Or there was just no joke at all and the brother was so devastated by his twins death, that he considered his life wasted. Idk if that shit would have worked as a functional joke on kid me. They would have to look exactly the same with facial hair and all for this to work on a kid.
Twins can be very close, especially as a kid with no concept of twins or sense to pick out distinctive details.
My father has a twin brother who lives far away, with the most obvious difference between them that my father generally keeps a beard. One night, when my Dad shaved and came to tuck me into bed, he was met with an “Uncle so and so, when did you get here?”.
Of course now as an adult, I’d be able to tell them apart no problem, even if they did dress and style the same. I’ve observed their mannerisms and minor cosmetic marks with a keener eye as an adult. But as a young kid who couldn’t even clearly tell his own father from his twin, I find a kid being unable to recognize a chance encounter he wasn’t expecting very believable.