveryOfAnMMOJunkie'' revolves around two MMO players who fall in love, but with a twist: they're both using avatars of a different gender, and neither wants to admit it. However, the main issue for both of them is their guilt over lying rather than worrying about the other's identity - in fact, Moriko already seemed to be crushing on Lily before realising she was played by a guy, [[UsefulNotes/{{Bisexual}} but didn't mind at all when she found out.]]

* Inverted in one ''WebVideo/FiveSecondFilms'': A girl agrees to date a guy in [=WoW=]. When he shows up, he is the actual avatar (as in, he shows up as a purple-skinned [[OurElvesAreBetter night elf]]).

* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Willow once dated her nice charming chat-buddy Malcolm... who was actually a incorporeal murderous demon possessing the computer system.