History Main / ObfuscatingDisability

%%* The "Lost Ending" to ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' as seen on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' showed Mr. Potter was faking.
%%* Used by Guy Caballero, the owner of the TV station, "for respect" in ''Series/{{SCTV}}''.
* One ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch in 1986 featured an alternate ending to ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife''. A mob lead by George Bailey goes after Mr. Potter, discovering that he is not actually a cripple. However, they start beating him before he can explain.

* The villain of ''Series/TheWildWildWest'' episode "The Night of the Brain" starts out in steam-powered wheelchair, but it is then revealed that he uses it because he he believes that literally every ounce of a person's energy should be devoted to thinking.

** This was done in an utterly tasteless manner by Wrestling/{{WCW}} when Buff Bagwell used a wheelchair after a major spinal injury. Bagwell called the man who injured him, Rick Steiner, to the ring and forgave him...only to rise from the wheelchair and betray Steiner immediately afterward, turning this into ''yet another'' [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder nWo]] angle.
** {{Wrestling/ECW}}'s "[[Wrestling/JimFullington Sandman]] gets blinded" angle. The Sandman was apparently blinded in a match with Wrestling/TommyDreamer, and to help sell the angle, stayed at home for a month, never having contact with another human being apart from his wife - his commitment to the angle was phenomenal. Then, he came to the arena to announce his retirement, and when he got to the ring, ripped the bandages off and beat the living crap out of Tommy Dreamer.
* Doink the Clown earned his first major feud when he faked an arm injury to gain sympathy from Crush, who had been speaking out about the clown's recent string of practical jokes and that they might hurt someone if he isn't careful. Crush agreed to let Doink alone ... until he realized (after waking up at the hospital) that he was suckered into a severe beating with a fake prosthetic arm, leading Crush to vow bloody revenge.

See also FakingAmnesia, ObfuscatingStupidity, ObfuscatingInsanity, PillowPregnancy, PlayingSick, WoundedGazelleGambit, and DisabilityAsAnExcuseForJerkassery. Contrast ThrowingOffTheDisability, when a genuinely disabled person makes a miraculous recovery, and HidingTheHandicap, where a person conceals his disability. A villainous character who actually ''is'' disabled is an EvilCripple.

%%* ''Series/FunkySquad'' ("Diamonds Are a Cat's Best Friend")

* ''Series/FatherBrown'': The killer in "The Shadow of the Scaffold". Father Brown discovers this when he realises that they could not have seen they claimed to have witnessed unless they were standing up.

* There's one ''Series/MidsomerMurders'' episode where a guy who is always seen in a wheelchair is in fact revealed to be able to walk (when no one's around, possibly collecting disability benefits). However, the scene is a !red!herring, as he is neither the killer nor a victim.

** One prominent example is the Season Five episode "Slam Dunk Dead", where the killer [[spoiler:Dwayne]] is a man who appears to have cerebral palsy. [[spoiler:The man does have some disability, but it actually stems from the episode's AssholeVictim having slammed his head violently against a backboard during a game and ruining his future in basketball, so Dwayne exaggerated his illness to get closr to the victim and kill him. Mark eventually gets him to reveal it by talking of how great the victim was and that, even without his injury, the killer wouldn't have been as good, causing the man to yell back in a much clearer voice than before]].

** [[http://notalwaysright.com/should-be-throne-out/12155 This]] woman on Website/NotAlwaysRight, preferring to order an usher to remove a cinema seat (something they point out they cannot do as they are bolted to the floor) rather than get out of her chair or use one of the designated handicapped seats in the theater, even though she shows herself soon after to be entirely capable of that level of movement despite her earlier claims.

* Website/{{Twitch}} gamer Angel Hamilton (better known as [=ZilianOP=]) notoriously stood up from his wheelchair during a ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' webcast. [[https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/wheelchair-bound-twitch-streamer-zilianop-walks-banned-for-fraud/ He was swiftly banned from Twitch]], and the website offered refunds to people who were fooled into donating to him.

** In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' episode "[[Recap/TheLoudHouseS7E32TwasTheFightBeforeChristmas 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas]]", Lynn Sr. and Lance are shown to fake injuries every Christmas to avoid having to see each other. Their wives and kids are not fooled one bit, to the point that Lynn Sr.'s daughters would play a bingo game over the things he says.

** In ''WesternAnimation/TheCasagrandes'' episode "[[Recap/TheCasagrandesS1E13GrandparentTrapMissStep Miss Step]]", Carlota, Ronnie Anne and Maria all fake being injuried (Carlota with a sprained elbow, Ronnie Anne with an injured foot and Maria with a broken leg) to get out of having to dance at a baile folklorico showcase due to [[DrillSergeantNasty Frida being too intense of an instructor]].

A particular form occurs in CrimeAndPunishmentSeries where one suspect will obviously be ruled out because they are in a wheelchair and [[DisabilityAlibi physically incapable of committing the crime]]. However, at TheSummation, the detective announces that the criminal is in fact the paraplegic. This is then followed by the supposed paraplegic getting up and attempting to run. Another variant, commonly used in {{Courtroom Episode}}s, involves an AmbulanceChaser lawyer persuading his client to feign injury such as whiplash in order to win a FrivolousLawsuit settlement. Or the StagedPedestrianAccident, where the "victim" allows himself to get hit by a car, and does a gruesome-looking but harmless tumble.

** One prominent example is the Season Five episode "Slam Dunk Dead", where the killer [[spoiler:Dwayne]] is a man who appears to have cerebral palsy. [[spoiler:The man does have some disability, but it actually stems from the episode's AssholeVictim having slammed his head violently against a backboard during a game and ruining his future in basketball, so Dwayne exaggerated his illness to get closr to the victim and kill him]].

* An early ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode has Monk realize that the assassin is not really a cripple because his shoes are heavily scuffed, something that would not happen to a man who had to use a wheelchair all the time (again, not actually true - see above). This revelation does not come in time and the assassin manages to get away.

** Another early Monk episode has a perpetrator who is supposedly blind. Cue the streaker.
*** The woman who was pretending to be blind actually ''was'' blind since a drunk driver hit her as a child, killing her parents. She [[ThrowingOffTheDisability regains her sight when she slips in a store]] and pretends she's still blind, so that she can shoot the man and then have the cops rule her out as a suspect.

* ''VideoGame/LikeADragonInfiniteWealth'': [[spoiler:Eiji Mitamura, a Seiryu Clan and Palekana spy, uses a localized anesthetic to feign being wheelchair-bound in order to win Kasuga's sympathies, due to Kasuga's history of taking care of the physically-frail son of his former patriarch Arakawa.]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Peter tried to make a quick buck by handing out sheets of stickers at the airport which said "I am deaf. Please buy this for $2." Peter [[TooDumbToLive being Peter]], he blows his cover immediately.