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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doof_singing.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[LampshadeHanging "Oh, they're union. They travel."]]]]
->''"What do you go for,\\
Go see a show for?\\
Tell the truth, you go to see those beautiful dames."''
-->-- ''Film/{{Dames}}'', title song

'''''[[Music/MotleyCrue GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!]]'''''

Often, one MsFanservice is not enough. So, a show may fill itself to the brim with sexy young ladies in {{Stripperiffic}} costumes. Having a chorus of showgirls with CurvesInAllTheRightPlaces dance with plenty of wiggles and [[PantyShot high kicks]], flamboyant costumes, and complex choreography helps keep the men in the audience entertained. A kick line also adds some flair to the LastChorusSlowDown.

This was fairly common in earlier musicals, back in the days when the target audience member was the proverbial "tired businessman" (nowadays, he would go to a strip club). Thus the horror whenever someone in ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster'' set their sights on "a chorus girl". In some historical fiction, "chorus girl" is a censor-friendly stand-in for TheOldestProfession. For example, in Westerns, the gunslinger may have a one-night stand with a chorus girl from the saloon.

A SisterTrope to LovelyAssistant, and the most essential component of the BusbyBerkeleyNumber. AlwaysFemale, unless maybe a DragQueen shows up.

Compare the JiggleShow (the women are actually the stars of the show, rather than decoration).

''[[TropeCo/ChorusGirls This item]] is available in the TropeCo/TropeCo catalog.''
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

%%[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
%%* The all girls episode of ''Anime/ExcelSaga''.
%%* All the cheerleaders, with the exception of the protagonist's love interest, in ''Manga/Eyeshield21''.
%%[[/folder]]

[[folder:Arts]]
* A popular subject in Creator/HenriDeToulouseLautrec's paintings, which frequently depicted high-kicking chorus girls doing the can-can.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'': Miss Kitty's musical number [[http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=e2IctxaCPqw "Let Me Be Good to You"]] features two backup dancers. They are Kitty's twin sisters with a beauty mark.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'': "Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart" features French Chorus Girls who {{Squee}}, bare their shoulders, and ruffle their skirts to make Creator/HenriDeToulouseLautrec proud.
%%* Done in a GenderSwap in the film ''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance'' when Darla Dimple summons a flock of Chorus Men in her song Big And Loud.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
%%* ''[[Film/TheBirdcage La Cage Aux Folles]]'' has ChorusGirls who are mostly {{transvestite}}s.
%%** As does The Film of The Musical of The Film, ''Film/TheBirdcage''.
* In ''Film/TheProducers'' the flamboyant stage director takes the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII drama ''SpringtimeForHitler'' and turns it into a musical, complete with goose-stepping chorus girls.
** And before that, in the song "[[IWantSong I Wanna Be a Producer]]," "beautiful girls [[FanService wearing nothing but pearls]]" dance around Leo.
* Creator/BusbyBerkeley made a career out of this. Berkeley was a director/choreographer of musical numbers so iconic that they're called {{Busby Berkeley Number}}s. His trademark numbers would feature dozens and dozens of chorus girls, always in skimpy costumes and sometimes in downright {{Stripperific}} costumes, filling the whole screen as they danced in intricate, complex geometric patterns. The title number of ''Film/{{Dames}}'' (quoted above) is a typical example, not only performed by ChorusGirls but sung in praise of them.
%%* The Sharpettes in ''Film/HighSchoolMusical 2''.
* ''Film/LadiesOfTheChorus'', the first big role of Creator/MarilynMonroe. It's the job of both her character and her mother (played by Adele Jergens), as if [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the title wasn't self-explanatory]].
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** [[GlamorousWartimeSinger The USO showgirls]] during the "Star-Spangled Man" musical sequence in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''. Since Cap's suit is [[WearingAFlagOnYourHead based on the US flag]], the girls wear [[SexyWhateverOutfit skimpy flag-based dresses]]. When Cap performs for some rowdy front line soldiers, they boo him off the stage in favour of seeing the girls instead.
** ''Film/IronMan2'' opens with Tony Stark jumping out of a plane and landing onstage at the Stark Expo where there's a line of girls in [[SexyWhateverOutfit skimpy "Iron Man" costumes]] dancing behind him.
%%* ''Film/FrenchCancan.'' In particular, the [[DoubleEntendre climactic]] performance that ends the movie. Differs from the Sinatra/[=MacLaine=] CAN-CAN and the ''Film/MoulinRouge'' movies in that we see the long (and grueling!) process necessary to learn this high-energy dance.
%%* ''Film/{{Chicago}}'': the number "All I Care About" uses the trope. Also "Cell Block Tango", with added raunch.
* ''Film/MoulinRouge'': The titular location has a troop of these known as the "Diamond Dogs" who appear throughout the movie as backing dancers in the musical numbers. Each one wears a themed costume meant to reflect a specific {{Fanservice}} archetype.
* In ''Film/{{Stonewall|1995}}'' the Stonewall patrons form a kickline and chant taunts at the police.
* ''Film/MurderAtTheVanities'': It's a [[TheMusicalMusical musical musical]] ''filled'' with chorus girls, wearing {{Stripperific}} costumes, or wearing lingerie, or, most unbelievably, topless with HandOrObjectUnderwear. In fact, they are billed first in the credits collectively as "The Most Beautiful Girls In The World" (this was an actual tag line from the actual stage show the film is based on). Ann's first song in the show is a whole number about the chorus girls called "Where Do They Come From (and Where Do They Go)?".
* ''Film/SchindlersList'': At the start of the film, Oskar Schindler attends a party where a trio of [[LegFocus leggy]] dancers entertain the guests.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'': In The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, Flora Miller, a [[WomanScorned former lover]] of the titular Lord Robert St. Simon, worked as a dancer at the Allegro Theatre in London.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': Parodied in ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Starfighters of Adumar]]'', when eternal prankster Wes Janson gets a cloak composed of flexible flat-panel monitors. One of the animations it displays is a chorus line of (fully clothed) Jansons.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Angel}}''. In "[[Recap/AngelS04E03TheHouseAlwaysWins The House Always Wins]]", Lorne is working as a singer in Las Vegas, backed by a bevy of 'Lornettes' [[CastTheExpert played by actual Vegas chorus girls]] who worked out their own performance for the act.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
%%** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E4DaleksInManhattan "Daleks in Manhattan"]] features a group of them, but it's not that revealing.
** The Colonel's flashback in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E7TheUnicornAndTheWasp "The Unicorn and the Wasp"]] shows him looking at GenteelInterbellumSetting erotica and going into a flashback-within-a-flashback of some cancan dancers, [[UnreliableVoiceover while claiming he was reading military memoirs and reminiscing about the Boer War]]. This time, it actually is pretty revealing.
--->'''The Doctor:''' Colonel, snap out of it!... No, no, ''right'' out of it!
* When ''Series/HaveIGotNewsForYou'' moved to [=BBC1=], they opened their first episode by promising the show wouldn't change. This was followed by a line of chorus girls kicking their way across the set to burlesque music. (On the "Very Best of HIGNFY" DVDCommentary, Paul Merton calls this "a poor idea, badly executed." Ian Hislop: "I'm glad it's in, then.")
%%* The Juggy dancers from ''Series/TheManShow''. "And now, girls jumping on trampolines!"
%%* An episode of ''[[Series/TheSuiteLifeofZackandCody Suite Life On Deck]]'' fetures chorus girls including the two female leads, London and Bailey dressing up and joining them.
%%* Appeared on ''Series/TopGear'' to welcome Richard Hammond back to the show. He found them more embarrassing than titillating, which was of course the entire point.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* 1970s French singer Music/ClaudeFrancois surrounded himself with 4 to 6 female dancers in his performances. They were nicknamed the "Claudettes".
%%* ''Music/MotleyCrue'' [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] this with their song "Girls, Girls, Girls," which is an ode to various strip clubs the band has visited over the years.
* The "Yay! Boo!" Song {which doesn't actually have any music], reproduced here in its entirety: Eight dancing girls-- (Yay!) --wearing sixteen costumes-- (Boo!) --made of CELLOPHANE! (Yay!!!)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* ''Theatre/TheWizardOfOz1902'' may be the TropeCodifier, as the show added chorus girls and bragged in its advertising "GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!"
%%* [[Theatre/{{Spamalot}} Fetchez la Can-Can dancers!]] Also the Laker Girls (a parody of the Los Angeles Lakers' cheerleader squad), the Grail Girls, and the CampGay male chorus during Lancelot's coming out ceremony.
%%* The Bird Girls from ''Theatre/{{Seussical}} the Musical''.
%%* ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' has this in various places. Billy Flynn is surrounded by them when he sings "All I Care About Is Love". Roxie, conversely, summons up a flock of handsome 'boys' to accompany her for "Roxie".
%%* The musical adaptation of ''Theatre/LilAbner'' couldn't get away with not using them, since they were in the comic strip as well.
* ''Theatre/OfTheeISing'' has the candidates for First Lady of the United States parading about the Atlantic City boardwalk in bathing suits. The press corps takes careful aim with their cameras at the girls' knee dimples.
%%* The [[ShowWithinAShow Hot Box]] Dolls in ''Theatre/GuysAndDolls''.
%%* ''Theatre/TheMerryWidow'' has six named ones: Lolo, Dodo, Jou-Jou, Frou-Frou, Clo-Clo and [[OddNameOut Margot]].
%%* ''Theatre/BananaShpeel'', Cirque du Soleil's GenreThrowback to {{Vaudeville}}, had plenty of these.
* In its time, ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}!'' was notable for not bringing on Chorus Girls for {{Fanservice}}, instead keeping the female ensemble modestly dressed. That is, until the DreamBallet brought into action a few gaudy dancing girls like those featured in Jud's magazines.
* Discussed in ''Theatre/{{Carousel}}''. Sometime after the TimeSkip, Carrie reports that her husband took her to an "extravaganza" while in New York, but the sight of "twelve hussies with nothin' on their legs but tights" offended his puritanical sensibilities so much that he immediately hustled her out of the theatre. She went back, though.
%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdn5Qj8LXy0 "A Whole Lotta Locomotion"]] from the second U.S. tour of ''Theatre/StarlightExpress'', to the horror of the long-term fans.
%%* ''Theatre/KissMeKate''.
%%* The backing dancers during 'Fat Bottomed Girls' in ''Theatre/WeWillRockYou''
%%* The Fandango girls in ''Theatre/PaintYourWagon'', who are outnumbered four to one by the men.
%%* The first act of ''Modern Luv'', whose dancers also include a CampGay male. Averted in the second act, where they wear modest Amish outfits.
%%* The Chameleon Girls in ''Film/{{Flashdance}}: The Musical''.
* ''Film/SecondhandLions: The Musical'' has the Bollywood-influenced Oujda harem girls during flashback scenes.
* ''Theatre/{{Fiorello}}'' brings on a batch of chorus girls to tap-dance to "Gentleman Jimmy." (The RealLife Jimmy Walker was famous for having affairs with chorus girls.)
* In the stage adaptation of ''Theatre/TheLittleMermaid'', the dancing "sea creatures" during "Under the Sea" have showgirl-style costumes.
%%* In ''Theatre/PeterAndTheStarcatcher'', the second act opens with the mermaids' {{Vaudeville}}-style song-and-dance number, which often parodies this trope.
* UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} in ''Theatre/ReeferMadnessTheMusical'' is always accompanied by a line of sexy angels who act as his background dancers and backup singers. In some productions, a few male ones may be thrown in as well -- or at least two ChippendalesDancers who are capable of lifting him (like in the movie).
* In Webber's ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', Christine is a member of the ballet chorus, and is dressed like a BeautifulSlaveGirl when we first see her. When the ballet mistress suggests her to the Paris Opera's new owners as a possible last-minute replacement for Carlotta, one of them responds, "The chorus girl?" in a tone of utter disbelief.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Parodied in ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' musical number "The War Song", as [[TheComicallySerious Agent Superball]] dances in various Busby formations. His kicks aren't that high, but what do you expect in a [[TheMenInBlack standard black suit]]?
* Elise the Spider Queen from ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has the Can-Can for her /dance emote. She even does it in a chorus line with her spiderling minions when she transforms into her giant spider form.
* This shows up in a ''spectacular'' fashion partway through VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake. During the rescue mission in Wall Market (the game's somewhat sleezy LasVegas analog) our hero Cloud is 'noticed' by Andrea Rhodea, the man in charge of the Honey-Bee Inn, a popular sit-down Burlycue & LoveHotel venue; Upon Cloud & Aerith's arrival, they get ushered into an impressive chorerographed musical number with dozens of Honey-Bee Inn girls and guys, helping to establish the mood & vibe immediately just before Cloud's DanceOff MiniGame with Rhodea.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In general, Doofenshmirtz's songs in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' tend to have a large number of backup singers wearing sexy outfits relevant to the song (as pictured above). Other characters have used them in songs as well; clearly, "sexy backup dancer" is a lucrative job in Danville. {{Lampshaded}} on a few occasions when Doofenshmirtz is shown paying the dancers for their gig; they're all in fact working professionals who [[WeirdTradeUnion demand union scale]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' episode "A Christmas Plotz", Yakko's song as the Ghost of Christmas Future is set on a stairway lined with chorus girls. Of course, Yakko flirts with them throughout the song.
-->'''Yakko''': [=HellOOOOOOOOOO=], nurses! Say how's about we go back to the water tower and you can look at my stamp collection?
-->'''Chorus girl''': But, Yakko, you don't ''have'' a stamp collection.
-->'''Yakko''': Well, then, you can open my mail.
* The opening sequence to ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' feature the Griffin family dancing up a flight of stairs lined by high-kicking chorus girls. For the first few seasons these were anonymous characters, but after a few years, they became recognizable as female characters from the show. [[CouchGag A variation of the sequence]] in one episode has Peter lose his footing, fall down the stairs and land on one of the dancers, crushing her to death. Another episode has a dancer confront Peter out of character about an affair and claim that Peter is the father of her child; she is never heard from again.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRomanceOfBettyBoop'': Betty Boop performs as one at the Club Bubbles. The other girls quit, so Betty had to perform on her own.
* ''WesternAnimation/BanjoTheWoodpileCat'': Zazu, Melina and Cleo are a G-rated version of this trope. The trio performs for other cats and helps Banjo find his way home.
[[/folder]]
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