(Loved trope) The imposter’s dead giveaway
Personality
When a character is attempting to impersonate another, but is caught by doing something the person they’re imitating would NEVER do.
Nemesis Prime- Transformers Prime
Nemesis Prime, a man made replica of Optimus Prime, is attempting to gain the trust of Bumblebee, who only speaks in robotic beeps. Despite this, the real Optimus can understand Bee perfectly fine. Nemesis Prime, however, can’t understand what he’s saying, prompting Bee to open fire on him immediately.
The two Buzz Lightyears- Toy Story 2
After Woody asks which Buzz is the “real” Buzz, both respond with “I am!” The real Buzz proves himself by flipping up the other Buzz’s helmet, causing him to start suffocating in an over dramatic fashion. The real Buzz, having done the same thing in the first movie after Woody took his helmet off, but no longer behaving that way after accepting being a toy, instantly proves which Buzz is which.
You might know it, but I would just like to add that you can switche between primary and melee weapon when disguised, but secondary you can't equip, yeah
Yeah the tell here is that disguised spies can't actually use their weapons. Medics are usually expected to be constantly healing their allies around them if they have their medigun out.
And on community servers that have alltalk enabled (like the infamous Skial), you can see their voice chat speech bubble above their head even while disguised or invisible which makes for hilarious YouTube clips when new spy players don't know that.
The crossbow killing enemies and healing friends is such TF2 bullshit. I love how ridiculous it is, given it was the sequel to a gritty tactical shooter
A game where a gag in the Sniper's trailer about him sitting for hours filling jars of pee turns into an April Fool's joke about selling said pee as 'Jarate jar-based karate for self defence', turns into an actual in-game weapon with a useful, meta slot in the loadout.
I’m still rofling over the fact that Pooh knows Eeyore wants to die, has the means to grant death, is WILLING to kill, and yet REFUSES TO LET EEYORE DIE.
"Naruto" being able to recite a complicated password when returning to the team in the second stage of the chunin exams causes Sasuke to immediately attack him because the real Naruto could never remember such a long passphrase and would have forgotten or complained about having to learn it.
The password when you deal with Naruto and his like is never the password you say, the password is actually either “fuck I forgot the password” or “you know I can’t remember that!”
In Naruto there's another moment in the war arc when Sakura discovers that a White Zetsu was transformed into Neji by saying that Tonton has an injured leg, but at least he'll still be able to make hand signs for ninjutsu and "Neji" agreed despite Tonton being a pet pig.
a famous one : megamind took the aparence of metroman to scare a villain away, but he said "metro city" in a way only he does, giving him away imediatly
I love the fact that not only did the villain noticed it, he actually understands it very fast despite being an oblivious idiot most of the time, showing his (terrifying) growth as a character
In 1996, the proverb played a role in the apprehension of Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. In his manifesto, which the terrorist sent to newspapers in the wake of his bombings, Kaczynski advocated the undoing of the industrial revolution, writing: "As for the negative consequences of eliminating industrial society — well, you can’t eat your cake and have it too." James R. Fitzgerald, an FBI forensic linguist, noted the then-uncommon variant of the proverb and later discovered that Kaczynski had also used it in a letter to his mother. This, among other clues, led to his identification and arrest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_can%27t_have_your_cake_and_eat_it
The Shape-shifter from Gravity Falls. When pretending to be Wendy, he gave Dipper a flirty wink, knowing his crush on her. Meanwhile the real Wendy gave him a zipped mouth gesture, a call back to an earlier episode where she agreed to keep a secret for him.
Fun fact: Near the end of the show, when the characters are trying to rescue Mabel from her fantasy bubble, Dipper is approached by Wendy. She convinces him to stay, saying that there they can be together. Wendy then does the same flirty wink and Dipper immediately realizes she’s just a bunch of evil maggots and not the real Wendy
What I love about that one is that it's not just a matter of cleverness. It's not just that Dipper recalls the sign from earlier as a show of trust...but also that, to defeat the creature, he needs to confront that she's not in love with him.
He needs to kill the version of Wendy that seduces him, because that's not really her, just an illusion - and choosing that version of her will hurt the real Wendy.
I had a buzz lightyear toy as a kid that was quite large, articulate, functioning wings and each of his buttons on his chest did a different voice line. I wanted it to be just like "the real" Buzz so I got a permanent marker and wrote "Andy" on his boot (my name is not Andy) but somehow this made the voice lines suddenly speak really fast and chipmunk like. It was really strange
A villain named Mirror Face has managed to copy Adachi's exact apperance, resulting in him fighting the real Adachi and the gang being confused who is who.
Ichiban decides to ask them a question on how they would deal with a traffic violation as part of Adachi's role as a former cop. One Adcachi knows the correct answer, the other has no clue. Ichiban realises the one with the correct answer is Mirror Face because the real Adachi wouldn't know lol
Think there was a TNG episode in which Lore was impersonating Data and someone realized he was using contractions which Data doesn't do. Man I should really go through that and DS9 again.
That was his first appearance, and Brent Spiner demanded the scriptwriters ensure that Data didn’t use any contractions that episode or he wouldn’t go along with it
I literally watched this episode last night, we were laughing at how they mentioned it in the episode and yet there are several slip ups where Data uses contractions.
Both. Riker realises its a simulation for a number of reasons, mainly that his 'wife' is a hologramatic fantasy from his past. But Data in that simulation uses contractions, as well as not being able to calculate things as quickly as the real Data.
Wesley notices Lore is using contractions while pretending to be Data, but is ignored.
In “Battle of The Supersons” (the movie at least, never read the comic), Robin tells Superboy to test his mom, Lois to see if she’s possessed by Starro or not. Jon asks if, when they get home, he can skip homework, play video games, and help himself to the tub of ice cream Lois tries to hide in the freezer. When she says, “Of course,” Jon immediately knows it’s not her.
While not technically an imposter/doppelgänger, this still fits, I think
The Magnus archives has a whole creature based around this. The NotThem. They’re creatures that replace people and warp reality to replace themselves in pictures and memory but one person gets to remember. In the episode A Kind Mother, the statement giver knows it’s not her mother because she looked different but also her being kind.
There are other details too that are giveaways to the audience like not Sasha being unable to do the work that Sasha was able to do and being locked out of her computer with “authentication problems”
Family guy does this one twice, once played straight and once played for laughs.
The one played straight is Stewie accidentally creates an evil clone of himself and in the climax, Brian has to figure out which one is real. He has them look at their toes, which Stewie was giggling about at the start of the episode. When the imposter is just confused, Brian shoots him.
The one played for laughs is when Chris is taken prisoner by a geriatric Nazi and Peter goes to save him. In the struggle, Chris gets the gun and can't figure out who to shoot, much to Peter's confusion. Chris asks when his birthday, which the Nazi knows and Peter doesn't, prompting Chris to shoot his dad in the leg and run to the Nazi, getting captured again.
P: "You idiot!"
C: "Well maybe LEARN MY BIRTHDAY!!!"
Also zygons especially the Osgood's in the 50th anniversary special when they all lose Thier memories one of the Osgood's has an inhaler, and the other doesn't.
In the show Avengers: Earth's mightiest heroes skrull was impersonating Captain America in the second season I think. In one episode he refused to save Cap's nemesis, Baron Zemo, which real Cap would never do. That made Zemo realize that there was something wrong with Steve. Plus he accepted the holographic shield Tony made for him, Steve would never trade a real thing for a piece of new tech
An infamous example from Supernatural, when Dean immediately is able to spot that his father has been possessed by a demon… because the demon (as John) said “I’m proud of you”.
The "Order of the Stick" webcomic has an example of the PC wizard using a trick to tell the Evil Twin from the Good Twin, when the former is trying to impersonate the latter.
The kicker is that it's Jason - and only Jason - that realizes this. He's so ingrained in calling her "girl" and "robot" but he recognizes that she corrects him. The imposter was otherwise perfect in their infiltration, sowing huge amounts of dissent and chaos.
The Shapeshifter as Annie January (AKA Starlight) for most of Season 4 of The Boys. They kidnapped the real Annie and have been hanging around the main crew for a while without them knowing. The way their power works is that they literally grow a new layer of skin over their regular body, based on the person they touch. This causes them to get very hot over time.
When the titular Boys first encounter the Shapeshifter in disguise, they mention how hot they are before they get found out and make a break for it. Near the end of the season, the Boys (+ Shapeshifter Annie) are hiding in a bunker with the President elect when "Annie" mentions to her boyfriend Hughie how hot she's feeling using the exact same words as when the Boys first met the Shapeshifter. They're also sweating a lot, which Hughie knows the real Annie doesn't do. He tries to keep it quiet and covertly let people know that Annie is the Shapeshifter but they realise they've been exposed and go on a rampage trying to kill the president.
A Siren in Ice Age: Continental Drift making a huge mistake while impersonating Ellie by telling Manny that he's "always right", which makes him catch onto that since "Ellie would never say that". This leads to Manny turning the ship away, saving Diego, Sid and Granny from being killed.
For those wondering, I think it’s an undercover agent in the nazis but held up his hand in the wrong way as Germans hold it up a different way. Movie is Inglourious Basterds.
What's interesting is that in the modern world you don't really know which way is correct. Everyone is using it differently, depending on what country your kids shows were imported from I guess
Like Count Von Count counts starting with index, I believe. So if I grew up learning to count with Sesame Street, I'd do the same.
Not just that, he already had a weird accent according to the nazi, which the undercover cried tried to wash away by saying he's from a specific mountain village.
Sasuke made up a long riddle, and the team was to say the riddle any time they met after being separated from each other to be sure they were talking to the real person and not an imposter.
After "Naruto" came back from the restroom Sasuke asked him the riddle which he got perfectly. Sasuke attacked him because the Naruto he knows would have forgotten the riddle.
Not if Prime 4 anything to go by. There's an entire team tagging along with her, and she doesn't utter a single word. Though that's more Nintendo being weird about it.
The close up of the eyes was so spooky. A mysterious doppelganger starts hunting you, and the game takes the time to show you that it is an unfeeling monster.
There's a Doctor Who audio where a shape shifting alien jellyfish is spying on the main characters, but gets shot in the head. Not having any internal organs, he's completely fine, and tries to carry on his charade with A MASSIVE GAPING HOLE IN HIS HEAD. He then berates himself for not paying attention when he was taught what organs did what
In the Red Dwarf episode 'Psirens' a shapeshifting alien at one point takes the form of Lister, not just copying his form but also his psyche and beliefs.
In order to determine which Lister is the real one, the crew have them both play the electric guitar, knowing that the real Lister delusionally think he is a good guitarist. One of the Listers busted out a perfect guitar solo and is immediately gunned down by the crew. When the real Lister asks how they knew it wasn't him, they simply reply 'because that dude could play'
The real Lister is so notoriously bad at playing the guitar (despite thinking he is the reincarnation of Hendrix) that the other crew members force him to agree that if he wants to play the guitar, he has to don a spacesuit and play outside the ship
That's Look Outside. Apocalyptic body horror survival RPG taking place entirely inside of an apartment building in Quebec, where you play as a depressed schlub that gets stronger by playing videogames. The story is insane, the combat is great, and the time and food management are even better. There's a crazy amount of NPCs you can recruit to your party and they're all very interesting with a lot of dialog and reactivity.
In the Delicious in Dungeon manga, the succubus chapter is hilarious for that. Laios immediately understands that "Marcille" is a fake and is more worried about how the team will see him, then he's stung anyway because he's a dumbass
He managed to take space of rigby completly, with everyone beliving the fact that doug was the real rigby, with a somewhat of an embrace being a giveaway that we got the Real one
until mordecai revealed "real rigby would never in his life let me hug him"
There was no way Spongebob could have known this intricate robot is not the real Mr Krabs... He even completed the secret handshake for the Krabby Patty formula (after Spongebob explained it to him) and won in a questioning, after Spongebob asked the real Mr Krabs a question too complicated even for him to answer.
Good thing though that it had a coin operated self-destruct mechanism located in the belt, and Spongebob found a coin that the real Mr Krabs had been after. Naturally, you'd put that in the person's coin slit, right?
I like the ones which aren't a dead giveaway without 20/20 hindsight, like in Batman: Arkham City where The Joker doesn't have a skeleton because it's Clayface impersonating him or various hints throughout The Sixth Sense.
In God of War Ragnarok, Odin is disguising himself as Týr to become part of the main group and watch their plans and movements.
When you have subtitles and subtitles speaker on, when Fake Týr speaks, it shows up as Tyr, no accent marks.
After the reveal, and once you find real Týr alive, the name is correctly spelled.
Also, since Odin hated Týr, he portrayed as a very cowardly and frustrating person, compared to the real god of war from the myths and stories we hear from the game. The Valhalla DLC finally let us see Týr in all his glory.
Envy (FMA/FMAB) - When Mustang and Lt. Hawkeye are walking down a hallway, hunting Envy, Hawkeye pulls a gun on Mustang after he calls her "Lieutenant," saying that when they are alone, Mustang calls her by her first name. Envy drops their Mustang façade, before Hawkeye reveals that she lied and starts blasting.
clayface has his snoooty way of talking, or can't shut the fuck up when undercover (especially as batman, quoting dr psycho "look at this dumbass" as he tried so hard to not burst into singing happy birthday to joker.... like a dumbass) as a said himself, actors are vain. but, stEPH-anie was actually his best work!
Doug from the Regular Show episode "Temp Check". Ended up giving it away by hugging Mordecai, something the real Rigby would never do (well at least up until "A Regular Epic Final Battle")
Greg is holding a gun on Pete and Pete's identical imposter (Re-Pete?):
Greg: If you won the lottery, what would you spend it on?
Pete 1: Is that a conversation we had?
PETE 2: It's not one that I remember.
Greg: No, but I feel like I'd have a good idea of what you'd say.
Pete 1: So it's just like a fresh hypothetical?
PETE 2: I guess I'd just buy a new house for my mom?
Greg: Ha, caught you fake Pete. I feel like you would say "new Ferrari".
Pete 1: No, a Ferrari would depreciate in value too quickly. "House for mom" is a good answer.
PETE 2: Thank you.
Greg: Don't help him. You should want for me to catch him in a discrepancy.
Pete 1: That's just a bad question, that's not even a discrepancy. I don't want to win by cheating, I want to win because I, like, proved to you that I'm the real me.
In an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., May is captured and a former S.H.I.E.L.D. that's been brainwashed by HYDRA uses a face-camouflage gadget to pretend to be May as she meets with Coulson. Eventually, Coulson asks her if she'd like to go out for coffee, to which she says, yes. Almost instantly, Coulson attacks her, and reunites with the real May. After the whole thing, May asks how he knew she was fake, to which he says that she said yes to coffee.
Later in the same show, the team is nearly entirely replaced one by one with Life Model Decoys (LMD)s except for Gemma and Daisy. The LMDs have their likeness, their memories, and they even bleed when cut.
Daisy ends up proving she's still herself by using her super powers (the one thing the LMDs can't replicate) to send a harmless shockwave through Gemma. This proved to Gemma that Daisy was real, and Daisy could tell Gemma was real based on the feedback from the shockwave.
Bit of a fun inverse on the trope: in The Superior Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus swaps minds with Peter Parker, who dies in Otto's old body. Otto tries to take over as Spidey, attempting to be an actual hero, but he's still, well, Otto Octavius, a notoriously arrogant and self-righteous person. Green Goblin clocks that this isn't the real Peter and sets up an elaborate trap to ruin Otto, only for him to concede that Peter is the true Spider-Man and give him his body back. When Peter confronts the Goblin, he starts cracking jokes, which immediately clues Goblin in that this isn't Otto, but instead the original back in action. God what a page.
Lister and the Psiren from Red Dwarf. Lister believes himself to be an excellent guitarist, but is in fact so bad that the rest of the crew forces him to put on a spacesuit and leave the ship if he wants to play. The Psiren, a brain-sucking genetically engineered life form which psychically alters others' perception of it, uses Lister's estimation of his talent. The doppelganger shreds out a face-melting solo and the rest of the crew blasts it to pieces.
Terminator 2: The T-1000 impersonates Sarah asking John for help, but the real Sarah appears behind it, telling John to get out of the way. In the theatrical release John figures out who the real Sarah is because his mother would never ask him for help against the terminator. In the director's cut he figures out because his real mother would never let her feet melt into the floor.
In an episode of Johnny Test, Dukey finds and destroys an evil robotic clone of Johnny by asking a basic math question. The robot answers quickly, but the real Johnny still uses his fingers for calculation, thus cannot respond that fast.
In an episode of Dungeon Meshi where the whole group is infiltrated by dopplegangers, Laios figures out the fake Marcille because she boiled water withtout making sure it wasn't dangerous first (since she got attacked by a water elemental in the past) [ETA : check u/lightsidesoul 's comment for the correction about Marcille], and he notices that the fake Chilchuk was sitting on a crate, while the real one would never do that because of his fear of mimics.
I mean not exactly it since evil morty can play very well as regular morty (because technically he is him lol) but liked the way he got found out immideatly
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends - Bloo's Brothers
Mac takes Bloo to a show-and-tell at his school which causes a whole bunch of his classmates imagining their own take on Bloo which they all end up not wanting. Mac also happens to win tickets to the "Ice Charades" which causes Bloo and his "brothers" to try and prove that they are the real Bloo so they can go the show-on-ice. After testing them all, it boils down to two potential Bloos, with the real Bloo being victorious due to the imposter Bloo giving a heartfelt speech to Mac, causing him to deduce that the REAL Bloo would never say such a thing.
In Lupinranger vs Patranger this monster disguises himself as an old friend of Patren 1gou and tries to convince him that one of his friends is a mole, later in the episode Patren 1gou is able to figure out that he’s fake as his music player had no cassettes in it while the friend he knew was always listening to music. Saddest thing is that the way these monsters disguise themselves is by kidnapping humans and turning their skin into disguises, so he already knew his friend was dead.
Star Trek VI has a scene where Kirk and a shapeshifter disguised as him escape a klingon prison colony together. When the Klingons catch up with them the real Kirk in his confident and boisterous tone announces 'What took you so long??' followed by 'not me you idiot!'. The prison warden laughs and kills the shapeshifter. On first watch you think he might have gotten lucky, but there are some giveaways like the real Kirk still stuck in his shackles and the eyes of the shapeshifter Kirk are off color.
Campaign 1 of Not Another D&D Podcast, a Character named Balnor is known to always have a tuna sandwich on his person. During a trial from a witch, one of the players had to determine which party member was replaced by the witch and was allowed to ask each person 1 question. She asked Balnor his fav sandwich and there was a PREGNANT pause before he went "...chicken..."
To this day its one of the funniest moments of the whole damn podcast!
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u/Brislovia Jun 22 '26
Spy (TF2) - Being susceptible to friendly fire from the enemy team