http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barrel_small.jpg
To show that a character is in such dire financial straits that he's literally "lost his shirt", the otherwise naked character will resort to [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barrel.jpg wearing a large barrel]] held up with suspenders. Primarily seen in cartoons. This image probably came from a punishment for public drunkenness in Germany and England, where drunks had to wear a booze barrel. It's unclear how barrel wearing became associated with bankruptcy, but the trope stuck.

----
'''Examples:'''

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Although no one wears it, there is the barrel in the neighbourhood of ''ElChavoDelOcho'' where the titular Chavo seems to live in.
* Mentioned in an episode of ''{{Seinfeld}}''. Elaine finds out the man she's dating is poor, and Jerry asks, "Does he wear the barrel with the straps?"

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

* Appeared in one short ''{{Dilbert}}'' arc. "Our new dress-code is barrels."
* Long ago, {{Popeye}} managed to beat the Sea Hag at gambling so badly she ended up wearing one of these.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* In {{Sierra}}'s ''Jones In The Fast Lane'', failing to buy new clothes for your character every once in a while will eventually cause the character to resort to wearing a barrel.
* There was a gambler in the first ''JakAndDaxter'' game that lost all his winnings, and for some orbs, he'll hand over your PlotCoupons.
** Mild degrees of discomfort can result when he hands you the coupon he's keeping ''inside'' the barrel.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Fruhlinger The Comics Curmudgeon]] references the trope and its usage in [[http://joshreads.com/?p=1796 this installment]] of '''SixChix''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* In ''[[http://www.kevinandkell.com/1999/kk1111.html Kevin And Kell]]'', when Kell's mother Elanor loses her life savings day-trading, she suddenly goes from wearing a coat composed of live minks to a barrel.
* In ''ThePrincessPlanet'', Princess Christi and her snowman friend [[http://www.theprincessplanet.com/2005/02/23/skeletons-and-treeple/ briefly wear barrels]] after losing at StripPoker, but Christi later has to cover her nudity with leaves.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Referenced in the opening theme to ''{{Freakazoid}}''; the lyrics "So stay tuned to this station / If not, we'll be unemployed" is accompanied by several characters from the show wearing barrels.
* In the episode of ''{{Futurama}}'', "Raging Bender", one of the robots Bender fights as part of his stint as an Ultimate Robot Fighter is a rich looking robot. Bender seals his victory by forcing a barrel onto him labeled "very poor".
* In ''HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw'' Harvey is called out of court by Gigi to buy her things. After a shopping montage, he returns to the court wearing a barrel.
* In the first part of the ''ChipAndDaleRescueRangers'' pilot, main villain Aldrin Klordane's lackey Percy is seen wearing a barrel, but not because he's flat broke, but because the police dog Plato tore off the bottom of his pants.
** He's actually wearing a cardboard box.
* Spoofed in an old Goofy cartoon: After playing poker, Goofy is seen wearing a barrel, holding it up with both hands. He then hails a taxicab and, in a brilliant subversion, empties the barrel- full to the brim with his winnings- into it.
* A ''GarfieldAndFriends'' episode depicting Garfield's take on the ArabianNights had Jon playing the part of a young artisan with Garfield as "[[ParodyNames Alley Katta]]" in a town overrun by thieves. At the start, Jon went out to get a job with the Sultan declaring that "[[TemptingFate I have nothing left to lose]]" and, of course, ran back in the room a second later wearing a barrel. Garfield commented that "we'd better jump the story ahead before someone steals the barrel." (Jon [[SnapBack got his clothes back in the next shot]].)
----
<<|AnimatedTrope|>>
<<|MoneyTropes|>>
<<|AddedAlliterativeAppeal|>>