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.

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."

Extra fun fact about Superman dressing as Batman, canonically Clark and Bruce look almost identical.

My personal fanon on Clark's hair curl is that it's an annoying feature he meticulously gels and combs away because he hates it, but it pops out when he uses his superspeed to change clothes and that's why everyone sees Superman with the hair curl. And then he frantically pats it down when sneaking back into the office going "stupid hair, stupid hair, stupid hair..."

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.

I like the guy who plays Clark in the Superman and Lois show because while he doesn't play the character as meek, he does often bumble his words or acts like a goofy dad when around others and he's known locally as the nerdy guy who's only big because he grew up on a farm.

At the local diner, there is a server who looks like Jennifer Aniston. Conclusion: Jennifer Aniston is secretly living a double life, where she spends her time taking orders at a diner when she's not being a famous celebrity. ... see how crazy that sounds? Now imagine how it sounds when people claim that Clark Kent must be Superman.

6:10 There's also a scene in Trinity (2016) where Wonder Woman makes Superman and Batman hold the Lasso of Truth and state their names and Superman says "Clark" whereas Bruce says "Batman".

One of my favorite moments in comics that addresses this is in American Alien where Clark tells Pete Ross, "I take my glasses off all the time, and sometimes people will joke that I look just like Superman." It seems obvious to us because we have intimate knowledge of the character but I doubt people would just jump to conclusions and go, "Oh yeah, this dorky shy reporter is a demi-god."

There is a comic where somebody asks Clark why he wears glasses if he can see perfectly well and Clark grins at the guy and just says "Yeah, because when i didn't wear them people told me i look like superman" and that was for me also a very important moment.

In the DC comic continuity, where most heroes where masks, it's assumed the maskless Superman has no secret identity. That he's always Superman. The glasses are a hidden in plain sight thing but the internal logic is that most people wouldn't assume Clark is Superman because they live in a world where all the heroes but Superman wear masks, and the ones who don't have publicly known identities.

The iconic Superman curl is actually due to him parting his hair different directions. If you have a widow’s peak hairline (statistically most people do nowadays as it’s genetically dominant) you hair will eventually grow to sweep one direction by default. Reversing it causes all sorts of funny cowlicks and curls

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.

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.

22:40 Batman actually was also pretending to be Superman in that episode. Lex Luthor was confused as to why kryptonite wasn't working on him.

I love the banter he has with the flash, saying he's beaten him in a race before, and the flash just replies, "Those were for charity Clark."

Gotta remember as well that when Reeves would go to get lunch dressed as Clark Kent no-one would recognize him whilst everyone recognized him when he went as superman

It actually is pretty smart that he doesn't call himself Bruce in his mind, if he comes up against a mind reading villain they could read his mind and find out he's Bruce Wayne by hik calling himself that, so conditioning himself to only think of himself as Batman is pretty smart

Some actor on a talk show years ago said that the secret of his success was that he never wore his glasses when he was acting. He had a smoldering expression that intimidated men and attracted women. The fact was that he was slightly near sighted and just stared through people because they were always out of focus.

Whenever British people call Americans sensitive I remember a video where a Brit called some guy’s girlfriend “a bit of a dog’s breakfast”

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.

In the older books, Superman had a bunch of "Superman robots" that did things when he wasn't around, and they also helped in situations where Superman and Clark needed to make appearances at the same time.

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.

Something missed so often is how in the early Chris Reeves movies, the Daily Planet is always hectic and busy. Lots of distractions, everyone self-absorbed in their own world of issues. To finally figure out who he was Louis had to struggle to see through the chaos. It was a great place to hide in plain sight. Then later versions totally missed it, in Superman Returnes there is even that quiet night at the workplace where they are looking at him wondering if he could be superman before finally saying, "naaaaa". It boggles my mind.

If I remember correctly during the filming of Reeve's Superman everytime he walks out the film studio in costume people would notice him and when he walks out in clark kent attire no one pays attention to him. And there's also this one time Henry Cavill was in New York wearing a Superman t-shirt and below the BvS billboard and nobody really noticed him. So yeah Superman's disguise works.

As someone once said: “You only need to look at how nobody recognizes Tony Hawk to see that people wouldn’t know Clark Kent is Superman.”

Best part about superman being batman was him almost getting discovered by smiling

What I like is how "Well if you can fool Lex Luthor, you can fool the world" statement is a pretty good indicator by itself. It misses the idea that Lex straight up can't comprehend that someone would willingly 'lower himself to the level of a simple human' (when there is no gain in doing so) Is a core aspect of who Lex is. (I mean, the point still holds, but it is definitely a bigger blindspot in Lex than in 'the average person')

6:32 I like how terry follows up with “but that’s MY name now” and they way him and bruce smile cheekily at each other in that interaction just makes me smile lol

I didn't think about the fact that noone in the DC world would think Superman has a secret identity. We take for granted that we already know it, so they must know that too.

The art you showed for Clark being hunched over and where he saves the person who was going to jump is from Allstar Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. It's one of the best Superman series.

As someone who has worked as an optician for a few years, people really underestimate how much of a difference glasses make.

I love the story of when Henry Cavill was in Times Square wearing a Superman t-shirt, standing under Superman billboards and no one recognized him.

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

My favourite clark kent bit is in one of the animated series, where he is interviewing lex, and lex goes on a rant about how much he hates superman and how he really likes Clark, as clark is a hard working and honest country boy, comically clumsy but ultimately human

Clark is much more awkward and feels much smaller, and people won't really be looking at him, sort of a common glossing over that everyone does. Reminds me of Tony Hawk, when he's doing his tricks, you know its him, but just out and about, he's a regular guy and often people don't recognize him, even going so far as to say that he reminds people of Tony Hawk, but not connecting the dots. So to me it's 100% believable if you just act a certain way, present yourself in a way that makes it so people don't automatically connect the dots. Putting on a pair of glasses can change the impression of someone a lot. Psychology is neat.

Theres a scene in one of the animated series where batman and superman swap suits and batman dressed as superman confronts luthor who trues to use kryptonite and then gets waffle stomped by batman and he absolutely goes bonkers wondering why superman was impervious to the kryptonite

The only two people who find out that Clark and Superman are one, and genuinely instantly understand, are Mr. Terrific and Batman. Mr. Terrific because he knows that Clark is the genuine personality, and Batman because he understands the need to present as someone different, even if you could handle the problem as your non-suited self

Plain and simple, you guy's might've mentioned this haven't seen the vid yet, it's insane to think your clumsy, shy coworker is an alien god-like superhero.

I love Reeves portrayal of Superman and Clark. I Love how his whole body posture changes. In the scene, where Loise shoots him and he gave in… it seems like he grew a few inches. Awesome.

I’m amazed at the contrast of regular, business suit-wearing Henry, vs him in the original Reeves suit. Many people don’t realize that Christopher Reeves was a very big guy, but so is Henry. Cavill looks like an absolute beast in the interview, then seeing him in the original suit, I was honestly a bit skeptical as to whether photoshop was used or not. Both great actors, and much more importantly, human beings. Huge respect for both of them.

I love the scene where Batman and Superman help somebody in the dark and Superman scares her because he forgets she can't see in the dark, and Batman scares her because he's just moody

My favorite is in superman returns where Lois and Richard start to talk about it. "hey Clark looks like superman, same height same weight, I wonder " Clark over hears them and all he does is give them a goofy smile and wave and they go "Ha yeah right, no way"

In regards to Superman’s disguise, I remember that Henry Cavil would walk around Times Square when there where billboards of him and no one would recognise him.

Best analogy I've ever heard about Superman is that he's a firefighter... he's there to save lives, fighting villains is optional

I remember in middle school, my friend told me I looked complete different without my glasses. He said I looked like a nerd with them, and a serial killer without them.

The interesting thing about Superman, when it comes to his power level, is that catching a plane falling out of the sky and getting a cat out of a tree are about the same difficulty level. It's like a level 120 character doing a level 1 or a level 5 quest in WoW.

One big aspect of his Clark Kent outfit that was dropped after the Golden Age was the fedora hat he would wear to work during the 40s. When he was out in the field working as CK, he had that fedora on. So it was not always just the glasses changing the shape of his face.

I think scenes of superheroes doing little things like saving talking down a suicidal jumper are great ways to show their character

I love that scene with Reeve.. its so good. gives me chills.

I know this is different but one of my favourite scenes in justice league cartoon is when flash and lex swap bodies so lex goes to a mirror and takes off the flash mask and realised he has no idea who wally west is.

I remember an episode of Dean cain's superman where a time-traveling villian mocks Lois' journalistic capabilities by putting on a pair of glasses and saying "I'm Clark Kent," takes glasses off, "I'm superman!". The good time-traveler tries to excuse her not seeing it despite how many times she was face to face with both by saying that love is blind.

26:10 the thing about Superman getting a cat out of the tree, why it's important to show that, and how Batman mocks it a little... in addition to it simply being in Superman's nature to just be a good person and help out, is you have to consider that, to Superman, there's no material difference between getting a cat out of a tree and catching a falling jet. They're both contemptuously easy feats to achieve. Both just little things to do to make others' days easier. You get an appreciation of Superman's power when stopping an out of control train and getting a cat out of a tree are basically the same thing

There was a comic where clark/superman were in the same place as each other and it only worked because superman was moving so fast that he was physically dressing and undressing into and out of costume in different locations. Part of the comic had the normal clothing combust during the dual appearance.

This turned out to be a great talk about Superman instead of just his disguise 👍

You know superman doesn't have to lose pa or ma Kent to become superman. The animated series has the best rendition of superman, and he still has both parents. It always bugged me.

I love that scene in Young Justice where Oceanmaster discovers the place where superheroes' children go to play together and Lady Shiva stops him from killing the children as it would be a "nuclear option". I love the idea of supervillains knowing the secret identity of heroes and just letting them play boring humans lives for 8 hours a day.

23:00 one of the best friendship moments between Batman and superman comes from the batfamily webcómic, in which there's a chapter where alfred goes to visita the kents and superman is with Batman trying to figure out what they're talking about

I remember there being a comic where bad guys plan most of their crimes in women restrooms because they know Superman has x-ray vision but would never check there.

Bilingual here. I speak English and Portuguese and my thinking language depends on the last one i used. It's harder to pay attention to things in separate languages at the same time than if they were the same language. For example if i'm speaking with a friend online in english i can multitask and read something in english but it'd be nearly impossible for me to do it in portuguese.

My favorite Superman as Batman moments is when he poses as Bruce Wayne for him, and Deathstroke tries to kill him since he was sent to kill Bruce Wayne, and Superman as Bruce Wayne punches him into the ocean while drunk on neurotoxin

I forget who first proposed it, but there was a theory that Clark has three personalities: Superman, Clark Kent, and Kal-El. Superman is obviously the paragon superhero and Clark Kent is the bumbling reporter. Whereas, Kal-El is his "true" personality and is an amalgam of the two, an opportunity for him to be himself, and that the only time Superman gets to relax is when he is with people who knows both identities.

The most underrated part of Superman's secret identity is that he very publicly has a real name and address. His name is Kal-El and he lives in The Fortress of Solitude. He's an alien with a family name, a famous secret base, and no mask - why would it occur to anyone that he even has a secret identity to hide? Batman gets found out all the time by a bunch of different people, in part *because* he goes to such effort so hide it. He's hiding his face, his sidekick, the paper trail on his gadgets, the location of the Batcave - there's too many ways for someone to figure out his identity, be they an ancient assassin or a 10 yo boy. But Superman? He doesn't even *look* like he's hiding something, and you already know he's a space alien, so what's there to look for?

There is a body builder called anatoly on the internet who dresses as a janitor and goes to gym's to lift amazing weight. He is the perfect example of a real life clark kent persons.

David Bowie used to get around New York without being recognised by carrying a Greek newspaper. People just thought it was some Greek bloke who looked like David Bowie.

In the Superman 3 novelization it's explained that Clark is the disguise, when he's under the influence of the synthetic Kryptonite he expressed his hatred of making himself appear weak instead of flaunting his full power at all times, but again that was when he was sick from fake Kryptonite.

Another layer which I don’t think I’ve ever heard brought up in universe - how many celebrity look alikes are there irl? And even non-celebrity look alikes. If anyone does notice the similarity despite all the layers discussed in the vid, Clark can just dismiss it as he just happens to be a Superman look alike, and if he ever loses his reporter job, he could always fall back on playing Superman for one of those groups that cosplay as Superheroes and go around children’s hospitals to do charity work. And if anyone brings up that under his clothes he’s ripped, he just needs to point out he’s a farm boy from Kansas who grew up doing hard physical labour and still goes home on his vacation days to do said work and help out Ma Kent around the farm.

The thing about certain things drawing attention to certain parts of your face is very true. My mum once told me how someone she went to school with used to have slightly crooked teeth; apparently they didn't really look bad on her, according to my mum if anything she looked quite cute and interesting, but she hated her teeth so she had a surgery to fix them. Once her teeth looked more normal, my mum said she had never even noticed, but she actually had quite a big nose; the teeth used to take the attention away from her nose, but now it was the first thing you'd notice about her.

I can attest to the eyglass thing. I have piercing blue eyes but wear glasses almost all the time and it actually changes how my eyes look. Even people who have known me for years will do a double take if I don't have them on because it alters my appearance so drastically.

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

They did a joke in the Scooby Doo cross where Velma lost her glasses and Lois and Jimmy Olsen instantly thought Velma had vanished and someone new took her place.

Something I love is that when people see Clark’s physicality or strength it’s explained as his farm strength from how he grew up

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.

My favorite scene from Justice League is Batman and Superman having coffee, because I just like to imagine some thug/supervillain spotting the Batmobile, thinking they’re gonna get the drop on Bats, just to look inside and see he’s got Superman in there with him.

Just this weekend my friend passed me by 3 times when we were supposed to meet, turns out, she never saw me with my hair down and in the end only recognized me due to my jewelry XD

You're so right about the banter thing. It's so hard to joke with someone. Even people that have known me for years and know I'm not being serious what so ever, still won't get my sarcasm or jokes. Only a select few of my friends get it

something else to mention, in one of the comic runs, it's revealed that the glasses also amplifies Superman's low level hypnosis abilities (cause of course the guy who can shoot mini-clones of himself from his hands also has hypnosis, man has he had every possible power at some point...) to where they literally see Superman and Clark as two separate people. They even have him beat the villain of the week by hypnotizing people to not be hypnotized... which makes his disguise fail.

Always loved the scene in the comic where he talks the person trying to commit suicide down.

So I actually have the explanation for the Injustice games using things like your example of Harley using a baseball bat. Superman has a relatively unknown power that his invincibility extends slightly beyond his body so he can to a limited extent transfer his invulnerability to people and objects he touches and I believe in the Louis and Clark show they use this power to explain why his suit doesn't rip in combat. So while Harley has Kriptonian powers from the pill her baseball bat and her clothing have Kriptonian strength. This also helps explain how Superman can catch a falling person without them being killed from the rapid deceleration or why a bumper on a car isn't just ripped off when he throws them. Additionally Superman can "turn off" or reduce this power at will so that he can still destroy things and inflict damage to his opponents.

I fully believe Clark could fool everyone with the suit and glasses, for a few reasons. One, so many people that Superman interacts with would probably never know who Clark is, so they'd have no reason to associate them. Two, most people who interact with Superman do so very briefly and probably don't retain a detailed memory of his face, so if they ever do see Clark, they don't see it as the same face. Three, (and this is strictly anecdotal pertaining directly to myself) I often fail to recognize my coworkers when I see them out of uniform away from work. At best I may think to myself "why does that dude look so familiar?" I even failed to recognize my own niece at the drive-thru window at a local fast food place! She had started working there and I didn't know. I stopped in to pick up dinner and she was running the window. I kept thinking "Dang! This girl looks so much like

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

One thing I loved about Tyler Hoechlin's portrayal of Superman is that the Clark you see is not an act. In an episode of Supergirl (when his character first appeared), Clark and Kara were getting off an elevator and he bumped into someone and papers went flying and he was all flustered. Kara told him "you really have that bumbling reporter act down pat!", and he responded "Yeah..... it's no act." It's like, he lets his guard down when he's Clark and is just being himself, and Clark Kent really is humble boyscout.

Great video. When Star Trek Deep Space 9 premiered it took me three weeks to realize that Captain Sisko was played by the same actor that played Hawk in the Spenser for Hire TV series. Avery Brooks shaved off his beard and mustache to play Sisko. But his attitude was completely different as Sisko also. I've heard the in universe explanation that no one realizes Superman has an alter ego and that's a pretty good explanation of why people don't see Superman in Clark Kent. But I have said for years what you are saying. It's not just the glasses it's the physical performance and attitudes of Clark. People don't pay attention to things that they don't like. Clark being painfully shy and slouching have people actively turning away from him. They don't want to see him. And so can't see Superman in the guise of Clark Kent. (Read that last line in Ted Knight's voice). Whatcha mean you don't know who Ted Knight is?

If we're going to talk about bad secret identity disguises, how about Artemis Crock whose superhero name is Artemis. Her disguise is a domino mask and not saying her last name.

Yeah, it might be obvious, but my favourite Superman bit is that single page from All-Star Superman when he comforts the suicidal girl as well. I'm not the biggest fan of Grant Morrison, not my cup of tea. But that page? Pure gold. Best thing they've ever written, in my opinion.

The reason I love Hoechlin and Reeves so much is because when you see them as Clark Kent... even though we know it's fake we all think... "If I didn't know. I could have worked with him for YEARS and be shocked if he ever told me he goes to the GYM!" And yet when they put on the costume it TRANSFORMS them! Cavill? I mean... bro... I love you but if your Clark ever even wore a blue shirt 👕 "Dat mother*cker Superman!" INSTANTLY

One of the pains of speaking multiple languages is that I keep reccommending my friends shows that I really enjoyed not realising that they won't be able to understand a word

Not Superman related exactly, but there was a one shot comic where Batman was injured and Wonder Woman goes to Gotham to fill in. It was fun seeing the back and forth with the villains because obviously she’s much more powerful than Batman, but she’s not used to the lengths these villains are willing to go to.

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.

I love Superman so. And so do you, and it shows, thank you. It is when they play up his aspirational nature, the "They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son" quote from the first movie is a perfect example.

I think a great way to show Pa kents teachings and keep him alive as happens in some comics, would be have a family friend or even one of Clarks school friends commit suicide, this can be a teaching moment that Clark could have used his powers but sometimes theyre not needed to save someone or wouldnt help and some people just need someone to talk to

When filming Superman Christopher Reeve went into the studio restaurant in costume and people swooned two days later he went in as Clark and no one even noticed who he was

Them talking about posture reminded me of when I genuinely startled my friend because he thought I was something like 5ft6 when I’m really 5ft10 because I have an awful posture so when he stated his confusion on how despite being the same height I was somehow 4 inches taller than him so I stood non slouched and he took an actual step back because he was genuinely surprised at the sudden change of height

i know superman's disguise works because people i've known for years sometimes don't recognize me when i'm not wearing glasses. throw on a whole new persona, body language, and mannerisms, no one think twice about clark

Did you know Henry Caville stood in Times Square near a Batman vs Superman movie billboard wearing a Superman t-shirt and NOBODY recognized him.

The best way I’ve heard it put is that Superman is Clark Kent’s customer service voice

I never bought into the argument that Clark Kent is the disguise.

Does Bruce Wayne go around with a security detail? .. it'd be weird for CEO not to. Imagine if his identity was reveal and you realise you've wasted years of your life being Batman's bodyguard 😅

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.