History Main / SuperIdentikit

* {{Quincy}} once reconstructed a picture of an entire person from a single fragment of a thigh bone, including hair and eye color (although, to give the show credit, Quincy admitted he was only guessing on the hair and eyes based on statistical averages).

* Subverted in ''Dark Angel'' when Max is seen stealing medications from a pharmacy in ''Flushed''. Police pictures of her quickly land her in jail--along with about a dozen other women that approximately fit her description. Eventually, they all are released.

* Averted in ''Literature/Incompetence''. Harry's image is placed on Euronews and it looks more like [[Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes Dr Zaius]] than it does Harry.

* Subverted in an episode of ''LawAndOrderSVU'' where a sketch artist is told to draw a man with big, dark shades and a hooded sweatshirt. Both Detective Munch and a lead commented that this looked exactly like the Unabomber.

* Parodied during the end of the movie ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle''. The eponymous Harold and Kumar (who are Korean and Indian, respectively) have committed various crimes in their epic journey to White Castle. During the ending credits of the movie, a news report informs us "Police sketch artists believe the perpetrators to look like this", followed by a picture of two completely, offensively overly-stereotyped Arab and Chinese characters who look nothing like them. Harold and Kumar can be heard laughing at the gross misinterpretation.

* Averted in ''Literature/Incompetence''. Harry's image is placed on Euronews and it looks more like [[PlanetOfTheApes Dr Zaius]] than it does Harry.

** And as MST3K points out, one of the women on the screen briefly looks exactly like a female red-haired Hitler.

** Parodied as well in ''The Simpsons Movie'' similar to ''WrongfullyAccused'' when they are on their way to Alaska and see a wanted poster for themselves. While Marge frantically tries to keep the shopkeeper's attention away from the image, Bart adds weird features to the picture, immediately after which the shopkeeper cries out "Oh my God, there they are!" and a family looking exactly like Bart's modified version of the Simpsons walks in.

* An especially egregious version occurred in 'WesternAnimation/'KimPossible,'' though it didn't involve a human: a small, rice-grain size fragment (from a ''digital reconstruction'' of the crime scene) had the weapon, an exploding golf ball, extrapolated from it.

* An especially egregious version occurred in ''KimPossible,'' though it didn't involve a human: a small, rice-grain size fragment (from a ''digital reconstruction'' of the crime scene) had the weapon, an exploding golf ball, extrapolated from it.
* Parodied on ''TheSimpsons'' when Homer makes up details of an imaginary assailant, picking features that are bizarre and unlikely. The cops then manage to find someone who fits this imaginary description: Groundskeeper Willie.
** Parodied again on ''TheSimpsons'' when they're looking for Homer's mom (a fugitive from the police) - they show someone an old picture of her, and the person isn't sure, and then they say "according to our computer aging program she should be... 25 years older!" with the only thing on the screen being a large number 25.

** This is somewhat justified in {{Bones}}, because Angela was hired specifically for her artistic skill and ability to extrapolate faces from remains, and there are real specialists who have this ability.

* Played with in ''DefJam:Fight For NY'': the police sketch of the guy who rescued D-Mob from police custody is used as the character creation system. Naturally, once the sketch is done, the PC looks exactly like it.

* ''Roleplay/YouHaveBecomeYourAvatar'': The police sketches in a news report accurately described Fox and Joshua when they were at the scene of the explosion. Fortunately, they changed their appearance to prevent the police from spotting them.

* Parodied during the end of the movie ''Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle''. The eponymous Harold and Kumar (who are Korean and Indian, respectively) have committed various crimes in their epic journey to White Castle. During the ending credits of the movie, a news report informs us "Police sketch artists believe the perpetrators to look like this", followed by a picture of two completely, offensively overly-stereotyped Arab and Chinese characters who look nothing like them. Harold and Kumar can be heard laughing at the gross misinterpretation.
* The "funky description" schtick was also done in ''JohnnyEnglish'', where the aforementioned spy makes up an "aggressor" to cover his [[SelfOffense accidentally knocking out of a security chief]]. The "aggressor" looks like Ronald [=McDonald=]'s EvilTwin, yet a matching person appears in the final scene, reading a newspaper.

* In ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', JamesBond and Q use an "Identi-graph" computer to construct the face of someone Bond saw pay off a hitman. Despite some RuleOfFunny moments, they were able to identify their suspect.

* Parodied in ''Disney/StrangersWithCandy'', in the episode where Jerri hits Mr. Jellineck with her car. The police sketch artist is told the perpetrator was male, but nevertheless produces a very accurate sketch of Jerri, which, [[MatchCut when he puts it down, reveals her sitting right in front of him]]. [[IdiotPlot Nobody suspects a thing.]]

* ''{{NCIS}}'': Like many tropes on NCIS, this is played straight and subverted depending on the writer and plot requirements. Once this is played for laughs when Palmer's attempt at describing his attacker ends with a super villian-esque result. Other times, this is played incredibly straight, like when [=McGee=] created a program that successfully de-aged a suspect about ten years. Still other times, this averted when they get a vague pencil sketch that could be anybody.

* The "four inches of decaying skull" version happened in an episode of ''{{Bones}}''.

* Parodied in ''StrangersWithCandy'', in the episode where Jerri hits Mr. Jellineck with her car. The police sketch artist is told the perpetrator was male, but nevertheless produces a very accurate sketch of Jerri, which, [[MatchCut when he puts it down, reveals her sitting right in front of him]]. [[IdiotPlot Nobody suspects a thing.]]

* Subverted in an episode of ''{{Dexter}}''. The title character has just killed, in cold blood, a man who was about to commit murder; he is now stressed about a sketch being made from a description given by a young witness -- the boy who was about to be killed. Dexter gets a glimpse of the image before it is completed; it seems to resemble him and throws him into a further anxious frenzy. However, at the end of the episode the full picture is revealed to be a sketch of Jesus; the traumatized and delirious boy conflated the two as his savior.

* On ''TheCloser'', on one occasion, Brenda brandishes accurate pictures of her detectives (who were identified being where they shouldn't be) to prove her point. On other occasion, she's seen grimacing over a ridiculously vague drawing. The strangest version came when her wacky, airbrained sister decided she would describe the killer from her "psychic vision." Incredibly, she successfully describes . . . Chief Pope. [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Who she'd never met.]]

* Played oh-so-straight on ''{{Castle}}'': Nearly every episode has the cast picking out a suspect based on sketches that could only feasibly have been drawn if the subjects were posing for them.
* ''{{CSI}}'' had a particularly grating example: they had a picture of a freckle-faced young girl grinning a toothy, squinty grin. They took us through the early stages of artificially ageing her, starting to make her look like a freckle-faced grinning adult. Then later when we saw the final result it was a picture of an unsmiling, closed-mouthed, wide-eyed young woman, which couldn't possibly have been extrapolated from the earlier picture.

** Given that show's predeliction to gleefully [[LampshadeHanging hang lampshades]] on anything they can possibly get their hands on, that one might be intentional. I dunno, I haven't seen that one, but it's usually a smarter show than that.
*** No, it's not. Wade is pretty much the show's DeusExMachina. whatever Kim needs, she has only to open her PDA and give Wade a call.

* In the film ''{{Diabolik}}'', Valmont has one of his girls describe Eva so that one of his goons can use a device to create a picture of her. The effect is...interesting to say the least. Aside from the girl giving a very hard to follow description that no-one could possible draw a likeness from, the face on screen appears to change at whim. Why, one could even assume that the images we saw on the device were nothing more than pre-rendered animation, but [[SpecialEffectsFailure that would just be silly.]]

* In one episode of {{Robocop}}, Murphy sees a black guy who tries to kill him. Later, he takes a photo of his childhood friend, and computer-ages it exactly into the guy he saw, complete with beard and hat. He is, of course, exactly right.