History Main / GenuineImposter

* Taken to ridiculous extremes in an early issue of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' where both Rotor and Robotnik are disguised as each other, only to then reveal that they are in fact the genuine articles, only to then umask ''again'', and on and on and on.

* In ''The Dragons of Babel'' by Creator/MichaelSwanwick, the king of Babel has been missing for a few decades. Will, the protagonist, falls in with a con man named Nat, who comes up with a plan to pass off Will as the king's bastard son and therefore the sole heir to the throne. In the end, it turns out that Nat is both the long-lost king and Will's biological father, meaning that Will really is the heir to the throne.
** The epilogue finds an older Will tracking down his teenaged daughter, who had been given up by her mother and doesn't know who her father is or of her own claim to the throne. It seems that Will is about to start running the same sort of scheme his own father did [[HereWeGoAgain and for pretty much the same reason.]]
* In ''The Ivy Tree'', by MaryStewart, tourist Mary Grey is approached by Con Winslow and eventually agrees to impersonate his cousin Annabel, who as a teenager ran away from the family farm. Con's aim is to secure the inheritance of the farm for himself, since Annabel's grandfather is elderly. Mary's aim is to see her home and family again , because she really is Annabel.

* Creator/LloydAlexander's ''Literature/{{Westmark}}'' has a similar situation to ''Anastasia'' in which a pair of con men must pass off an orphan girl as a lost princess.
* In ''Literature/ThrawnTreason'', when caught by a group of pirates on Tiquwe, Eli pretends that Assistant Director Ronan is merely a look-alike, whom they are using to infiltrate the local Imperial base, which would also explain their perfectly genuine passes (Eli claims they're very good fakes) and Ronan's uniform. To his credit, Ronan plays along, hamming up the stereotypical snobbishness of Imperial bureaucrats and making it look like an act.
* Creator/DonaldAWollheim's "Literature/TheManFromTheFuture": The two protagonists convince a dwarf that they met on the subway to go to a ScienceFiction FanConvention where they will pretend to be a human from the far future. The punchline of this story is that they identified a real {{Time Travel}}ler who happily played along (only revealing himself by shooting [[TheHeckler a heckler]] with a futuristic weapon).

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

As this is frequently a plot twist, beware of '''spoilers''' in the examples below.

* In the Polish book ''Pięć przygód detektywa Konopki'', one of the stories involves criminals hijacking a passenger plane, and meeting on board a man who they believe to be the meek Detective Konopka disguised as a heavyweight boxer. They lower their guard around him, until suddenly he effortlessly punches them out. It turns out that he is, actually, a heavyweight boxer disguised as a detective disguised as a heavyweight boxer, who co-operated with the real detective to trap the criminals.

* Jennifer Nielson's ''Literature/AscendanceTrilogy'': ''The False Prince'' has four orphan boys competing for the role of Prince Jaron, who disappeared at sea years ago. The protagonist, Sage, turns out to actually be Jaron, hiding his identity for reasons of his own.

* In ''Videogame/{{Dishonored}}'', Corvo can attend Lady Boyle's ball by pretending to be a noble dressed up as himself. A few people comment on how deliciously scandalous it is to be "dressing up" as the most wanted man in the city.

RecursiveCrossdressing is a SubTrope. ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself is another SubTrope that applies to (usually paranormal or costumed characters) who know their identity, but dress up as themselves for Halloween or a similar festive occasion. AccidentalTruth is the SuperTrope. Compare ActuallyIAmHim.

* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', Light is secretly [[SerialKiller Kira]], and is [[HiredToHuntYourself working with the anti-Kira task force]]. When a ''[[CopycatKiller second]]'' Kira shows up, L asks Light (who he suspects of being the first Kira) to pretend to be Kira and send a message to the second Kira. Thanks to a MemoryGambit, Light doesn't even realize at the time that he's impersonating himself.

* ''Series/{{Haven}}'': The early part of season four sees Audrey return to Haven, asynchronous with the usual supernatural schedule, seemingly with a new identity and new memories. However, it's soon revealed she's faking it, because if the Guard knows she's still Audrey, she will have to kill the man she loves, as this is theorized to end the [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Troubles]] forever. However, most of the town, including the Haven PD, have no idea about any of this, so Nathan and Duke pass her off as having EasyAmnesia and encourage everyone to just treat her like Audrey. So, the first half of season four is Audrey pretending to be Lexie pretending to be Audrey.

* ''Literature/SplitHeirs'', which is mostly about using as many PrinceAndPauper story tropes as possible, makes use of this trope. Wulfrith is hired as a retainer for a prince who is actually his RaisedAsTheOppositeGender and SeparatedAtBirth sister. The two of them being HalfIdenticalTwins and their mother convincing Wulfrith that he's being kept around as a ''very'' secret BodyDouble result in him accidentally taking the prince's place for most of the pre-coronation rituals. Being unware that he's equally entitled to the crown results in Wulfrith being horrified that he's taking the rightful prince's place for such a big occasion.

* ''Literature/SplitHeirs'', which is mostly about using as many PrinceAndPauper story tropes as possible, makes use of this trope. Wulfrith is hired as a retainer for a prince who is actually his RaisedAsTheOppositeGender and SeparatedAtBirth sister. The two of them being HalfIdenticalTwins and their mother convincing Wulfrith that he's being kept around as a ''very'' secret BodyDouble result in him accidentally taking the prince's place for most of the pre-coronation rituals. Being unware that he's equally entitled to the crown results in Wulfrith being horrified that he's taking the rightful prince's place for such a big occasion.