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Full-Body Disguise

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And when we say full-body, we mean full-body.note 
"That is not Dick Clark, that is a Dick Clark rubber mask, with a zipper in the back. When he gets off that TV show, year after year, week after week, systematically lowering the standards of this country, he undoes that zipper and underneath... is a cloven-hooved, horned wolverine."

Sometimes you don't need a full-on Invisibility Cloak. You don't care if people see you, just if they see the real you. And so you don an ensemble that completely obscures your features and possibly even your whole body. This is far more than a simple Wig, Dress, Accent. There isn't anything left of you to make out. The you beneath the suit is effectively invisible.

Any superhero or villain with a full-face mask would be included here, (Harley Quinn's make-up counts — how many people would recognize her without it and her trademark clothing and hairstyle?) but superheroes with no mask (Superman) or partial masks (Batman, Robin, Green Arrow) would not.

Contrast Paper-Thin Disguise. Also see Black Cloak and Lie to the Beholder. When done with just the face or head, then it's Latex Perfection.


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • The Trix Rabbit is usually a Paper-Thin Disguise user, but in this infamous 1995 Got Milk? commercial, he wears a very convincing male human bodysuit. Even more amazing when you know he's a cartoon rabbit disguised as a live-action guy.
  • A series of commercials for Pepsi Twist featured celebrities revealing themselves to be other celebrities by undoing a huge zipper from head to toe. In one ad, Ozzy Osbourne's kids transform from the Osbournes into the Osmonds. Another ad, which featured both Mike Myers as Austin Powers and Britney Spears, subverted the formula by having Austin assume Britney was a man in disguise and tried to unmask her to no avail.

    Anime & Manga 
  • In Code Geass, Zero's outfit completely obscures his physical features; among many other things, one consequence of this is that everyone thinks he's Japanese. This also allows C.C. to take over his identity when he's out of action for a year. Among other times.
  • The Mysterious Protector in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's. What originally appeared to be a man hiding behind a simple face mask turned out to be a full body illusion disguising Gil Graham's Cat Girl familiars.
  • In the Read or Die manga, Paper Master Ridley Wan makes one out of paper to impersonate Yomiko's deceased lover, Donny Nakajima. It's so detailed that she fails to realize he's an imposter until he tells her - after she slept with him.
  • Lupin III uses these from time to time, often combining them with Latex Perfection. Characters will step out of complete body suits that made them completely identical to someone else. There's a manga chapter where Lupin escapes captivity by swapping clothes with a film student named Yumi, who is then Bound and Gagged and placed inside a full body skin suit that causes her to look exactly like him. It isn't until a tear in the suit accidentally exposes one of Yumi's breasts that Fujiko realizes the swap has been made.
  • Kinnikuman and its sequel Ultimate Muscle often use this; Some villains don simple disguises that cover up everything, even spikes and horns (Monsieur Cheeks, a literal Butt-head, is first seen in a Kid Muscle disguise that completely obscures his unusually-shaped cranium).
  • Doraemon: In "Noby, the Great Illusionist", Noby uses a full-body disguise of Sneech's mom to retrieve his rare Cardosaur trading card from Sneech. He does the same thing to retrieve his Beast Mask comic from Big G by disguising himself as Big G's sister, but Big G doesn't fall for it and Noby runs away in panic.
  • In GO-GO Tamagotchi! episode 40, Himespetchi wants to be with her love interest Mametchi and disguises herself as a boy to get into an audition for a TV show he's in. After her disguise is discovered and the director decides to write it into the show, it turns out that Mametchi himself is actually Oyajitchi in a costume. The real Mametchi was never actually on-stage, much to Himespetchi's disappointment.

    Asian Animation 
  • In Season 7 episode 45 of Happy Heroes, Jeiro the thief dons a full-body disguise of Lele and, later, Big M. as part of his schemes.
  • In episode 15 of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Joys of Seasons, to lure Tibbie into Wolf Castle, Wolffy disguises himself as Weslie, wearing a full-body disguise that looks exactly like him.

    Comic Books 
  • Fantastic Four: The Thing wore one of these in the early comics.
  • Iron Man: The Iron Man armor could alter voices and made it so that Rhodey could replace Tony Stark as Iron Man without anyone really noticing the difference.
  • Sonic the Comic: Sonic has his Bob Beaky disguise (a green ushanka and duffel coat, yellow-checked scarf, grey boots and mittens, wraparound shades, and false beak) which completely conceals Sonic's body allowing him to travel incognito or infiltrate a public area.
  • Spider-Man: Spider-Man's full face and body costume counts.
  • V for Vendetta: V's ensemble, including his famous Guy Fawkes mask. This serves the purpose of hiding the fact that he's hideously scarred, as well as reinforcing that the ideas he represents are more important than the individual.
  • Watchmen: Rorschach's mask.

    Comic Strips 
  • Exaggerated in Beetle Bailey. Why are the soldiers staring at an attractive woman in a swimsuit when they're supposed to be getting a demonstration in camouflage from Sgt. Snorkel? Because they are — that is Sarge. No wonder they're staring. Note that we're talking about a rough, rotund man several times the volume of such a slim woman.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Monty Python's The Meaning of Life ends a scene set in the Boer War with an African native warrior appearing on screen, unzipping down the middle, and revealing Terry Gilliam in a tuxedo introducing the next scene.
  • The Antareans in Cocoon.
  • In They Live!, aliens transmit a signal that disguises their true appearance from everyone not wearing a special kind of sunglasses.
  • In Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Ms. Wardroe unzips to reveal Rufus in disguise
  • Janet Jones pulls off her beautiful skin to reveal a yucky alien beneath in 1995's Not Like Us
  • At the end of Under the Skin Scarlett Johanson is unmasked and revealed to be an alien after an attacker damages her suit
  • Fadela unzips and reveals herself to be Dr. Benway in Naked Lunch
  • Female reporter Heather is revealed to be a disguise for jacobo in Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed
  • A group of girls begin to strip off their skin revealing they are werewolves in disguise in Trick 'r Treat

    Literature 
  • ''The Painted Skin'' by Pu Songling, published in 1740, features one of the earliest examples of this trope, in which the protagonist Wang is cursed by a hideous green ghoul that disguises itself in a human pelt, which it paints to resemble both a young woman and an old hag. The ghoul is eventually unmasked by a Taoist priest, who turns the creature into a puff of smoke and seals it away in a bottle.
  • An interesting example occurs in the Philip K. Dick book, A Scanner Darkly. The protagonist is a narc, and when he has to appear in public to give a speech about why Drugs Are Bad, he appears only in a "scramble suit". The suit flashes the features and facial characteristics of thousands of different people at a rate too fast for anyone to discern. As such, anyone wearing it looks like a "vague blur."
    "Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for the vague blur."
  • One of the conspirators in Voyage of the Shadowmoon wore a mask at all times, not to hide his identity, but to make his real face unrecognizable so he could slip away from trouble at a moment's notice without anyone realizing it's him.
  • The Stainless Steel Rat would do this as a matter of routine, as it was the only way to commit crime and get away with it in a society where Big Brother Is Watching You. In the first novel it turns out to be not good enough and he's shot by an Evil Counterpart who recognises him, so he goes to a Back-Alley Doctor for full body surgery.
  • Moist von Lipwig in the Discworld evidently studied at the same college as Jim diGriz.note  Moist uses spectacles, unruly wigs, very obvious false moustaches, and nose-hair wigs to horrify his marks — so that all they can talk about afterwards when the Watch wants a description is all the hair coming out of his nose and ears...
  • The Invisible Man has Griffon wearing dark glasses and heavy clothes for the first several chapters, concealing his lack of an appearance. May also be a Stealth Pun on the title, since a few characters get confused when he tells them he's "invisible."
  • Shadows on the Moon features magical illusionists called shadow weavers. This is the most common trick they use.
  • In the all-but-forgotten six book horror series from the 80's called Private School, the usual ragtag group of teens at the titular school learn that Earth is being invaded by wolf-people from outer space. They hide themselves by wearing full-body human suits which are so good at covering the fur, muzzles, tails, and digitigrade legs that one of them is the prettiest girl at school and leader of the student body. An Alpha Bitch in the most literal sense!

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Vorlons in Babylon5 are always seen wearing encounter suits.
  • The alien lizards in V (1983) use human bodysuits to hide their true nature. It gets torn off ocassionally for the scare factor.
  • Any Super Sentai or Power Rangers shows that use a Secret Identity.
  • The early part of season 8 in Charmed
  • The film adaptation of Battleground, a short story by Stephen King, has the unnamed hitman wearing a mask shaped like a human face for his hits, which obscured his features but (from a distance) would make him appear to be a normal person to any casual witness.
  • The Slitheen are the most prominent of several examples in Doctor Who.
  • The demons in The Good Place wear bodysuits that make them look like humans.
  • Pushing Daisies: "Bitches" begins with Ned somehow being able to touch Chuck again. When they take off their clothes, Chuck says she is still wearing too many clothes, only to pull off her skin to reveal Olive underneath. It turns out to be All Just a Dream.

    Music 
  • They Might Be Giants: "Marty Beller Mask" is about how their drummer, Marty Beller, is actually Whitney Houston in disguise.

    Tabletop Games 
  • In Anathema shrouds can use magic to achieve this effect.
  • Dungeons & Dragons: The disguise self spells allow the caster to appear like any creature of the same body type and close in size, clothes included.

    Video Games 
  • This is the entire logic behind the Spy's ability to disguise as a friendly class in Team Fortress 2; even if you're seen, they think they're chasing someone else.
  • Alex Mercer has the Phlebotinum to do this well beyond Latex Perfection in [PROTOTYPE].
  • The Mysterious Stranger in Always Sometimes Monsters wears a thick winter coat, baggy pants, a scarf pulled up over the lower half of their face and a cap shadowing their eyes. It's impossible to tell whether they're male, female, or anything else about them.
  • Shantae and the Seven Sirens: The disguised person revealed at the end of the game has changed everything about themselves from their whole body and their voice, redonning their costume multiple times, perfectly.

    Webcomics 
  • Know the Read or Die example mentioned in Anime & Manga? Yomiko herself did that in And Shine Heaven Now, disguising herself as Walter to avoid capture and arrest by the British Library and as Integra Hellsing to get on the Major's zeppelin to rescue Anita. However, Reseda and the Captain saw right through it. Paper cannot replicate scent, after all.

    Web Original 
  • In the Paradise setting, human characters are randomly, permanently changed into Funny Animals (and some are gender-swapped as well). After they change, characters have an illusory full body disguise of their old human selves where normal human beings are concerned (whether they like it or not), especially early on when the "Reality Distortion Field" is stronger. A man who turned into a female bear might look much like his old masculine self, just a little overweight—-which means he will need to continue to dress like a man. Normals literally cannot tell anything has changed; only others changed can see them as they are.

    Western Animation 
  • In the Charlie and Lola episode "But I Am An Alligator", Lola wears, for a majority of the episode, a large, dark green alligator costume which covers her entire body, with the exception of her arms and legs. This embarrasses Charlie, as she wears it in public, and the size of the costume makes it difficult for Lola to perform basic tasks such as tieing her shoelaces.
  • The villains of Sushi Pack occasionally don actual full-body suits, most notably Apex, an invading alien. Oleander, a foodee villain, managed to squeeze her frame into a much skinnier body suit in order to masquerade as a gossip columnist in one episode.
  • Kaeloo: One episode had Mr. Cat, in an effort to escape from Kaeloo, put on a very convincing disguise as Pretty and told her that he went the other way. After he leaves, Kaeloo realizes that it was him because of his voice.
  • Looney Tunes has a LOT of examples...
    • Odor-Able Kitty (1945) has a cat (already painted up to look like a skunk) hiding from Pepé Le Pew disguise in a completely convincing Bugs Bunny costume and mask, which Pepe instantly sees through.
    • Paying the Piper (1949) features a cat disguising himself in a convincing rat suit and mask to fool Pied Piper Porky.
    • Muzzle Tough (1954) has Sylvester disguise himself as a female dog in order to lure Hector out and clobber him in his final attempt to steal Tweety, but the disguise works too well. Moments before Sylvester could clobber Hector, he ends up being caught by the dog catcher, and after he removes his mask and demands to be let out, he is confronted and attacked by a dozen angry dogs.
    • Dog Pounded (1954) is another episode where Sylvester is trying to eat Tweety, only he has to infiltrate a dog pound to get to him. He tries disguising himself as a stray dog, but unfortunately, the other dogs don't fall for it.
    • Knight-Mare Hare (1955) has the wizard Merlin attempts to use a magic spell to transform Bugs into a pig, but instead it just magically conceals Bugs in a realistic pig suit, to which Merlin transforms himself into a jackass, but keeps unzipping each suit to reveal another mule underneath.
    • A Sheep in the Deep (1962) has Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog engage in a "disguise duel".
  • In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) April has a guy in her studio's costume department make rubber masks for the heroes that can make them pass as humans if they wear overcoats with them. They eventually work (even if their true turtle hands and feet are exposed), but Raphael has some doubts when they first try them on:
    Donatello: Hey, great! Now we don't look like mutant turtles.
    Raphael: Yeah, we look like mutant turtles wearing people-masks.
  • In an episode of The Simpsons, "The Frying Game," Homer is about to be executed in an electric chair, but it turns out to be a reality game show, and the old woman Homer was framed for killing takes off her full body suit to reveal she's really Carmen Electra.
    • "Undercover Burns" has Mr. Burns disguise himself as a power plant employee named "Fred" using a high-tech mecha version of this that also includes a voice-changer and communications device so he can speak to Smithers anywhere.
  • Family Guy in one of its famous gags from the early years of the show, when a talk show hosted by Diane Simmons features a dating couple; the male was really a woman in a Latex Perfection-style mask, but then confesses that she is not even a woman, and unzips her full body suit to reveal a horse, and then confesses that he is a broom, removing the horse suit to reveal a broom that lifelessly falls over.
  • Also a common practical joke on April Fools' Day in animation, as demonstrated on CatDog, Rocko's Modern Life and Disney's House of Mouse.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
    • In "Sisterhooves Social", Rarity disguises herself as Applejack by wearing a hat (to hide her horn) and being completely covered in mud. You can see the horn (with mud) a bit of the time, and her eyes are a different color; this still works on first-time viewers because nobody would believe Rarity 1) would voluntarily hide in a pit of mud and come up smiling and 2) could be that athletic and enthusiastic about it.
    • "The Crystal Empire Part 1" has Pinkie Pie dress up as Fluttershy.
    • And in "Magic Duel", Twilight paints several of her friends to look like other ponies as part of a ruse to make her look more powerful than she actually is (for instance, painting Apple Bloom to look like Applejack and swapping the two under cover of magical smoke to make it look like she'd made Applejack younger).
  • When Flapjack searches for a new role model in The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, he rejects an ordinary-looking businessman in favour of a buff adventurer with a sword and flowing golden locks. After the latter accepts Flapjack as his apprentice, he unzips himself to reveal his true self: a much smaller, more drab banker. The joke is repeated when it's revealed he was coming from a costume party with the businessman from before, who unzips himself to reveal a crazy-eyed shirtless pirate captain.
  • The Geronimo Stilton episode "The Gator Samaritan" featured Simon Squealer dressing up as the titular superhero this way (using a form-fitting alligator costume complete with tail) and performing good deeds as part of a scam to help the struggling Daily Rat newspaper. After saving Thea from drowning, Simon realizes Good Feels Good and continues the charade independently from the scam. But then a criminal rat steals the costume's Latex Perfection mask and attempts to use it as a simple disguise for robbing a museum (and in the next episode we see that Simon has gone through a Heel–Face Door-Slam and is back to being a villainous henchman.)
  • One episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius featured nearly every parent-child team cheating at the class's field day. Cindy finds out that the partner even she thought was her mother was actually her athletic aunt (the zipper behind her ear gave her away).
  • In one episode of Totally Spies! the girls discover that the lovely Britney is really Tim Scam in a bodysuit after trying to apply cosmetics to her face
  • Rick and Morty use full body disguises in one episode of Rick and Morty as another man and an attractive woman respectively
  • In the Johnny Bravo episode "As I Lay Hiccupping", an attractive female doctor pulls on her head to reveal a fat male doctor.
  • Droopy the Dog and others frequently apply full body disguises in Droopy, Master Detective
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: The ending of "Spy Buddies" reveals that Plankton and Mr. Krabs switched places with each other using these as part of a bet. Later, Patrick takes off his disguise to reveal Squidward. SpongeBob takes off the other Squidward's face revealing that it actually is Squidward, then the fake Squidward takes off his disguise revealing Sandy, but she is wearing the "wrong outfit", so she unzips revealing another SpongeBob. SpongeBob is confused and takes off his suit revealing another Patrick, only for the other SpongeBob to reveal it really was Patrick all along, and finally SpongeBob removes his Patrick outfit. As if that wasn't enough, the episode ends on there still being a second Patrick, as SpongeBob points out.
  • Four Eyes!: Emma's glasses can turn her into a human in a blink of an eye.

    Real Life 
  • Ghillie Suits. A sniper's Ghillie suit is essentially a cloak made of foliage. It helps blend the wearer into a forest environment, but also breaks up a person's form and makes their outline difficult to spot.
  • Criminals sometimes use stocking masks, ski masks and even Halloween masks to hide their identities.
  • If you're going to pretend to be an old man, remember to think about your hands as well. He probably would've gotten away with it ifnote  he hadn't shucked the mask midflight. An old man with young hands isn't quite enough to report, but the appearance of a young Asian coinciding with the disappearance of an elderly Caucasian is going to be noticed by those already alerted enough to observe him.

 
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Ralph and Sam's Suit Standoff

Did Ralph Wolf come to work wearing all of those bodysuits in anticipation for such an event?

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