Why Can't People Figure out that David is the Hulk?

Why can't people figure out that Bruce Wayne is Batman, AutoexecBATMAN?! That Clark Kent is Superman?! That Peter Parker is Spiderman?!

And, life goes on...

A. David kept changing his last name.

B. He had new friends, enemies, acquaintances and co-workers every episode. Diana Prince's close friends couldn't figure out she was Wonder Woman and they saw her all the time. It must have been those thick glasses and wearing her hair in a bun.

David and the Hulk are so dissimilar that people just don't make the connection; it may be a lack of imagination on their part, or something like the Hulk is so unprecedented in life to most people, being large and fierce, that people forget all about David!

There were instances where David was recognized after transformation, like in 'A Rock In A Hard Place'(by Lucy Cash) or in 'The Snare'(by mad hunter Michael Sutton).

Personally, I think it's just part of the charm of this show how people can't put 2+2 together. Like when David gets thrown into an adjoining room by his attackers, then moments later they hear the growling, then the hulk smashes out, wearing David's clothes. The response when David returns to the scene is always "David, did you see that creature?"

Of course, the shock of seeing something like the Hulk tearing up a joint might distort their perception and common sense. And David is so meek and small that it might be hard for people to even accept the possibility that he transforms.

Seeing this on ME TV.

Yes, the best one in the early episodes is when David Blaine is working at the zoo and he's interested in this research that David Banner, who was apparently killed in mysterious circumstances, did in gamma rays, and is also interested in the scientist's work on how to control animals' anger, and even after he tells her that he escaped from an ape in a cage thanks to 'the green creature that everyone is talking about' (not an exact quote) all she can say is "Well, let's get back to my research on controlling anger that you're interested in for some reason." (Almost the exact quote.)

I'm sure the writers must have enjoyed the times when their otherwise intelligent characters somehow couldn't put two and two together on this one thing.

In a similar vein, why was it that even after it should have been clear due to credible eye witness and police reports that The Hulk was real and not some mass hallucination that Jack McGee continued to be the only reporter to track The Hulk?

I realize this wouldn't be as important a story as the cold war or stagflation or OPEC (who were not the cause of stagflation), but I think a lot of newspapers and especially television news would have wanted to have broken the story in some way.

I think you have a valid question but I also think you might be overlooking the simple fact that the human mind is very, very adept at not processing that for which it can't make sense.

How many times have we heard about a "much loved, well-respected, pillar of the community" being arrested and charged with unspeakable crimes?

How many times have we bowed our heads in disgust and confusion when yet ANOTHER parent, especially a mother, is charged with brutally killing her own children?

How many times do we dismiss or discount something right in front of us because to accept the true REALITY of the situation is just too horrifying?

I know MANY, MANY, MANY people that rationalize and justify their disinterest in other people's problems and pain and some even CONTRIBUTE to it by gossiping, being difficult and otherwise making "light" of someone else's struggles. And, we don't even have to use REALITY to see this. Go hop over to the "Breaking Bad" message board or the "Monk" message board and read all the ignorant and ridiculous comments about "retarded" people.

People want and need to feel that they are the STANDARD by which they have the right to judge everyone else. And, in doing so, it means they HAVE to dismiss or discount or outright ignore anything that brings their viewpoint (on whatever topic) into question.

A big green monster that appears over ten feet tall is too scary to imagine. He HAD to come from "somewhere else." And, if he could come from the nice, calm, pleasant demeanor average height guy of medium build, NOBODY on the planet can be seen as "safe" and "okay."

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"Can we all just parachute down from Cloud Coo-coo Land?" Jimmy-Better Call Saul

Thugs have to throw him behind something so they can't see him transform so the show wouldn't ruined if people knew.

There is a lot bull like McGee being the only one who believes the Hulk exists, no one doing anything about the Hulk ramping everywhere like the police etc.

The whole superhero dual identity no one can know doesn't seem to fit with the Hulk because he's harder to keep a secret, how hard would it be to keep you can change into a ramping monster a secret? look at the comic nearly everyone knows he's the Hulk.

This was especially obvious to me in the season 1 episode "The Beast Within." Here's this drifter asking Dr. Baxter about David Banner's work, and she's even suspicious about how he knows so much about Banner. Then the Hulk is spotted wearing the tattered shirt of one of the zoo's groundskeepers, and they still can't put 2 and 2 together.