Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context PaperThinDisguise / WesternAnimation

Go To

1%%%
2%%
3%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
4%%
5%%%
6
7[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_tattletale-strangler2_4965.jpg]]]]
8[[caption-width-right:350:[-Well, it ''is'' [[IdiotHero SpongeBob]], so this isn't remotely surprising.-] ]]
9
10----
11* In the ''WesternAnimation/ThreeTwoOnePenguins'' episode, "Practical Hoax", Cavitus' and his minions' disguises consist only of Groucho Marx glasses.
12* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'' has Kooky von Koopa building a robot look-alike of Princess Toadstool to bring ruin to the Mushroom Kingdom and then turn it over to [[BigBad Bowser]]. Somehow, Mario and Luigi are completely fooled by the robot, despite having obvious robotic lines on its arms and [[RoboSpeak speaking in a voice so monotone that anyone with ears could tell it wasn't the real Princess]]. They do eventually begin to suspect -- but only after realizing she was supposed to have been vacationing in Hawaii yet had no suntan.
13** Happens again in "Toddler Terrors of Time Travel", where Bowser and Kooky pretend to be plumbers in Brooklyn and intentionally clog someone's drainpipes.
14** Happens once more in "Send In The Clowns" (an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld''), where Mario and the cave people don't realize the clowns in Bowser's circus are actually Rexes until one of their noses falls off.
15** In "Reptiles in the Rose Garden", the brothers try to sneak onto Bowser's ship wearing Hammer Suits. The first Sledge Brother they approach takes one look at them, and without missing a beat asks, "Putting on a little weight, aren't you, Mario?"
16** Double subverted in "The Beauty of Kootie". Kootie Pie's realistic human disguise fools Mario, despite Cheatsy forgetting to remove her tail.
17** In "Rock TV", King Koopa sells televisions to the people of Dome City (plus Mario and Luigi) with the intention of hypnotizing them. He disguises himself as "Robby Rockwell" by putting on an obviously fake human head (there are bolts visible on it) and badly-fitting suit which does nothing to disguise his green, reptilian hands. Despite dealing with Koopa dozens of times, they fail to recognize him.
18** This goes all the way back to ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'', the first animated Mario series. In "Count Koopula", Koopa's minion Mouser disguises himself in a black cloak that doesn't even cover his whole face, but no one is suspicious. It isn't until he slips up and calls Toad by name that anyone is even slightly aware of what's going on.
19** ''Super Show'' also had the heroes do this on occasion. In "The Unzappables", the quartet needs to sneak into Bowser's secret villains-only club, so they don suits with red and green accents (the Mario Bros.), a pink flapper dress and headband (Princess Toadstool), and a newsboy outfit (Toad), none of which do ''anything'' to disguise their facial features (including Mario and Luigi's famous mustaches); as mentioned above, they also match the characters' distinct color schemes. The outfits work perfectly.
20** Suits worked again in another episode, where Mario and Luigi went undercover as riverboat gamblers. Oddly, in the same episode, Toad's disguise as a French waiter fails to fool King Koopa.
21* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'', Goose enters a tournament run by the BigBad. His entry name? The Galaxy Stranger.
22* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'':
23** In the episode "Her Parents", Jake disguises himself as a rainicorn by shape-shifting himself in order to have a long body and a horn, and painting himself in condiments. He's utterly baffled when Lady Rainicorn's parents fall for his disguise.
24** In "Morituri Te Salutamus", Finn tricks the Fight King into believing a mud statue he made was actually Jake.
25** In "Loyalty to the King", the Ice King shaves his beard and changes his name to "the Nice King" yet no one can recognize him.
26** In "Deep Purple", Susan infiltrates a Super Porp factory (Super Porp being a brand of grape soda) by stealthily punching out several workers and covering herself in their comatose bodies. It only works because the other workers are so apathetic they don't care... until one of them notices Susan is covered in concentrated Porp syrup and they dog-pile her to try and lick it off.
27** In "Daddy's Little Monster", Finn and Jake disguise themselves as demons to blend in amongst the Nightosphere denizens. Jake is able to shapeshift into a monstrous form while Finn just has a paper plate mask and wears his pajamas.
28* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', the character Bobert, who is an intelligent, but socially ignorant robot boy, wants to feel like a real boy. He tries this by assuming the identity of Gumball Watterson, and Bobert's disguise of Gumball is extremely crude and obvious (with the exception of his ability to perfectly imitate Gumball's voice) due to a half-baked paint job and his giant eye. Nevertheless, he manages to fool everybody in thinking that he's Gumball, including Gumball's ''own family''.
29* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'':
30** People seem to recognize Roger as an alien only when he's stark naked. If he has so much as a ''wig'' on, he's completely inconspicuous despite his obviously non-human body.
31*** In one episode, Roger gets in a hit-and-run accident wearing nothing but a wig, a wifebeater and Kevin Bacon's nose from a disguise kit, and Kevin Bacon gets blamed for it. Even ''Bacon himself'' is convinced:
32---->'''Bacon:''' ''[crying]'' I don't remember doing it... but it's clearly ME on the tape!
33*** In "Stanny Tendergrass", Roger reveals that he has at least one disguise that each member of the Smith family is unable to see through. Stan doesn't realize he's one of the wealthy members of a country club he works at during the summer, Francine's is a Korean boy who plays with a giant chopstick, Haley's is her sandal repairman, and Steve's is Alicia Wilkner, a girl he went on seven (nine when including times Roger drugged him) dates with.
34*** Steve's friend Toshi knows Roger's an alien, but of course no one understands him.
35*** As does Bob Todd in ''For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls.''
36---->'''Bob Todd:''' Well, if it ain't an alien in a wig!
37*** The episode "Persona Assistant" suggests that Roger's skin contains properties that make his disguises foolproof to anyone who doesn't know who he is. When Stan was forced to fill in for Roger, he had to wear a jumpsuit made of alien flesh underneath the disguises in order for them to work.
38** Played with in the episode "Con Heir", when two {{FBI agent}}s come to the Smiths' home looking for a man who is 6'2", 65 years old, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking sometimes leaps from a helicopter]], has a salty demeanor and wears a turtleneck. Francine thinks they mean Stan's father until she sees the mugshot. In which he has a mustache.
39--->'''FBIAgent:''' No mustache? Sorry to waste your time, ma'am.
40** In the episode "Flirting With Disaster", the Chinese spies infiltrating the C.I.A. are incredibly obvious; they just wear blonde wigs and make {{Suspiciously Specific Denial}}s while asking for secret nuclear launch codes.
41* The "Chicken Boo" segments of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' are based almost entirely on essentially parodying this trope. Boo is a giant rooster that cannot speak and is not anthropomorphic in any way, besides apparently having opposable thumbs. However, the flimsiest of disguises will cause everyone [[TheCassandra except one person]] to treat him as an expert in whatever field he's chosen to enter, be it acting (a French-style mustache), karate (a white uniform and headband), or even the ''Confederate Army'' (a gray hat). The single individual who realizes the truth [[OnlySaneMan desperately tries to point out]] how painfully obvious the disguise is, but [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer everyone else]] will simply laugh or take that individual to be speaking metaphorically. When Boo's rooster mannerisms inevitably come out (such as trying to eat a grasshopper or being upset by the sight of fried chicken), he panics and loses the disguise, which suddenly makes everyone realize his true identity and form an angry mob to chase him off, while the Cassandra returns to gloat ("I TOLD YOU THAT GUY WAS A CHICKEN!").
42-->'''Theme Song:''' You wear a disguise to look like human guys, but you're not a man, you're a chicken, Boo.
43** In other Animaniacs cartoons, however, this trope is often played straight. Characters are often completely fooled by when one of the Warners puts on a disguise and an accent.
44** In Slappy Squirrel's segments, her opponents often resort to this (Among other stock cartoon tactics) to try to get the better of her, but she's so GenreSavvy she sees through them right away.
45*** In one, Daniel Boone tries to dress as a bird to get at Slappy's tree, but the disguise is "pretty absurd" (as the chorus acting as the InteractiveNarrator clearly says) and Slappy doesn't fall for it.
46*** It's pretty easy for Slappy herself, however. In one cartoon she is able to fool two movie critics who gave her old cartoons a rather cruel review ({{Expy}}s of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert) simply by wearing an usher's uniform and then switching to a popcorn vendor's uniform in the next scene.
47* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
48** The kids' disguises include Aang wearing a wig and moustache made of Appa-fur and pretending to be an old man, and Sokka and Katara donning a moustache and fake baby-bump respectively and pretending to be Aang's parents. They are two and three years older than Aang and have much darker skin. Completely believed every time.
49** It seems that all Aang ever has to do is cover up his arrow, and he's safe. Eh? That kid with a turban has the same yellow and orange garb as the Avatar? Well phooey, we can't see his arrow! There's no way it's him! He improves by the beginning of Season 3, instead getting a disguise involving completely different clothes, actual hair, a headband, and an [[TotallyRadical attempt]] to assimilate. He can get away with light disguises because there's no photography in this world -- all they have is colorless drawings, and that's only in the Fire Nation.
50** In the episode "Sokka's Master", at the very end Piandao reveals that he ''always'' knew Sokka was a member of the Water Tribe, since the name "Sokka" is very distinctly Water Tribe in the series. He recommends, for future reference, the name Li. "There's a million Lis." He never calls attention to the fact that Sokka has a considerably darker skin tone than most people in the Fire Nation.
51** Zuko and Iroh while on the run from the Fire Nation in Season 2. Despite being on hundreds of wanted posters throughout the Earth Kingdom, no one ever manages to recognize the angry teenage boy with a huge scar traveling with his short, chubby uncle as the two fugitives on the poster. That or an angry teenage boy with a giant burn scar who lives homeless with an elderly uncle actually ''is'' a common sight. Song [[CommonalityConnection shows Zuko her own burned leg,]] and Jet (initially) trusts Zuko simply because Zuko "didn't get that scar from a ''water''bender."
52** In Season 3, "The Painted Lady", Katara dresses as a Spirit to help a town whose river was polluted by the Fire Nation's factories. It's actually quite a brilliant disguise, and with the help of her waterbending, she's very convincing (at least until Aang catches her sneaking off). On the more comedic side, we have [[CloudCuckooLander a man who seems to be completely insane.]] He switches hats and names, telling the gang he's a trio of brothers.
53--->'''"Xu"''': I'll get my other brother, Bushi! He ''loves'' cleaning rivers! (removes his cap, a straw hat flops out from under it) [[SplitPersonality Okay! I'm Bushi!]]\
54'''Aang''': I knew it! You are the same guy! You just switched hats and called yourself a different name!\
55'''"Bushi"''': Oh you know who does that? My brother, Dock. He's ''crazy''.
56* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheBackyardigans'', Pablo self-proclaimed himself as "Le Master of Disguise" (which just happened to be the [[TitleDrop episode's title]]), and he couldn't be recognized by any of the other characters, [[spoiler:most especially when he dressed up in the costume Austin was wearing at the episode, mustache and all (though Pablo's was over his beak), and the others couldn't tell them from each other, even if Austin (a purple kangaroo) and Pablo (a blue penguin) ''looked nothing alike'']].
57* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''
58** Commissioner Gordon somehow fails to recognize his own daughter, despite the fact that the mask doesn't even cover her eyes, nor does she use a different voice.
59*** One version implies he ''does'' know and is a SecretSecretKeeper because things would be difficult otherwise.
60** In ''"Never Fear"'', Wayne reprises his Matches Malone alias, but looks exactly like Wayne in his standard ''TNBA'' business suit, and wearing a pencil thin moustache and possibly sunglasses. None of that wardrobe and make-up artists' effects seen in ''"Shadow of the Bat"''.
61** Oddly, there was one person who started to make the Bruce-Batman connection -- none other than [[CloudCuckoolander Harley Quinn]], who remarked "Something about that chin..." (which is, of course, the only part of Bruce's face exposed in the Batman suit) when she saw Wayne while in their civilian personas. She was [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny quickly distracted]], but given that Wayne looked genuinely nervous at her inquiry, she must have come pretty darn close.
62** Terry [=McGinnis=] of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' does even ''less'' to hide the fact that he's the new Batman, as he doesn't even bother to adopt a SecretIdentity and openly uses obvious Batman-like acrobatics and skills even when out of costume. ''Nobody'' puts it together because nobody in a million years would think [[BeneathNotice a guy like Terry could ever be Batman]]: When one of his friends notices his suspicious behavior she immediately assumes he's running with The Jokerz, and in one episode he bluntly tells his family he's Batman and they both laugh their asses off and believe he's joking.
63* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead''
64** The episode "Pool Toys" has the duo wear NerdGlasses to try to fool Tom Anderson into getting them to build his swimming pool. Were it not for Anderson's poor eye sight, this plan probably wouldn't have worked.
65** "Incognito": In order to avoid being recognized by a bully, the duo simply wear strange hats and sunglasses while sitting in their usual seats. Also, they speak in [[OohMeAccentsSlipping terrible Russian accents]] and call themselves [[LazyAlias Crevice and Bung-Head]].
66* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}}'', the main character is competing with a guy named Germ Pondscum for the title of best prankster -- and is lagging behind. When he goes to a store to buy supplies hoping to score more points, Pondscum is the clerk, disguising himself with nothing more than a set of novelty nose-and-glasses. (Naturally, what he sells BJ gets him in ''big'' trouble.)
67** Jacques [=LaLean=] once posed as an ordinary living human, despite being a skeleton with no mask. To be fair, the only person he had to fool was [[TheDitz Delia Deetz]].
68* ''WesternAnimation/BikerMiceFromMars'':
69** The two-part episode "The Reeking Reign of the Head Cheese" had Throttle, Modo, and Vinnie framed for kidnapping the mayor of Chicago by Greasepit and two nameless thugs, who impersonated the Biker Mice using very obvious disguises. Greasepit, for instance, disguised himself as Modo solely by wearing fake mouse ears and doesn't even bother wearing an eyepatch.
70** In the 2006 revival, the episode "It's the Pits" has Dr. Karbunkle wear a fake beard while luring the Biker Mice into the lair of the Pit Boss. Throttle, Modo, and Vinnie find him familiar, but he unconvincingly insists that he isn't who they think he is.
71* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'':
72** "Vincent Adultman", who is very obviously [[TotemPoleTrench a group of children stacked together under a trench coat]]. Despite this, [=BoJack=] is the only person who sees through the disguise ([[AlternateCharacterInterpretation or is willing to]]); Princess Carolyn even enters into a relationship with Vincent, believing him the successful manager of [[BlatantLies a business factory]].
73** Season 5 has Officer Meow-Meow Fuzzyface dress as a drug buyer to make a sting. Read "drug buyer" as "riding a scooter, wearing a hat saying 'Teen', and having his uniform on ''under'' the outfit."
74* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bonkers}}'' played with this trope a few times.
75** In the episode "I Oughta Be in Toons",Lucky Piquel is the only one deceived by Babyface's Mickey Mouse disguise, somehow not noticing that Babyface is tall, obese, and looks more menacing than the real Mickey.
76** "Cereal Surreal" has the Wheat Crunchies mascots Slap, Sniffle, and Flop [[note]]A combination NoCelebritiesWereHarmed / BlandNameProduct parody of Rice Krispies mascots Snap, Crackle, and Pop.[[/note]] being framed for stealing decoder ring prizes from their own cereal boxes by their would-be replacements Turbo, Banshee, and Kapow, who wear masks with clearly visible seams on them.
77** "A Fine Kettle of Toons" has Lucky successfully impersonate Fall Apart Rabbit even though Fall Apart is a short toon rabbit and he is an overweight human.
78* WesternAnimation/BugsBunny can pretend to be a human by simply wearing human clothes. This cover is usually blown when someone notices his tail or ears. Of course, no one bothers to notice the gray fur or obviously non-human face...
79** In "Forward March Hare" (1953), the sergeant-demoted-to-private only notices the ears pretty far along, and then mentions the fur before realizing the Army's inducted a rabbit by mistake.
80** In "Bowery Bugs" he impersonates several different people from a swami to a police officer, all by just changing clothes. When the villain of the short finally catches on, he mistakenly thinks that everyone is turning into rabbits, goes insane, and hurls himself off the Brooklyn Bridge.
81** During the "hunting trilogy" he impersonates everything from a woman to the Game Warden, Elmer is fooled every time.
82** An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' did the same thing in an episode where Babs Bunny pretended to be a human simply by dressing like one so she could star on a teen drama. It was even {{lampshade|Hanging}}d when the makeup guy told her she should consider getting a facial wax to remove excess hair. Why the various other times the species of the characters didn't matter to other humans (including the ones that went to school with them, aside from Elmyra) is ignored.
83** In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Dough for the Dodo", WesternAnimation/PorkyPig fools the Dodo by wearing only a ragged green coat and an umbrella on his head. However, in the original short "WesternAnimation/PorkyInWackyland" (which was the former was a remake of), Porky had a very effective disguise wearing a false beard that covered everything but his eyes, a false nose and glasses, a different coat, and a helmet with a light bulb on it.
84** In "Dog Pounded", [[WesternAnimation/SylvesterTheCatAndTweetyBird Sylvester]] puts on a dog suit to infiltrate a dog pound where Tweety is hiding. So unconvincing is this disguise, that the dogs inside see through it immediately and attack, forcing Sylvester to make a quick escape. Later, a dogcatcher notices the still-disguised Sylvester and inattentively throws him back into the pound, where another mauling awaits.
85** Bugs explained this phenomenon himself to Buster and Babs in the first episode of ''Tiny Toon Adventures'': "Eh, you'll be fine if you remember t'ree things. One, your adversaries have tapioca for brains. Two, always eat your carrots. And three, villains always fall for cheesy disguises." The last line was said while briefly disguised in a shabby-looking Taz costume (which still manages to scare Buster and Babs). The next scene (at Montana Max's) has Babs recall what Bugs said about cheesy disguises, and the two dress up as Yosemite Sam (Buster) and Elmer Fudd (Babs) to fool Montana Max.
86*** Bugs Bunny is so notorious for flimsy disguises that somehow work that, if this trope was up for a re-naming, "Bugs Bunny Disguise" would be an excellent choice.
87** In the cartoon, ā€œA Fox in a Fixā€, when a watchdog is trying to protect chickens from a nearby fox. The fox trims the hair on his face and tail to masquerade as another dog wanting a job. The watchdog sees through it right away, but he decides to play dumb and proceeds to put the fox through TrainingFromHell.
88** In ''Merlin the Magic Mouse'', upon learning that the sole person in the audience is a cat, Merlin hides the fact he's a mouse by wearing a mustach. The cat is fooled until it falls off.
89** In ''Hollywood Daffy'', when Daffy tries several disguises to get past the guard, but none of them work.
90** Played with in "WesternAnimation/TortoiseWinsByAHare". In an attempt to learn how Cecil Turtle has been able to beat Bugs at every race, Bugs dons a disguise consisting of a long grey beard, sunglasses, and a hat (which he hides his ears inside of), and Cecil gives him information. But it turns out Cecil knew all along that it was Bugs, and was merely tricking him.
91** In Backwoods Bunny, when Bugs is pitted against a dimwitted hillbilly buzzard, Bugs pulls his old dress-in-drag routine, and initially, it appears to work until the buzzard reveals that he wasn't fooled in the slightest.
92** Also in the cartoon, "WesternAnimation/SlickHare", Bugs is in a Hollywood night club and trying to hide from Elmer Fudd. Bugs attempts to allude him by disguising as [[Creator/TheMarxBrothers Groucho Marx.]] Elmer, for once, is not only not fooled, he's also [[OhCrap sitting next to Bugs disguised as Harpo with a meat cleaver.]]
93* Mr. Bumpy, the main character of ''WesternAnimation/BumpInTheNight'', occasionally used shoddy disguises.
94** "A Penny for Your Thoughts" had Mr. Bumpy at one point try to stop pennies appearing whenever he thinks by diverting their attention with a cardboard cut-out of himself while wearing a cowboy hat and a fake mustache.
95** "Love's Labor Bumped" had Bumpy learn that Destructo has a crush on Molly Coddle and decides to mess with him by impersonating Molly. His disguise consists of little more than a cheap wig, a glove mimicking Molly's right arm, and a red and white legging like the one Molly wears on her left leg.
96** "Not a Leg to Stand On" had Mr. Bumpy get in trouble when Molly Coddle thought he stole her feet, unaware that his intention was to give her new shoes. He attempts to lie low by disguising himself as Squishington's Cousin Bela, which had him wear a hat with a feather in it, fake eyebrows, a fake mustache, and a fake blue nose.
97* ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo''
98** "Swimming Buddy" had Lazlo, Clam, and Raj sneak into the Squirrel Scouts camp with Lazlo and Clam dressed as girls and Raj disguised as a log. None of the Squirrel Scouts seemed to notice.
99** In "Loogie Llama", the Beans Scouts fool the Squirrel Scouts by saying they have a unicorn which is actually a filthy disgusting llama with an ice cream cone on his head, later when they take the cone off they proclaim "He's hideous!" despite finding him beautiful earlier.
100** "Beans and Pranks" had Slinkman disguise himself as a new Bean Scout named "Boris" by wearing a blue baseball cap on his head.
101** In "Parents' Day", Lazlo and Raj decide to impersonate Lumpus' mother and father by forming {{Totem Pole Trench}}es with the Dung Beetle Twins and using sticks in their ears for antlers. Clam also pretends to be Lumpus' parents' dog by wearing a dog collar and socks on his ears.
102* In ''WesternAnimation/CareBearsAdventuresInCareALot'', many of the characters can only pull off this kind of disguise -- resident villain Grizzle's disguises are often paper thin, and Funshine did it once to weasel out of being bedridden due to being ill. And the bears fall for it every time.
103* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Centaurworld}}'', Glendale is a wanted criminal in the underground land of the Moletaurs. Her paper-thin disguise of wearing glasses and a moustache, speaking in Spanish, and claiming to be someone else. [[spoiler:Subverted when it turns out to be a separate Spanish-speaking centaur who merely happens to resemble Glendale.]]
104* ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'': The episode "Flash the Wonder Dog" uses this trope when Fat Cat and his goons all disguise themselves as the titular canine TV star [[ClearMyName to get him in trouble]]. They each only wear Flash's heroic shirt, cape, and a simple mask with a dog nose and ears, making it painfully obvious they are ''not'' Flash (and in the case of Fat Cat, his distinct mustache-like whiskers are still visible). Regardless, their disguises still manage to fool nearly everyone, except for the Rescue Rangers and the real Flash.
105* ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'':
106** In one episode, during an escalating effort to convince Panini that [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend He's Not Her Boyfriend]], Chowder turns up on her doorstep wearing a large black moustache and fabricates a story about the "real" Chowder moving far away. Panini doesn't even pretend to be convinced and refers to him as Chowder throughout the entire conversation, causing him to switch gears to say that "Chowder's [[NeverSayDie dead]]". In the end, he foils himself after he gleefully accepts the cookie she offers him.
107** In "Kid Shnitzel", Shnitzel and Chowder get tired of having responsibilities and dress up like babies to avoid work. Mung punishes them by sending them to a "baby pound", where an enormous woman named Frau Broten takes care of naughty children. Despite Shnitzel and Chowder's baby disguises consisting solely of diapers and bonnets, neither of which cover up the fact that they're a fully grown rock monster and preteen cat-like creature, respectively, Frau Broten is utterly convinced that they're actual infants and tries to smother them with love.
108* ''WesternAnimation/ChristmasInTattertown'': Muffet, an [[LivingToys evil doll]], attempts to conquer Tattertown, with the help of Sidney, a [[GiantSpider spider big enough for her to ride]]. Muffet dons a Santa disguise, but it's obvious who she is, especially with her blonde ringlets sticking out from under the hat. Sidney's disguise is hardly better; it consists only of a few bells and a reindeer-antler headband.
109* Inverted on ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' in the episode where Roberta dons a FatSuit. It's a very convincing disguise and almost everyone is fooled, but somehow Cleveland, Donna, and Rallo see through it.
110* On one episode of ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'', the clone of Joan of Arc had to [[SweetPollyOliver dress as a man]] by wearing a fairly obvious fake moustache that nonetheless fooled all of the other characters, because the basketball team wasn't allowed to include girls or animals. When her disguise is penetrated, her place is taken by a dolphin in an equally fake moustache.
111* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'':
112** Mr. Boss ridicules the Toilenator in "Operation: F.L.U.S.H." by mentioning that he was once fooled by Numbuh 1 in disguise, even though the disguise consisted solely of a T-shirt that said "[[MostDefinitelyNotAVillain I'm not Numbuh 1]]." (Of course, the Toilenator isn't all-too bright...)
113--->'''Toilenator:''' [[TooDumbToLive I never expected an article of clothing to lie!]]
114** In "Operation: C.H.A.D.", [[spoiler: Mega Mom and Destructo Dad's full-head helmets pretty much resemble exaggerated versions of their actual faces, and don't hide their voices at all; yet, for some reason, this is enough to conceal their identities from ''their own son'' until they remove them.]]
115** And in the KND crossover with ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', ''The Grim Adventures of the KND'', Numbuh One's tomato-nose Billy disguise is intended to fool Billy's dad... but fools Grim before Dad can even get home. And when Mandy disguises herself as Numbuh One [[ClarkKenting with his sunglasses]] and shirt, she fools the entire KND organization and takes over!
116*** And changes the name to "Mandy", no less.
117** [[TheBigGuy Numbuh 4]] manages to get into a girl's slumber party in "Operation: S.L.U.M.B.E.R." simply by wearing a wig and speaking in a falsetto voice while calling himself "Numbuh Four... Thirty... teen... seven!"
118* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'':
119** Minor recurring villain Benton Tarantella, a zombie director-slash-serial killer, disguised himself in his debut episode "Everyone Wants to Direct" by wearing Groucho glasses. The disguise does nothing to hide the fact that he's a decaying zombie, yet it succeeds in fooling the Bagges. Oddly, he doesn't even bother with a disguise when he returns in "Angry Nasty People" and yet the Bagges still trust him.
120** "Journey to the Center of Nowhere" has Courage try to stop the sentient eggplants from going after Muriel by disguising himself as The Great Eggplant. He does this by wearing a very obvious eggplant costume, which even has a clearly visible tag.
121** "1,000 Years of Courage" has Courage and the Bagges wear fake banana skins to blend in with the banana people in the future. Their costumes have clearly visible zippers and also happen to be brown and spotty, yet none of the yellow and spotless banana people are the least bit suspicious.
122** In an attempt to get the titular villain to reveal his name, the episode "Rumpledkiltskin" has Courage at one point disguise himself with a hat and a fake mustache while using a recorded message to tell Rumpledkiltskin that he's won one million dollars on the condition that he sign his name. The plan fails because Rumpledkiltskin simply writes down "Cash".
123** "Aqua-Farmer" has Courage help Eustace regain his self-esteem by disguising himself as a therapist using a hat, a fake nose, eyeglasses, and a fake beard. The disguise works even though Courage barks instead of using real words when he talks to Eustace.
124* ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'':
125** In the episode "Field Trip to Folsom Prison", an escaped prisoner named Rhode Island Red poses as Chicken by simply sticking a red glove on top of his head and wearing Chicken's name tag, and manages to fool everyone. Cow only realizes that he isn't Chicken because [[OutOfCharacterAlert he willingly played with her, something that the real Chicken would never do.]] It takes her a little while to realize that.
126** Basically all of the Red Guy's disguises are obvious to the viewers but not the characters.
127* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/CraigOfTheCreek'' called "''Jacob of the Creek''" features the protagonist Craig being embarrassed by the bad haircut he tried to give himself, and so his friends tell him to wear a disguise to the city creek they always hang out at so no one else at the creek will recognize him. The disguise only consists of his bad haircut, some sunglasses, speaking in a slightly deeper voice, and changing his name to "Jacob". While wearing the sunglasses and changing the pitch of his voice, no one at the creek but his close friends recognize that it's actually him for several days until he finally confesses that it's him at the end of the episode.
128* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''. This is even commented on in the "Ultimate Enemy" special. [[spoiler:Dark Danny has Danny's family and teacher tied up and reveals who he is. He then asks them why they never noticed that "Danny Fenton" and "Danny Phantom" were so similar]].
129* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'':
130** Played with in "Adopt-a-Con", where Tuskernini is able to fool others when dressed as Megavolt and Bushroot, despite being much more overweight than them. Darkwing Duck isn't fooled by the Megavolt disguise (and it's unclear if the tied-up guard is), while DW, Launchpad, and Gosylyn all know in advance that he's going to be disguised as Bushroot. However, those unaware don't know that he's really Tuskernini. [[spoiler: The judge only finds out after he sees the flower pot used as hair fall off.]]
131** Whenever Quackerjack wears a disguise (such as a psychologist in "Days of Blunder" or a surgeon in "Stressed to Kill") he wears his signature jester mask, which he is [[NeverBareheaded rarely seen without]]. One would think he'd be less likely to be recognized without it.
132** In "Stressed to Kill" both he and Megavolt wear doctor outfits over their usual clothes. Darkwing is suspicious but since he's spent the episode overreacting to stuff because of his stress level they're able to convince him he's just seeing things.
133** Whenever Launchpad dresses as Darkwing, others get fooled in spite of Launchpad having a much bigger build.
134* The Dark Lord Chuckles the Silly Piggy in ''WesternAnimation/DaveTheBarbarian'' has been known to dress up in all manner of costumes that somehow fool everyone, even though he's still very, very obviously a ''talking pig''. Once he even introduced himself as "The Dark Lord Chuckles the Silly Music Producer" and still everybody was fooled. It's especially bizarre because the plot to one entire episode is predicated on his Amulet of Hogswineboar letting him project a physically perfect illusion of the title character's father, meaning that he's entirely ''capable'' of creating more effective disguises, he just [[NeverRecycleYourSchemes chooses not to for some bizarre reason]].
135** One episode had a VillainTeamUp get foiled by the heroes simply wearing papier-mache masks of said villains and insulting the other villains, making them turn on each other. One of the villains was Chuckles, who is the size of a regular pig and thus much shorter than a person. Another was Quosmir who is not only [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever gigantic]], but [[SnakePeople has the lower half of a snake]].
136* ''WesternAnimation/DenisAndMe'': In "Lemonade Stand-Off", Lady Barks-A-Bit dons such a disguise to get close to Sir Meows-A-Lot. It consists of a pink sun hat and Groucho Marx glasses.
137* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' episodes frequently feature ridiculously obvious disguises.
138** In "Nuclear Confusion", Dexter poses as a stuffed swordfish by clenching a poker in his mouth. Of course, his dad doesn't notice anything.
139** In "The Muffin King", Dad disguises himself as Mom to fool Dexter and Dee Dee into leaving the house unguarded so he can sample some of Mom's dinner muffins. It works at first, but then the kids see right through the disguise once Dexter points out that Mom is looking "[[SpottingTheThread stubbly]]" today.
140** Another one had Dee Dee accidentally shutting down the lab and spending the entire episode tricking Dexter into thinking nothing is wrong by impersonating Computer, Robot, and Mandark. Somehow this worked and Dexter is none the wiser. "Boy genius" my ass.
141** In another episode, Dexter grows a beard, which causes everyone to mistake him for the TV hero Action Hank. For reference, Hank is a tall, muscular black man, and Dexter is a nerdy red-headed boy who's portrayed in-series as being about two feet tall. The justification seems to be that nobody in the world ''except'' Hank could possibly grow a beard that rugged. When they meet, Hank himself even takes to calling Dexter "Little Hank".
142--->'''Thug 1:''' Two Action Hanks!.\
143''' Thug 2:''' But which one's the real one?.
144** "Momdark". Mandark kidnaps Dexter's mother and dresses up as her. His disguise is actually quite good, except for the huge glasses on his face (which she doesn't wear) and his voice, which doesn't sound like hers at all. However, it fools Dexter, Dee Dee, and their father completely.
145** In "Mock Five", Dee Dee disguises herself as the "mysterious Racer D" to secretly race with and protect Dexter during a big soapbox derby. The visor she wears does cover her eyes...but she uses the exact same voice, calls Dexter by name, and has her famous blonde pigtails sticking out from her helmet. Since the whole thing is an AffectionateParody of ''Anime/SpeedRacer'', it's definitely played for laughs.
146*** Even worse, she outright ''tells'' Mandark about her secret identity...although oddly, he's completely forgotten by the next day.
147** "Trapped with a Vengeance", a ''Film/DieHard'' parody, sees Dexter trapped by an evil custodian ("Yohnny, the Yanitor") who's sick of having to stay late to clean up the boy genius's messes. At one point, Yohnny looks away from the surveillance cameras, then glances back and gloats about how he can't be tricked...apparently unaware that he's talking to a piece of notebook paper with a ''very'' crudely-drawn image of Dexter.
148* ''WesternAnimation/{{Disenchantment}}'':
149** Dagmar's disguise as the operator of a puppet store... isn't. She uses her usual voice, and the only difference is wearing a hood and no make-up. At the time, Zog is too completely insane to notice or respond, and Bean's too busy looking for Zog to notice.
150** Elfo attends a secret elf meeting in disguise (since he's spying on them, and the other elves hate him) as "Mustachio". It's just Elfo wearing a false mustach and lowering his voice, doing nothing to hide his green skin, when he's the only elf with green skin. He's only given away because [[ButHeSoundsHandsome he tries defending himself]] when the other elves start complaining about him.
151* In ''[[WesternAnimation/DofusKerubsBazaar Dofus]]'', Crocosec has the ability to disguise himself as anyone using anything. In his introductory episode, he disguises himself as a human kid (he's a crocodile) just by putting on a tiny hat. The disguise is so convincing that even his own allies somehow don't recognize him.
152* At the end of ''Don't Give Up the Sheep'', when Sam clocks out, [[spoiler: he instantly notices that the sheepdog who clocks in to replace him is Ralph in a very convincing sheepdog disguise and beats him. Though it could be he regognized the voice when he greeted Sam.]]
153* Averted on ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' when Skeeter tried to go to the Honker Burger in disguise after running away from home. Everyone recognized him right away.
154* On ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'', Rayla's "Human Rayla" disguise is just her wearing a cloak over her horns and elf ears, saying stereotypically human things in a hillbilly accent, and sometimes wearing gloves to hide her four fingers. She does nothing to hide her lavender skin, facial markings, or elf armor.
155-->'''Human Rayla''': Greetings, fellow humans, human fellas. I sure do like hanging out with other humans, and talking about things like money, and starting wars.
156** In the third season, Callum dresses up as an elf. And his disguise is just as thin as Rayla's. He ties sticks to his head, which are supposed to imitate the horns of elves. He squeezes two fingers together to make it look like he has four instead of five fingers. However, he still has human, round ears, a human hair color and clothing. You can even see the ribbon that holds his "horns" together.
157-->'''Elf Callum''': All my best mates are trees!
158* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' has this in "Mexican't Buy Me Love" where Ling Ling plays a [[SarcasmMode verrrry]] convincing fighting rooster... with nothing more than a fake beak.
159** In "Captain Hero's Marriage Pact", Captain Hero attempts to ruin Wooldor's relationship with Unusually Flexible Girl by disguising as him and peeing on her. The disguise being him in a wifebeater, a sweatband with fake wings and a fake nose, plus Hero being much taller, muscular and ''human-like'' than Wooldor. She is actually fooled by this... but it actually backfires as she ends finding out [[TooKinkyToTorture she enjoys being peed on]].
160* In ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', no one ever recognizes the disguised Beagle Boys under the fake mustache (or whatever), even though they always wear their robbery masks and prisoner numbers. Considering even their own family hasn't seen them without the masks, simply removing them might be far more effective than anything else they could do.
161** In a (non-''[=DuckTales=]'' related) comic story, this is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by the Beagle Boys ridiculing one of them when he pulls off a disguise that's actually somewhat more convincing than most others, since he actually bothers to make the mask less noticeable by wearing huge glasses. Earlier and later in the story, the other Beagle Boys had worn disguises that didn't even cover any of their faces.
162** In ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' while these do work, special mention goes to [[CanonForeigner Don Karnage]] who is terrible at this trope. In his first appearence, he claims to be a plant scientist and dons a caterpillar as a mustache (which keeps crawling off his upper lip). Scrooge pulls aside his entire family to confirm that nobody is believing it... even ''[[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Launchpad]]''. In another episode, he doesn't even bother with a disguise despite his entire villain team wearing them. Knowing his lack of any skill in this trope, one could even assume Don Karnage thought [[InsaneTrollLogic not wearing a disguise was itself a clever disguise.]]
163* Evil The Cat tried this twice in ''WesternAnimation/EarthwormJim''. Oddly enough, it failed miserably in one episode (Evil took four Super Blaster shots to the face, once for each failed costume) and worked perfectly in a later episode.
164** And in the times that his disguise ''did'' work, he'd introduce himself by saying, "I am (whatever I'm disguised is) and not a cat. I'm here to (do whatever it is I want you to think I'm doing). And did I mention I'm not a cat?"
165** Psycrow and Professor Monkey-For-A-Head also managed to steal Jim's suit by disguising Psycrow's ship as a Laundromat (as in, just hanging up a sign saying it's a landromat and [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial NOT Psycrow's ship]].) Inside was the Professor dressed as a cowboy with a fake mustache and gigantic hat to hide the monkey. When a banana peel falls out of his hat, he just blames it on head lice.
166** Jim himself also manages to hide from a killer robot inside his suit by attaching himself to a wall and proclaiming "Hiss hiss! Hello! I am a steam pipe. The intruders went that way! Hiss hiss! Steam!"
167* In the episode "From here to Ed" in ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', the Eds manage to sneak past Kevin by disguising themselves as Jonny. Which means all three Eds are crammed into a gigantic papier-mĆ¢chĆ© sphere vaguely shaped like Jonny's head, with the eyes cut out and ''all three Eds plainly visible inside'' and an imitation [[CompanionCube Plank]] glued to the side. Kevin doesn't seem to notice, saying hi to "Jonny" and muttering "What a freak" when "he" hits the fence and falls over it.
168** In the episode "Laugh Ed Laugh", due to an epidemic there are no kids for Eddy to scam, causing him to eventually go completely insane. Ed and Edd attempt to capture him for his own safety and approach him by wearing badly drawn masks of Jonny and Plank. Eddy falls for the disguises even when Ed's mask falls off.
169--->'''Eddy''': Hi Plank! Hi Jonny! I'd invite you in, but I just shampooed the rugs! [Ed's mask falls off which causes Edd to FacePalm]\
170'''Ed''': Oops. \
171'''Eddy''': ''Jonny''. You dropped your face... I'll get you a new one!
172** In the episode "Pain in the Ed", Sarah instructs Jimmy to keep an eye out for Ed and to let her know if Ed isn't practicing his violin or if the violin breaks. As a response, Jimmy comes up with many disguises to wear while spying on the Eds. Said disguises are the following: a baby in a stroller, a bird in a tree nearby, being Mary and having sheep nearby, and a bunny (when Edd accidentally breaks the violin). Edd and Eddy are able to see through the disguises, while Ed, [[TheDitz unsurprisingly]], isn't. This prompts Edd and Eddy to make the destruction of the violin look like a complete accident.
173** In the episode "Pick An Ed", Eddy goes undercover as a new student, "Carl". Edd is the only one able to see through the disguise while Ed ([[TheDitz well being Ed]]) doesn't. The disguise immediately fools the other kids. This is played more straight when Eddy disguises himself as a female student named "Suzette". [[CompanionCube Plank]] is able to "see" through the disguise and Kevin exposes the disguise at the near end.
174* ''WesternAnimation/EekTheCat'' once featured "famous" performers, the Squishy Bearz, being framed for robbery by four rats wearing a PaperThinDisguise. How bad was it? One was just wearing a cardboard box with a smiley face on it and another had a large sock over his head. Done again in the same episode when the Squishy Bearz, on the run from the law, were forced to disguise themselves to avoid detection. Among the costumes worn: A grass skirt and coconut bra combo which really didn't cover the face at all. The people in the local diner didn't recognize them until a news broadcast showed how the Squishy Bearz might look in disguise, showing the exact costumes that they were wearing. Hilarity ensued.
175* ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewSchool'': Yzma's disguise as [[SdrawkcabAlias Principal Amzy]] only fools Kronk, who is ironically the only person who is ''supposed'' to know. [[RunningGag Yzma is forced to remove her disguise in front of him every time.]]
176* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'':
177** Cosmo and Wanda have passed, floating and all, with signs that read "Normal" and "Human", respectively. They don't even bother with a disguise at a comic convention, as everyone assumes they're wearing costumes.
178** This happened again when Cosmo was being taken to the doctor. His main disguise is a green lamp with the words "Not Cosmo" written on him. This was only made worse by his line "A LAMP!!! The perfect disguise!"
179** Timmy's had a few, but the disguise in "Shiny Teeth" takes the cake: by simply wearing a tiara, no one, neither his enemies or a friend he has rescued before, can recognize him. Though considering that the Tooth Fairy was the one who gave it to him alongside some other equipment, it's pretty much implied by her to be magic.
180--->'''Timmy:''' [[LampshadeHanging What's the tiara for?]]\
181'''Tooth Fairy:''' It hides your secret identity, [[MundaneUtility and it matches!]]
182** "The buck teeth look familiar but the tiara leaves me '''baffled!'''"
183** [[Franchise/SailorMoon What was that about a tiara?]]
184** In "Love at First Height", Chester and A.J. put on a 'tall kid kit' to pass themselves as someone tall enough for the roller coaster. When their fake moustache fell the first time, Timmy's parents were the only people to see it and didn't suspect a thing. The second time, however, was witnessed by smarter adults.
185** The Crimson Chin wears a suit and glasses. Never mind that his super hero suit is worn underneath it -- including his face mask (the glasses are worn at the end of his chin). In fact, his suit seems permanently attached to him, as he's never seen without in even wearing civilian clothes.
186** In the episode, "Christmas Every Day", when Timmy catches up to the Lesser Holidays, he gets onboard their bus by disguising himself as "Birthday Boy", which merely consists of him wearing a candle on his head instead of his trademark pink hat.
187--->'''Timmy:''' Pssst! Cosmo! Wanda!\
188'''Wanda:''' Timmy?\
189'''Cosmo:''' No, Timmy has a pink hat. That's Birthday Boy!
190** In the movie, ''WesternAnimation/AbraCatastrophe'', Timmy is able to fool Crocker with a pair of [[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho Glasses]]. Possibly justified seeing that they were [[AWizardDidIt magic.]]
191--->'''Crocker:''' Who are you?\
192'''Timmy:''' Uh... one of comedy's most beloved entertainers?\
193'''Crocker:''' OK... [[Film/TheThreeStooges Shemp.]]
194** In another episode, Chester and AJ disguise themselves as Timmy. The police are fooled, even though they should already know what Timmy looks like.
195** When Timmy undergoes a GenderBender, no one guesses that Timantha is Timmy, despite their near identical names, voices, and looks.
196* Subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Peter is at the supermarket and partakes in a free sample, saying that it was quite good. Afterwards, a man identical to Peter wearing a [[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho Marx]] disguise takes a sample, then another Peter with a thin mustache and oriental haircut (plus a horrible Japanese accent). The employee informs him that he doesn't have to disguise himself to get free samples. Suddenly, Groucho Marx Peter and the actual Peter walk up behind him and ask if they can have another free sample.
197** Also in ''Family Guy'', all it takes to be completely indistinguishable from the real Lois is to wear a green button-down shirt, beige pants, and orange wig. It is not necessary to fake the voice, the body shape, the ability to walk... Even just wearing her shoes, earrings, and lipstick is enough to confuse people, if not convince them.
198** In one episode, Brian tries to avoid Stewie over some unpaid debts. To try to sneak past him, Brian dons an elaborate mustache, and just that. He does manage to make it past Stewie with only a "good day sir" at first, but Stewie catches on after the double take.
199** There was the one where Peter went to his high school reunion pretending to be a space cowboy but one guy didn't believe him because his hat comes right off. A similar gag was done in "Road to Germany" when a Nazi found out Mort wasn't a priest by removing his collar.
200*** Also in "Road to Germany", Stewie disguises himself as Hitler by simply using a marker to draw black hair and mustache on himself, fooling even scientists that have worked with Hitler. Knowing how Family Guy works, you'd expect Hitler to [[IdenticalStranger inexplicably look exactly like Stewie]], but no, Hitler turns out to look about how you'd expect. ''And even he's fooled by Stewie's costume''.
201** In addition, Old Man Herbert attempts to disguise himself as a preteen to sneak into Chris's school dance, [[DirtyOldMan for obvious reasons]]. Even Brian, one of the smarter characters, is fooled, calling Herbert "one ugly eighth grader."
202** "The Story on Page One" invokes and parodies this trope. When Peter and Brian enter Luke Perry's hotel, Peter announces that they'll need to disguise themselves so Luke doesn't recognize them. He then [[MuggedForDisguise beats up a bellhop and steals his uniform]], which is extremely ill-fitting. Brian then points out the obvious -- Luke Perry has no idea who they are, so they don't ''need'' to trick him. Peter agrees...[[ContrivedCoincidence just as a man wearing a set of clothes that looks exactly like Peter's usual outfit walks by]]. Three guesses as to what happens next.
203** In another episode, James Woods returns to take revenge on Peter for breaking off their friendship. He does this by stealing Peter's wallet and dressing like him, then claiming that because he has his driver's license and credit cards, he must ''be'' Peter, forcing Joe to arrest the real hero and kick him out of his own house. Peter turns the tables by getting a few fake I.D.s of his own and going on a talk show as "James Woods." Despite clearly being a fat, crude Rhode Island man and not the lean, suave James Woods, everyone is somehow fooled into thinking Peter is the actor.
204** In the first episode of the series's revival, Peter schemes to get into Mel Gibson's exclusive high-end suite at the new Park Barrington Hotel in New York. To do so, he puts on a ball cap and sunglasses, turns his collar up, and claims to have "put on a few pounds" for his next role. The clerk immediately buys it and escorts him and Lois to his room, although a few priests later catch on.
205** In "Peter's Daughter", Peter starts being overprotective towards Meg due to a near-death experience the latter suffered. In a scene when Meg and Michael are dating in a restaurant, Peter wears a disguise composed of the following: buck teeth, a straw hat, funny-shaped eyebrows, and two beards under his balls-shaped chin. He also fakes an accent. Neither Meg nor Michael buy the disguise.
206** In "Tea Peter", well-known multimillionaire Carter Pewterschmidt appears at a political rally and manages to pass himself off as a blue-collar laborer named "Joe Workingman" by wearing street clothes, a construction helmet, and a wig that's a different color from his mustache. Not only is everybody fooled by this masquerade, but Peter actually sees Carter don and doff the "disguise" right in front of him and remains convinced that Carter and Workingman are two different people.
207* In the made-for-TV ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat'' cartoons, [[BigBadWannabe The Professor]] likes to use these, and Felix tends to fall for them.
208** One example is disguising himself as an old lady in "Into Outer Space" and disguising himself as King Neptune (by simply wearing an obvious fake beard) in "Blubberino the Whale".
209** In "Felix and the Mid-Evil Ages", when he sets up a trap to lure Felix into a Time Machine disguised as a photo booth, he doesn't even try to disguise himself aside from wearing a red cap -- and Felix falls for it anyway! And once they reach the Middle Ages, Professor disguises himself as a king, but he blows his cover to Felix by chastising Rock Bottom by name.
210** In "The Professor's Instant Changer", he builds a hologram device that disguises himself as a rosebush (which Felix squirts a fire hydrant at, thinking the bush needs water), a pine tree (which gets struck by lightning from a subsequent rainstorm), and then a lawn chair (which Professor quick changes into a cactus when Felix tries to sit on it) but his limbs and mustache are still visible.
211** In "The Magic Bag", Felix manages to fool one the Professor's robot by turning his tail into a big mustache (which he calls "My Professor disguise!") and making his voice sound more hoarse.
212* Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' episode "Impostor's Home for...Um...Make-Em-Up Pals". A human-like "imaginary friend" moves in wearing just a clown nose and neck tie, and everyone is convinced but Frankie, who tries in vain to tell everyone he's an impostor; it turns out he ''is'', as the clown nose is hiding an elephant trunk underneath.
213** Played with in the same episode where Frankie tests the friends' gullibility by dressing in her own "imaginary friend" disguise, which the friends fall for, but Mac and the alleged impostor see through it, and Bloo remains convinced that Frankie and her alias are still separate people.
214** In the episode "Frankie My Dear", Mac, Bloo, an Imaginary Prince Charming, and a pizza delivery nerd attempt to use a fake disguise as a tall man to spy on Frankie on her date. Due to Bloo being the "head" (and claiming his name is [[Creator/OrlandoBloom Orlando]] [[SueDonym Bloo]]), it was very obvious that Frankie wasn't going to buy the disguise.
215* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
216** In "The Problem with Popplers", Zapp Brannigan is able to fool the furious Omicronians with "a giant hideous ape that looks exactly like Leela" - an orangutan with an eyepatch. It's somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that the Omicronians are stated to have bad eyesight and furthermore can't easily tell the difference between individual humans (well, Leela's a mutant, but close enough).
217** In "Spanish Fry", Fry's nose is stolen to be used as "human horn", a powerful aphrodisiac for many alien species. He, Leela, and Bender go to the black market to track down who sold his nose, eventually finding an alien sex shop. The owner of the store plays a video of the previous day's customers, and one of the clients (who is obviously Lrr in a ball cap and sunglasses) tells the clerk he's "just some guy...'''''[[CatchPhrase RULER OF THE PLANET]] [[LargeHam OMICRON PERSEI 8!!]]'''''"
218** And when the Decapodians declared war on Earth, and Zap Brannigan couldn't spot their spy, "HughMann", despite suspecting his loyal assistant Kif (Kif seemed to be able to see through the disguise, but didn't say anything, probably because he never gets listened to anyway).
219** In "The Bird-Bot of Ice-Catraz", Bender is able to disguise himself as a penguin simply by squatting and ''putting on a tuxedo''.
220** This is played with in the episode which introduces Flexo, the robot who's identical to Bender save for a small metallic "goatee". In a scene, we see what is clearly Flexo trying to pass up as Bender by wearing scarves and other items of clothing and referring to himself almost literally as "Not Flexo, but Bender". Later is revealed he was actually Bender all along and was wearing that clothing because of fashion sense.
221** When Fry and Leela visit a robot planet, all they need to blend in perfectly is to wear metal containers and pots.
222** Cubert, Dwight and Tinny Tim are able to steal from Fry and Bender's apartment in plain sight of Fry by wearing crudely drawn Bender masks... all three of them at the same time.
223--->'''Fry:''' Hey, Bender. Hey, Bender. [[RuleofThree Hey, Bender]]. ''[phone rings, Fry picks it up]'' Hey, Bender.
224** In "Calculon 2.0", Calculon wears a mustache to audition as an unknown actor. Keep in mind that Calculon is a brightly-colored robot.
225* The ''WesternAnimation/GarbagePailKidsCartoon'' episode "Chris Messin' August" had a bratty kid named Chris Mess try to ruin Christmas for everyone by [[BadSanta impersonating Santa Claus]] and convincing all the children that they now had to be naughty if they wanted presents. Somehow, nobody notices that he's clearly a child, he isn't wearing his fake beard properly, or that he has [[ObviouslyEvil a burglar's eyemask]].
226* Parodied and inverted in ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', with Orson wearing nothing but a moustache and costume posing as the Rooster Ranger to play a trick on Roy. Roy immediately recognized it as "Orson in a pathetic disguise", but when Orson fell into his mudhole [[spoiler:Orson came up to investigate. And then the Ranger angrilly tells Roy he's going to be transferred to the South Pole for it. Doubly subverted as it turned out that the Rooster Ranger that looks like Orson was actually Lanolin in disguise.]]
227** In another episode, Roy was hosting a game show where the audience had to call in and guess the mystery guest. The guest was Garfield wearing a [[Radio/TheLoneRanger Lone Ranger]] mask. Orson complained that anybody could clearly see who it was, but nobody got it right, not even Jon.
228** In "Binky Gets Cancelled Again!", Binky the Clown's show is replaced by the Buddy Bears, a SickeninglySweet group that agrees about everything. Garfield decides to help Binky (largely because he finds the Buddy Bears even more annoying than the clown) and goes down to the TV station to speak with the Bears. When this fails, he decides to force them to disagree and destroy the show's credibility. Garfield does this by putting on a chef's hat and apron and speaking in an Italian accent, pretending to be a caterer. Somehow, this completely fools the Buddy Bears -- even though they spoke to Garfield ''five minutes earlier.''
229** In another episode, an ice cream man is giving out free popsicles to children in a park. Garfield stands next to his cart and puts on various wigs and hats to disguise himself as different kids. The ice cream man gives him dozens of popsicles, somehow missing the fact that Garfield is a two-foot tall orange cat covered in fur.
230** Another episode which parodied ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'' saw a gigantic Tyrannosaurus rex (who dodged extinction by being sealed in a cave) emerging in contemporary times and trying to take over the world through television. He did this by painting himself bright pink and hosting an extremely juvenile children's show that hypnotized everyone who watched it. For some reason, the paint makes people miss the fact that this is an extremely deadly dinosaur, so Garfield has to save the day.
231** In "Moo Cow Mutt", Garfield decides to play a trick on Odie by convincing him that he's actually a cow, not a dog. At one point, he dons various disguises to pretend to be various passerby and call Odie a cow. His personas and outfits include a rich gentleman (a top hat and large white mustache), a little girl (a pink dress and blonde wig), and a cowboy (a Stetson hat and bandanna). Garfield fails to cover up his ''bright orange fur'' for all of these, but Odie is still fooled.
232* In ''WesternAnimation/GetMuggsy'', the title character's friends (an opossum, raccoon and ''spider'') need only stuff sticks of white gum in their mouth to fool others into thinking that they are beavers.
233* In "A Charming Day Off" on ''WesternAnimation/GoldieAndBear'', Prince Charming tries this and fails with a pair of glasses and a bad fake mustache. Goldie and Bear recognize him immediately, rightly call it a bad disguise, and insist he get a better disguise before the King's Men see him. They end up disguising him as a bush.
234* On ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'' in order to convince Pete that he doesn't need any more children, PJ disguises himself as a baby. PJ is a ''very overweight 11-year-old'', and besides that is Pete's ''son'', whose apparent absence was not remotely explained until Max says he's at the store several minutes later, so Pete should have noticed [[RuleOfFunny (he didn't)]]. DramaticIrony is PlayedForLaughs here, with Pete delivering the lines, "Aww, kind of reminds me of PJ back when he was cute!" and "PJ was never ''this'' bad!" The former of the lines results in PJ ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes biting]]'' Pete, with his fully developed adolescent teeth, and Pete still doesn't notice. He does, however, comment on how absurdly big he is. At least PJ's acting was better than it [[BadBadActing usually is.]]
235** In a Season One episode, Max tries to film a video of Goofy to submit to a TV show that gives an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii for the funniest and [[AmusingInjuries most painful]] injuries. Pete offers to "help" so he can steal the vacation for himself. When the time comes to claim the prize, Pete dons Goofy's sweater (which doesn't even begin to cover up his [[FatBastard enormous gut]]) and pants, then places a concrete mold of Goofy over his head as a crude mask and walks onstage. The host of the show comments that Goofy's certainly gained a lot of weight since sending in the video, but still awards Pete the trip.
236* The Season 1 finale of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' sees Stan, Soos, Dipper, and Mabel sneaking into the announcement press conference of Gideonland. Soos' disguise is probably the thinnest of the lot; among other things, his beard is blatantly taped on, his trenchcoat is too small to hide his iconic question-mark tee that he's still wearing underneath, and he's written the words [[BlatantLies 'NOT SOOS']] on a piece of paper taped to his usual baseball cap. The others have marginally better disguises, though.
237-->If anyone asks, I'm ''not Soos.''
238* ''WesternAnimation/TheHairBearBunch'' disguise themselves as tree surgeons taking a tree to the hospital (episode "Ark Lark") as a ruse to escape the zoo. Zookeeper Mr. Peevly is absolutely oblivious that there are ''three'' individuals in scrubs who sound like Hair, Square and Bubi (who manages to control his StarfishLanguage speech to describe the tree's ailment). What gives them away is when they move the tree out on a gurney and a branch rips off Hair's scrubs.
239* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019''. When the Riddler takes over Gotham University, Harley and Poison Ivy try to infiltrate the school by disguising themselves as students, with Ivy going as far as to cover her green skin with makeup. However, Riddler isn't fooled for one second since [[DidntThinkThisThrough they're 30-something women trying to pass themselves off as college girls]]...not to mention their clothes were [[TotallyRadical over a decade out of fashion]].
240* In ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'', He-Man is basically Prince Adam with different clothes and... that's it. Same face, same haircut, same body, with a tan; his voice was deeper, but he spoke in nearly the same speech patterns.[[note]]He called the king and queen by their royal instead of parental titles.[[/note]] Likewise, Kringer becomes Battlecat by... putting some dark red armor on.
241** [[WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower His sister was pretty much the same.]] She-Ra's only real difference from Adora was longer hair and a change of clothing that didn't hide her face at all, and seeing as Adora was an ActionGirl in her own right who used to ''work'' for Hordak before her HeelFaceTurn (as a moderately high-ranking officer, no less), you got the idea that the Horde was kind of dumb.
242** Averted in one episode, where Kobra Khan disguises himself as a human: there is no resemblances at all, except in his speech... and Orko is still able to see through it.
243* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'':
244** In "Helga's Locket", Helga accidentally loses her precious Arnold locket -- which she's just had engraved with a signed message declaring her love -- and Grandpa finds it, prompting her to attempt various schemes to get it back before he and Arnold and can open it. At one point, she disguises herself in a black trenchcoat, derby, glasses, and fake mustache and calls herself "Bernard Flotsam", a rich antique art collector. This somehow manages to fool Grandpa despite several near misses (such as a pigtail poking out from beneath the hat or her voice slipping back into its normal register). When she does manage to snatch the locket and make a break for it, Grandpa stops her by tripping her with the rug, forcing her to drop the locket and escape while he shouts "AND YOU FORGOT YOUR MUSTACHE!"
245*** The same episode has Helga hiding in a container of blank mannequin heads when she sneaks into the basement to get the locket back. Despite being the only "head" in the box with hair and facial features, Grandpa ''still'' doesn't recognize her. The poor man probably needs glasses.
246** "Arnold's Valentine" has Helga pose as Arnold's French pen-pal Cecile for a Valentine's Day date. To do this, she gets a new hairdo, puts on a dress and heels, and dons makeup. Seems like a reasonable disguise, but there are several flaws. One, [[ChromaticArrangement the dress is still pink]]. Two, she's still wearing her [[SignatureHeadgear trademark pink hairbow]]. Three, no amount of makeup short of full-on Wrestling/{{Sting}} facepaint could disguise someone as instantly recognizable as Helga. And finally, [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent she makes no attempt to disguise her voice or accent despite portraying a French girl.]] What's worse is that Arnold actually buys it.
247** In the episode "Suspended", Harold is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin suspended from school.]] When he discovers that being suspended isn't all it's cracked up to be, he repeatedly attempts to sneak back into P.S. 118. At one point, he hits upon the idea of pretending to be a pizza delivery man, and so dons what he dubs a "foolproof disguise": a fake black mustache, chef's hat, apron, and a striped shirt ''with his name on it''. Unsurprisingly, Principal Wartz isn't fooled by the trick, even when Harold attempts a horrible Italian accent to convince him.
248* The titular Japanese rock duo of ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'' would sometimes use obvious disguises.
249** In "Cell Block Rock", Ami and Yumi try to avoid a crowd using fake beards, which they glue to their faces by mistake. Their manager Kaz mistakes them for tresspassers and gets them arrested.
250** "House Unkeeping" begins with Ami and Yumi sneaking past their fans solely by wearing T-shirts claiming they are not Ami and Yumi.
251* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hilda}}'':
252** In the episode "The Replacement", Alfur and Agnes swap clothes as a part of a plan to keep Alfur from returning home. [[BrawnHilda Agnes]] is larger than Alfur, not to mention female. Until Agnes accidentally blows their plan, only the titular replacement sees something off about Agnes-in-Alfur's-clothing.
253** Parodied right after that, where Alfur takes off Agnes' cloak and eyepatch to tell the Delegation and the Lost Clan to stop fighting. The Delegation doesn't recognize him until Alfur yells who he is.
254* ''WesternAnimation/HipHipAndHurra'' use them all the time. There are a few rare examples when the disguises actually work.
255* Alluded to in the ''WesternAnimation/HomeMovies'' episode "Camp". Coach [=McGuirk=] is on the run from cultists, and among the long list of things he asks from the people he's staying with is a fake mustache. The thing is, in the time since the cultists last saw him, he's ''grown a full beard''. In effect, he wants a "paper-thinner" disguise than the one he already has.
256* The ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvaniaTheSeries'' episode "Gorytelling" has Uncle Gene try to avoid notice by wearing a fake mustache.
257* Happens all the time in ''WesternAnimation/TheHoundcats'', especially given the size of Puttypuss, the "cat of a thousand faces."
258* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hurricanes}}'': In one episode, Napper's younger brother Nigel joined a gang of hooligans and [[BigBad Stavros Garkos]] decided to use them to convince the World Soccer Association (that series' version of FIFA) to shut down the Hispanola Hurricanes' stadium. When Nigel saw the hooligans' true colors, he agreed to spy on them. When trying to collect data from Nigel, Napper approached him wearing sunglasses and a fake mustache as a disguise to avoid being recognized by the hooligans. The only hooligan to see Napper in that disguise saw through it.
259* Brain from ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' is able to fool Gadget sometimes just by wearing a hat, glasses, and fake mustache and he never recognizes him no matter how bad his disguise is.
260* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' utilises the "brilliant" disguise of a wig and contact lenses, leaving his three-digit hands, green skin and lack of ears and nose exposed, a fact that only Dib recognises, while his robot henchman's disguise is a bright green dog suit with obvious zipper and stichings. Glimpses of other Invaders shows their disguises as equally pathetic, so it isn't just him. The trope is averted with Tak, who [[EstablishingCharacterMoment proves her competence]] by using a realistic holographic disguise.
261** The paper-thin disguise is in effect to the degree that at one point one of Zim's contacts falls out, which a small boy sees and begins screaming "ALIEN!". Zim promptly puts the contact back in and the boy says "Oh, never mind."
262*** In another episode, he dismisses it as Pink Eye.
263** And of course when Zim gets abducted by Sizz-lor, his former boss/warden, he fails to recognize him. While at first this is somewhat justified because Sizz-lor is wearing a gas mask and body suit, when he changes back into his normal fry cook outfit, Zim still doesn't recognize him until he puts his hat on, despite his face and NAME TAG having been revealed first.
264** In "The Girl Who Cried Gnome" Zim's disguise is just a bear costume and when there's a news story on him later the artist's depiction has a normal human face.
265** Then there were the 2 mantis-like aliens from "Abducted" whose costumes consisted of aprons with human bodies printed on them and paper-mache masks on elastic strings. Even Zim isn't fooled.
266* ''WesternAnimation/{{Jellystone}}'': Augie's fake moustache in "My Doggie Dave", which was enough to convince the adults that Augie was an adult named 'Dave'.
267* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes''.
268** In "Rocket Jimmy", Jimmy managed to pass for [[DrillSergeantNasty Molotov]] in a spacesuit with nothing but a crudely made stuffed head on a pole.
269** Heloise has a tendency to use these on [[IdiotHero Jimmy and Beezy]], like disguising herself as a showman in "Fused Together" or a pizza boy in "Best Bud Battle". In fact, "Something About Herman" revolved entirely around her dressing up as a boy with an obviously fake masculine voice, a mustache, and different clothes. [[spoiler:Subverted in the end when it turns out Herman is actually Heloise's cousin.]]
270** "Pop-Sicles" has a somewhat justified case as the room was rather dark. Jimmy attempts to get Lucius Heinous VII' predecessors to [[HumanPopsicle go back in their freezers]] by disguising himself as [[TheDreaded Lucius I]] with a crudely painted bucket on his head, antlers, an oversized tux, and a bad voice impression. Lucius VI quickly notices something's up though, but before the Heinouses can act, Jimmy freezes them all again.
271* In ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'', one episode features a shark walking on its tail fin wearing a UsefulNotes/{{Richard|Nixon}} NixonMask at the tip of its snout. Although a scarce few are suspicious, most are fooled by the disguise.
272** Another episode featured a werewolf girl, who was perfectly disguised by a piece of cloth the size of a napkin over her the lower half of her face.
273* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'': To convince a coalition of girls to transport them back home before their parents arrive, Johnny Test disguises himself as a girl. How does he do it? By combing his hair back, putting on lipstick, and wrapping his outer jacket around his waist. The girls are doubtful at first, but he is feminine enough, and they take him, his sisters, and Dukey back to their house. When his parents come home, even his dad is surprised with his "transformation".
274** And don't forget Dukey. "He's a kid with a rare hair disorder, not a dog." Sometimes he accomplishes this by walking on two legs, and nothing else. He sometimes wears a t-shirt that says [[BlatantLies Not A Dog]].[[note]]As a BilingualBonus, when the Test family goes to Paris (due to Johnny's "magic"), he wears a new shirt with "Not a Dog" written in French.[[/note]]
275* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'':
276** Stumpy is denied access to a girls-only nightclub by a bouncer, so he returns in a wig claiming to be a girl. This fools the bouncer despite him having seen Stumpy literally a few seconds earlier.
277** Stumpy's sister Poucave hides by wearing a pair of Groucho glasses. Whenever she wears them, her disguise fools Kaeloo, Stumpy, and Quack-Quack, but not Mr. Cat. The explanation provided in-universe is that [[IdiotHero Kaeloo]], [[TheDitz Stumpy]], and [[DitzyGenius Quack-Quack]] are idiots and [[TheSmartGuy Mr. Cat]] is not.
278* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'':
279** In "The Mentor of our Discontent", Shego donned a wig and a dress to pull off a ShowSomeLeg distraction on a guy she'd previously tried to hold for ransom. She succeeded despite doing nothing about her ''green skin''. Even after the wig fell off, the guy still wanted to date her.
280** Averted with Camille Leon, except in her second appearance.
281** Ron does this in an episode when he wanted to go as the hero "The Fearless Ferret." Kim wasn't fooled by the disguise since she knew Ron since preschool and he didn't put in any effort into looking and acting different to fool anybody.
282** In "Blush", Shego disguises herself as a waiter by [[MuggedForDisguise stealing a waiter's shirt]], leaving the bottom half of her costume and her distinctive skin tone fully visible.
283* In the ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode where Dale is a BountyHunter, when he disguises himself as a flower delivery man to attempt to gain entry into the fugitives house, he doesn't even bother taking off his "Bounty Hunter" hat. Unfortunately for Dale, this works about as well as you would expect. To be fair, he never takes hat off unless forced to, since he is self-conscious about his bald spot. Still, he could have at least switched back to his normal hat.
284* In ''WesternAnimation/KryptoTheSuperdog'', Krypto's only disguise is a cape with a shield on it. And yet no one, not even the boy's parents, suspected that their dog is an alien dog.
285** Actually Chris's little sister Sophie figured it right away, but since she's a baby their parents didn't believe.
286* Hilariously subverted in ''WesternAnimation/LeagueOfSuperEvil'', where the gang are attempting to gain access to a prestigious restaurant. A man enters the lobby who is quite clearly just all four members of LOSE stuffed inside a trenchcoat and matching hat with a pair of sunglasses and a false moustache on. He is allowed through without incident, and is immediately followed by an IDENTICAL man, whom it turns out IS the gang in a trenchcoat. After the disguise has failed epicly and LOSE have been thrown out into the bins, Red Menace remarks "Maybe we should have gone in before the other guy."
287* ''WesternAnimation/LesSisters'': [[AlphaBitch Rachel]] is throwing a party and Marine and Wendy need to get in because [[spoiler: the party is being held inside ''their'' house, and Rachel has locked them out]]. Unfortunately, Rachel has employed a bouncer to keep them out. So they wear a pair of princess dresses, and Marine changes her hairstyle. They return to the door and introduce themselves to the bouncer as "Princess Wendynoodle" and "Princess Marina". Despite the obviously fake names, and the fact that all they did was change clothes, the bouncer can't tell that "Wendynoodle and Marina" are really Wendy and Marine.
288* Glaringly obvious in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'', where everyone notices Stitch isn't a normal dog, but Jumba, a six-foot tall ''purple guy with four eyes and four fingered hands'' and his partner Pleakley, ''who has an exposed antenna, 1 eye, and three fingered hands'' are able to pass for human with human clothes, combined with glasses and a wig respectively. Nani ''does'' notice the weird shape of Pleakley's head, but assumes it became swollen after Stitch chewed on it. Jumba casually replies "Actually, [Pleakley's] just ugly".
289** Given the fact that within just a few episodes of [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries the series]] the experiments and Jumba are running amok doing what they were intended to do, the islanders may have started accepting/adjusting to the fact that there's something weird going on and decided just not to bother.
290** Gantu's idea of a "disguise" is just telling people he's Samoan. Gantu is a ''fifteen-foot-tall anthropomorphic alien whale''. [[WildSamoan It works perfectly]].
291* In "Llama Llama Lemonade" from ''WesternAnimation/LlamaLlama'', Mama Llama, trying to cheer up Llama about his not getting any customers for his lemonade stand, shows up to his stand wearing a brown fedora, coat and pants and bad fake mustache, speaking in an awful Australian accent and calling him "mate". The mustache falls off as she drinks the lemonade. Afterwards, just for giggles, she keeps coming back to the stand in a variety of other obvious disguises with Llama's full knowledge, including an upper-class British lady, a business suit and sunglasses and a ranch-hand.
292* In ''WesternAnimation/TheMaxx'', the BigBad's sidekicks Isz, which looked like small black chess pawns, could be disguised as anything with minimal effort. Put a gray wig and purse on them, they appear as a little old lady. Hand them a bottle of cheap wine in a paper bag and they're a hobo.
293* In the ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse2013'' short "[[Recap/MickeyMouseS2E19BroncoBusted Bronco Busted]]", Mickey, Donald, and Goofy decide to compete in a rodeo to get the money they need to repair their car. They find out that they need a horse in order to compete. After they fail to get one, they resort to having Donald pretend to be a horse by walking on all fours wearing nothing but a saddle.
294* In the ''[[WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse Mickey MouseWorks]]'' short "Big House Mickey", Mortimer has Mickey framed for breaking into his house and stealing his property so that Mickey would end up in jail and he could take his place on a dinner date with Minnie. At Mickey's trial, Mortimer shows a video recording of himself breaking into his own house while disguised as Mickey, which fools the judge even though Mortimer is a lot taller than Mickey and has a different facial structure.
295* In the "Christmas: Impossible" segment of ''WesternAnimation/MickeysTwiceUponAChristmas'', Huey, Dewey, and Louie mosey around Santa's workshop wearing their usual [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience monochrome shirts]] plus green hats. Their doubts of success disappear the moment an elf addresses one as "fellow elf."
296* ''[[WesternAnimation/MightyMouse Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures]]'':
297** "Day of the Mice" has Petey Pate disguise himself as a mouse by wearing Mickey Mouse ears.
298** "Still Oily After All These Years" has the Cow disguise himself by wearing a purple suit and a fake mustache.
299* Chat Noir and Ladybug in ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' have disguises that constitute a superhero outfit and a small DominoMask that covers the area surrounding their eyes. Nevertheless, it manages to fool everyone in town and hide their identities -- even from each other despite also knowing each other as Adrien and Marinette. It was finally explained in the New York special that their transformations apply some sort of {{Glamour}} to prevent people from recognizing them. However, it ''only'' works on humans. The robotic superhero Uncanny Valley was easily able to recognize them out of costume.
300** In an episode, Marinette disguises herself as "Mario" by wearing a poncho, a motorcycle helmet, and a fake nose and glasses. Absolutely nobody, including her closest friends, is able to recognise her until she accidentally loses her disguise.
301* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Mixels}}'' episode "Nixel 'Mix Over'", Major Nixel paints two Nixels, one orange and one blue, so they're the color schemes of a Flexer and a Frosticon, respectively. Even though they're no longer black and white, they're still small and cube-shaped. This doesn't stop Balk and Lunk from thinking they're "little Mixels"...nor does it stop ''Major Nixel'' from thinking they're attacking Mixels AFTER they return to base.
302* In an episode of the ''WesternAnimation/MrBean'' animated TV series called "A Royal Makeover", all Mrs. Wicket has to do is place a fake paper crown on her head in order to convince numerous gullible London tourists that she's Queen Elizabeth II.
303* Done in ''WesternAnimation/MrPickles'' when our "hero" successfully disguises himself as the deceased mayor of Old Town by wearing his skin and using his severed leg stumps as stilts. Nobody except Grandpa notices this, even Mr. Pickles makes no attempt to act less dog-like. At one point the Deputy Mayor notices something is wrong with her superior, but only bothers to straighten his tie.
304* [[ZigzaggedTrope Played in a rather odd way]] in ''WesternAnimation/MuchaLucha''. Timmy of a Thousand Masks can wear a copy of any wrestler's mask and that is enough to make his whole head look like an exact, flawless replica of the same wrestler's... but his voice and body shape remain the exact same, which isn't so bad when he's attempting to pass off as another kid, but looks absolutely ridiculous when he's passing off as a teacher (yet it somehow fools everyone).
305* ''WesternAnimation/MyDadTheRockStar'': [[IJustWantToBeNormal Out of desire to be a normal kid]], Willy Zilla introduced himself as "Willy ''Zillowsky''". When he told the truth to Quincy and Alyssa, Quincy's reaction was commenting that it explained ''Willy appearing at the cover of a Rock Zilla album''.
306* ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'' Cluster soldier Smytus walks in to the offices of fashion giant Jean Phillip only to be shooed away by the receptionist. Smytus returns wearing a simple wig and pretending to be a Ukrainian supermodel.
307* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
308** Fluttershy was able to avoid all her fans in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E20GreenIsntYourColor Green Isn't Your Color]]" just by hiding her face behind glasses and a fancy hatā€¦and still revealing her cutie mark. Of course, once Twilight accidentally knocked the disguise away, everypony instantly recognized Fluttershy.
309*** This actually ends up being TruthInTelevision, as Hulk Hogan claims in his first autobiography that he actually did this in real life[[note]]Minus the part about the cutie mark, obviously[[/note]] on a challenge from a reporter back when he was in his first run with the WWF (now WWE) as World Champion. He was challenged to prove that people would instantly recognize him on sight after telling said reporter how often he got mobbed by fans. Hogan ended up wearing a coat, hat, and glasses into a crowded street and nobody seemed to notice who he really was. The moment he took them off, however, people flocked to him within moments. While it's doubtful anyone on the show staff read Hogan's autobiography, the scariest thing about it is that if Hogan's telling the truth, this ''can'' happen in real life with actual celebrities, and obviously has, so the writers on this show may have been unintentionally lampshading this. There are more examples. Marilyn Monroe went completely unrecognized in the street at the height of her fame by not wearing make-up and adopting a less sexy walk.
310** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E22ABirdInTheHoof A Bird in the Hoof]]", Philomena avoids Twilight and Fluttershy by wearing an obviously fake mustache. Keep in mind that Philomena looks like a plucked chicken in a town populated entirely by ponies.
311*** It had to work. The whole bit was a Shout-Out to Benny Hill chase scenes.
312** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E25PartyOfOne Party Of One]]", Pinkie Pie compounds disguises to include Groucho glasses, a square hay bale, and a coat and hat. While this is not a strict {{paper thin disguise}} as you can not see any of Pinkie Pie, it is obviously her to the audience as she would be the only character to wear stuff like that. The disguise seems to work initially when Fluttershy sees her and runs away scared, but Rainbow Dash doesn't notice the disguise (or recognizing it immediately as something only Pinkie would use) as she says "Hi, Pinkie Pie" in passing.
313** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest Dragon Quest]]", Rarity disguises herself, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle in a silly-looking dragon costume. This manages to fool the dragons, largely because [[spoiler: there's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB6g8od2K-4 an actual dragon among their number]] that is nearly identical to the costume]].
314** In ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E24EquestriaGames Equestria Games]]'', Spike dons one when Twilight coaxes him to come back to the stadium, apparently forgetting he's the only bipedal creature there. A ''small'' one at that.
315** In ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E8LookBeforeYouSleep Look Before You Sleep]]'', Twilight wears [[BedsheetGhost bedsheet]] while telling a GhostStory about a [[HeadlessHorseman headless horse]]. The sheet only covers her face and upper torso, but she still manages to scare Rarity and Applejack half to death.
316** Inverted in ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E22HurricaneFluttershy Hurricane Fluttershy]]'': Rainbow Dash sees right through Fluttershy's tree disguise before the viewer is given any other hints that it's not an actual tree.
317** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E18BrotherhoovesSocial Brotherhooves Social]]" has Big Macintosh, one of the most masculine ponies in the show, disguising himself as Apple Bloom's (female) cousin Orchard Blossom by wearing a dress, high heels, and a huge wig, so he can participate in the Sisterhooves Social with her (the rules have a very loose interpretation of what qualifies as a sister, which means even a cousin or close friend can qualify). The disguise is painfully obvious (the very first line of dialogue after the disguise is revealed is Sweetie Belle's "That's Big Macintosh in a dress."), and during the singing competition, his large Adam's apple is clearly visible and his voice briefly slips back into being deep and manly. At the end, the judges admit that they knew all along that Orchard Blossom was really a stallion, but due to the aforementioned rule about "sister" being loosely defined, a male pony could actually participate legally. But Big Mac still got disqualified for using his strength to destroy the obstacle course and knock away the other participants.
318*** Humorously, there's one elderly stallion who ''does'' fall for Big Mac's disguise -- he becomes smitten with Orchard Blossom and tries to woo her, only to become confused when "she" mysteriously vanishes.
319** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E16FriendshipUniversity Friendship University]]" has Twilight Sparkle infiltrating a rival friendship school in a "costume" that consists of a sticky note over her cutie mark and an eyepatch. No effort is made whatsoever to obscure the fact that she's an alicorn, of which only five exist in the whole country.
320*** Rarity's disguise of a backwards baseball cap, messy mane, and casual attire isn't much better. That being said, it works... because no one remembered her anyways.
321* Newton, of ''WesternAnimation/NedsNewt'', is a 6-foot tall {{shapeshifting}} blue humanoid newt. But as long as he's got some human clothes on, nobody notices. Of course, pretty much all the adults in the setting are more or less [[TheDitz idiots]].
322* ''Toys/NexoKnights:'' Lavaria's sole attempt at disguising herself to get into a cooking show is to put on a false mustache. This does nothing to disguise her glowing yellow eyes, or her bright red scaly skin, or the fact that she's otherwise wearing the same outfit she always wears, which shows off a lot of that skin. It still works.
323* In Season 1 of ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'', Lloyd wears a Serpentine disguise that merely consists of a sort-of hat, glasses, fangs, and maracas to make "sss" sounds. It fools the Serpentine until he accidentally drops the maracas, revealing himself to be a human and is promptly captured.
324* ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes''
325** In "Let's Be Friends", Lord Boxman's robot minion Shannon disguises herself as a human to mess around with K.O. Said disguise consists of an off-kilter wig and horribly applied lipstick. Though to be fair, K.O. was only first meeting her, so he'd have no reason to be suspicious of her to begin with.
326** In "You Are Rad", K.O. (a short human boy) forgets his name tag and borrows one from Rad (a muscular, adult, [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation blue-skinned]] alien), and Enid jokingly puts two straws in his hair to imitate Rad's antennae. From that point on, everybody else believes that K.O. is Rad. Even Rad [[DumbMuscle somehow forgets that he lent K.O. the tag and can no longer recognize him]], believing him to be some random identity thief.
327* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse''
328** In "Lost in Language" Luz thinks Amity has spotted her in the library, so she thinks quick and hits on "Pretend to be a book!". This disguise consists of forming a square shape with her arms and remaining motionless, but luckily she hadn't been seen in the first place.
329** In the episode "Elsewhere and Elsewhen", Eda tries to disguise herself as her sister by wearing her old season 1 outfit, using a mop as a wig (with her own hair still visible underneath), and saying "dearest" a lot to mimic her formal speech pattern. Both her mother and King see through it instantly, but they find the attempt so pathetic that they can't bring themselves to call her out on it.
330* ''WesternAnimation/PennZeroPartTimeHero'' In "Back to the Past of Future Balls", all characters who go back in time wear disguises to avoid being recognized by their past selves. The good guys wear fake mustaches and the bad ones wear hats and fake beards. [[spoiler:Fortunately, the disguises turn out to be a moot point because the selves never meet.]]
331%%* ''WesternAnimation/PetAlien'': What's the most paper-thin disguise ever? No disguise at all!
332* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': Perry the Platypus frequently employs this trope during missions to deceive his arch-nemesis Dr. Doofenshmirtz, who is completely incapable of recognizing Perry when he's not wearing his secret agent hat.
333** Another time, Perry disguises himself from Linda by putting on a ''pair of fake glasses and nose''. Unsurprisingly, Dr. Doofenshmirtz is also fooled by it.
334** The best example has to be when he disguised himself as a plumber with a hat and a tool belt. When he confronted Doof, this conversation followed.
335--->'''Doofenshmirtz:''' What kind of plumber are you?\
336'''Perry:''' *removes hat*\
337'''Doofenshmirtz:''' A platypus plumber?\
338'''Perry:''' *puts on fedora*\
339'''Doofenshmirtz:''' Perry the platypus plumber?\
340'''Perry:''' *drops belt*\
341'''Doofenshmirtz:''' *gasp* PERRY THE PLATYPUS!!
342** In one episode, Perry gets out of Doof's trap simply by removing his hat. Doof immediately releases him, thinking he's a perfectly ordinary, innocent platypus who was put there by Perry the Platypus. Makes you wonder why Perry doesn't do that every time. Maybe he just likes a challenge.
343*** Not to mention in the episode "Not Phineas & Ferb" Baljeet & Buford dress up as the titular duo to fool [[LoonyFan Irving's]] older brother Albert, with their disguises consisting of P&F's regular clothes and some very unconvincing masks (resulting in Buford having, as Irving later states "eyes in his mouth"). Ironically, Albert is the only one fooled by them.
344---->'''Baljeet:''' ''(pretending to be Phineas)'' I know what we are doing today.\
345''' Buford:''' And I'm British and I don't talk much.
346* Pretty much any disguise ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' used. Keep in mind... they're lab mice. And just a few inches tall. And yet, could be mistaken for humans, with the right outfit. Brain even [[LampshadeHanging points this out]] numerous times to people, though they pass it off as SarcasticConfession:
347-->'''Taxi Driver:''' Hey man, not to pry but... what happened to your head?\
348'''Brain:''' Nothing. I'm a mouse in a large mechanical suit.\
349'''Taxi Driver:''' Oh. My fault for asking.
350** Sometimes he doesn't need a disguise. Once Brain got pulled over by a cop while riding a modified motorcycle. The cop just thought he was a child out for a joyride.
351* In every episode of the British children's animated series ''Poppy Cat'', the badger Egbert appears in the characters' adventures as a villain wearing a paper-thin disguise. The catch, however, is that unlike most instances of this trope, the characters ''always'' recognize him who he is and even call him "Egbert", but he insists "I am ''not'' Egbert, I am such-and-such character."
352* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''
353** Parodied in one of the episodes, when three adult-sized (male) crooks put on Powerpuff Girl costumes (consisting merely of correctly-colored clothing and cardboard cutout masks) and somehow manage to deceive the entire town.\
354The only one not fooled by the disguises was [[OnlySaneMan Ms. Bellum]]; she saw their body hair and bad manly body odor, and the fact that they kept hitting on her. When the girls and the crooks start fighting both sides actually ''start hitting their own partners'' until Blossom tells everyone to just fight their doubles.
355** Also used when Mojo Jojo goes to the Powerpuff Girls' slumber party disguised as a little girl. Though the Powerpuff Girls (even [[TheDitz Bubbles]]) aren't fooled, the other girls and [[IdiotBall the Professor]] are.
356*** Or when Mojo Jojo sneaks into a show and tell of the Professor's time machine, by disguising himself as a preschool student. Which this time seems to fool everyone, ''including'' the girls and their teacher (who is one of the more responsible and competent characters).
357** Oddly enough, in one comic book adaptation, Mojo tried sneaking up on Fuzzy Lumpkins (usually portrayed as being about as smart as a box of hammers) disguised as one of four squirrels. Fuzzy didn't fall for it.
358** In one of the rebooted episodes, Mojo's plan to defeat the Girls via DeliveryGuyInfiltration of their slumber party using a rather ridiculous pizza guy disguise not only fails (they recognize him right away) it gets him nabbed by the sugar-rush crazed children, [[HumiliationConga held hostage, and dressed in makeup and a fancy gown.]]
359* In the episode "Revenge of the Dark Stone" of ''WesternAnimation/PrincessGwenevereAndTheJewelRiders'', the evil Lady Kale supposedly dresses [[DressingAsTheEnemy as her good twin Queen Anya]] to infiltrate her palace while wearing a burqa-like robe. It's a strange disguise, as Anya is never seen wearing anything like that, her eyes are still of a different color and her voice is still different too, so presumably she didn't just change her hair color in order to smuggle her two Dweasel creatures with her under the robe. Needless to say, such disguise worked perfectly.
360* ''WesternAnimation/ProjectGeeker'': deliberately parodied when Geeker puts on a mask to "disguise" his identity as Geekman. Keep in mind that even the general public can instantly recognize him in his various forms due to his consistent color palette, and his Geekman costume is basically his standard outfit but with muscles.
361* A obscure cartoon called ''Rainbow Fish'' might contain one of the most stupidest examples. In one episode Rainbow and his friends attempt to stop a construction worker named Phineas T. Gronch from destroying their town to build a mall. They get the idea to scare him away by pretending to be ghosts. So you think they would wear [[BedsheetGhost white sheets or blankets]] over themselves right? Wrong! All they did was put white makeup on their faces and it completely fools Phineas and keep in mind that the heroes spoke with him previously and he didn't recognize them.
362* ''WesternAnimation/RazzberryJazzberryJam'': In ā€œMove To The Beatā€, Ella is somehow able to hide in an alley by pretending to be a dumpster. All that she has going for the disguise is being large and boxy, but somehow this fools the other Jazzberries enough that one of them even throws a tin can at her.
363* A few episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' used this trope:
364** In "Gus's Last Stand", Gus is being tormented by a nasty bully named Gelman whenever he steps onto the playground. At one point, his friends try disguising him by giving him a large gray beard and claiming he's an old man. Needless to say, Gelman doesn't fall for it.
365** In "Wild Child", the six main characters are each paired up with a kindergartener. As T.J. tries to find activities for him and his kid to do together, they inadvertently bother/harass/generally annoy various other people on the playground. At the end of the episode, T.J. gives his new friend his beloved hat...only to realize that he still has a bunch of angry kids after his blood when they show up to seek revenge. He's surprised when the angry group is able to spot him, as he genuinely believed that taking off his hat would render him completely unrecognizable.
366* In ''WesternAnimation/TheReplacements'', when the rest of the Daring family decides to tag along on Riely's first date, they do so by donning false moustaches and posing as wait staff. This includes the talking car. This doesn't fool Riely but apparently fools her boyfriend (and leads to the brilliant panicked line of "That could be anybody's talking car!").
367* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife''
368** In "Put Out to Pasture", Filbert recalls when he first met Heffer when he began a job giving away free samples at the grocery store. His boss warned him that Heffer was a master of disguise. As a result, the ever-paranoid Filbert didn't trust anyone wanting to try the free samples, and yet still kept trusting Heffer, whose disguise consisted of a paper bag with a smiley face painted on it.
369** In "An Elk for Heffer", Heffer manages to sneak into an elks-only club by sticking a pair of branches over his regular horns.
370--->'''Heffer:''' I am an elk. I have antlers.\
371'''Bouncer:''' (''shrugs'') You want a prize?
372* Used with gusto throughout the ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle Show'', in various manners.
373** It gets {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in the Banana Formula story when Boris worries how, after all the times Rocky and Bullwinkle have never seen through his disguises, the Law of Averages was sure to turn on him. Natasha reassures him by pointing out that GoodIsDumb.
374** In one episode, Bullwinkle is a star witness in the trial of a mobster, so he has to hide from the villains who want to silence him, so he and Rocky decide to get jobs at a mink farm, which they assume is the last place anyone would look for them. Unfortunately, Boris and Natasha ''do'' look there, so Rocky sticks Bullwinkle in a cage and tells him to "act like a mink". (It was all he could think of.) Well, Boris may not have been the cleverest of villains, but he wasn't ''that'' dumb; to make a long story short, the next episode started with Bullwinkle having been kidnapped.
375* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode "Angelica's Twin", Angelica pretends to have a twin sister to get two toys instead of one. Angelica becomes "Balina" by tying her hair in a knot and rolling up her sleeves. Tommy tells Angelica to stop pretending but falls for it once she plays dumb. When Betty asks Didi if she is really going to buy two toys, Didi answers that she shouldn't stifle Angelica's creativity. The babies end up liking Balina more than Angelica.
376* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack''
377** In "Jack And Swamp Wizard", The hermit that guides Jack through various perils is very obviously Aku, Jack's arch-enemy. Jack is apparently oblivious to the fact that his new-found ally has the same color eyebrows (red), the same color skin (jet black), as well as the same voice and attitude as Aku. At one point, even the hermit's [[TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf reflection in water reveals his true nature]], leaving the viewer questioning Jack's sanity as he sinks deeper into Aku's trap. At the end of the episode, however, Jack reveals that he knew the truth all along, and that he's merely been playing along in order to trap Aku. The entire episode also serves to hang a lampshade on Jack's general genre-blindness; he's been tricked by Aku before in similarly transparent disguises (and, admittedly, one really good one). Then again, getting tricked by a full on shape-shifter who can change anything about his appearance isn't something to be terribly ashamed of.
378** It's played straight in the episode "Jack is Naked". While trying to catch a rabbit who stole his sword and gi, he dresses in a costume akin to [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Dorothy]] to keep the angry mob from catching up to him. The disguise fools ''everybody'', until some kids rip his costume off.
379** Played straight with Jack again in the episode "Jack and the Rave". Jack disguised himself as one of the hypnotized dancers. While the other brainwashed dancers didn't recognize him right away, DJ Stylbator immediately saw through Jack's disguise and commanded the other hypnotized dancers to attack him.
380* ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo''
381** ''WesternAnimation/TheScoobyDooAndScrappyDooShow'' would often have Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy fool their enemies with obvious disguises.
382** ''WesternAnimation/The13GhostsOfScoobyDoo'' episode "Scooby in Kwackyland" had Bogel and Weerd attempt to deceive Vincent Van Ghoul by respectively disguising themselves as Daphne and Shaggy. Vincent buys it even though he notices "Daphne" putting on weight and "Shaggy" sounding different.
383* ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'' uses various poor disguises. Sheep uses them to hide from the Secret Military Organization. General Specific and his men use them to sneak toward Sheep.
384** Sheep occasionally poses as human by wearing a fake moustache or a hat.
385** The episode "An Officer and a Gentlelamb" features a particularly ludicrous case where Sheep becomes desperate enough for a new job that he joins the military organization trying to capture him and avoids suspicion simply by wearing pink sunglasses. Private Public and the Angry Scientist find out the truth, but General Specific refuses to believe it and orders Sheep to prove he's not Sheep by having him capture Sheep. Sheep gets himself out of this pickle by putting his wool on a gorilla and deceiving General Specific into thinking the gorilla is Sheep.
386** Sometimes, the military uses less than disguise. Thus the arrow sign that says "Top Secret Military Base" and "Please look the other way". The secret helicopters bear the label, "Please Ignore".
387* Happens often in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', though it's rare for people to actually fall for them:
388** Subverted in "Fear of Flying", when Homer gets banned from Moe's Tavern. [[IdenticalStranger Somebody who is "obviously" Homer in a bowler hat with a monocle and fake mustache]] walks into Moe's, speaking in an oddly stilted manner with a British accent. He protests that he's not Homer, but the innocuously named Guy Incognito, but gets beaten up and thrown out anyway. Outside, we see Homer walk past the barely conscious heap of the undisguised patron, then briefly reflect upon the implications of finding a perfect copy of himself. And then on [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny a dog with a puffy tail]].
389** In "Marge vs. the Monorail", Mr. Burns tries to pass himself off as "[[SdrawkcabAlias Mr. Snrub]]", wearing nothing unusual besides a long moustache. [[DidntThinkThisThrough It does not work]]. It doesn't help his cause that he's accompanied by an undisguised Smithers.
390** In "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", Homer, Apu and Seymour are auditioning for a final member to join the quartet. One of the auditionees is "Dr. Dolittle", who is, in fact, former member Chief Wiggum wearing a moustache.
391** Possibly the most absurd example of all: in a parody of ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' in "Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Three Times", the Count (Homer) removes his mask, and nobody recognizes him. Then he removes his fake mole and everyone in the room gasps in shock.
392** Another example of it not working is in "Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part I", when Mr. Burns dresses up in Jimbo's clothes to inform Principal Skinner his [[AntiquatedLinguistics fourth-form chums]] and he think it would be quite [[TotallyRadical corking]] if he were to give the school's new riches to the local energy concern. Naturally, [[GenreSavvy Skinner isn't fooled]]: "It was naive of you to assume I'd mistake this town's most prominent 104-year-old man for one of my elementary school students."
393** In "Kamp Krusty", the villainous Mr. Black attempted to keep the campers already lowered morale steady by hiring someone to pose as Krusty. The person he hired was [[TheAlcoholic Barney Gumble]]... whose disguise involved nothing more than slapping him in Krusty's clothes (that barely even fit him, anyways), wearing a skull cap representing Krusty's head and some makeup. Most of the kids were suspicious, and Bart ends up pointing out that he's an impostor. Barney himself unwittingly confirms it simply by speaking (his drunk voice was heard instead of Krusty's voice, not to mention he called himself "Krunchy the Clown.")
394** In "Curse of the Flying Hellfish", Mr. Burns, Smithers, and an assassin they hired dress up as Marge, Bart, and Homer respectively in order to infiltrate the nursing home and kill Grampa. Grampa sees through the deception... [[ComicallyMissingThePoint because his family never visits him]].
395** In "Hungry Hungry Homer", Duffman disguises himself in this manner as a news reporter named Joel Duffman, from The Newsly Times.
396** Played straight in "Homer vs. Patty and Selma" when Bart takes up ballet and disguises himself by wearing a balaclava -- in spite of his distinctive hairstyle remaining clearly visible. Everyone is fooled, and nothing much is made of how ridiculous it is.
397** In "The Boy Who Knew Too Much", Bart ditched class, and when he saw Homer, he quickly pushed his hair forward hoping to fool him. However, Homer has already seen Bart and was afraid the boy would figure out ''he'' ditched work. Homer's disguise was putting a hair comb under his nose as a moustache. Homer and Bart just pretended they didn't recognize each other.
398** In the episode "Burns' Heir", Burns shows Bart a "live broadcast" of Bart's family talking about how much they don't want him to come home. In reality, it is a group of actors Burns hired, including the Estonian Dwarf as Lisa. Bart is unconvinced until Fake Homer says his famous catchphrase "[[MangledCatchPhrase B'oh]]."
399*** Amusingly enough, the actors playing the family are all wearing LatexPerfection masks; after the "B'oh" blunder, Burns excuses himself and goes to the soundstage, chewing out the actor and telling him to get it right. He shows Bart the "Simpson house" again, and Homer abruptly drops his sandwich and lets out [[BadBadActing the least convincing "D'oh!" ever]]... and Bart ''immediately'' buys it, sadly saying "That's them, alright..."
400** Also used in "Simple Simpson" where Homer becomes the Batman-esque Pie Man. At the end, Marge finally reveals that she always knew, just because it was so obviously him. Somewhat justified with the townfolks who refused to believe Homer is smart enough to create an alter ego and myths around Pie Man were created.
401** In "Lisa Goes Gaga", Music/LadyGaga disguised herself by putting on sunglasses and a grey hoodie. However, the hoodie had "GAGA" written on the back in blinking letters and it was rigged with sound effects to make it say, "Gaga Gaga Gaga."
402** In "At Long Last Leave" Homer and Marge try to sneak into town as Mr. Burns and Smithers. While it seems to fool Chief Wiggum, it's only because he went to get the others. He points out while dumb, he's not that dumb.
403** An InUniverse shows up in "The Bart Wants What It Wants", when Rainer Wolfcastle is starring in a movie called "Undercover Nerd". His character is shown wearing StereotypicalNerd clothing and gives his name as "Melvin Eugene Punymeyer"... but none of this changes the fact that he's a tall, muscular adult man. [[BullyingADragon Two bullies harass him anyway]], and end up [[MadeOfPlasticine with one shoved through the other's torso]] after "Melvin" gives the memorable [[PreAssKickingOneLiner one-liner]] "The geek shall inherit the Earth!"
404** Deliberately invoked by Sideshow Bob in "Krusty Gets Busted." The Krusty disguise he dons when he robs the Kwik-E-Mart is so uncanny, that he looks like Krusty wearing only a domino mask to hide his identity (badly).
405** In one episode, Homer volunteers to drive Lisa and her friends for a field trip, and leaves behind a crudely-made dummy in his workstation; the "face" is a bucket with paper cups and a drawn-on smile, the torso is a broom wearing one of Homer's shirts with a pillow underneath (and the pillow is ''slipping out''), and the legs are paper-towel rolls with Homer's shoes on the end. He even puts a clearly-visible tape recorder singing "I Work Hard for the Money" on the dummy's chest to complete the illusion. Not only are Mr. Burns and Smithers fooled, but the former is so impressed by "Homer" that he gives him a big promotion and corner office (which quickly goes awry when the tape recorder breaks and sets said office on fire).
406** In the ''WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'' episode "Citizen Kang", Kang and Kodos disguise themselves to ''look'' just like Bob Dole and Bill Clinton, but nobody seems to notice anything wrong with the bizarre statements they deliver in a CreepyMonotone.
407** The episode "Haw-Haw Land" has Mr. Burns try to convince people that nuclear power is safe and reliable by having Smithers disguise himself as a scientist and have him claim to have seen no problems with it. Smithers' scientist disguise consists of nothing more than a lab coat, a monocle, and a fake mustache.
408** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E10PrayAnything Pray Anything]]", after winning the deed to the local church in a lawsuit, Homer shuts down an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at its community center. Moe then shows up in a fake mustache and claims to have another church they can use (obviously aiming to lure them to his bar).
409* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
410** In ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'', Sonic could fool anyone by sometimes wearing only glasses and a wig or wearing only a vest and sunglasses.
411** ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'':
412*** In the episode, "[[Recap/SonicBoomS1E4Buster Buster]]", [[BumblingHenchmenDuo Orbot and Cubot]] rob a deadly equipment warehouse wearing only poorly-drawn masks of Sonic and Tails, respectively.
413*** Subverted in the episode, "[[Recap/SonicBoomS2E41WhereHaveAllTheSonicsGone Where Have All The Sonics Gone?]]"; Morpho, being a shapeshifting robot from another dimension, can disguise himself perfectly as Sonic. It's the fact that he knows nothing about Sonic, and therefore can't act like him, that makes his disguise paper-thin.
414* ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'': In "Finding Clover", Sofia's disguise for the second magic show is just a yellow cloak wrapped around her head. Mr. Boswell falls for it at first when she volunteers as a "random guest", but then he realizes that he fell for her trick when his vanishing act on Clover doesn't go well as expected.
415* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
416** Towelie assumes a fake moustache and a hat in order to get his "A Million Little Fibers" book published. The first person to realize this is [[Creator/OprahWinfrey Oprah Winfreyā€™s]] [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext sapient vagina]].
417** Played with when Cartman disguises himself as AWESOM-O the robot. The other boys and Butters's relatives are all well aware that he's just a kid in a cardboard costume, but everyone else is convinced that he's a genuine robot, up to and including the ''military''.
418** Another episode had a male cop who went undercover as a female prostitute for sting operations. He didn't even shave off his mustache or change his voice at all and still fooled everyone.
419** PlayedForLaughs in the third Halloween episode, where one of the costumes is an incredibly well-made (and apparently fully functional) mechsuit based on [[Franchise/RoboCop ED-209]]. But everyone who sees it instantly knows it's Kenny, much to his frustration.
420** Played for very dark laughs in "Good Times with Weapons." When the boys accidentally [[EyeScream throw a ninja star into Butter's left eye,]] they put him in a crummy dog disguise meant to fool an old, half-blind veterinarian. However, when Butters wanders to a hospital, the doctor and nurse who find him are convinced that he's a real dog and send him to an animal shelter. The workers there are fooled too, to the point that they ''try to put him down''.
421** In "Volcano", Cartman disguises himself as Scuzzlebutt using a brown sheet, a stick, and a celery to scare his friends after they fail to find his campfire tale terrifying. He is nearly shot to death for his trouble.
422** After failing to get the [[MacGuffin Triangle of Zinthar]] from the boys, Music/BarbraStreisand dons a fake mustache and glasses on her second attempt. The boys are fooled and freely mock Streisand in her presence, much to her indignation.
423** As part of his tireless quest to get Chef's dad to give him tree fiddy ($3.50), the Loch Ness Monster once disguised himself as a Girl Scout selling cookies. Chef's dad was fooled until the monster told him the price of the cookies was, of course, [[SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay "about tree fiddy"]].
424** In "Let Go, Let Gov", Cartman infiltrates the NSA by putting on a tweed suit and a faux mustache and introducing himself as UsefulNotes/BillClinton. Everybody falls for it.
425** In "The Cissy", Cartman disguises himself as a trans girl in order to use the women's restroom. Said disguise only consists of putting a pink bow on his hat. Unsurprisingly, literally nobody falls for it.
426* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'':
427** A subversion occurs in the episode "No Weenies Allowed": trying to get into a tough bar, [=SpongeBob=] hits upon the idea of wearing a tough hairdo. Cut to what appears to be [=SpongeBob=] with a black pompadour out of TheFifties approaching the bar. The bouncer is unimpressed and tries to unmask him... until the ''real'' [=SpongeBob=] appears wearing a rainbow afro.
428** Done again in "The Slumber Party". [=SpongeBob=] and Krabs must sneak into Pearl's slumber party to make sure she's not destroying the house. The scene then cuts to a girl who's obviously [=SpongeBob=] knocking on the door and trying to get into the party. Her name is "Girly Teengirl" and she just moved in from "Farawayville". Pearl quickly decides that she is Spongebob, Pearl's friends throw tomatoes at her, and she runs away, shouting, "I'm ''so'' moving back to Farawayville!" Then Krabs and [=SpongeBob=] pull up in a pizza truck, scratching their heads on who the doppelgƤnger girl was. [=SpongeBob=] then proceeds to play this trope straight by wearing a fake mustache; this disguise holds for a few seconds until the mustache flies away.
429** Played humorously straight in "Imitation Krabs". Plankton builds a robot doppelganger of Mr. Krabs that's obviously a robot, complete with [[RoboSpeak monotone robot voice]] and exhaust pipe. It fools everyone (especially [=SpongeBob=]) except Squidward, who only went along with it because Robot Krabs gave him the day off.
430** Also played for laughs in "[=SpongeBob=] Meets the Strangler". The Tattletale Strangler uses only a fake mustache as a disguise (one shot even sees a receipt from the "Phony Baloney Mustache Emporium" on the ground near him, and in another, the mustache's still-attached price tag is visible) and it fools [=SpongeBob=] completely, to the point where he still buys it even after the Strangler rips off the mustache and reveals himself out of frustration.
431** Again played ridiculously straight in "Shellback Shenanigans", where Plankton disguised himself as Gary and not only fooled Spongebob, but also fooled the Bikini Bottom doctors!
432** In "Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy", Plankton steals Sandy's pelt and uses it as a Mecha. Spongebob doesn't see anything wrong with "Sandy", even though "she" has a strange voice, holes in place of her eyes and mouth, and no air suit.
433** In "F.U.N.", Plankton makes off with a Krabby Patty, then ducks into a magic shop, buys a pair of Groucho glasses and a mustache, and places them on the patty itself. Spongebob, who's been pursuing Plankton, asks the strange "man" if he's seen the villain. As is the case with the Tattletale Strangler, Plankton eventually removes the disguise himself when Spongebob's inane babbling drives him crazy.
434** In "Fear of a Krabby Patty", "Dr. Peter Lankton" is really Plankton in disguise, yet he manages to fool Mr. Krabs and [=SpongeBob=] easily.
435** In ā€œThe Executive Treatmentā€, Patrick buys an executive tie and glasses from the Krusty Krab for $20 in order to eat the titular sandwich[[note]]Simply a Krabby Patty with an inflated price[[/note]], and is mistaken by several executives for one of them as a result, despite still wearing nothing else but his pants. Despite his utter incompetence, his cover isnā€™t blown until he takes off his tie and glasses and admits he only dressed up as an executive to get the Executive Treatment. [[spoiler:Even after being arrested for being a ā€œcorporate spyā€, he somehow still has his tie and glasses with him; both the police and even [=SpongeBob=] somehow fail to recognize him, despite changing into his disguise in plain sight]].
436* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks:'' In order to infiltrate a mine being taken over by Pakleds, some of the ''Titan'' crew disguise themselves as miners. Another miner instantly realizes they're Starfleet, not just because it's someone he's never seen before, but because Boimler clearly doesn't look like a miner. It works with the Pakleds because they're stupid, and have difficulty telling humans apart.
437* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': Despite supposedly being [[InformedAbility the best]] BountyHunter in the galaxy after the late Jango Fett, Cad Bane's Jedi disguise is pretty pathetic. You'd think that a guy like him would put a little more effort into it.
438* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
439** "Tiger Millionaire": Steven and Amethyst disguise themselves in order to participate in Beach City's underground wrestling ring. Steven's disguise as the eponymous Tiger Millionaire consists of slicked-back hair and a little cat nose, which somehow fools everybody. (Although [[OnlySaneMan Sadie]] does note the similarities.) Amethyst's guise is a lot more robust due to her being a shape-shifter, but she's still purple and has her gem in plain sight.
440** "Hit the Diamond":
441*** Ruby has to infiltrate [[PlanetOfSteves a small squad of Rubies]]. She does so by walking up to them and pretending -- [[BadLiar very badly]] -- that she's been there the whole time. It works, primarily because the Ruby Squad are [[SuperGullible remarkably stupid]].
442*** The Gems disguise themselves as humans... by wearing baseball uniforms and covering their Gems. It works, but only because the people they're trying to fool have no idea what humans look like, and therefore aren't too shaken by "Amy" being purple and "Sophie" being blue.
443** The Ruby Squad fall for one ''again'' in "Back to the Moon". Amethyst shapeshifts into the form of [[spoiler:the recently defeated and bubbled Jasper]]. Amethyst still has her own colour scheme (which she explains away as a tan), and her gem is clearly visible on her chest. On top of that, Amethyst isn't particularly good at acting [[spoiler:Jasper]]-ish, and the other Crystal Gems are only barely managing to sell that they're her "prisoners". It still fools the entire Ruby Squad.
444** In one episode, Amethyst says she's getting free donuts for her, Steven, and Connie by shapeshifting into Lars and entering the donut shop. Not only is she still purple, she refers to herself as "Donut Boy" and calls Sadie "Donut Girl" as she grabs a bunch of donuts and leaves. Obviously, nobody is fooled, but as soon as she leaves, Steven apologizes and pays for the donuts, while Sadie is still mildly surprised, but used to that kind of insanity at this point.
445** Subverted in "The Big Show"; before Sadie Killer and the Suspects perform in Empire City, Sadie sees a woman in the crowd that resembles [[MyBelovedSmother her mother Barb]] and believes her mother came to the show disguised in a wig and sunglasses. After the show, Greg introduces her as Sunshine Justice, the owner of the venue.
446** In the tie-in ''Unleash the Light'' game, a new character is introduced who, suspiciously, has the same voice, build, colors, and massive blonde afro as Hessonite, the villain of ''Save the Light''. Steven immediately recognizes her, which prompts the mysterious new Gem to explain that it makes perfect sense that people would think she was Hessonite, since [[ButHeSoundsHandsome they're both immensely talented and accomplished.]]
447** The ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'' episode "Bluebird" has the episode's title character, who is a fusion between Eyeball and Aquamarine, two previous minor villains who really dislike Steven for personal reasons ([[SinsOfTheFather unlike most of the foes he's faced]]). Steven ''immediately'' recognizes this and tells everyone else... who also knew, but figured that they deserved a chance for redemption, and points out that [[AllLovingHero Steven]] would be hypocritical to deny them that. Steven still believes they're there for revenge, but begrudgingly gives them a chance: when it turns out he's right about it being a revenge plot and they finally reveal themselves, Steven frustratingly says he already knew after they question his lack of surprise.
448* 2003/2007 version of ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake''
449** "Around the Berry Big World" has the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak in a paper-thin disguise as a ship captain, offering to take Strawberry Shortcake and Peppermint Fizz home to Strawberryland, but actually out to sabotage them.
450** Played with in "Down on the Farm." Strawberry Shortcake, Pupcake, and Custard disguise themselves as sheep and hide themselves among the sheep of Caramel Corn's farm in order to discover who's been stealing her animals. Caramel Corn finds their disguises less than convincing, but Strawberry says that by the time it's dark they won't notice anything. When the Purple Pie Man and Sour Grapes come to take the sheep, Sour Grapes asks if they should take the "funny-looking" ones as well. Pie Man, being a jerk, says that he doesn't care what they look like.
451* ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' (1973) episode "The Androids". The villain Dr. Rebos sends a video message to the Super Friends that shows his real face. A short time later, he talks to both Batman and Superman at close range, with his only disguise being a small server's cap, and both of them completely fail to recognize him.
452* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperheroSquadShow'' episode "Days, Nights, and Weekends of Future Past!", Falcon and Magneto plan to break into jail to free Reptil by pretending to be prisoners with H.E.R.B.I.E. pretending to be the Sentinel turning them in. H.E.R.B.I.E.'s Sentinel disguise is nothing more than a crudely drawn cardboard mask and doesn't do anything to hide the fact that he's way smaller than the Sentinels, but his disguise still works in fooling the Sentinels and letting him in the prison.
453* In ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', all Supes has to do is [[ClarkKenting put on a pair of glasses and a suit]] and call himself Clark Kent and few people make the connection. Lampshaded [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0QVvbhMm24 here]].
454* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SushiPack'', Ben needs to talk to the Pack while they're in the middle of a mission, so he dons a disguise to keep their connection a secret. His disguise? A moustache that's not even the same color as his hair. That's it. He didn't even bother taking off the apron from the shop he owns.
455* In a ''WesternAnimation/SylvesterTheCatAndTweetyBird'' cartoon, "Canary Row", Sylvester attempts to disguise himself as an organ-grinder's monkey in order to infiltrate Tweety's apartment. Initially it seems as though his disguise was actually working, but then he lifts his hat up and Granny whacks him in the head, with her also saying "Did you really think I would be fooled by that disguise?".
456** Sylvester is very fond of his trope. A notable example is in "Fowl Weather", when Sylvester poorly disguises himself [[AssInALionSkin as a hen]] by wearing a red rubber glove as a comb and a feather duster on a plunger over his tail. Not surprisingly, a tough male rooster is not fooled [[GenreSavvy and takes advantage]]. Though Sylvester is also clearly capable of averting this trope with much better disguises, as in the same short he also wears a pretty good scarecrow costume (complete with stilts) and goat LatexPerfection mask when sneaking up on Tweety, who's clearly not fooled by both disguises ("Hello, puddy tat!")
457* ''Taffy'' revolves around the titular raccoon passing himself off as the pet cat of a rich old lady by simply wearing a ribbon around his neck, [[NoObjectPermanence even when it's put on or taken off right in front of her]]. Her dog Bentley is the only one who sees through the disguise and constantly tries to take the ribbon off Taffy to expose him.
458%%* Umi Car's Tiger Disguise and Bot's Poodle Disguise from ''WesternAnimation/TeamUmizoomi''
459%%** And it works!
460* In ''The Teddy Bears Picnic'', two teddy bears are trying to sneak a human girl into the picnic, since she's trying to find her particular teddy bear. The disguise they put together for her consists of a pair of earmuffs, a clown nose, and a line drawn on her face. It manages to fool everyone else at the picnic until she [[IllTimedSneeze sneezes the earmuffs and nose off]].
461* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'':
462** The Turtles could fool anyone by wearing a trenchcoat and fedora, despite their green skin being clearly visible. As soon as they lost the hats, though, it was obvious to all. They did occasionally wear human masks, though.
463** Lampshaded in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' where April gave them the masks, telling them Channel 6's prop department made them. When the heroes try them on:
464--->'''Michelangelo:''' Well, we don't look like mutant turtles anymore.\
465'''Raphael:''' Yeah, [[SarcasmMode now we look like mutant turtles wearing people-masks.]]
466** It wasn't just the turtles. Shredder, Rocksteady, and Bebop could also easily fool anyone, including our heroes. In one episode, April can't see past Shredder's disguise despite it simply being a train conductor's outfit worn over his metal costume... and yet, she found out Bebop and Rocksteady hiding behind a sheet only by catching sight of their shoes.
467** This is played with in one episode of the 1987 show, where Casey helps the Turtles infiltrate the Octopus Ink company. He wears a suit and tie to an interview, but still has his hockey mask and bag full of weapons. However, he's still hired quickly, not because his disguise is bad, but because the interviewer is ''looking'' for types like him. (And after getting into a violent altercation with a filing clerk, he's ''promoted''.)
468** Although this was completely averted in ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'', where the 80's Turtles never make ''any'' attempt to disguise themselves whatsoever; much to the chagrin of their 2k3 counterparts. This leads to a scene where the '80s Turtles (while in the 2k3 world) proceed to casually walk the streets in broad daylight, go to a pizzeria and order pizza. Predictably every person who sees them runs away in terror and yet the '80s Turtles have no idea why. This scene and most of the 80's Turtles' depiction in the film can be chalked up to {{Flanderization}}.
469* "You look familiar", says Jinx to Cyborg in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003''. Could the young villainess only see past her nemesis' cunning disguise as ''himself'' (without cybernetics), she'd undoubtedly fry his wirings on the spot and spare herself a broken heart.
470* In the episode "Danger" of ''WesternAnimation/TheTelebugs'', the Telebugs attempt to infiltrate the Angel Palace disguised as children. Said disguises consist of wigs and hats. Naturally, Bullybyte is immediately suspicious.
471* The Big Bad Wolf in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittlePigs'' cartoons is fond of this trope. He often even doesn't mind [[DisguisedInDrag going into drag]] to catch the pigs. Generally, the first two pigs are often fooled by his disguises, but strangely in the original short, they AREN'T fooled by the Wolf's attempt at a lamb disguise (crouched in a basket, draped in an old sheepskin and holding an old-fashioned baby bottle.[[note]]In other words, he's a literal [[VisualPun "wolf in sheep's clothing"]][[/note]])
472-->'''Pigs''': Not by the hair on our chinny chin chin, you can't fool us with that old sheepskin!
473* Happens in ''WesternAnimation/ElTigreTheAdventuresOfMannyRivera''
474** White Pantera, Manny's father, has his civilian identity of Rodolfo Rivera. But instead of taking his mask, he simply uses glasses OVER it. Then you add the fact that everybody knows that White Pantera is El Tigre's father, and everybody knows [[SecretPublicIdentity El Tigre's identity]], and everybody could guess Rodolfo's secret.
475** Subverted with Sergio's disguise as his villain alter ego SeƱor Siniestro. It's actually a very convincing disguise and he also does a deeper voice while using it, so he's able to fool Manny and Frida. His habit of fawning over Frida is the only thing that could give him away.
476** Played straight when White Pantera infiltrates a supervillain's tournament. His 'disguise' consists of wearing a black suit instead of his usual white one and calling himself '''Black''' Pantera. Nobody is fooled, but play along with it anyway.
477* On ''WesternAnimation/ToddWorld'', this played with in "Super Sophie." Todd creates a superhero outfit for Sophie that is a reasonable disguise -- most notably covering up her hair-stalks that she uses to fly that are her most recognizable feature and an obvious dead giveaway. Despite this, her general appearance is still enough that everyone, especially Stella, eventually pieces it together, especially since the voice she uses really isn't all that dissimilar from her normal voice.
478* In the Creator/VanBeurenStudios ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' short "Plane Dumb", Tom and Jerry disguise themselves in blackface makeup (while impersonating Amos N Andy at the same time) when they travel to Africa. The natives aren't fooled.
479* The ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' short "Puttin' on the Dog'' has Tom disguising himself as a dog to infiltrate a dog pound that Jerry is hiding in, with nothing but a yellow dog mask. The short's gags revolve around Tom trying to keep track of his mask. At one point, Jerry hands a suspicious Spike this message: [[LampshadeHanging "Yes stupid, it's a cat."]]
480* In ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaWorldTour'', the teams have to strip-search BritishRoyalGuards to find a clue for their challenge. Naturally, none of them wants to do this, but [[PerkyGoth Gwen]] tricks [[StalkerWithACrush Sierra]] into it by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11c3FXSNAVA&t=1632s putting a Cody mask]] ([[FridgeLogic that she had for some reason]]) on their team's guard. Even though the real Cody is standing right next to her, giving her an "are you serious?" look, Sierra pushes him out of the way to get to the fake Cody.
481* ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'': Wanted criminal Tim Scam was able to pretty much take over WOOHP by using an alias that was ''literally just [[SdrawkcabAlias his name backwards]].''
482** And he had it clearly written on a name badge just in case there was a slight chance no one would figure it out.
483*** There's a very slight justification in that this is Tim Scam's first run-in with the girls who had never heard of him. Also the file on him they check has ''no picture'' so they don't learn what he looks like until it's too late.
484** In "Passion Patties", the spies are sent to investigate why people are getting strangely hooked on the titular cookies, which are being sold by a local Girl Scout {{Expy}}. Jerry thus decides to send them in as scouts themselves...despite them being ''fully grown teenagers.'' The head of their troop is slightly suspicious, but eventually lets it go.
485** In another episode, the villainous Dr. Gelee returns to kidnap his nemesis Clover -- a short-haired blonde with blue eyes, pinkish skin, and a smooth voice -- during a ski trip. [[ContrivedCoincidence By some amazing coincidence]], the school's AlphaBitch Mandy -- a girl with long black hair, purple eyes, pale skin, and a grating voice -- just so happens to have a new winter outfit that's identical to Clover's red spy jumpsuit. Naturally, Dr. Gelee grabs Mandy instead of Clover, ''just because she was wearing the red outfit.'' This might lead viewers to believe that the girls would be immune from any villain ever recognizing them if they didn't wear their spy gear.
486* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
487** A lot of Transformers, Autobot and Decepticon alike, especially from ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'' take on flashy custom cars, race cars that are not street legal, or brands of vehicles not often distributed in the US.
488** In the third episode of the Generation One cartoon, the Autobots decide to set up an ambush for the Decepticons. Hound uses his holographic projector to make a fake "rocket base" and the Autobots will be in it, under disguise, to attack the Decepticons when they show up to raid the base. What disguise do the Autobots go for? If you guessed "Disguised in their car mode in the base parking lot", congratulations, you're smarter than an Autobot. They decide to don ''labcoats'' and pass for the human scientists. Despite the fact that even the smallest of them is twice as tall as a human and about 3 times as wide.
489** Almost used in ''Anime/TransformersCybertron''. After Bud describes conventions and cosplay to the Autobots, Jetfire jokingly suggests that they pretend they're fanboys in public, to the amusement of all. However, Optimus Prime takes him seriously and thinks this is a wonderful idea until the humans talk him out of it.
490** And then there was ''Anime/TransformersArmada'', when the kids dressed up the Space Team in lumpy sweaters, scarves, and goggles to take them on the bus. And it worked.
491** Punch, the Autobot double agent, possesses a "second robot mode" that allows him to go undercover as the Decepticon Counterpunch. Said second robot mode basically consists of turning around so that his back is now his chest, shifting the arrangement of the car parts on his shoulders, and pulling a visor to cover one face and reveal another. It's surprisingly convincing from the front... but turn him around and you see literally all of Punch's formerly front-facing detailing on full display. They also still have the same altmode, and neither side has any other blue sports cars with red hubcaps. It doesn't help that in his most famous cartoon appearance, he outright claimed that he was going to leave to look for his Autobot counterpart, because "I've heard he's nearby... ''real'' nearby."
492** While the show's tagline may be "Robots in Disguise", not a whole lot of alt modes actually make for convincing disguises. Even disregarding spacecraft like Cyclonus or Cosmos or the recurring giant robot dinosaurs, plenty of characters have altmodes with the wrong colors (Scavenger, the world's only green-and-purple excavator), altmodes that don't make sense in most environments (Mirage, the F1 racer), or alt-modes that are barely any less conspicuous than their robot modes (Trypticon, a mountain-sized armored base). The live-action films, with their heavy product placement, regularly have six or seven brightly-colored and expensive concept cars driving down the road in a line without raising an eyebrow. The comic series ''Escalation'' mocked this hard.
493--->'''Russian commander:''' "We appear to have an American F-22 Raptor, being shot at by some kind of rally vehicle. And a police patrol car, also American... under attack from a space shuttle?"
494** And ''then'' there are the seemingly dozens or hundreds of robots whose altmodes are presumably very convincing but replicate vehicles that do not exist on Earth. On the bright side, it confirms that Cybertron has a thriving vehicle design industry to provide all of the Cybertronian planes, cars, motorcycles, drill-tanks and whatnot that assorted second- and third-tier Autobots and Decepticons turn into. Of course, fans have long since accepted that, at least on Cybertron, the ones with vehicular altmodes transform mainly for the purposes of fast travel, at least while on Cybertron. Generation 1 Soundwave, whose classic Earth-based altmode is a cassette player [[SizeShifting he shrunk into]] was originally shown to transform into some kind of street post that somehow kept him hidden from the Autobots he was spying on.
495** It's justified in the case of most modern incarnations of Megatron, as, generally, he sees the very idea of disguising himself from lower life forms such as humans to be far beneath him, a notion he's always had [[OlderThanTheyThink since the G1 cartoon itself]]. So, in the case of other G1-esque Megatrons with far more serious characterizations, he just straight up doesn't have an alt mode that resembles anything on Earth. Even his classic pistol mode, let alone having a disguise at all, wasn't his choice; Skywarp rigged the Autobots' scanners to give him and their comrades alt modes when they all awoke four million years after they crashed in the Ark.
496** Justified in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': the point of the disguises was to provide protection from environmental conditions, not to actually permit stealth. As a result, it wasn't a huge issue when Megatron got a new Transmetal toy; he was already running around as a bright purple Tyrannosaurus in a world where those had been extinct for sixty million years, so making part of it metallic wasn't going to make it any more conspicuous than the Barney the Dinosaur look already was. (And in any case, the only enemies with the equipment to fight him were the Maximals, who already knew how he dressed.)
497** In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersRobotsInDisguise2015'', a recurring gag is that Grimlock's altmode (a giant robotic T-rex) is completely useless for stealth, which has led to him attempting to assume a disguise ''for'' his disguise. This usually involves him "hiding" inside of a crane, with his T-rex body barely concealed.
498** ''Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise (2001)'' has two separate occasions, in the episodes "Commandos" and "The Fish Test", where Sky-Byte's Predacons attempt to disguise themselves as Autobots. Emphasis on "attempt". The first time, even if their disguises ''had'' been good, which they weren't, it ''still'' wouldn't have fooled anyone, because ''[[https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Commandos_Optimi.jpg all four cosplayed as the same Autobot]]''. In the second, they disguise themselves as the Autobot Brothers and Rail Racer, and the quality of their disguise work can be extrapolated from Slapper's Side Burn costume, which consists of a helmet, a fake chestpiece, and a hasty coat of blue paint on his [[KibblesAndBits extremely distinctive shoulder pads]]. To what limited extent they get away with it, it's because they're at a distance from Scourge and the real Autobots show up before long; unfortunately for [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Sky-Byte]], as well as being as ''thin'' as paper, his costume is also as ''[[ManOnFire flammable]]'' as paper, and a couple of glancing hits are all it takes to leave him burning merrily.
499* It appears to be this with ''WesternAnimation/UncleGrandpa'' with the evil Emperor Krell until it turns out to be a case of IdenticalStranger.
500* ''WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}}'' arguably does a better job than many on this list, for the way he changes his tone of voice, loses his [[GratuitousIambicPentameter rhyme]], and generally attempts a different persona. But he does nothing to change or hide his face. And from what we see, anthropomorphic dogs are very much in the minority in his hometown.
501** Actually, in one cartoon, Riff-Raff comes ''very'' close to figuring it out after deciding to follow Underdog home to steal a painting he's looking after, only to find Shoeshine Boy with it; unfortunately for the villain, Underdog fool him by changing in and out of his costume again and again while moving at super-speed (to make it look like both his identities are in the same building) and Riff-Raff is dumb enough to fall for it.)
502** And one point during [[Film/{{Underdog}} the movie]], a man noticed Shoeshine sitting on the stairs and remarked on how much he looked like Underdog.
503* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{VeggieTales}}'' episode "King George and the Ducky", Jimmy and Jerry are disguised as Bob and Larry in an attempt to host the show themselves. Their disguises are not convincing at all, so the viewers all know that they aren't the real Bob and Larry. Then, Bob and Larry show up and are able to recognize Jimmy and Jerry in their costumes.
504* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'':
505** The original Dr. Venture infiltrates a VillainTeamUp dedicated to killing him (who have also kidnapped his son) by pretending to be a Japanese supervillain (from the village of Japaninawa). This is done by wearing a wig, fake mustache, a fake nipple on his chin and by pulling his eyes ''with his fingers'' so they appear slanted. He makes no attempt to hide his voice or even employ a fake accent. And his cover name, "Dr. Fandragon", is clearly composed of the only two Asian things he could think of. The weaknesses of his costume are all lampshaded by the head villain, who seems to get that 'Dr. Fandragon' isn't really Asian but not that he's Dr. Venture specifically.
506--->'''Scaramantula:''' As do we all, my thoroughly Japanese friend who is easily, ''easily'' 6'2".\
507'''Scaramantula:''' What is that my uncharacteristically hirsute Asian comrade?
508*** This is based, as also noted on the commentary, directly on Film/JamesBond's nearly identical disguise in ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice''. The supernumerary nipple is based on Bond's attempt to disguise himself as Francisco Scaramanga, ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun''.
509** Also, Hank's disguise as "Russian Guyovitch", a fake goatee and an outdated Monarch minion costume. Both Sgt. Hatred and Brock are fooled.
510** The superhero team The Super Gang all make fairly serviceable attempts at ClarkKenting (with the exception of Ghost Robot, who, being a TinCanRobot, would have a difficult time being inconspicuous no matter what), but what pushes them into this is that their secret identities happen to be the entire Action 5 News Team. So a news team consisting of two burly white guys, a short black guy, a skinny woman, and a robot do news reports on a superhero team consisting of two burly white guys, a short black guy, a skinny woman, and a robot. Add in some StevenUlyssesPerhero names, and you have this trope.
511* In ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'', [[spoiler:Katie Holt/Pidge]] disguises herself as a boy by... cutting her hair and putting on glasses. Shiro puts two and two together as soon as she mentions her family, since he knew her father and brother. Most of the rest of the team figures it out before TheReveal as well, with Coran even [[LampshadeHanging pointing out]] that it wasn't a surprise.
512** What's more, the reason she disguised herself was so she could get into the school she'd been banned from and continue to look for information about her missing father and brother. Somehow, no one noticed that she looked ''almost exactly'' like her brother.
513* Played for laughs in the ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit'' short film "WesternAnimation/TheWrongTrousers". There, a villainous penguin dons a disguise, which consists '''solely''' of a rubber-glove wig, for his crimes. No one sees through this fiendishly clever ruse, as they all think he is a chicken.
514* In "Castle Caper" on ''WesternAnimation/WallyKazam'', Wally uses one when posing as a "cake delivery guy" to smuggle his dragon Norville into a castle taken over by Bobgoblin as a TrojanHorse. The ploy fails, though whether or not the paper thin disguise was a contributing factor is debatable.
515* In ''Walter Melon'', Melon is a hero for hire who replaces heroes temporarily when they're somehow incapacitated. Despite Melon being an obese bald man with a huge nose, no one can tell the difference.
516* The ''WesternAnimation/WhateverHappenedToRobotJones'' episode "School Newspaper" had Principal Madman try to get back at Robot Jones for taking embarrassing photographs of him for the school newspaper by turning the public against him, which he did by photographing himself doing bad things disguised as Robot. Madman's Robot Jones disguise consisted of a cheap mask and a gray bodysuit, yet everyone at Polyneux Middle School is deceived in spite of Madman being an obese adult and his bodysuit lacking such details as Robot's "clothes".
517* ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'':
518** ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'' gives us the [[ShowWithinAShow Play Within A Show]] "The Legend of Sheriff Piglet", in which the Masked Bear is never identified as Pooh until his mask comes off.
519*** In the Christmas special, Pooh dresses up as Santa Claus. Despite his costume only consisting of a fake white beard over his trademark red t-shirt that still exposes his round yellow tummy, it somehow manages to convince all his friends (especially Tigger).
520** On ''WesternAnimation/MyFriendsTiggerAndPooh'', the Super Sleuth outfits worn by Tigger and Pooh normally wouldn't be an example, as they aren't actually trying to hide their identities. Lumpy, however, refuses to accept them as being Tigger and Pooh when they're in their outfits, even when Darby tells him that it's just them. He presumably recognizes her because her only special Super Sleuth apparel is a cap with the question mark logo of the Sleuths on it.
521* Carl the Evil Cockroach Wizard from ''WesternAnimation/YinYangYo'' '''lives''' for this trope. On at least one occasion, he actually used it when there was absolutely no reason to. When his brother Herman {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this, he nonchalantly responded "I love to play dress-up." Taking the tone of the show into consideration, there might be some ParentalBonus in that. Yin and Yang are not so good at disguises anyway. One episode Yang put on a mustache and tried to trick Carl. He did fall for that and said "Here, you dropped your mustache... Ah, it's one of my enemies wearing a cheesy disguise!".
522* When in his civilian identity, Robin in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' needs to be in disguise (apparently it's something Franchise/{{Batman}} insists on). All he does is pull on a pair of sunglasses. Then again, the team does not have any contact with Dick Grayson unless Artemis goes to Gotham Academy.
523** A better example of this trope would be Conner. He doesn't wear a mask or any costume at all, but so long as he isn't wearing a Superman t-shirt, no one recognizes him to be ComicBook/{{Superboy}}.
524*** Its even worse than that; Connor refuses to wear anything ''but'' black super-man T-shirts, even in his civilian identity. Presumably the only reason why his classmates haven't worked it out yet is that he's part of a covert OP team that doesn't get a lot of media attention. (The final episode of season 4 shows one of his classmates ''did'' figure it out, and apparently from there worked out at some of the others were superheroes as well.)
525

Top