Rather embarrassed today
When the girls in my team were nagging me this afternoon, I called one 'darling'.

I'm not her boyfriend or anything...
(Give me the cheese you cocksucker No board sig in protest., Thu 31 May 2007, 23:26, Reply)

Regularly
...and over a period of 6 months in the very late 80's I was mistaken for Yahoo Serious a number of times, despite the completely different hair colour. To be fair, I probably deserved such a shite association and wasn't helped by the "Young Einstein" movie. What surprises me is how old the mofo is - he would have been way more than twice my age back then!
( mamilla_sarsum um... a vial is enough, no jam-jars please, Thu 31 May 2007, 23:20, Reply)

My ex-girlfriend had
a rather enterprising friend who used mistaken identity for the purpose of blag.

See, matey was skint, and he fancied a night out at a rather prestigious London nitespot, and he had the choice of paying to get in and staying sober, or blagging his way in and getting pissed. So he hatched a plot, and a cunning one it was too.

He arrived with his friends and went to the VIP entrance. Who goes there, went the bouncer. Matey adopted his false persona.

"Me. The bassist out of Placebo."
"Who?"
"You know the band Placebo?"
"Yeah"
"The one with the androgenous singer a load of people jacked off over when our first single was out when they thought he was a girl?"
"Er,(remembers), yeah?"
"I'm their bassist. The bassist in Placebo. The Placebo bassist."
"I don't recognise you."
"No-one ever does. In fact, I dare you to find anyone who knows what I look like."

Conferring briefly with his colleagues, the box office and cloakroom staff, he found that no-one had the faintest idea of what the bassist out of Placebo looked like. So he let him in anyway, either as a benefit of doubt or as a reward for having that much cheek.

And the moral of this story is: the bassist out of Placebo
( cs1ca, Thu 31 May 2007, 23:13, Reply)

Me look a like him
Up until I was about 22 I bore an uncanny resemblance to Macauley Culkin. That then morphed into Bombhead from Hollyoaks - a lookalike which I'm still proudly keeping up at the age of 32. Why can't someone cool come along that I look slightly like rather than baby faced child stars.

grr.

oh and Mitch Benn, the actual Mitch Benn, told me I look like Nick Begg, the bass player from Kajagoogoo.
(Whitesnakelover, Thu 31 May 2007, 23:11, Reply)

I am often mistaken for
Mr Potatohead

which I find offensive, because I'm a girl.

And actually, it should be Dr Potatohead.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Thu 31 May 2007, 23:09, Reply)

Purposefully ignoring identity is better...
I was enjoying a quiet pint a couple of years ago with an old associate. Come 5pm, the bar fills up with ex-Big Brother people on some sort of reunion bender (I watched the first series, thought they were all wankers and have succesfully ignored it since). My friend and I were more than slightly miffed by their loud squawking and general "look at me, I made a twat out myself on telly for 2 weeks about 3 years ago" antics.

Anyway, I was fairly bladdered and in need of a slash, so headed down to the gents. Stood at the next pissoir was, I am reliably informed, Jon Tickle, looking more than a bit pleased with himself.

Me - "Haven't you been on TV?"
Tickle - "Yes, do you recognise me?"
Me - "Ummm, not really, was it one of them reality things?"
Tickle - "That's right, Big Brother!"
Me - "I was on one of them reality shows too!"
Tickle - "Really? Which one?"
Me - "Fucking Crimewatch, you cunt"

They left the pub very soon afterwards, allowing my friend and I to get mortal in peace.
( wotofco pissing in your swimming pool, Thu 31 May 2007, 23:06, Reply)

"Hi! How are you?"
Saw a guy I used to know.

I started talking at him: "Hi, how are you? I know I know you but can't quite place you, maybe we went to university together? school?"

after 10 minutes of humouring me, he goes "I'm Dominic Holland and you know me because I'm on the telly".

he was actually very sweet, and we did have a nice chat, but blimey, I was mortified...
( biscuitbiscuit is in ur garden, watering ur plantz, Thu 31 May 2007, 22:41, Reply)

Mistaken identity?
I've been mistaken for Will Young, and my brother really is Brian Mcfadden's body double. One problem, I'm straight, he's not fat.
Penis humour etc...
(alboyalex, Thu 31 May 2007, 22:35, Reply)

Thanks to Dubya (no relation)
I was the recipient of some very hostile looks in the post office. This country is going to the dogs, I swear! I was standing in line this last winter to buy stamps for Christmas cards. The PO came out with some really cool ones honouring Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha (the big post-Ramadan shindigs) web.archive.org/web/20021205222224/http://shop.usps.com/cgi-bin/vsbv/postal_store_non_ssl/display_products/productDetail.jsp?OID=2689760
which happened to occurs around the holidays in 2006.

When I stepped up to the window, I was met with a smile. As soon as I asked for the Eid stamps, I got a nasty cold look and some sniffs from adjacent customers. I was bewildered at the abrupt about-face until I caught sight of my tall, blonde, blue-eyed, farmwife built, jeans-wearing self in the mirror. I had a big black scarf wrapped around my head, covering my head, neck and shoulders.

Evidently a big black scarf means you are a dangerous Muslim. With everything else about me screaming "tubby-middleaged-Midwestern-Anglican-housewife", I was mistaken for a scary ladee Muslim.

Going to the dogs, I tell ya!
(TDub Nunc id vides, nunc ne vides on, Thu 31 May 2007, 22:26, Reply)

Gotta love the Midlands
Picture the scene. Me. Offspring, aged about 3. And a shopping trolley. Some sort of football match is on the telly. Now, I had at the time grade 2 hair (well, more of a C- really) and I'm dressed as a bloke. Because I'm a bloke.

But, there's a football match on. And I'm not wearing a football top, because I don't like football. Six people called me 'love' that day. One even managed to say 'Sorry, love' after I pointed out that I am, in fact, a bloke.

Once wouldn't have been so bad, but *every* time England played...
(purplegod counting down for Christmas!, Thu 31 May 2007, 22:12, Reply)

Kelly twunting Osbourne
During my "oh my god, I'm so WACKY, look at this CRAZY pink streak in my hair" phase, I was shopping in Camden (naturally) and was mistaken for Kelly Osbourne by a bunch of Japanese tourists. What a wonderful accolade. I was forced to make up some autographs and swear a lot. Which is great.

The funny thing is, we actually in fact share the same birthday. Silly bitch.
(thants, Thu 31 May 2007, 22:09, Reply)

A security risk
As has been mentioned before, some reckon I look a little like Jon Tickle.

However, I'm also often mistaken for someone of Middle Eastern extraction. Carrying a bomb.

During Gulf War 1, I was slung out of several places, as a "security risk". One episode ended with my 5 foot 2 Dad demanding and getting a written apologies from a 6 foot 9 security guard, his boss, the PR director of the security company, and the area manager of the supermarket concerned. Finally the war ended. "Thank goodness." I thought.

Then Shrub invades Iraq on some tiny pretext. "FFS!" I think, and lo, it's all happening again.

Since you ask, thus far I've been thrown out of Bluewater, Merry Hill, Sheffield Meadowhall, and a McDonalds by useless cranberries in rented Farah trousers.

Bitter? Me? Yeah.
(purplegod counting down for Christmas!, Thu 31 May 2007, 22:08, Reply)

Is that you, Jesus?
My cousin was a dead ringer for Sallman's "Head of Christ" www.warnersallman.org/dot_ws.jpg as a young man. He had long brown hair, soft blue eyes, a beard, the lot.

He was lots of fun at Hallowe'en, but in later years has become a born-again Christian. No more dressing up like Jesus and scaring drunks.
(TDub Nunc id vides, nunc ne vides on, Thu 31 May 2007, 22:06, Reply)

Dave...
I once turned up to a friend's church for something or other, and the pastor came up to me and said "Dave, it's nice to see you again. You've let your hair grow long though"

I'm a girl...
(The Who Bird is eating Jaffa Cakes on, Thu 31 May 2007, 22:05, Reply)

Me and my brother
Look nothing like one another. This did not stop the P.E. teacher at school believing that there was only one of us. He'd tease me about the stuff he'd seen my brother up to and all sorts.

You should have seen his face when we both turned up for basketball practice. How we laughed as his tiny brain struggled with the concept!
(purplegod counting down for Christmas!, Thu 31 May 2007, 22:01, Reply)

i made a picture of a car once
it was lovely
though a few people mistook me for someone called 'dave'.
( Shiodome has realised numbers in names aren't cool., Thu 31 May 2007, 21:45, Reply)

Mr Goddess.....
Is the spitting image of Jon Tickle!! Even his offspring shouts that Dads on the telly when he watches brainiac!! Thinking about it, he works in I.T and knows all the words to Hotel California too...I think he may be the real Jon Tickle!
( randomwomanwholikespink, Thu 31 May 2007, 21:32, Reply)

I must have one of those familiar faces.....
The amount of times I have heard the sentence 'you know who you look like don't you', followed by...... at best Fern Britten, at worst, Michelle McManus - I got that one for about a year during the height (or weight) of her (ahem)fame. The weirdest, of which I get at least one a week , is from clients who say 'you look just like my granddaughter/daughter/niece/sister/neighbour, she's big just like you.'
Oh the joys of being fat - apparently you look like anyone, presumably because your features squish together so people cant tell what you look like, so guess!!
My favorite is Mr Goddess', who thinks I look like Princess Fiona from Shrek 2 (the green ogre Fiona, not pretty princess one)!
( randomwomanwholikespink, Thu 31 May 2007, 21:23, Reply)

Fat boy
Wound up inexplicably in Gibraltar on a Saturday night. A few of us headed off after a curry to sample the local nightlife. A karaoke bar exerted its strange fascination, followed by a very grotty nightclub.

The lights got lower (or the beer was working its magical effect), and a rather pretty Scandinavian blonde (whose charms I had not been oblivious to) came up to me.

"You look just like Fatboy Slim", she says. I gurned, and managed to utter some trite denial (possibly to do with my possession of hair, lack of wealth, and presence in a distinctly crap nightclub). "You're him, aren't you?", she insists. The gurning continued.

Then she launched herself on me, mouth first, to give me a go on her dentures. Could I resist? No. Did I want to? Negative. Tasted said dentures (and very tasty they were too).

She pulled away, and, at the sight of a seven-foot Viking lumbering towards us, said "Oh, look, there's my husband", and flew into his arms.

So, if there's a Swedish girl out there who dines out on having got off with Norman Cook, I am most terribly, terribly sorry...
(groover j lazerus, Thu 31 May 2007, 21:23, Reply)

Oi!
Cheeky! I only have hair the slightest bit like him and a little beard.

Another mistaken identity case, not me, but someone at work:

2 over 50's. One to my right in Military History, one looking at a bay of Richard Dawkins "The God Delusion". I listen as the man to my right walks to his wife and asks "What's that, dear?". The reply came. "Its that new one by Richard Dawkins".

He replied "Is that the on...." only to be cut off by the single funniest thing I've heard in my time at work. She replied, without a hint of humour "Yeah, that scientist in the wheelchair who has to talk through a computer. Its so amazing he is that clever when he is...like that.".

Wow. Just wow. I looked up, hearing my boss say "Stephen Hawking" quietly. I was about to tell them, when a smile cracked on my lips. I knew that if i tried to tell them, i would laugh in their faces. I restrained myself.
(Jizzbiscuits-Murphy wroted this on, Thu 31 May 2007, 21:23, Reply)

HearSay
I once worked with a guy who was a dead ringer for one of the guys in HearSay (I don't know which one, I have a life). He used to get screaming teenage twits asking him for autographs constantly...and he signed them. The poor deluded fools. Why would you want the autograph of someone so crap?!
( El Lazarus is calm now, Ish,, Thu 31 May 2007, 20:50, Reply)

Hey purplefairy!
I bet I speak for most of the board when I request pictures for proof...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 31 May 2007, 20:38, Reply)

When I was in college
my friend and I used to play "Spot the Fake Celebrity" a lot. At our coffee shop one of the regular patrons looked eerily like Dennis Miller, and a man I worked with was almost a twin for Jack Nicholson. We also spotted Paul McCartney, Phil Collins and Kenny Rogers.

Why is it we always spot lookalikes for celebrity mingers?
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 31 May 2007, 20:36, Reply)

I got told by an OAP...
That I look like Charlotte Church.

My boyfriend says thats a complement, but my ears aren't that big and I don't swear half as much.
(purplefairy, Thu 31 May 2007, 20:34, Reply)

Well...
...in the Mong Song, I've noted a bit of a resemblance between Rob Manuel and Eric Idle...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 31 May 2007, 20:30, Reply)

Yup. It's true.
We do all look like Ron Weasley.
( ArthurTheRat, Thu 31 May 2007, 20:21, Reply)

The only person I've ever actually been mistaken for is Mitch Benn once.
But there is an astonishing list of people I've been told I look like over the years:

Ron Jeremy
David Seaman
Captain Pugwash
Christian Slater
Keanu Reeves (circa Bill & Ted)
Meatloaf
Stimpy

were the most frequent ones. A fairly motley crew with no overiding type.
( Afinkawan Yes I can hear you Clem Fandango, Thu 31 May 2007, 20:16, Reply)

You're him aren't you?
I have been mistaken for two minor celebrities.

(1) When I had long blond hair in a ponytail, people claimed I looked like that bloke out of the Commitments; you know, the dog-ugly soot-toothed porker. Once, I even got asked for an autograph. I told them to fuck off. Still, it had its compensations. I knew I was in luck when I returned to my ex-girlfriend's flat for the first time and found a big Commitments poster. She actually had a crush on the foul-faced tinker! On the other hand, that relationship ended particularly badly and left me with crippling emotional problems that persist to this day. So I wish she hadn't seen the resemblance at all.

(2) In order to prevent such problems in the future, I shaved off all my hair with a razor. I enjoyed the look until Shooting Stars became popular, and I got constant refrains of "What are the scores, George Dawes?" whenever I braved to venture out in public. One incredibly drunk idiot in a pub once tried it on with me, thinking I was Matt Lucas - who, it turned out, did live nearby.

The moral of the story? Fat people all look like each other. It's just the hair that's different.
(budddwyer This thing will hurt someone, Thu 31 May 2007, 20:07, Reply)

I bet there arn't many that will top mine...
But I have been told I look alot like Ian Huntley, that child bathing kiddie fiddler...

Didn't make for a good night that one, I can tell ye, if not for the fact his punk ass was in prison I think I really would have received a good kickin'
(Kage, Thu 31 May 2007, 19:46, Reply)