Because it’s a comic book. The fact that it features an alien who was sent to this planet, where a yellow sun makes him able to fly and see through walls and shoot laser beams from his eyes doesn’t bother him, but a dimwitted reporter not seeing through a terrible disguise does?
If you actually want an in-story answer, it’s because he acts like two different people. Clark acts bumbling and clueless and naïve, and stereotypically mid-western hick-ish, whereas Superman is heroic and confident and sure of himself. It never enters her mind to wonder if they might be the same person because they seem like such completely different people.
She is actually a blonde, she dyed her hair to get the job. Now I hope that my two and a half blonde daughters don’t read this. (Two are natural, one has some bottled assistance.)
About ten years ago, DC Comics floated the idea that the reason was because Superman vibrated in such a way as to appear a little blurry to anyone who sees him.
This explanation didn’t last long. The current reasoning is what @MrItty said in his second post.
I think it is so it is easy for the audience to know (specialy the younger audiences) that he is just the same guy in disguise. If you watched Pokémon you probably know what I mean. (Team Rockets disguises)
She did know who he really was , she worked it out during the original films .
Then in Superman the television series, the Dean Kain actor who played Superman did some weird and she forgot .
Now he will have to inform her in the next film who he really is , since they have a child together . Lois is rather bright to have worked out who he was if you take how stupid her character is .
ok, Superman is an alien that just happens to look exactly like a human who’s super strong, has x ray vision, gale force breath, and can fly… do you really think the creators of superman were at all concerned with Louis Lane’s ability to find resemblances?
Clark Kent acts completely different from his alter-ego Superman. But Lois is also blinded because she is completely in love with Superman and everything he represents. So in love, that she can’t see past the bumbling personality of Clark Kent.
reason #1 why superman pisses me off.
the guy runs down the street, takes his glasses off, and changes his clothes, and everyone’s like “OMG whoda fck is that?!”. i just want to slap them all.
You’ll never go broke underestimating the taste of the American public. Same goes for intelligence.Although, I still believe Siegel and Shuster gave the public what they needed way back when.
C’mon, @tiffyandthewall – never heard of the suspension of disbelief (English Lit 101)?
One of the joys of my youth was reading the comic strip, beginning with Blondie, then moving on to Superman, The Phantom, L’il Abner, and others. There would be fights over the comic supplement on Sundays. With national consciousness came a drastic change in taste – does anybody remember the Ghost Who Walks (The Phantom?).
@Darwin – I have heard of Terry and the Pirates, but never read it because it was never published in Trinidad. But I do remember the cartoons in The Boys Own Paper – it was a British magazine that closed down in the sixties. We had a bound set, and read it to rags.
@bea2345 – My father, having been raised in a British school in South America, made sure we saw a few copies of The Boys Own Annual (that’s what the bound volumes were called). A relatively recent book is somewhat like The Boys Own, this being The Dangerous Book for Boys. You might pick up a copy just so you can reminisce.
Note: For two years my Dad had to spend a moderate amount of time in Trinidad due to business. He worked at the time for Shell de Venezuela.
Perhaps posture, hygiene, and body language play some part in the disguise. Have to admit though, there was no reason Lois couldn’t have connected the dots. It’s just glasses. And people can believe in a lot of illogical ideas given the proper motivation…
Whether it be Superman disguising as Clark or Clark disguising as Superman is another question.