One of the reasons why people join and associate with criminal organizations is the power and influence that said organizations can have. However, not everyone who desires said power and influence can be part of or associated with said gangs. The solution? Lie about being in a gang or about knowing people who are gangsters.
Some people who use this lie will claim to simply be or know gangsters without specifying which gang they are part of or affiliated with. Others might claim to be part of an already existing gang, most often a powerful and well-known one. Housewives who do this will sometimes claim that their husbands are members of such a gang. Downplayed examples of this trope typically involve actual gangsters exaggerating how powerful they actually are, such as low-level goons who claim to be one of the higher-ups or members of minor gangs claiming to be part of a more powerful one.
There are multiple reasons why someone would tell this sort of lie, with the most common being intimidation. Since most people tend to fear being on the bad side of a gang, especially if it is a notorious one, most people will be reluctant to stand up to someone claiming to be a gangster or knowing gangsters. Said liars can exploit this fear for a variety of purposes, such as extortion, getting away with a dine and dash, or convincing witnesses to not tell the police any crimes the liar committed.
Another common reason people tell this type of lie is to make themselves look cool. Some people might claim to be in a gang for street cred. Adults might sometimes brag about having been in gangs in their youth. Since some girls are attracted to bad boys, some guys might lie about being in a gang in order to potentially woo a girl.
While some characters often use this trope for personal gain, others might do this as a means of disguise or protection. Some police officers, journalists, and superheroes masquerade as gangsters as a means of gathering information. A person looking to protect themselves might lie about being a gangster to scare away anyone who could potentially harm them. Someone who wants to protect their friends and/or family might lie about being in a gang to keep people from messing with said loved ones.
Like most liars in fiction, people who pull this sort of stunt will almost always inevitably be exposed. The most common method is for said liars to run into actual gangsters who can easily expose them. If the liar claims to be part of an existing gang, then they will inevitably run afoul of said gang, either because said gang caught wind of people using their name or because one of the people they tried to intimidate was actually part of said gang. Another possibility is for spoken to try pulling it on a cop who will arrest them for claiming to be affiliated with gangsters.
See also Impersonating an Officer and Impersonating a Lawyer for when people claim to be involved in a legal profession and Criminal Doppelgänger, if someone just so happens to look like a known criminal. Overlaps with Phony Relative if someone claims to be a relative of a gangster or Mugging the Monster if someone tries this on an actual gangster.
Examples:
- One Piece: Exaggerated with the Fake Straw Hats, who (poorly) disguise themselves as the Straw Hat Pirates as part of a scheme to gather a crew of powerful pirates to act as an army. Their scheme gets exposed when their leader Demalo Black is revealed to be a phony by Sentomaru.
- YuYu Hakusho: A somewhat lighter example happens in the first chapter when a Japanese delinquent recalls to a buddy how he robbed a guy by claiming to be local tough guy Yusuke Urameshi's cousin as a threat. Yusuke, the main protagonist, chooses that moment to reveal he's standing right behind him, and demands 500 yennote as a "name-dropping fee".
- Batman: When his usual methods of getting information won't be of use, Batman uses the alias of "Matches" Malone, a deceased criminal and arsonist whose identity he took as a means to infiltrate the criminal underworld.
- The Goon: The Goon gets his start as an errand boy for the crime boss Labrazio before killing him, taking his records to take over Labrazio's activities. He goes to a shopkeeper demanding the racket money but is sent packing, and when the shopkeeper is mauled by a zombie, puts a sign on the mangled corpse reading "Don't make my boy ask twice - Labrazio". Everyone is appropriately terrified of Goon after that.
- The Sandman (1989): In "The Doll's House" arc a bunch of serial killers hold an invite-only "Cereal Convention". One attendee, "The Boogeyman", is revealed to be a journalist using a dead killer's appellation, so the director and the guest of honor "collect" from him.
- At the climax of Analyze This, Dr. Ben Sobel is forced to attend a mafia meeting because his mob boss client Paul is having a severe panic attack. To avoid letting on that Paul is in treatment for mental health issues, Ben passes himself off as Ben "The Doctor" Sobellini, Paul's new consigliere.
- Dope Jameel, the son of drug kingpin AJ pretends to be a Blood despite living far removed from any gang set. This doesn't go well when he tries this posturing at a real Blood at a hamburger place line.
- Donnie Brasco: In the film (based on real life events), the eponymous protagonist Joseph Pistone/Donnie Brasco is inserted as an undercover agent into the Bonnano Family, where his entire job involves masquerading as a gangster to obtain evidence for the FBI.
- In The Godfather, Vito Corleone, in his youth, had to deal with Don Fanucci, an extortionist whose grift involved pretending to be part of the Mafia, seeing as their reputation being enough to normally scare people into submission.
- Kung Fu Hustle: Sing and his sidekick Bone try to scam a free haircut from a barber in Pig Sty Alley by pretending to be the boss and his lackey from the feared Axe Gang. The barber isn't intimidated at all, and neither is anyone else in the surprisingly badass neighborhood. Sing tries to bluff them all by "calling for backup" with a firecracker... only to alert an actual Axe Gang entourage that just happens to be walking by. After the resulting violence passes, the Axe Gang have the duo kidnapped and plan to murder them as punishment for appropriating the gang's reputation.
- Mickey Blue Eyes: the title of the film comes from the fake Mafia nickname the British Michael gets from his fiance's kingpin father Frank, who has to pretend Michael is a made man, defaulting to his blue eyes after the other mafioso already knows a Big Mickey and a Little Mickey. And so Kansas City Little Big Mickey Blue Eyes has to pass himself off as an Italian-American mobster in a tense dinner with some goons, complicated by an old friend entering the restaurant.
- Mr. Magoo: Mr. Magoo has Leslie Nielsen masquerading as Señor Ortega Peru, a deadly Latino criminal who is searching for the ruby, in a gathering of villains in Switzerland. Magoo dons a heavy mustache, some hair dye, and even inks a fake tattoo on his chest to appear even more dangerous a criminal to help with his disguise. The real Ortega Peru is away at his wedding at the time of the bandits' convention.
- Quick Change: While Grimm and his friends are criminals — they've robbed a bank — they aren't really gangsters. In their comedically desperate attempts to make their getaway and get out of New York City, they accidentally walk right into a room full of actual gangsters — guys who are members of The Mafia — but Grimm successfully fast-talks his way out of the situation by convincing them he's the new "bagman" for a high-ranking mobster.
- In the musical Victor/Victoria (1982), Victoria Grant and King Marchand argue about how their relationship will work, given that Victoria is masquerading as the gay male Polish drag queen named "Count Victor Grazinski" and King worries they'll be mistaken for a gay couple if they go public. Both are revealed to be pretending to be something they're not, as King is not actually a gangster but he is pretending to be one just to stay in the nightclub business.
- Idoru: Zona Rosa claims to be part of a Chilanga girl gang in her native Mexico. She's ultimately revealed to be the severely disabled daughter of a lawyer. Her handle probably should have a clue; "Zona Rosa" is the name of an affluent neighborhood in Mexico City.
- Are You Being Served?: In one episode Mrs Slocombe, Mr Humphries and Mr Harmon impersonate some local gangsters in order to scare off a couple of burglars.
- CSI: NY: In "Tanglewood", a group of young mobsters beat a guy to death for pretending to be one of their crew complete with an unauthorized membership tattoo.
- The Good Guys: Dan once went undercover and convinced some guys to pull the perfect crime, and then blew it because he planned the crime so well there was no evidence against them. When he meets them again years later, he learns that they were never criminals, just posers, and the only crime they ever committed was the one Dan talked them into.
- Law & Order:
- In the episode "Everybody Loves Raimondo's", the prime suspect is a writer suspected of killing the Victim of the Week for screwing him over when he turned his book into a movie. The victim's assistant doesn't think he's capable.
Assistant: Sonny passes himself off as a gangster, but really he's just a guy who sat around listening to the wiseguys tell lies, put them all in a book with a few of his own lies thrown in, then Artie threw in some more lies and turned it into a movie.
- In "Bogeyman", Michael Cutter extracts a confession from a murderer who was trying to frame the members of a high-powered cult by claiming that he's in the cult, too, and that his fellow cultists are very angry about all the scrutiny he's attracted to them, and that they will use Cutter to make his life hell unless he makes their PR problem go away by confessing.
- In the episode "Everybody Loves Raimondo's", the prime suspect is a writer suspected of killing the Victim of the Week for screwing him over when he turned his book into a movie. The victim's assistant doesn't think he's capable.
- Seinfeld: Kramer does this accidentally when he's about to be mugged by the Van Buren Boys, a local gang named after Martin Van Buren. Due to him holding a garlic shaker at the time he's confronted, he's only able to show eight fingers when he opens his hands in defense, inadvertently showing their gang sign (as Van Buren was the eighth president) and having them believe he's a former member. When they later stop George, he's unable to recreate the sign and is forced to mug a passing couple to prove his membership which turns out to be Jerry's parents. He tries to get them to go along with pretending to be mugged, but they brush him off, and he's instead forced to flee from the gang.
- Star Trek: The Original Series: In "A Piece Of The Action", The Enterprise goes to a Planet of Hats where everyone is a 1920s gangster. As a result, Kirk and Spock dress in appropriate clothing, carry submachine guns, and speak in 1920s slang.
- Arcanum: The first Beef Gate (a two-bit crook with Delusions of Eloquence stopping people from crossing a bridge) can be avoided by convincing Lukan the Witless that you're part of the Thieves Underground (which can become the case later), here to investigate him as a potential recruit... and also investigate the guy who's been unlawfully charging people to pass a bridge without giving the Thieves Underground their cut.
- Gossip City: Some antagonists will pull this stunt, only to end up being exposed and getting themselves into hot water when the main characters, who are actual Yakuza, find out and punish them.
- Trouble Busters: Teddy and Jackson
are two bar owners who intimidate people into paying large amounts of money for their meals and drinks by claiming to be capos of the Troublutti family. When Lucy, the daughter of the Troublutti family's boss, calls her father, he reveals that he was looking for them because they were scamming people all over town by claiming to be part of his gang.
- El Goonish Shive: During "Layers", Mist uses illusions to make him and his two companions look like intimidating gangsters to intimidate a money-exchange clerk into allowing them to exchange their gold for local currency without having to also show their identification as required by law.
- Text Theater: Karen
is a self-proclaimed "boss mom" who intimidates the other moms at her child's school by claiming to be the daughter of a mafia member. Her lie is exposed when Melanie, the wife of a police officer, discovers that the person who Karen claimed to be related to doesn't have a daughter and to make matters worse for Karen, said mafia member found out that she was using their name and forces her to compensate them.
- Viral Texts: Agnes
is a self-proclaimed "boss-mom" who bullies people by claiming she's both a member of the Patrelli family and that her husband is an underboss of said family. Unfortunately for Agnes, Melody, one of the people Agnes tried to bully, is the daughter of the Patrelli family's Godfather, which results in the Patrillis getting revenge on Agnes for what she did.
- King of the Hill: in the episode "Ho Yeah" Hank takes in a young woman called Tammi looking for a place to stay until it's revealed she's a sex worker, and on the run from her Predatory Pimp Alabaster Jones. Finally, Hank with the help of a fancy hat, Peggy playing dress up and some flatly delivered jive talk manages to convince Jones that Tammi is working for him now.
Hank: I am the mack daddy of Heimlich County, I play it straight up, yo. You get the hell out of my 'hood. She's my ho now.
- South Park: In "Freak Strike", Cartman, while on The Maury Show, tries to make himself look worse than Vanity, an out of control teen who says she's part of a gang, claims to be part of twelve gangs, and that they only do hate crimes.
- In one episode of Wander over Yonder, Wander and Sylvia end up on a planet infamous for being populated by gangsters, rogues, criminals, and generally terrifying people. Wander (using a fake mustache) takes on a tough persona so he and Sylvia can get more orble juice and leave. In the end, however, after Wander's real Nice Guy personality is exposed, it's revealed that everyone on the planet was faking their tough personalities because they were all afraid of each other, with them actually being decent people.
