Human disguise

A human disguise is a concept in mythology, religion, science fiction, and cartoon animations, where non-human beings (e.g. gods, angels, Satan, demons, monsters, robots, or aliens ) are disguised to look like human beings. The deception has been depicted in storylines as a means used to blend in with people, and has been used to raise the question of what it means to be a human being. The concept is also used outside of fiction to describe real people who are not what they appear to be.

In religion and mythology
In the the Old Testament apocryphal Book of Tobit, Raphael is an archangel who takes on human disguise and the name of Azarias.

Zeus's human disguises have been compared to Plato's use of communicating through alternate characters as a means to express that the "essential philosophical nature is divine rather than human" and "cannot be represented without some element of human "disguise". John Milton's poem Paradise Regained has Satan disguised as an old man.

In literature
The gods "of whom the minstrels sang" in Homer's Iliad watched the "human spectacle" as partisans, and came down to Earth invisible or in human disguise to interfere, sometimes to protect their favorites from harm. They were sometimes hurt in conflicts.

The Changeover: a Supernatural Romance is a young adult novel by the New Zealand novelist Margaret Mahy that includes a character a vampiric lemur named Carmody Braque who masquerades as an antique dealer.

Aliens in science fiction
Aliens disguised in human form have been described in various works of science fiction. The recurring plot device is used in several stories about alien invaders, the theme of alien infiltration  being particularly prevalent during the Cold War. David Buxton's Avengers to Miami Vice discusses the use of human disguise in The Invaders. The mannerisms of aliens using human disguises are sometimes portrayed as awkward, indicating that the aliens are not comfortable in their false skin.

Jack Finney's 1955 novel The Body Snatchers, and the films made from it, involve aliens not only looking generally human, but replacing specific human beings, an intensely frightening prospect because one's own neighbors, friends, and family must now be suspected. It has been suggested that this conveyed the paranoia of the McCarthy era.

Martian Manhunter, one of the main characters in New Frontier is "a shape-changing alien who adopts human disguise because he knows his alien form would scare people." The character illustrates the fear of outsiders that occurred during the Cold War.

In the Men in Black movie, based on a comic book, aliens disguised as humans inhabit Earth. The alien prince of the Arquillian Empire in Men In Black was in a human suit, living as a human being, with a pet cat. There was also a large alien found with illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico into America, which squeezed itself into a human suit. In Men In Black II, the alien known as Ben is found selling alien weapons in his store; when his fake human head is shot off, it rapidly regrows.

Director Albert Kodagolian produced a short film called Human Suit, to help promote the Sci Fi Channel.

Martian Manhunter, one of the main characters in New Frontier is "a shape-changing alien who adopts human disguise because he knows his alien form would scare people." The character illustrates the fear of outsiders the occured during the Cold War.

The Furon character Crypto, a gray-skinned alien, in Pandemic's Destroy All Humans video game uses a holographic human disguise to infiltrate 1950s suburban America. "In human form he cannot use weapons but is still able to use his mental powers to hurl objects and hypnotize people into becoming obedient slaves."

In the 1982 British Sci-fi film Xtro, a father is abducted by an alien spaceship and an alien returns disguised as him. The alien rapes the man's wife and she gives birth to a fully grown man in what author Barbara Creed describes as being a primal "phantasy" where man is born fully grown and completely independent of its mother.

Criticism
Gary Westfahl wrote that a standard argument of Stanislaw Lem and other writers is that "science fiction writers, as human beings, are inherently incapable of imagining truly alien beings, meaning that all aliens in science fiction are nothing but disguised humans." Another author states that confidence in religious explanations for events has waned, conspiracy theories about small groups and hidden networks have gained a foothold. These imaginary cabals of humans and alien overseers disguised as humans, have been described by believers as influencing the direction of history. The Weekly World News supermarket tabloid got in on the concept with a story about tens of thousands of aliens infiltrating the highest levels of government, industry and academia.

Robots
In The Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger played a cyborg that wore a human disguise.

Outside fiction
Outside of fiction, a human disguise is used as a metaphor to describe a real person who is pretending to be something they are not. Former Kenyan Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta was described by a Kenyan judge as a "monster in human disguise". Doug Parker, chairman of US Airways was described as a "Klingon in a human disguise", after he "vaporized much of what was left of USAirways in Pittsburgh." [sic] The human disguise does not always carry negative connotations, Manoel de S. Antonio, (Bishop of Malacca between 1701 and 1723) was refered to as an "angel in human disguise" for his conversion of 10,000 people to Christianity.