Our friends live in us through the parts of them we share with others.
"Do you see what he's doing? He's taking a drink after she does. That's called mirroring. It means that, whether he knows it or not, he has accepted her as the alpha. If she votes 'not guilty', he will, too."
— Zoe Morgan, Person of Interest, "Guilty"
People are individuals, and each often has their own habits, gestures, and personal idiosyncracies. Indeed, a personal gesture can be used to show that a mysterious figure hiding in shadows is a particular person by having them use a well-known gesture associated with them.
However, sometimes, people pick up other people's gestures. It's commonly seen with parent/child relationships, or teacher/pupil. In fiction, it can also be used to show a sort of passing of the torch. One character has died, and they represented an ideal or were considered the Big Good, and now someone else is doing that same gesture, showing to the audience, their allies, or both (and possibly their enemies as well) that they are the successor to that person.
It can also be shown when and where they pick up said gestures, often a form of behavior known as mirroring, which can be a conscious or even unconscious means of trying to relate to another person by adapting their gestures.
When gestures and mannerisms are copied not out of admiration or subconsciously assumed by another person, but are instead deliberately invoked to mock the person with whom the gestures and mannerisms originate, then it is Copycat Mockery.
While there can be overlap with Admiration-Based Mimicry, one need not admire or respect a person to adopt their gestures. As mentioned, it is very possible to use this for mockery, or adapting the mannerisms of a foe/opponent for the purposes of getting into their head. It can even be done to invoke a person, knowing others will recognize it and respond, even if unconsciously, even if the person adopting the gesture intensly disliked the person it was adopted from, or knew a dark and horrible secret about them.
If the adopted mannerisms come from the child of a person who has died, it could overlap with Someone to Remember Him By. Especially poignant if they never got to know their late parent, but somehow still maintain the same mannerisms.
Super-Trope to Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery.
Sub-Trope of Character Tics, with this being someone taking on those of another character, deliberately or unconsciously.
Compare Shared Family Quirks. Compare and contrast Idiosyncratic Cultural Gesture. Also compare and contrast Got Me Doing It, where someone inadvertently picks up the Verbal Tics of another character.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Black Clover provides a rather tragic example: turns out Yami took up smoking after his vice-captain Nacht when he stopped smoking after inadvertently causing death of Morgen, his brother and Yami’s friend.
- Chihayafuru: Sudo will often stand in the middle of a match, which he uses for two purposes, first to legitimately stretch his limbs, and second, to feel like he's looking down on his opponent, physically and mentally. We're first shown this action when he does it to Chihaya. But when Chihaya is facing reigning Queen of karuta Shinobu, she also stands, finding that she can suddenly breathe again and loosen her limbs. To remind us where she learned the gesture, we're shown Sudo facing another opponent behind her doing the exact same thing at the exact same time.
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited: After stealing Kaze's Magun, Pist copies Kaze's finger pointing and even quotes his Magun speech word for word. Kaze is quietly bemused both by this and Pist's ignorance that the Magun won't obey him.
- Frieren: Beyond Journey's End:
- We're shown early on that in Frieren's original party of adventurers that defeated the Demon King, their priest, Heiter, was fond of delivering headpats to Frieren, though she would protest, "My head is still not for patting." However, as she realizes that she missed out on getting to know people around her, she begins to understand them better. Towards the end of Heiter's life, she offers him praise by patting his head, which he says is unexpectedly nice, and when she essentially adopts Fern from Heiter and recruits Stark on the insistence of Eisen, she will use headpats to praise them for a job well done. She also does it to their new priest, Sein, though he laments he wishes it were a sexy Cool Big Sis doing it.
- During the First Class Mage Exam, Frieren offers headpats to Kanne and Lawine after they succeed. Lawine notably mirrors Frieren's grumpy demeanor about it, saying, "Please don't pat me." However, after Lawine fails the second part of the exams, she is commiserating, and Kanne asks her, jokingly, if she'd like a head pat. To her surprise, Lawine accepts, saying, "Make it quick."
- Tokyo Ghoul: Yamori/Jason has a very unusual one-handed method of cracking his knuckles. This is picked up by Kaneki after he spends days on end being tortured by Yamori, and tries to become more similar to him in order to escape from him. Unfortunately, it works. We later see that Yamori picked this up from the sadistic CCG interrogator who drove him insane.
Fan Works
- The Archmage's Last Bow: Bright Gleam copies a lot of Nova Shine's mannerisms, given he is her teacher and she greatly looks up to him, even before she was made his apprentice. Twilight can't help but comment on the similarities at one point.
- The Dragon and the Butterfly:
- Camilo weaponizes this trope for his pranks, as his powers can perfectly copy people's appearance, but not their personalities. He can convince others that he's someone else only if he uses some of their personality traits.
- It's shown how badly Snotlout wants his father's approval in that he copies his father's movements and facial expressions whenever they're together, even if how Snotlout actually feels differs from his father.
- If Wishes Were Ponies...: Spending so much time with the Mane 6 has led to Harry picking up a few habits/traits from them.
- Due to his new guardian being Twilight Sparkle (the first caretaker Harry's had who wasn't physically/emotionally abusive) Harry Potter takes a few mannerisms from her. For example, he views studying and good grades as very important (to the point that he considers being grounded to the library with nothing but homework to do as a reward), much like Twilight.
- Harry develops a habit of shouting "Focus, Twilight!" when the alicorn gets too hyperfixated, a habit he picked up from Spike and the rest of the Mane 6.
- Due to Sweetie Belle being one of Harry's best friends, he spends a bit of time at Rarity's. As such, he's learned a thing or two about fashion from her, to the point that he's able to tell the royal guards what will/won't pass as everyday wear in England and how he knows that Rarity would vomit if she ever saw what Rita Skeeter wears on a daily basis.
- While not outright said, a lot of traits Harry has by age eleven are likely from the Mane 6: he's more confident in his abilities while also occasionally doing risky things for fun (Rainbow Dash), he can make tormentors back down with a well-placed stare (Fluttershy), he's more honest than in canon (Applejack), and he's more willing to tell jokes/be silly sometimes (Pinkie Pie).
- Optimus on Earth: After seventy years living among humans (and having no memory of his previous world or culture), Optimus has developed a lot of mannerisms from humans (i.e., shrugging). He's also picked up a few Hindi swear words from his adopted human family (something Sentinel learned the hard way when he was cussed out by Optimus).
- The Spectacular Spider-Man: Lost in Gotham: While watching Batman dodge a murder drone with his grappling hook, Spider-Man notes that the Dark Knight has incorporated a few of his web-slinging moves into his grappling hook techniques.
- Spider-Ninja: After Michelangelo is attacked by a rogue SHIELD agent (who Nick Fury promptly fires), the director sees Raphael angrily pacing in the med bay while the family waits for Mikey to wake up. Shortly after, when Splinter asks to talk with Fury in private, the rat begins pacing angrily. Fury wonders if Raph's habit of pacing came from Splinter.
- wires and cloth: In chapter four, it becomes clear that Shockwave wants to make Bumblebee his ward and a future Decepticon. However, he has no idea what he's supposed to do to earn Bee's trust, as the young Autobot hates and fears him due to keeping him captive. Whenever he's trying to be affectionate, he ends up copying the words and movements of a parent comforting a sparkling that he (as Longarm) and Bumblebee saw during their academy days. Bumblebee realizes this, and is (understandably) more weirded out than comforted.
- A Young Girl's Outer Heaven
: Sex Slave Tatiana was "trained" to mimic Tanya perfectly to fulfill her owner's depraved fantasies. She took it further by determining that if she acts like the real Tanya, she can avoid being rapednote . After being rescued by Tanya's men and meeting the woman herself, she quickly takes to perfectly mimicking Tanya's every action and expression, seemingly unconsciously.
Films — Animated
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: When he and Peter B. Parker first infiltrate Fisk's labs, Miles is still in the process of learning to be a Spider. This leads to the often-memed moment of Miles imitating Peter's thinking pose.
- WALL•E: The robot receptionist WALL-E waves to on the Axiom imitates him hesitantly, as if previously unaware its hands could do things other than press buttons. We later see it waving enthusiastically to other people.
- The Wild Robot (2024): As a gosling, Brightbill imitated his mother Roz constantly. Because Roz is the titular robot, this causes him to mimic the sounds his mother makes whenever he moves, speak in Spock Speak, and generally behave in ways that other animals (especially other geese) find off-putting. Justified in that Brightbill is a goose, an animal known for imprinting on the first living being it meets as a baby.
Films — Live-Action
- Jaws 1: There is a touching scene that shows Chief Brody and his youngest son doing this with one another. demonstrating the closeness between the two, with his son deliberately mirroring his father's actions and facial expressions as a son who wants to be like his father, and his father being amused by the whole thing.
- In May December, the actress Grace (Natalie Portman) starts to imitate the mannerisms of the woman (Julianne Moore) whom she is spending time with as she prepares to play her in a movie.
Literature
- Harry Potter: Polyjuice Potion allows someone to perfectly copy the physical appearance of someone, but not their personality. To pass as the person they're impersonating, they need to be able to mimic their personality (including their mannerisms).
- Heart of the Journey: When annoyed or deep in thought, Scarlet will pinch the bridge of her nose. Her mother does the same thing, leading one to guess where she got it from.
- Warrior Cats: While Cinderpelt isn't nearly as grumpy as her mentor Yellowfang, she picks up on some of her attitude, such as using Yellowfang's old phrase "I don't talk for the pleasure of hearing my own voice." There's also a moment in the fifth book of The New Prophecy where she gives an angry hiss and walks away, and Firestar fondly comments that she gets more and more like Yellowfang every day.
Live-Action TV
- American Horror Story: Hotel: During his first meeting with John Lowe, James Patrick Marsh's ghost admits that his distinctively plummy mid-Atlantic accent was directly copied from the "Brahmin diction" of his tutor at Exeter, as part of March's efforts to elevate himself above his humble origins. The same can't be said of March's habits as a Serial Killer: those were all his own.
- The Brittas Empire: As Gavin takes management courses, taking on the advice of his Manager boss Brittas, he begins exhibiting some of Brittas' physical quirks, such as punctuating his management speak with hand gestures. This doesn't go unnoticed by his Brittas-hating boyfriend Tim, helping to drive a further schism in their relationship.
- Castle: Beckett has twice had actresses deliberately imitate her mannerisms and Verbal Tics to play versions of her in their works.
- In "Nicki Heat", actress Natalie Rhodes begins to shadow Beckett, and starts copying her mannerisms, wearing copies of Beckett's outfits, as well as a wig to copy Beckett's look. At one point, one of the uniformed officers even hands Rhodes some documents related to a case, mistaking her for Beckett. This begins to creep out Beckett and her fellow officers at the 21st.
Det. Ryan: We really should have a code word so we all know which Beckett to kill when her clone army attacks.
- "Saturday Night Dead": when one of the writers for SaturdayNightTonight (an Expy of Saturday Night Live) creates a sketch act based on Castle and Beckett, inspired by them investigating the murder of the show's founder, the actress assigned the role of Beckett starts engaging in exaggerated recreations of some of Beckett's movements, saying she has "an unusual gait". Beckett tries to deny this, asking Castle if she does things like that.
Castle: [stammering] I... that... What answer won't have me sleeping on the sofa tonight?
- In "Nicki Heat", actress Natalie Rhodes begins to shadow Beckett, and starts copying her mannerisms, wearing copies of Beckett's outfits, as well as a wig to copy Beckett's look. At one point, one of the uniformed officers even hands Rhodes some documents related to a case, mistaking her for Beckett. This begins to creep out Beckett and her fellow officers at the 21st.
- Crashing (UK): Kate is an uptight Control Freak. She's engaged to Anthony. Anthony's childhood friend Lulu — a flirty Hard-Drinking Party Girl with shades of Manic Pixie Dream Girl — comes to stay with them. While Anthony and Lulu swear up and down they're Like Brother and Sister, Lulu is clearly in love with Anthony. Kate is an Insecure Love Interest to begin with, and very insecure about having to romantically compete with Lulu. She's particularly jealous of Lulu's spontaneity and social ease. Kate tries to mimic some of Lulu's behavior, but she's painfully awkward and stilted despite her best efforts, and these attempts crash and burn in a Cringe Comedy way.
- Leverage:
- Played for Laughs in "The Ice Man Job". Nate, to rile up their mark, claims the identity of the team's arch-nemesis, James Sterling, even imitating Sterling's mannerisms. Word of God in the Audio Commentary track for the episode states that this is the impression of Sterling that Nate would do at the IYS Christmas Party to piss Sterling off a bit.
- In "The San Lorenzo Job", Sophie teaches Michael Vittori to extend his hand out while asking a question with an obvious answer. When he doubts it, she demonstrates it on him, and he realizes he responded to it. From that point on, he uses it to win over the security forces ostensibly working for his opponent after they fake an assassination on Sophie.
- In "The Queen's Gambit Job", Nate notices that Olivia Livingston is tapping a chess piece absently while contemplating a tricky move. It is a clue for Nate, and the audience, who saw the gesture earlier in the episode, that Olivia is Jim Sterling's biological daughter and his informant.
- The Mentalist: When Sam Bosco is given control of the Red John Case, he belittles Jayne by putting his hand on Jayne's shoulder in mock friendship. Jayne, not to be outdone, immediately mirrors the gesture, making a conscious choice to let Bosco know that he was neither intimidated by him nor going anywhere.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation:
- In "Unification: Part II", Data reveals that he's studied and can perfectly execute the famous Vulcan nerve pinch (which he performs on a Romulan). Spock, whom he's befriended over the course of the mission, greatly approves.
- Played for Drama in "Hero Worship". Timothy, a young boy who was the sole survivor of a wrecked science vessel, pretends to be an android in order to deal with the loss of his family, emulating many of Data's mannerisms and speech patterns.
- Many members of Starfleet find themselves pulling down on the front of their uniforms as Captain Picard does, starting with Riker and eventually spreading out to other officers and crew.
- In one episode of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Kelly deliberately imitates everything about Donna in an attempt to seduce Gaz.
Visual Novels
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations:
- In the first case we can see Phoenix's mannerisms were actually adopted from Mia, most notoriously when she slams the desk.
- During the fourth case, Miles Edgeworth, being in his most openly condescending and snobby state, has the same finger wag gesture as his arrogant and imposing mentor, Manfred von Karma. Notably, the outcome of the case is such that Edgeworth never does the finger wag again, and no longer mimics von Karma's outfit as much.
- During the final case, Godot finally notices that Phoenix and Mia launch their OBJECTION!s in the exact same way, down to the exact same timing of the animations. This causes him to acknowledge the fact that Phoenix is a worthy successor to Mia Fey, something that he had been trying to determine throughout the entire game, as he had (up until that exact moment) blamed Phoenix for Mia's murder in the first game.
Western Animation
- Amphibia:
- During Anne's time with the Plantars, some of them are shown using words Anne has used (such as saying "obvi" instead of "obviously").
- Andrias regularly uses Earth gestures and phrases that Marcy taught him, finding Earth culture fascinating (such as saying "'Sup?"). This becomes Harsher in Hindsight when he's still using these phrases despite just having stabbed Marcy through the chest and putting her in a Healing Vat so she could be used as a host for a hive mind of evil newts.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Azula heavily mimics her father Ozai's mannerisms, particularly when she's trying to be intimidating. This means stuff like circling people, speaking in low tones, and invading this personal space. This behavior gives her a creepy quasi-seducer vibe, a sort of downplayed The Vamp. However, that doesn't seem to be what she's intending — she's intending to be imposing, like Ozai. The one time we see her actually trying to flirt with a crush (the beach episode) she's conspicuously not doing her usual Vamp thing.
- Ozai's other kid, Zuko, doesn't mirror his mannerisms — with one notable exception. Zuko's interaction with Katara in the episode "The Waterbending Scroll" is very Ozai (though it's a Rewatch Bonus, as Ozai hasn't appeared on screen by this point). Zuko circles Katara, invades her personal space, speaks in low tones, and tries to bribe her.
- Gravity Falls: In "Boss Mabel", Mabel gets upset at Stan being a Mean Boss to everyone, and makes a bet that she be the boss of the Mystery Shack for seventy-two hours. While her being friendly and hands-off with everyone goes well at first, it quickly results in Wendy taking the day off, Soos going missing, and a monster tearing up the house. Mabel is only able to get things back under control when she starts barking orders and demanding respect like Stan would.
- Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir: Chloé Bourgeois has a Catchphrase Insult of calling things and people that annoy her "ridiculous, utterly ridiculous". When Chloé’s mom makes her first appearance, it's revealed Chloé picked it up from her.
- The Powerpuff Girls: In "Mo' Linguish", Mojo Jojo is arrested and forced to do community service by teaching English at a community college. His students pick up his overcomplicated, rambling way of speaking, which spreads through Townsville until everything grinds to a halt because everyone is being too verbose and specific with their wording.
- Star Wars: The Bad Batch: In one Funny Background Event, Hunter is trying to think of a way to get his team out of a cell. Omega is copying his movements, even his facial expressions. When he finally catches on, he flashes her a smile.
- Star Wars Rebels: As Team Mom, Hera will occasionally snap at the other members of the Ghost's crew if she feels they're wasting time or bickering like children. By season two, Ezra's lived with them long enough that he subconsciously acts like Hera would in a given situation, such as when he needed to stop Kanan and Rex's bickering during a rescue mission.
Kanan: He takes after Hera sometimes.
- Transformers: Prime: Towards the end of the series, it's shown that Raf (who has the closest bond with Ratchet than any other human) has adopted some of Ratchet's vocal quirks.
Raf: Ep, ep! Miko, I needed that!
Real Life
- Animals raised by animals of other species will sometimes adopt species-specific mannerisms from the animal they were raised by. For example, in this video, a baby squirrel raised by a cat learned how to purr. In this video, a fox raised with dogs tries to bark like they do.