Fact Fiend - Why it Totally Makes Sense That Superman Can Fool People With his Disguise

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Original article - www.factfiend.c...
Music:
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[@nathanstruble2177]

I personally love the explanation of "Why would anyone suspect Superman has an alter ego? Who in the world would want to be anyone other than Superman."

[@taragnor]

Well the obvious answer is that Superman focuses a lot of his attention on Metropolis, showing up there far more than any other city, suggesting he has some connection with that city / area. Since there's no obvious place where he lives in Metropolis, it'd make sense he was actually living there somehow. Since there's no obvious Supermansion and it's unlikely he's a homeless squatter in the city streets or sewers, it stands to reason he'd have some kind of alter ego given he can clearly pass as human.

[@Lernos1]

@@taragnor There is an obvious Supermansion. It's called the Fortress of Solitude. Yes, it's not in Metropolis, but his presence in the area can be easily explained by other things, like, umm, *Lex Luthor lives there?*

[@matthewschneider3391]

Movie stars can watch their own movies in packed theaters with a baseball cap and not get recognized because you don't expect to see Tom Cruise sitting in your screening of Top Gun Maverick. You may notice that there is a dude that looks sorta like Tom cruise in a ball cap but you don't think "hey there is Tom cruise in a ball cap!"

[@akaneriyun4774]

@@taragnor that's reasonable--until you recall that Superman shows up EVERYWHERE.

[@taragnor]

@@akaneriyun4774 He does show up everywhere, yes. But he shows up at a much higher frequency within Metropolis. And further he's more likely to stop small time minor street crime in Metropolis as opposed to major disasters. And looking at the larger DC universe, this largely is how most other superheroes operate. Batman has Gotham, Flash has central city, etc.

[@TheHengeProphet]

The strongest case for Clark Kent wearing glasses being the majority of the disguise I have seen is Zooey Deschanel. It took me forever to realize that her without glasses and her with glasses were the same person.

[@bigstopowens]

and to add to that someone showed me a picture of her without her bangs and glasses and i couldn't tell who it was, glasses and a quick hairstyle change drastically change how you look and would fool anyone, but we know who superman/clark is already so it's easy for us to see but not if you don't already know

[@Greenicegod]

I seen a picture of Zooey Deschanel with brown eyes and she looks like a completely different person.

[@lisamurphy7028]

This was mentioned in a Comic Books vs. the World video that asked why people don't recognize Harrison Wells doppelgangers in Flash as the original, who is wanted for murder, and was declared dead. Most people aren't paying enough attention to complete strangers but also you see Zoey Dechanel with her hair down instead of up and in normal clothes and the pictures are so 'crazy different you'd 'swear up and down that they aren't the same person'. The glasses on Clark dropping a strangers recognition of a subject was used too.

[@the11382]

Henry Cavill was once in Times Square wearing a Superman shirt, and no one recognized him. This was in 2013 when Batman v. Superman came out.

[@TheEldritchHyena]

@@the11382 Batman vs. Superman came out in 2016. You might be thinking of Man of Steel, which did come out in 2013.

[@Atomicsaurian]

In my hometown, there is an annual police vs fire department boxing match. The year Batman V Superman came out they advertised with the cops as Batman and the firemen as Superman. I realized this was the perfect analogy. Batman is a cop. He actively pursues and prevents crime as well as stopping it. But Superman is a fireman. Something happens, and he arrives to help. His first responsibility is protecting people and then stopping the danger.

[@whathappenswhenimbored]

There is also the fact that Superman and Batman canonically look very similar, so if someone thought that Superman had a secret identity, then they would probably think of the famous billionaire rather than some random news reporter. Sometimes Batman even lets Clark play the role of Bruce at parties and other events that Batman doesn't want to go to.

[@gyrrakavian]

One such party is where we get the word "bork'd". Deathstroke slipped some sort of super deadly neurotoxin into Clark's drink and all it did was make him drunk. Being that it got Supes drunk, yikes.

[@jamescheddar4896]

they convinced braniac that batman was superman's alter-ego at one point lol

[@RobinRhombus2]

I love the dichotomy between Clark and Bruce. Superman is just a humble farmboy at heart with the stoic symbol of peace, justice, and the American way being an act that he puts on and Batman being the shattered, broken, and highly intelligent man who seeks nothing more but to eliminate crime at any cost to his own well-being being the true man and the bumbling, philanthropic billionaire being an act that he puts on to hide the truth. The two are both alike but so very different.

[@mrmoviemanic1]

And they're best friends and see each other as the better superhero. It's honestly amazing just how beautiful it's done.

[@bryanwoods3373]

There's a great storyline where the Justice League gets split into their separate identities and how they spiral out. Kyle Raynor goes insane without the perfect art medium of the Green Lantern, and Green Lantern just blasts everything. Superman becomes more alien, and Clark becomes a coward. But it's Bruce/Batman that surprises them the most. They knew his sides were a fop and a psychopath but were wrong about which sides they were. Bruce has no release for his trauma and rage at injustice, so he ends up beating a mugger to death. And Batman just sits in the Bat Cave without Bruce's drive.

[@tylerthomas9405]

@@bryanwoods3373 comic name Plz?

[@HBoyle]

Im not wearing my glasses and I just woke up, so I read that as Clark being a femboy and now I want that comic 😂😂

[@RobinRhombus2]

@@HBoyle I'm sure it exists somewhere.

[@SuperdarkSonic2118]

One of my favorite moments in comics was when Superman was drunk and was mistaken for Bruce so he went on a yacht where Death Stroke tried to kill Bruce and Supes just through him off the boat after being shot and broke his sword

[@joshuaemig9988]

My brother and I once had a deep conversation about how Batman and Superman are mirrors of each other. Our conclusion was that the core difference was that Batman fights crime for vengeance and saves people incidentally, while Superman is there to help people and stops crime incidentally. At the end of the day crime got stopped and people saved but Batman wasn't there for you, he was there for the criminal and Superman didn't really care about the criminal he cared about the people the criminal could have hurt.

[@baosia]

There was this post circulating tumblr some years ago where Clark Kent is in Gotham and he is about to get whacked with giant mallet by Harley Quinn I think. I don't remember the exact details, but he basically goes into super thinking mode and has a long analyzing session with himself on how to realistically fake getting hurt by a big hammer because he has no idea what is expected to happen when a human gets hit by that thing. It just made me appreciate the lengths he goes through to sell his persona

[@MicahSps]

Also, Pre New 52, Clark was a master at the Meisner acting technique, so Clark is so different from Superman in his own head. Superman is a character.

[@ChromiumRanger]

I want a DC movie to have Superman and Clark Kent to be played by two actors who look COMPLETELY different.

[@Grim2]

2:20 - Well, thing people don't take into account is that Reeves modeled his performance after that of Kirk Alyn, the first live action Superman, who portrayed Clark and Superman in two distinct ways.

[@Lillith.]

When I first got glasses my family, who I lived with at the time, didn't recognise me. Those people had seen me every day for my entire life and simple glasses threw them off. I 100% believe strangers wouldn't pick up on it. Also have you seen colleagues outside of work? So many people just don't recognise you because the setting changes. Also Henry Cavill stood beneath a poster of himself as Superman with a Superman shirt on and people just walked by as if he wasn't even there. Any disguise is good enough if people aren't looking for it.

[@elijahpearson3086]

One moment I love in injustice year zero, which is before all hell breaks loose, joker has an old amulet that can corrupt and control the heroes but Superman fights it and joker is so surprised but Batman just says ‘he’s to good for you to ever understand. He’s Superman.’ And I think it’s a great moment.

[@brookb5890]

I've had a couple of bilingual friends and they've said pretty similar things to your Romanian friend. Those who are FOB for lack of a better term usually think in their native language, except for topics or subjects that they've only experienced in English. So like American history classes, they'll think about in English because they don't have a context for thinking of them in (in this case) Korean. And sometimes they'll dream in English after watching American programming. People who grew up speaking both (in this case Spanish or French), say it switches and generally depends on the company. A friend whose parents usually spoke Spanish at home, meant whenever she went home her brain would just switch to Spanish, but around friends who mostly spoke English, she would think in Spanish. But sometimes when they're tired or stressed, it just kind of merges together and they'll forget words in Spanish or English and just speak in a weird jumble. I dated a guy who would only speak Polish when he was talking to his mom and if you asked him to say something Polish he would have to think really hard about it because for whatever reason, he could do it when he heard his mom talk, but he would struggle to translate words actively when speaking to people in English. I am by no means bilingual, but I spent about 9 years learning Spanish in school only to study in France for a summer and I spent about 3 maaaaaybe 4 or 5 months learning French beforehand. And I wasn't conversational, but I was functioning. Generally, people would just talk to me for longer than 3 minutes and switch to English, but when I was in Bayeaux, there were fewer people who spoke English and I was suddenly in a situation where I had to know numbers higher than 10, I panicked and my brain was just like "don't speak English" so rapid Spanish came out and an Italian guy at the Gelato stall next door ended up translating for us 😅 My Spanish isn't even that good, but somehow I still got into a spot where I forgot how to speak my native language because I was trying so hard to speak French but couldn't.

[@kingbeauregard]

There was an old Superman story ("Miracle Monday", in fact) where Lex Luthor explained why he doesn't worry about Superman's secret identity. For Lex's various criminal purposes, he generates fake identities, and as soon as one is compromised, he abandons it and creates another. He assumes Superman does the same thing for when he has to operate incognito; there's no underlying "secret identity" to expose.

[@SLOosterhoff]

I've never thought that much about how Superman's disguise works, but this Factfiend episode was certainly an eye-opener for me. It makes so much more sense now. Thanks for this fun and enlightening episode.

[@jeremyburnette2770]

I have real world proof Clarks disguise would work. Just google "Zooey Deschanel with and without glasses" 😂😂 🤯🤯

[@achimdemus-holzhaeuser1233]

Last category where Clark does the little stuff where Batman doesn't There are more than one scene from Batman TAS where even Batman talks in earnest with children and even once sits next to a girl on a swing. and the Series pulls it off in a way that works.

[@Start3rPack]

I've always thought that it made sense no one really thinks of Clark as Superman. Not very many reporters have a known face, granted there are some out there, but the key ones that are important don't really make themselves known like celebrities. I mean, ask an average person what a reporter looks like and they won't say much. It's a faceless job.

[@spiritretro3571]

in some continuities the glasses superman uses are also low level hypnotic to prevent people from recognising any "superman" features"

[@CaIasanctius]

theres a meme floating around of Zoe Deschanel without her glasses, and people commenting that Clarks disguise is in fact very effective.

[@jensb9909]

I want to see a scene, where supes puts on glasses and people are like :'oh hey Clark... you going to a costume party?"

[@johnporter9034]

I just think of it like the celebrity effect you have look alikes in every town. Their dry cleaner could look like super man just like their pizza delivery driver could look like Elvis.

[@dogie61]

Not recognizing someone after a wardrobe change is faily common. So I can tell you from experience when people take off their millitary uniform I don't recognize them always. I have even asked a few of my co-workers and sometimes they aren't even sure in till they stare at em for a bit.

[@luzarely6393]

I moved to the US when I was really young. I started thinking in predominantly english at around the age 10-12

[@johnsmithfakename8422]

This reminds me of one of my favorite justice league unlimited episodes, "Flash and substance." The Flash and Superman have similar personalities.

[@iamsushi1056]

Superman can move incredibly fast, right? We all agree on that? Can Superman move fast enough that he could do a quick change back and forth between Clark and Superman faster than the eye can process information and effectively split himself into two different locations at the same time?

[@ashadder795]

That sounds like a good way to rip those undies he’s so keen on flaunting

[@RetroTaylor94]

Yes, he has done exactly this before. He just dressed and undressed so fast, people perceived two different people.

[@andrewdrakehallfr5406]

I actually lived the recognition thing live once. I was at a convention dressed as a power ranger, left my helmet in the car to go buy food for lunch, had a conversation with some people for a good 5-10 minutes. Later that evening, I was back in normal clothing, ran into the same people queuing at a restaurant, spoke another 5 minutes and they didn't realise I was the same person until I actuall told them.

[@LeotusHex]

As a multilingual speaker, I think mostly in the two languages that I speak most often. But I will count in other languages subconsciously.

[@AugustNerdinIron]

One thing I've noticed is that banter is really common where I live (Southeast US) so it's always weird when people don't get it.

[@JeshuaSquirrel]

What is most important is if your conversation partner doesn't get it, as you say, you stop and don't try to continue something that is making them confused or upset. Perhaps you can discuss it later, but in the moment, stop. As with every kind of humor, if the target of the joke isn't laughing genuinely along with you, the joke is cruel and bullying.

[@AugustNerdinIron]

@@JeshuaSquirrel Of course. I always have when someone didn't get it, but it's just weird how different it is in other parts of the US

[@thowata]

Can't give a title but this question was adressed and answerd. In a one or two page story Superman wonders the same thing. He does some experimenting and discovers he subconsciously hypnotizes people around him making them see him differently.

[@SophiaTiso]

I always wear my hair in a low ponytail. All day, every day. When i wear my hair differently, especially down (since it's not pulled back) people always take notice. I also wear glasses 24/7, and generally wear a T-shirt and jean shorts regularly. If I stopped doing those things, i think many people who know me well would still do a double take before recognizing. In fact, i know they would since i've done that.

[@cheshiredeimos1874]

Whenever watching shows about superheros I'm always a little bit thrown when they feature a psychic because the psychic ALWAYS hears thoughts as fully formed verbal statements. I wonder if it even occurs to people that that only think in words when they're hyper focused on their thoughts or talking to themselves. Most of the time we don't articulate that way, images, senses, instincts, emotions, and words all kind of jumble together in the thought stream.

[@Mare_Man]

It's a lot easier to articulate thoughts as words

[@Jenel_79]

I love the idea for a tv show that's floating around about the CIA trying to take out Clark Kent, not because they know he's Superman but because he's a really good journalist, but they keep failing and can't figure out why.

[@Dingus_Khaan]

I have a pair of glasses that I occasionally wear for my farsightedness. By combining that with wearing my hair differently to keep it out of my face (I used to have long metalhead hair), I somehow managed to fool a lot of people into thinking I was a complete stranger, even though I didn't make any effort to do so. The Clark Kent effect is absolutely real.

[@Eddn102]

I'm trilingual, but I don't think in words usually. When I do it's usually to remember stuff and then it's in the language of the stuff I need to remember.

[@paulmacdonald5135]

They did try the glasses truck in Justice League unlimited with Batman and Wonder Woman at a dinner date

[@mileslugo6430]

I remember this meme where the big 3 DC heroes are holding the lasso of truth and they introduce themselves and when the dark knight introduces himself as Batman. Just Batman

[@LykonDrakensken]

The thing with knowing multiple languages is that when it comes down to it you're not thinking *in words*, you're thinking in meanings which words become attached to. So when you can speak in a language or even internalize a single phrase well enough, you can think those words and understand the meaning of them. There's no need to translate when you understand what it means.

[@andiralosh2173]

It's funny because almost everything is "beneath" Superman. The occasion where he actually has to struggle, is the part of his life that is interesting to him. Those 8 hours per day he's cosplaying a regular feeble human being is a challenge, because he's trying to be genuine emotionally, while masking that he is superhuman

[@DutchVanDerLinde-sx1ox]

4:51 alright boys. We gotta fight now. Put your dukes up you red coats

[@DutchVanDerLinde-sx1ox]

5:48 well played

[@AJ-lo5dr]

For language question... its very contextual... I went to uni in Ireland and so my uni material comes to me most naturally in english If you ask me about television show songs i watched as a kid... german comes more naturally... Also if you have heard people speak english all day and then someone asks you something in German... it briefly breaks your brain cause thats not how it is thinking at that point

[@geoxev9423]

At the 12:00 mark of the video. *Karl moves his hair to the left. "Who are you? What have you done to Karl?"😡

[@MUFC1311]

To answer your question about being bilingual, I was born in Warrington but moved to Buenos Aires when I was 7. When I’m talking to my English friends, I will find myself thinking in Spanish but when I’m with my younger brother, who was born and raised in Argentina, I’ll think in English. I don’t know why, but that’s always been the case.

[@kriegvenator4799]

The "what language do you think in?" question is really something you'll rarely get the exact same answer for. I speak both Dutch and English fluently but the language I think in mostly depends on what language I have last used, kinda like just pulling the lexicon out of the cache. Some things can however change the language I think in usually stuff that also change my mood; like for example when I bang my foot against a coffee table or do something stupid rest assured my brain pulls out all the Flemish(Belgian dutch) swears it can think of to insult me. Also I can read and understand French and German but since I am not fluent in those I need to translate them in my head. And since I started learning both languages at a different point of my life I need to do different leaps to comprehend things. e.g. I translate French into Dutch and German into English.

[@oxybe]

As a bilingual (Born French Canadian with French as my primary language, English as my second one), my inner voice changes depending on what i'm doing. Usually if i'm absentmindedly talking to myself, like going over groceries, doing random maths to figure something out or planning something, it's in French. If I'm doing something work or gaming related it's probably in English as most of my work and all of my games are in English. The caveat to this is if I spoke to someone or listened to media in a given language for a bit: If I just got off a phone call with mum or rewatched an Asterix movie, I'll probably be thinking in French for a while, whereas if I'm hanging out with my friends my brainwaves will probably be calibrated for English all night.

[@Gojjoxdd]

I wear glasses, and it really does change how you look. My glasses are really rectangular, edgy and makes my face look look angular, more masculine. Without my glasses I look more feminine, circular. Wholly the opposite of Superman. So wearing those thick, round glasses do make him look entirely different.

[@zacharycoker3958]

Canonically in the comics Superman and Batman look almost identical to each other to the point that they switch places including going on dates with each others so

[@zer0luv]

Brad looks like a bizzaro Zod & Karl looks like Superboy in the Christopher Reeve versions. 😆

[@josefrobert6644]

Hey Karl and fact fiend crew, did you know that there are people that dont have an "inner voice" and instead have just "feelings"? I never personelle met anyone that thinks like that but aparently thats a thing.

[@StormCrownSr]

As a bilingual, it's about 50/50 with each language in my head.

[@TheAnonyomusGuy]

In Spiderman, far from home, mysterio shows up at the airport in just glasses and a hat, and most people miss him

[@flapjackboy]

Lucas looks like Zod nicked Superman's suit.

[@Ocelot-ng2jb]

I would recommend one scene from a lego batman movie were batman and superman swap because they know it's a trap, lex and joker drop metal on batman and hit superman with kryptonite lamp. Once they leave to have batman get up and superman throw the metal on him away just to make them think they killed them.

[@MisterSouji]

Honestly, especially the Kevin Conroy version, I think Batman would save the cat in the tree. He'd just not take credit for it or be disinterested.

[@vincent-antoinesoucy1872]

Speaking both french and english, I think in the last language I spoke, write, listen to or read. It just switches.

[@rafaeleich958]

im bilingual i speak english and portuguese but when i think and talk to myself when im alone i speak in english because i like efficiency and english words are way shorter than portuguese word i also play games in english for the same reason i hate slow reading and english helps me read even faster

[@daysymarindiaz9004]

For me, I half think in english and spanish But depends if Im alone or not, if im alone I think in english and with my friends I think in spanish

[@adrianinsaval]

10:10 you picked teh perfect example for this trend 🤣🤣

[@paulsbourne]

Scientists speculate that everyone has at least 6 doppelgängers and, while Superman is an alien, I imagine he looks atypical enough where you could find quite a few people who resemble him or are an exact doppelgänger. So Clark would simply be one of many possible lookalikes. Also, Pa Kent only dies a lot later in the comics so I don’t know why they keep killing him off right away in the movies.

[@akraborkynazanko1848]

Bruh when Karl took his hair and swept it to the left he looked really cute actually °//~//°

[@mlevis05]

Low key, bro should wear his hair like that more. Looks damn good I think

[@JessieShadowhold]

Lol, isn't there a comic panel where Wonder Women's Lasso of Truth is used to ask him who he is, and he still says he's Batman?

[@erikohman2294]

I have never considered that Superman should be as amazing when it comes to acting as he is with anything else. That alone should be enough.

[@throughcolouredglasses9300]

I'm mildly faceblind so the glasses thing would 100% work on me. I also *wear* glasses and when i occasionally put in contacts, people don't recognise me. I've had several people reintroduce themselves to me lol

[@bluehero-96]

Green Arrow: "You're insane." Kal-El: "I'm not the one fighting Superman." The dude stopped being Superman when he killed the Joker. If anything, Injustice "Superman" fights Superman every day.

[@andrellnogueira]

As much as Injustice is a good elseworld story, it's just that: an alternative take, and I HATE how people have started to treat it as almost sacred canon. The actual superman would not react like that. Heck, I could believe, in extreme circumstances, in a moment of fury, he kills the joker. He is just a man at heart, not perfect. But the regime? He sooner would leave the earth in shame for the murder. Send himself to be tried in a court like a normal person. It's who he is, not perfect, but just a good guy trying to do his best, it just happens his best is broader than most.

[@lemiel14n3]

Speaking of Batman's alter ego, I like the semi-satirical fan theory that Batman and the Bat-Family spread "rumors" on online conspiracy forums that Bruce Wayne is Batman and use weird tags and absurd lines of logic to present the idea that Bruce Wayne is Batman as something so ridiculous that no one would take it seriously.

[@ArilliusDM]

Considering the current day and age of conspiracy theories that would hardcore backfire.

[@The5armdamput33]

The real mystery is how it works for Sailor Moon...

[@Gabe-rp8fq]

Your not lying about the hotdogs I like the portillos hotdogs they slap but it's all about the distributor

[@GracefulTube279]

How you only have 901 subs to this day amazes me but keep going please because you unlike popular youtubers make actual content

[@johnnojojack-exe]

Lol, when you guys mentioned returning a videotape, it reminded me of American Psycho where he uses that excuse often. Is that an actual excuse that people used to use a lot?

[@kami_in_the_skye]

Country of origin doesn't matter. Hot dogs are disgusting no matter where they come from or how they're packaged.

[@TheJtl420]

Alright, guys, listen Clark Kent clocks in at 8:30 AM. We have eight hours commit this bank robbery, don't f*** up😅

[@gralmakaren9919]

It once took me 6 months to realize a classmate of mine wore glasses.

[@birthdefect1186]

Harley doesnt need a super baseball bat. If she has supermans powers she has the tactile telekenetic powers. He picks up massive ships by loading all the weight into what 24in sq? Catches people at not only terminal velocity but with the added force of hypersonic 220lbs steel bullet redirecting their force at a 90° angle? Harley can use a bat with her superman powers.

[@TerrySteiner]

Let's say you work in an office with someone that looks like a frumpy Brad Pitt. Would you think your coworker is secretly Brad Pitt or just kind of looked like him? Because why would the F+@# would Brad Pitt need a regular job.

[@CRMcGee2]

Because of an old trope about people who wear glasses being wimps.

[@alberto6305]

My head cannon is people who work in the daily planet do see that Clark and Superman look alike but they find the idea of them being the same so ridiculous they dismiss it immediately, this actually happens in superman returns when Lois is describing superman saying how tall he is and how much he weights and Lois’ husband looks at clark, notices the resemblance and starts jokingly suggesting the idea but after seriously thinking about it both of them just start laughing finding the idea too ridiculous to be true.

[@sondor4375]

Im swedish and think in english and swedish. It really depends on the situation for me.

[@MarkFin9423]

27:03 cat ownership in a nutshell

[@shuddhakibria3887]

It used to be in Bangla when I lived in Bangladesh. Somehow changed to English when I moved to Canada

[@bboops23]

Here are the big things people forget about Superman's disguise. 1. As far as the people of Earth are concerned, Superman is Kal-El of Krypton and he lives in the fortress of Solitude. He doesn't have a secret identity. 2. Clark Kent's resemblance to Superman is, at least in many of the live action shows, brought up as a plot point, but it's also brought up that he looks like quite a few other people including but not limited to, 2 different famous successful actors in one show (one was them using the actor who played Superman and Clark Kent for a bit, the other was, iirc, a stunr casting where they had the person who was cast in the movie that was coming out around that time) and I'm not familiar with every live action show but I think another show may have played with this plot. Let's not forget that Henry Cavill himself has numerous celebrity doppelgangers who could easily pass as him from a distance. 3. Superman is rarely seen up close which is why Lois Lane is often a target because she's gotten closer to him than most and would be one of the few people to know he has blue eyes. 4. He was photographed in black and white and often backlit by the sun. 5. Clark Kent wasn't exactly a celebrity, he was just a reporter for a newspaper. And he had a tendency to slouch and act a bit klutzy. He also wears a suit that's a bit too big to give him an illusion of looking smaller. In earlier comics his glasses were tinted to make his eyes grey and he faked a limp from the war so when people lost sight of him when Superman showed up he could say he fell over. But to add to evidence for this from real life, Henry Cavill walked through Time Square and no one noticed him. Metropolis is meant to be a city on the scale of New York. Beyond being tall and somewhat more well built than average, he's just going about his life and the best disguise is the in plain sight type. The number of times walking around Manhattan you can see a tall guy with dark hair and light colored eyes is absurd. My other favorite example is the fact that if I change my hair color every person I know can't recognize me. I have very bright red hair and I found out once that I could change nothing else (obviously I make my eyebrows and lashes match) and my friends and family can't recognize me. I do so with wigs or temporary dye, but lordy people don't realize it is me.

[@bboops23]

Your voice also has a lot to do with it. Clark is always portrayed as talking with a soothing even voice. In the comics they implied that he added a stutter when necessary. Superman puts vibrato and emphasis in his voice. I've done voice acting and it is wild how much you can sound like two different people by talking calmly vs talking like a confident loud superhero. As others mentioned, superman has so much muscle control he can even change his vocal cords to change the sound of his voice.

[@sladewilder]

it’s actually a plot point in some comics that Bruce and Clark look oddly similar, to the point where they’ve switched identities, more times than just BTAS

[@nunyabiz7699]

There is also an element to superman's Secret Identity that most don't think about. No one WANTS him to have a normal everyday job. Just imagine it from a normal persons point of view in DC. There is this entity. Indestructible, infinite levels of power, so fast nothing on earth can match. Yeah you have Flash and Wonderwoman and other heros. But Superman is the most public and at the forfront. Everyone in the DC world knows of him and what he can do. So you have this infinitely powerful entity who the entire military (pick your country) could not scratch if they ganged up on. Now imagine the idea of him living in your city. The concept that if you yell at some one in road rage or sass off to some clerk or just glare at some one cause its a crappy day. Its possible they are something that could end you and everyone in a 100 ft radius in under a second and not a force on earth could stop them. Some one walking around with that power that the ONLY thing keeping them from doing what they want is them selves. Who laws and all the force of the world have no hope of being able to even Sway. Thats terrifying.

[@clydefrosch]

It's not that it's out of the question that he can fool some people, just just literally everyone and especially people he works with that handle photos of superman all day

[@trentonbaird8956]

12:05 thanks for giving us a hot new host partway through. As much as we love Karl, keep the new guy!!

[@sheleavitt06]

So what I’m hearing you say is that because I sweep my hair to the right I’m the 🦸‍♀️

[@soulhunter13]

Looking back on this video I'm hoping the newest Superman movie with the costume that looks like his mom made it for him or he made it himself, to be the best Superman movie and to be grounded

[@SpeedwagonZaidan]

Superman talks about how attractive Clark Kent is and Lois thinks he's gay and tries to set Superman up with Clark and it's awkward for him all around.

[@ChilaAuroraVT]

Genuinely, say you lived in the dc universe, and you saw some guy who looked like superman, would your first thought be A) that must be superman in disguise or B) that guy looks like superman. Neat

[@nexim6]

Im bilingual, and the answer absolutely is that it changes. It depends on the language you speak. when you ARENT speaking, its a mix.

[@jessiewescott4076]

Karl did not grow a cowlick the cowlick grew a Karl

[@Ancellion]

Im dutch and most of the time i think in english, but when im around dutch ppl more my mind switches back.

[@joezolo9986]

I never understood why Superman is so ripped. He gets his strength from the yellow Sun. Not from working out.

[@stephaniec9539]

I think Karl should have put on glasses for this haha :)

[@sebastianquinchia1840]

Does anyone know what episode that DCAU clip at 8:21 is from Edit: I just found out it's from "Superman: Braniac Attacks"

[@stevenandreasen1553]

The issue of the comic escapes me but it was a 60s or 70s issue when it was revealed that superman has a power that allows him to alter peoples perceptions of his face so long as he obscures it with something, like his glasses. This was when there was a cavalcade of new powers being introduced for superman but this was never addressed after the comic. I have searched old comics as much as I can with my limited resources but I must say it finally put a pin in it. To be fair it was due to clark trying to explain to lois why no one is ever able to see through his disguise after lex spots clark with his superman top on and still wearing his slacks. Lex just told clark that he should get rid of the halloween costume.The disguise only works so long as no one knows that he is superman. Should they make that connection or clark tells them then the facade fades and the glasses no longer help to keep his secret.

[@RetroTaylor94]

Superman canonically believes in Santa, because the notion of a jolly man who can deliver presents around the world in a single night sounds perfectly reasonable to him.

[@ArilliusDM]

He has also met and fought alongside santa dozens of times.

[@DeadLog]

And also Santa actually exists in his universe

[@RJay207]

Santa is a Marvel character, and because of his "powerset", Santa is considered to be BEYOND Omega-level. And I'm NOT making that up. XD

[@avianKneecaps]

idk if it's in all of the iterations of superman, but iirc his parents used to wrap his gifts with lead so he couldn't see through them with his x ray vision :')

[@soarimg]

​@GabedonChillweasel he's a DC character as well, he apparently brings Darkseid a lump of coal every year

[@CapnAlces]

My favorite gag about his secret identity is in Superman The Animated Series, where he and Lois have a bit of a rivalry. One day she demands to know how he always gets the good scoops, and he outright tells her he's Superman using his powers to squeeze her out of the byline. And Lois just says, "You're a sicko, Kent," and goes back to her desk.