[[quoteright:332:[[YokuWakaruGendaiMahou http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yokuwakaru_bedsheet.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:332:She does this ''really fast'']]
A nude character gets out of bed and wraps up in a sheet pulled from the bed to avoid exposing nudity to a sex-partner and, coincidentally, to the viewer.

Somebody, somewhere, may have actually done this in real life. Once. Maybe. It's of course largely illogical, as they've already seen you completely naked. Of course, it's equally illogical when a character is actually all ''alone''--although a chilly bedroom might a possible explanation.

Also, when a man and a woman are nude in bed together, the sheet falls to the man's waist but covers the woman's bust. Somebody in TV land must be buying L-shaped sheets. This version of the trope is also known as the ''His 'n' Hers Bedsheet''.

Another way to serve the same purpose is to leave the actress' bra on (which is probably just as rare in real life as dragging the sheet off with you). Sarah Jessica Parker was criticized during the run of ''SexAndTheCity'' for relying on these techniques to avoid topless scenes, which her co-stars did.

Note also that women are rarely on top; it's harder to shoot a woman on top without showing her breasts. Missionary position is TV-friendly. The ModestyBedsheet covers both partners in this position, and allows for lascivious hip churning while never actually showing anything explicit.

However, in somewhat more liberal shows, the female superior position becomes more common, shot from behind with a convenient bed sheet hiding anything you can't show on television. It seems to be a visual metaphor to indicate that this is much hotter and more passionate lovemaking than the plain old missionary position (and to suggest that the director is being risqué) while not showing anything more erotic than a bare back. [[SexyBack Although that can be pretty erotic...]]

There is also "Magic Boxers/Knickers", where after a night of passion, a character gets out of bed with their underwear on.

Also occurs outside strictly sexual settings, when characters who really should be nude in the context keep their underwear on. Examples: a corpse on a slab in the morgue being nude except for the underpants, and bathing/showering with underwear or swimwear on, even when the character is alone.

While this is a censorship trope, it is also a FanService one- a woman wearing solely a bedsheet is, well, a woman [[TheissTitillationTheory wearing solely a bedsheet]]...

See also: PeekABoo, ModestyTowel, ModestyRags.
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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime ]]

* ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' has a scene where Tamaki rises from his bed suddenly and the sheet seems to just follow him up, wrapping him much like a Greek god. [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Twins.jpg]]
**This is partially a parody, as the scene takes place in Tamaki's imagination.
* Also parodied in ''PuniPuniPoemi'', with what looks like a sex scene entirely covered by bedsheets, with legs randomly sticking out at the sides. When the sheets are pulled back, both participants are shown to be fully clothed and holding mannequin legs on sticks.
** The same technique is used in FullmetalAlchemist: It was just Hawkeye getting her feet licked by Black Hayate, causing her to make the strangely sexual giggling.
* In ''{{Monster}}'', [[http://www.onemanga.com/Monster/45/05/ Eva uses one.]]
* The second ED animation of RosarioToVampire shows [[http://images1.fanpop.com/images/photos/2600000/Rosario-Vampire-moka-rosario-vampire-2641895-1920-1200.jpg Moka using one]].
* Yumiko from ''YokuWakaruGendaiMahou'' twirls with extreme speed to wrap her sheet around her, right before the [[FetishFuel viewer expects]] [[MaleGaze to see]] [[FanService more]].
* Yanagi Sakoshita uses this in the anime adaptation of FlameOfRecca.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* The fact that Todd and Damon did this in ''Manhunter'' came in handy for them when Todd's father walked in on them.
* In one issue of {{Preacher}}, Jesse and Tulip are in bed, with the Modesty Bedsheet partially avoided: it covers them both below the waist, and we get to see Tulip topless. At the same time, the comic shies away from showing actual genitalia.
* In at least one issue of {{Superman}}, Lois Lane and her husband reunite passionately. Afterward, Lois makes use of a Modesty ''Cape.''
* Used in the "Across Diamond Seas" story arch for ''Xanadu''. Alicia modestly covers herself with a bedsheet when she comes to in the presence of the kirin who "rescued" her. (Long story there.) She later uses the sheet as a make-shift dress until the kirin offers her more suitable clothing. Oddly enough, Alicia didn't seem that concerned with modesty in the "Thief of Hearts" story arch.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* In ''America's Sweethearts'', whose two lead characters end up sleeping together, the next morning not only is there the bedsheet, but both characters are partly dressed.
*Curiously subverted in ''{{Amelie}}'' where it freely shows topless women (including a scene where one of the participants is dancing in a peep show, and a montage featuring fifteen couples (and in one case, a multiple) as the woman reaches orgasm). In the shot featuring the titular heroine having sex, it's missionary position - for the explicit purpose of showing her *face*, as she tries not to burst out laughing at the moaning, thrusting man working away on top of her.
** More an aversion actually - being a French film, there's less pressure for this kind of censorship trope.
*** Try none. The only country in which nudity censorship arguably is even less of a fuss is Holland.
* Used in the ''IronMan'' movie, where Tony Stark's one-night stand wakes up and--possibly out of confusion and not knowing just who's going to walk in--grabs a sheet when [=JARVIS=] wakes her up.
** Partially justified in that her clothes had been taken to be cleaned, so she didn't have a choice for a cover up in a room with such a huge window.
* In the Stephen Chow vehicle ''Tricky Brains'', his character at one point wears a tan body-suit to a business meeting in a restaurant on which is written the characters for "I am naked."
* Averted in the George Romero ''DawnOfTheDead'', where the [[{{Chiaroscuro}} lighting]] and body position of the woman was used to obscure her chest area.
* Lampshaded in ''BridgetJones: The Edge of Reason'', when Bridget is getting out of bed trying to cover herself with the bedsheet, and her bedmate points out that it's a silly thing to do because "I've already seen your wobbly-bits". She promptly decides to drop the sheet.
* Probably lampshaded in AmazonWomenOnTheMoon when the buxom Corinne Wahl's breasts fill the screen for several minutes prior to moderately explicit sex scene... when the sketch abruptly becomes a caught-cheating drama, they are never again seen, hidden behind the obligatory bedsheet.
* One subversion used in film ('Running Scared', 'The Big Easy'), is where the woman wears a bedsheet to feign modesty in front of a visitor, not her sex partner. She is covered in the front while facing the visitor, but the audience get some fanservice because her rear end is uncovered in the back. This might need its own trope. Hmm.
* Averted in ''Crazy/Beautiful''
* Averted in ''Mississippi Masala''. When it shows Meena and Demetrius in bad after they have sex, they are both covered up by the sheet. Then, when Meena's father's friends knock on their hotel door, Demetrius gets up and pulls some pants on, but you can tell he's not wearing underwear. Then they barge in and Meena gets up and covers herself with a sheet, and it is obvious that she is naked under the sheet.
*In the movie ''{{Holes}}'' Stanley showers in his swimming trunks... probably [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the fact that he thought they were all under constant surveilance.
* Shower shorts are a plot point of ''The Devil's Playground'' (1976), where seminary students are required to keep their bodies covered at all times. Dormitory scenes show the boys showering in swim trunks and dressing under bathrobes. The movie also averts the trope by showing the most prudish brother changing at a public pool.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''VeronicaMars'': "Mars, Bars". When we find Mac in bed with her boyfriend, the sheet covers him at the waist, though she has the sheet cinched tight clear up to her neck.
* It may just be me, but it seemed like this happened all the time with Buffy and Spike in Season 6 of ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.
* Subverted and lampshaded in ''Arrested Development'' by the character Tobias, who suffers from a personality disorder ("Never Nude") that requires him to wear a pair of tiny denim cut-off shorts at all times: in the shower, under his swimsuit, in bed, etc... ([[FridgeLogic And yet, the fact that he has multiple pairs suggests he changes them somehow...]])
** The irony is that his cutoffs are tight enough that he still frequently inadvertently exposes himself to his bunkmate George Michael (don't ask) and eventually gets his naughty parts broadcast on national TV.
** Well his condition is that he can never be naked, not specifically that he has to wear cutoffs. Maybe he changes them while wearing a shirt or something.
* The "showering with underpants" version is [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] in an episode of ''{{Scrubs}}'', where JD garners some odd looks for his Shower Shorts ("For the man who has nothing to hide- but still wants to!")
* A series two episode of ''{{Torchwood}}'' [[spoiler: Features the "Magic Knickers" variation. Gwen has just had sex with her hubby Rhys and somehow managed to get her knickers back on before falling asleep (face down- she appears not be wearing anything else)]]
*The pilot of HowIMetYourMother has an especially glaring example - Marshall and Lily some how manage to have sex on the kitchen floor [[RightThroughHisPants without losing any clothing...]]
*In the ''{{Firefly}}'' episode Heart of Gold, Mal and the ex-Companion Nandi have sex in the female dominant position with a Modesty Bedsheet covering most of the action, but exposing Nandi's back.
** Wash and Zoe also use one when they're in bed together (during "Shindig" and "Objects in Space")-- in "Shindig" this sheet just ''happens'' to be laying over Zoe's body in such a way that it covers anything potentially inappropriate but leaves the length of her legs exposed. (Of course, considering they're Wash's favorite part of her body...)
*** Well, there and where her legs meet her back... actually, that whole area...
**The opening to "Objects in Space" shows River sleeping naked, but she has a bedsheet covering her breasts. SummerGlau fans are ''most'' incensed.
* In an episode of {{House}}, the patient and his girlfriend start off the episode with a [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean bang]] - while still mostlly dressed.
* In police procedural shows like {{NCIS}} and {{CSI}}, the morgue bodies are often naked, but with very bright lamps directed on the naughty bits (thereby rendering them flat white), giving a sense of realism while appeasing the censors.
* In the first episode of {{Secret Diary of a Call Girl}}, the main character appears to keep her g-string on during sex. Actual nudity didn't appear until the third episode.
* On ''TheRiches'' [[spoiler: Didi and her boyfriend]] use the Magic Knickers and bra/Boxers version despite just having had sex.
* Lampshaded in a generic soap-opera parody sketch on ''SaturdayNightLive'', when anyone standing up in a post-coital bedroom scene would take the sheet with them ''without even having to use their hands'' (it was very obviously attached to the respective actor's undergarments in each scene).
* Averted in TrueBlood, for instance when Jason and Amy wake up together [[spoiler:after tripping on V-drink]].
* Subverted in {{Lost}} with [[spoiler:James and Juliette]]: when they wake up in the morning and he gets up to pick up the phone, he has a shirt on, and she, while having nothing top-region on, keeps lying with her back up (while half-asleep, so this even looks genuine). It's a shame that a mere couple of seconds later this trope is played straight when she gets up and pulls the sheets up along with her.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Music ]]

* In the steamy video for her 1993 single "Soon", Tanya Tucker is wrapped in a bedsheet except for the scenes where she's shown in bed thrashing around with her lover.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Videogames ]]

* Happens a couple times in ''{{Xenogears}}'', when Miang and [[spoiler: Elhaym]] make sweet love to Ramsus and [[spoiler: Fei]] respectively. Ramsus is revealed to be wearing Magic Briefs when he gets up for a walk, while Miang is happy to drop it and show her SexyBack to the camera a couple minutes later...and her front to Grahf on the other side. Elly, on the other hand, does the whole "sitting up in bed with the sheet pulled up over her breasts" schtick.
* TheSims2 has the Magic Briefs version; whenever a pair of Sims [[UnusualEuphemism WooHoo]], they switch clothes to their underwear while under the sheets.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

*This troper saw an advert for a Shakespearean play which doubly subverted this trope: it featured a nude man whose parts were covered by a long shirt tied around his waist, and a nude woman who covered her entire torso with a ''handkerchief''. I kid you not.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* Used without apparent irony in ''What Birds Know'', [[http://whatbirdsknow.atspace.com/wbk190.htm here]] and [[http://whatbirdsknow.atspace.com/wbk191.htm here]].
* DominicDeegan [[http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=07-13-2008 also bought one]].
* [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0622.html This]] OrderOfTheStick comic.
* Parodied in [[http://peet.wordpress.com/2007/08/11/negative-space-26-sheet-rule/ Lost in Negative Space]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Parodied (of course) in ''TheSimpsons'', with Homer's chest covered by the L-shaped sheet and Marge relying on strategically placed arms.
** Another time, Homer barged in on Ned Flanders in the bath. When asked about the swim trunks he was wearing, Ned says that they are there so he won't have to see his own "shrinky-dink."
*** In a later episode, "shrinky" is shown to be quite an understatment.
*In the SouthPark Episodes ''Go God Go'' & ''Go God Go XII,'' when Richard Dawkins and Ms Garrison have sex, a bedsheet covers where all the "action" is.
**In Season 4, when Cartman's house is destroyed, a beam covers where Liane and [[UnfortunateNames Bill Cosby]] are having traditional sex.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Truth In Television ]]

* Although in real life it tends to be a "negative body image bedsheet" rather than a ModestyBedsheet ''per se''.
** Or, in some cases, a "heat tolerance bedsheet".
*** Or, in this troper's case, a "who left the curtains open" bedsheet.
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