...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Twin Test

94 statements
17 feature instances
20 referencing feature instances

Twin Test	type	FeatureClass
Twin Test	label	Twin Test
Twin Test	page	TwinTest
Twin Test	comment	Stories featuring twins (who are almost always identical) will often ask the question: what differentiates these two outwardly identical people, and can others (in-universe) pick up on those differences? To answer, creators will sometimes have their characters administer the twin test. The twin test is a quiz in which identical siblings ask other characters to point out which sibling is which. This can be done in a variety of ways, most commonly with the twins asking someone to identify them either face-to-face or using photos. The twin test is often Played for Laughs, especially with Trickster Twins. If someone is particularly good at the test, the siblings may become obsessed with stumping them, escalating the difficulty of the test to absurd levels by dressing the same, adopting similar mannerisms, or even pretending to be the other twin. Single-Minded Twins giving a twin test are typically played for laughs with the joke being that the obvious lack of distinct personalities between the two will make answering correctly a matter of chance. The justifications a character gives for their answer, regardless of whether they were right or wrong, are ripe with comedic potential. When Played for Drama, if most people fail the test, at least one of the siblings may become withdrawn or jaded about the nature of their own individuality. It may also jump-start a desire for one sibling to differentiate themselves as much as possible from the other and distancing themself from their sibling(s) in the process. Expect someone who consistently passes to be considered a True Companion or One True Love, since only someone who really gets the siblings can pass the test. If siblings have Identical Twin ID Tag or experienced Twin Desynch, they are far less likely to give a twin test since the answer would be obvious (though savvy twins can exploit this). In more fantastical or action-oriented stories that include an Evil Twin, a twin test may be used to confuse or thwart The Hero and is likely to include raising the stakes of answering incorrectly into a Matter of Life and Death. This trope also applies to Split Personality Tropes if one (or multiple) personalities asks a character if they can tell when a given personality is in control. Since typically no two personalities can be present at the same time (unless you're dealing with Literal Split Personalities), this is likely to happen over the long run, spanning multiple smaller tests. Compare and contrast Spot the Imposter and Impostor-Exposing Test, which similarly focuses on a character correctly identifying another from a doppleganger. What separates this trope from those is that while the twin test can include one sibling pretending to be another, this is not fundamental and typically the twins present genuine representations of themselves. Similarly, in the case of split personalities, a twin test may involve Hyde Plays Jekyll, but it is not necessary for the trope. See also Twin Switch and Identical Twin Mistake. Making Use of the Twin can sometimes serve as a Real Life version of this trope for viewers.
Twin Test	fetched	2023-10-19T09:16:08Z
Twin Test	parsed	2023-10-19T09:16:08Z
Twin Test	processingComment	Dropped link to TawawaOnMonday: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Twin Test	processingUnknown	Tawawa on Monday (Webcomic)
Twin Test	isPartOf	DBTropes
Twin Test / int_1e503dd7	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_1e503dd7	comment	Cipher: The main plot is the female lead Anise being challenged to figure out who is who between the twins Siva and Cipher. They promise to tell her why they have the habit of making Twin Switches if she figures it out.
Twin Test / int_1e503dd7	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_1e503dd7	featureConfidence	1.0
Cipher (Manga)	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_1e503dd7
Twin Test / int_2858b08a	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_2858b08a	comment	Full House: Played for Laughs when Jesse's Greek relatives visit. This is an interesting case that Makes Use Of The Twin in real life to play a character that is not the twin of the character they are identical to, but is just a nearly identical cousin. Joey dresses youngest child Michelle, played by either Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and Jesse's cousin, played by the other Olsen twin, alike and then challenges Danny, Michelle's father, to guess who's who. The jig is up in two seconds though:
Twin Test / int_2858b08a	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_2858b08a	featureConfidence	1.0
Full House	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_2858b08a
Twin Test / int_2b488976	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_2b488976	comment	In Lottie and Lisa, the titular twins put on identical dresses and wear their hair the same way for a day at summer camp. They then challenge the other campers to figure out who is who. No one manages it by looking at them, but since their personalities are very different, one girl has the idea to pull the hair of one of the twins. When this earns her a slap, everyone knows it was wild-tempered Lisa and not the shy Lottie.
Twin Test / int_2b488976	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_2b488976	featureConfidence	1.0
Lottie and Lisa	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_2b488976
Twin Test / int_36be4c66	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_36be4c66	comment	Mars (1996): Whenever an old photo featuring him and Sei pops up, Rei will ask Kira which one she thinks is him. Each time, Kira answers correctly and while doing so she is depicted with some form of Love Bubbles, indicating that her ability to pick him out is meaningful to Rei
Twin Test / int_36be4c66	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_36be4c66	featureConfidence	1.0
Mars (1996) (Manga)	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_36be4c66
Twin Test / int_4f1f3628	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_4f1f3628	comment	Inverted in the season 1 episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, "Poor Little Rich Girl." Zack and Cody watch a baby video of theirs in which their parents accidentally mix the two up. Despite their mom pointing out that all babies kind of look alike anyways, the two spend the rest of the episode having Identity Breakdowns, questioning their own identities, and adopting the traits of the other. They demand their mom find their birth certificates so they can prove once and for all they are who they thought they were.
Twin Test / int_4f1f3628	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_4f1f3628	featureConfidence	1.0
The Suite Life of Zack & Cody	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_4f1f3628
Twin Test / int_5690420f	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_5690420f	comment	DuckTales (1987): Mrs. Beakley immediately proves her mettle as the triplets' nanny by not only not being put off by their pranks but by quickly determining they'd pulled a Triplet Switch, without ever having met them before or having any logical way to tell one from the other (sure, they wear different colored clothing, but she shouldn't have known which brother favored which color).
Twin Test / int_5690420f	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_5690420f	featureConfidence	1.0
DuckTales (1987)	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_5690420f
Twin Test / int_65aabcf0	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_65aabcf0	comment	Buso Renkin: Papillion's Start of Darkness involves a particularly nasty take on this. After dealing with being The Unfavorite to his brother for years, on turning himself into a homunculus he made a deal with himself that he'd spare anyone in his family who said his name instead of his twin's. There were no survivors.
Twin Test / int_65aabcf0	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_65aabcf0	featureConfidence	1.0
Buso Renkin (Manga)	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_65aabcf0
Twin Test / int_69fa7496	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_69fa7496	comment	In the Disney Ducks Comic Universe, Donald's infallible ability to distinguish Huey, Dewey, and Louie is a bit of a running gag. Nobody else can do it if they swap outfits.
Twin Test / int_69fa7496	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_69fa7496	featureConfidence	1.0
Disney Ducks Comic Universe (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_69fa7496
Twin Test / int_6bf8941a	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_6bf8941a	comment	The Prestige: A very relevant and crucial aversion. The key to Borden's version of the Transported Man trick is that "he" is actually two twin brothers who have decided to live their entire lives as one man for the sake of their magic acts, down to lying to "his" wife about it. This has disastrous effects as the constant gaslighting by Borden about his abrupt behavior changes and obvious infidelity destroys his marriage and causes his wife to commit suicide.
Twin Test / int_6bf8941a	featureApplicability	-1.0
Twin Test / int_6bf8941a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Prestige	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_6bf8941a
Twin Test / int_7d0cd638	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_7d0cd638	comment	The Ricky Gervais Show inverts the trope when Karl is asked what he would do if he had a doppelganger who looked, thought, and acted exactly like him. His response leaves Ricky flabbergasted.
Twin Test / int_7d0cd638	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_7d0cd638	featureConfidence	1.0
The Ricky Gervais Show (Radio)	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_7d0cd638
Twin Test / int_85eced19	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_85eced19	comment	Love & Pies: When Joe arrives to see his identical twin brother Sam impersonating him to date the former's Love Interest, Amelia, Sam claims that he's the real Joe while Sam was out at the baker's retreat. Amelia then quizzes them on where they have been for the past three days, and the real Joe proves himself by showing her the prize he won at the retreat.
Twin Test / int_85eced19	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_85eced19	featureConfidence	1.0
Love & Pies (Video Game)	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_85eced19
Twin Test / int_9688ee61	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_9688ee61	comment	Ouran High School Host Club: Plays the trope both for laughs and for drama. Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin play the "Which One is Hikaru?" game, both as a form of entertainment for themselves and others and as a defense mechanism to keep people from getting too close to them, mocking and ridiculing those who fail the test when administered outside of club activities. Most people DO fail, including their parents, so it's a shock to both of them that Haruhi passes the test, every single time. Haruhi consistently passing makes both Hikaru and Kaoru develop romantic feelings for her later on.
Twin Test / int_9688ee61	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_9688ee61	featureConfidence	1.0
Ouran High School Host Club (Manga)	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_9688ee61
Twin Test / int_af42a07f	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_af42a07f	comment	Serenity: When Mal meets with his contacts Fanty and Mingo, they try to pull this on him by claiming they're the other one. Mal sees through it, and when they ask "How do you always know?" he replies "Fanty's prettier." The novelization explains that Mal has identified certain tells— Mingo has a slightly deeper voice, for instance— but refuses to tell the twins what they are.
Twin Test / int_af42a07f	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_af42a07f	featureConfidence	1.0
Serenity	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_af42a07f
Twin Test / int_b05d40f	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_b05d40f	comment	Downplayed and subverted in the season 2 episode of Sister, Sister, "Joey's Choice." After the same boy, Joey, accidentally asks them both out thinking they were the same person, Tia and Tamera reluctantly share a date with him. Though Joey doesn't mind, the girls do and at the end of the date Tamera asks him to choose between the two. To her surprise, he picks Tia, who at this point in the series has been characterized as the less outgoing and more boy shy of the two. Tamera asks him why and Joey admits that because he didn't really know why himself, he based his decision on the "stupid reason" that he liked the shoes Tia had on. Tamera leaves only to remember that Tia is wearing her shoes.
Twin Test / int_b05d40f	featureApplicability	-0.3
Twin Test / int_b05d40f	featureConfidence	1.0
Sister, Sister	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_b05d40f
Twin Test / int_bb620b9b	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_bb620b9b	comment	Doubly subverted in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in the scene in which Harry goes to Platform 9¾ for the first time. George and Fred Weasley bait their mom Molly into a twin test after she correctly calls out to Fred. They trick her into thinking she called out to the wrong twin, saying that as their mother she should be able to correctly identify her own children, only for Fred to reveal immediately after that she was right the first time.
Twin Test / int_bb620b9b	featureApplicability	-0.3
Twin Test / int_bb620b9b	featureConfidence	1.0
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_bb620b9b
Twin Test / int_bf661555	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_bf661555	comment	The Parent Trap (1998): Hallie and Annie deploy this trope on the fly towards the end of the movie to confuse their parents, who are trying to leave with the child they are responsible for. They argue that if the parents can't tell who's who, then they can't split them up, otherwise they'll just have this same issue all over again.
Twin Test / int_bf661555	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_bf661555	featureConfidence	1.0
The Parent Trap (1998)	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_bf661555
Twin Test / int_e32f00d6	type	Twin Test
Twin Test / int_e32f00d6	comment	The Quintessential Quintuplets: In one of the series' recurring themes, the quints tell Fuutarou several times that if he loves them he'll be able to tell them apart. This leads to them giving Fuutarou many twin tests over the course of the series, with Fuutarou even invoking the trope himself by asking them to test him. Naturally, Fuutarou fails each test in spectacular fashion. By the end of the series he's engaged to one of the sisters and as a final test of Fuutarou's love for her, the sisters pose as identical brides and ask Fuutarou to identify his fiancee. He goes a step further and correctly identifies all five, showing he has learned to love all of them.
Twin Test / int_e32f00d6	featureApplicability	1.0
Twin Test / int_e32f00d6	featureConfidence	1.0
The Quintessential Quintuplets (Manga)	hasFeature	Twin Test / int_e32f00d6

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Twin Test	processingCategory2	Identity Index
Twin Test	processingCategory2	Split Personality Tropes
Twin Test	processingCategory2	Twin Tropes
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
Serenity / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
Serenity (2005) / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
The Parent Trap (1998) / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
Lottie and Lisa / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
Cipher (Manga) / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
Mars (Manga) / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
Mars (1996) (Manga) / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
Ouran High School Host Club (Manga) / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
The Quintessential Quintuplets (Manga) / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
The Ricky Gervais Show (Radio) / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
Full House / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
Sister, Sister / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
The Suite Life of Zack & Cody / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
Love & Pies (Video Game) / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
Tawawa on Monday (Webcomic) / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test
DuckTales (1987) / int_3e0ea87f	type	Twin Test

Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.