[[quoteright:350:[[Series/TheAvengers1960s https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/weapon_avengers_steed21_9379.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Tipping optional.]]

A bowler hat, or derby, is a rounded felt hat commonly worn from the 1850s to the [[TheRoaringTwenties early]]-to-[[TheFifties mid-1900s]], especially in UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain and TheWildWest. They were invented as a more compact alternative to a top hat, with the small size, round shape, and harder materials being selected for their original purpose -- protecting riders' heads for equestrian country sports (which frequently involved going through trees or simply falling off one's horse). Bowler hats were once considered the national hat of England, and used to be associated with the upper-middle class there, especially with bankers, in the early half of the 20th century.

You can count on a character who wears a bowler hat to be refined (unless, say, he's a villain in a [[TheWestern western]]). In fact, he might even wear a [[HighClassGlass monocle]] to show his [[BuffySpeak culturedness]]. The bowler hat hung on in the City of London into [[TheSixties the 1960s]]. In the early 1960s, new recruits to some City law firms got an allowance for the purposes of buying a bowler. A lesser known fact about them (amongst non-wearers) is that they're quite hard (because of both the heavy felt and the shape), which meant that construction foremen (or businessmen visiting a construction site) would sometimes wear them instead of hard hats.

Compare and contrast DastardlyDapperDerby, although they can overlap- see WickedCultured.

Compare SharpDressedMan, QuintessentialBritishGentleman, ManOfWealthAndTaste.
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Advertising ]]
* Lucky the Leprechaun, the mascot for UsefulNotes/GeneralMills' Lucky Charms cereal, wears a green bowler with a shamrock stuck in it. While not evil, he is a trickster.
* The British bank Bradford & Bingley portrayed its two namesakes as bowler-hatted city gents. Eventually, its logo became a stylised version of the hat itself.
* Likewise there was a period when the symbol of the UK Inland Revenue was a stereotyped taxman in pinstripe suit and bowler.
* If you grew up with the original version of Creator/ChuckECheese, then you may have seen Chuck himself always donning his signature red derby on his head.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Speedwagon of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood'' initially appears as a roguish street tough wearing one of these ([[WeaponizedHeadgear with saw blades in the brim!]]), making it a DastardlyDapperDerby. However, [[DefeatMeansFriendship after getting his ass kicked by Jonathan and being charmed by the Joestar's wholesome nature]] his hat ends up this trope instead before he replaces it.
* ''Anime/KatriGirlOfTheMeadows'': Pekka wears a wears a two-pointed bowler hat. Given it's shape and colour, it's likely a reference to Snufkin from ''Franchise/TheMoomins'' (bonus points for both ''Katri'' and ''The Moomins'' being from UsefulNotes/{{Finland}}).
* ''Anime/LucyMayOfTheSouthernRainbow'': Lucy's brother Ben wears one. Justified as it's 1800s Australia and it was a popular fashion statement in England, where the Popple family is from.
* ''Manga/MoriartyThePatriot'': William wears a bowler hat for the first time in the series in New York, after beginning his RedemptionQuestion, playing with the DastardlyDapperDerby but continuing his record of being a SharpDressedMan.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Art]]
* [[TheTreacheryOfImages Rene Magritte]] frequently drew men wearing bowler hats. For instance, in "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golconda_%28painting%29 Golconda]]", the sky above a city street is full of them. They appear to symbolise anonymity, which is why Magritte also wore one in RealLife.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] ComicBook/GreenLantern {{sidekick}} Doiby Dickles is named after his hat.
* ComicBook/RichieRich's butler, Cadbury, almost always wore a bowler hat in public.
* Bumbling look-a-like detectives Thompson and Thomson in ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}''.
* Timothy Aloysius Cadwallader "Dum Dum" Dugan of ''Comicbook/SgtFuryAndHisHowlingCommandos'' and ''Comicbook/{{SHIELD}}'' wears his corporal's stripes on the front of his signature bowler hat.
%% * Creator/JackKirby's Detective Dan Turpin from the ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' books always wears his signature derby, but far from being "refined," he's a big, burly, plain-spoken old tough guy, sometimes depicted with a Brooklyn accent.
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[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
* In the 1997 AnimatedAdaptation of ''Literature/PippiLongstocking'', petty thief Bloom wants an English bowler hat to make him look distinguished. For the same reason, his partner Thunder-Karlsson wants a GoldToothOfWealth. It's mainly to acquire these items that they set out to steal Pippi's stash of gold.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSteamEnginesOfOz'': The gentlemanly and heroic Phadrig Diggs--younger brother of the Wizard of Oz--always wears a bowler hat and a [[HighClassGlass monocle]]. He even sleeps in them.
%% * Mr. Potato Head in ''Franchise/ToyStory''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
%% * Seamus [=McFly=] in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII''.
* Curly of ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' always looked dapper in his "doiby".
%% * Creator/LaurelAndHardy were usually seen wearing these kinds
%% * Lou Costello of Creator/AbbottAndCostello often wore one of these.
* In ''Film/TheApartment'', CC Baxter buys himself a bowler after he gets his second promotion.
%% * Detective Sergeant Mendel (Creator/HarryAndrews) in ''Film/TheDeadlyAffair'' (based on John Le Carre's "Call for the Dead").
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Literature/SherlockHolmes's friend and biographer Dr. Watson is often portrayed with a bowler hat, as the QuintessentialBritishGentleman.
* Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic from ''Literature/HarryPotter'', was often described as having a lime green bowler.
* Sweyn embarrasses his brothers in ''Literature/TheGreatBrain Does It Again'' when he returns from high school back east wearing a derby hat along with a fancier, more grown-up, style suit than a boy his age would wear in Adenville.
* ''Literature/TheNightCircus'': Any time Marco ventures outside, he is wearing a dashing bowler from a line of seemingly identical hats that were in his flat when he moved in. Isobel looks for a bowler whenever she is expecting him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* John Steed's hat from ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' often has a steel plate built into the crown, useful for giving villains a quick clonk on the head.
%% * Lord Bowler (so named for his hat) in ''Series/TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr'' was the AntiHero to Brisco's hero.
%% * The Czechoslovakian character [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Tau Pan Tau]] usually wore [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Simanek a magic Bowler Hat.]]
* In the TV adaptation of ''Series/JeevesAndWooster'', Jeeves' hat of choice is bowler hat.
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' often used these as indicative of bankers and accountants. Probably the principal factor in the demise of the bowler hat was "Monty Python's Flying Circus"'s infamous sketch, "The Ministry Of Silly Walks", which commenced with John Cleese, in full Civil Service getup, including bowler hat, walking down Whitehall toward his office, doing an impression of a spider on a hotplate; for ever afterward, anyone foolhardy enough to venture out of doors wearing a bowler risked being accosted by idiots demanding that they do a Silly Walk.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': A Time Lord dressed to the nines, including a bowler hat, appears in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E1TerrorOfTheAutons Terror of the Autons]]" as a messenger from the High Council, warning the Doctor that TheMaster [[HarbingerOfImpendingDoom was coming to Earth]].
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[[folder:Music]]
%% * Jazz singer-pianist Fats Waller had one of these as a trademark.
* ChapHop star Music/MrBTheGentlemanRhymer often sports a stylish derby.
%% * Calan frontman Beth Williams-Jones often wears this type of hat for live shows.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Snoopy of ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' wears one of these when he's donning his "World Famous Attorney" persona.
[[/folder]]

%%[[folder:Pinball]]
%% * Worn by nearly all the men in ''Pinball/TheChampionPub''.
%%[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* The protagonists of ''Radio/TheMenFromTheMinistry'' wear nice, black bowler hats, as do all civil servants in the show.
[[/folder]]

%%[[folder:Theatre]]
%% * The protagonists of ''Theatre/WaitingforGodot'' wear black bowler hats, unless they need to think, with the exception of Lucky.
%%[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
%% * VideoGame/HenryHatsworth, a previous image source for the QuintessentialBritishGentleman page.
%% * Accessible as headgear in ''VideoGame/{{SSX}} 3''.
* The robot butler/companion Codsworth in ''[[VideoGame/{{Fallout4}} Fallout 4]]'' can't (or won't) wear any equipment in the game except for one of these. However he can no longer wear it if you modify him at all in the robot work bench.
* As a robot originally designed to be a gentleman butler for the affluent, Marquis from ''VideoGame/{{Battleborn}}'' wears a dandy looking derby as part of his ensemble.
* One of the smashingly classy alternate helmets available to [[GentlemanWizard Limbo]] in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' takes the shape of a derby hat with a strange [[CyberCyclops cycloptic]] 'monocole' in the middle of its face.
* A charmingly diminutive version appears in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' as the [[https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Tipped_Lid Tipped Lid]], originally given out to those who made charitable donations for the [[https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Tip_of_the_Hats Tip of the Hats]] event.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Mr Davenport, the Victorian-serial version of Dave in ''WebComic/{{Narbonic}}'', wears a bowler hat, and considers himself a gentleman.
* Pickle Inspector from ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'' wears a bowler hat, in contrast to Problem Sleuth and Ace Dick's fedoras. He's also the most gentlemanly of the three detectives
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
%% * Baron von Fogel of ''Theatre/TheLeagueOfSTEAM'' wears one.
* Janus from WebVideo/SandersSides sports one of these to complement his WickedCultured aesthetic. It's common for fanders to theorize that he's hiding something under it.
[[/folder]]

%%[[folder:Web Animation]]
%% * Homsar from ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' wears one, but he is more demented than dashing. Whenever he speaks, his bowler hat will actually fly off his head for a while until he stops talking.
%%[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The title character of ''WesternAnimation/MrBenn'' was always dressed in a black suit and bowler before changing into the costume that would transport him to that week's adventure. At the end of the episode, he would change back into his black suit and bowler hat.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
%% * Sir UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill
%% * Creator/CharlieChaplin
%% * [[Creator/LaurelAndHardy Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy]]
%% ** Stymie of ''Film/TheLittleRascals'' got his trademark derby from Stan himself, who had taken a liking to him.
[[/folder]]
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