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Comedic Underwear Exposure

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In his defense, most probably aren't expecting the wall to get breached when they're changing, either.

"I see London! I see France! I see [Insert Name Here]'s underpants!"
Traditional children's rhyme accompanying such an event

A Comedy Trope in which a character's underwear is exposed while other people are present, usually by accident, and much to their embarrassment. Generally involves Goofy Print Underwear or Uncool Undies. For extra embarrassment, the person might have their name written on their underwear. The primary use of this trope is comedy, catching a character in their most embarrassing state. Often this is the result of Defeat by Modesty. Fully-Clothed Nudity is the feeling this creates.

Compare Marilyn Maneuver for a specific situation in which this happens. Compare Panty Shot, which usually shows viewers up a girl's skirt while it's still up, but can overlap with this trope when said skirt is blown or flipped upward. In addition, Panty Shots are always played for Fanservice, while Comedic Underwear Exposure usually isn't. Compare Naked People Are Funny.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • In an Australian commercial for the cereal Cocopops, two brothers are fighting while the younger of the two sits at the kitchen table eating a bowl of Cocopops. As the older brother yells at him from across the room, the younger brother takes a big spoonful of Cocopops and crunches down hard on it, the force from which blows off all of the older brother's outerwear, leaving him standing in his tighty-whities. The older brother's embarrassment increases when his older sister walks around the corner with her friend, who giggles when she sees him in his undies.
  • Holeproof underwear: because one day, you're gonna get Caught with Your Pants Down. They're referring to Comedic Underwear Exposure, obviously, but even then...

    Anime & Manga 
  • Berserk: During a feast in Elfhelm, Isma drunkenly decides to show off her mer form without bothering to take off her clothes first. As a result her drawers end up caught on her tailfin and get plopped on the table for everyone to see.
  • Case Closed - while trying to make his getaway, Kid the Phantom Thief shoots some belt-choppers towards Ran, intending to cause a distraction via making his pants fall down, but gets Kogoro instead.
  • Chimidoro Ice Cream: Shion Nagatsuki is a "half-zombie" girl who needs doki dokinote  to keep her heart beating so she doesn't turn into a full zombie. In chapter 5, when she, Ema Tachibana, and Hinata Minegishi are crammed into a House of the Dead booth, Shion freaks out at the zombie carnage on-screen and slips into full zombie mode. She tries to snack on Hinata while the oblivious Ema continues playing the game ... until Ema whips the light gun up and accidentally hikes up Shion's skirt. The embarrassment of having her panties flashed is enough to make Shion's heart start beating again.
  • A frequent Running Gag in the Doraemon manga would have Nobita, Suneo or Gian losing their pants while in public, due to whatever gadget-of-the-week backfiring on the users. The very first Doraemon chapter in fact ends with Nobita trying to use the then-newly introduced Takecopter on his pants... only to slip out and land pantless in front of Shizuka. (An Early-Installment Weirdness in the manga, as later chapters would depict the Takecopter capable of functioning when used over caps, hoods, or other articles of clothing)
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Goku demonstrates this trope in his second fight with Tenshinhan by stealing the latter's belt. Though shocked at Goku's new speed, Ten tries to reassert control over the match by bragging about his new technique, which will make speed useless. The humiliation kicks in when Goku points out, yeah, but he should probably pull his pants up, and gives back the belt. Ten embarrassingly does so as the audience snickers.
    • Earlier during the General Blue saga in the anime, Krillin, whilst dangling over a lava pit, accidentally pulled Bulma’s short shorts down and exposed some strawberry patterned panties.
  • In Dragon Half, Mig is first defeated when the heroes (accidentally) expose his Teddy Bear undies. Vina later uses a picture of Mig in said undies as blackmail material.
  • Chapter 70 of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War opens with Kaguya and Fujiwara walking in on Ishigami while he's getting changed in the Student Council room, though it's initially framed to make it look like one of the girls is getting changed instead. Fujiwara proceeds to mock him for wearing briefs.
  • In Komodo no Jikan, the bratty Kuro holds down teacher Aoki's and accidentally pulls down his pants. With another student in front of him when it happens.
  • In One Piece during Alabasta arc Filler Chopper pulls the back of Sanji’s pants down to get his attention exposing love heart pattern boxers. Sanji also happened to flirting with two belly dancers when it happened.
  • In Reborn! (2004), Tsuna's basic Dying Will mode in early chapters/episodes made his clothes tear away, reducing him to his boxers.
  • Early in Slam Dunk, Sakuragi tries to stop Akagi from dunking over him by holding him down. He accidentally pulls down his pants in the process.
  • In Soul Eater, Lord Death picks up Rachel!Medusa by the back of her dress several times, exposing her pumpkin panties.

    Asian Animation 
  • Happy Heroes: In Season 3 episode 28, Big M. gives Little M. instructions to cut the electrical circuit inside a building. He cuts Big M.'s belt instead, exposing his underwear.
  • In one episode of Lamput taking place at a dance club, Lamput pretends to be an outfit on Fat Doc and the clothes grab the attention of women who think it looks cool. The episode ends with Lamput escaping while Fat Doc is in the middle of dancing, revealing his underwear.

    Comic Books 
  • In the Emmie And Friends: book Remarkably Ruby, Ruby trips over a backpack in the hallway and her skirt flies up, revealing the Phineas and Ferb-print underwear she's wearing—to both her and Mia's embarrassment. Mia ducks behind a locker as the students laugh at Ruby, one calling her underwear "toddler pants".
  • The Flash: Shortly after Wally West became The Flash, Alchemy disintegrated his costume (in public), saying he wasn't fit to wear it. Wally spent the rest of the fight in his boxers. (One little girl even starts saying the "I see London" rhyme.)
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen starts a chapter with Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain descending a ladder. For some reason, Mina thought it was a good idea to let Quatermain go first, despite the fact she's wearing a dress. Considering that in Vol. 2, they confess they've lusted after one another for ages, and then shag each other's brains out, you could call it foreshadowing...
  • Supergirl (Wednesday Comics): During the Super-Pets' rampage, one mailman is seen running away after Krypto has bitten his pants off and exposed his heart-printed boxers.
    First Mailman: "Barn door's open."
    Second Mailman: "What? My zipper is zipped."
    First Mailman: "Uh...The other barn door."

    Comic Strips 
  • One Baby Blues strip has Zoe use the taunt on Hammie, whose underwear is showing. Hammie walks off and returns with his underwear on his head, so Zoe can see it better.
    • An earlier strip has Zoe reciting the same rhyme to tease Hammie, but he wasn't fazed since he was still in diapers at the time.
    Zoe: (thinking) That song is a lot funnier when the person you're singing about isn't walking around in a diaper.
    • In another strip, one of the ways Zoe's morning goes wrong is when Hammie sees her getting dressed and starts taunting her with the same rhyme, only for her to yell "GET OUT!!"
    • Subverted several times when, between the ages of 2 and 6, Zoe liked showing off her new panties, often in public. She even did it at her kindergarten graduation when she went on stage to get her diploma.
    • Wren pulls Wanda's sweatpants down in one Sunday strip, making Zoe and Hammie laugh.
    • When Zoe was one, she opened the door of a changing room in a boutique while Wanda changed her clothes, with several women seeing Wanda in her underwear as Zoe pointed at her and shouted "MAMA!"
  • Calvin and Hobbes: In one story arc, Calvin accidentally rips his pants at recess and ends up being forced to go up to the board and answer a math question (because he doesn't want to admit to the teacher that his underwear is showing). To add insult to injury, it was his underpants with little rocket ships on it.
    Hobbes: That's why you're home early?
    Calvin: Three teachers and the principal couldn't restore order.
  • Pretty common in Garfield, with Jon Arbuckle the most likely victim. Subverted in a strip where Jon deliberately wore a tank top and Goofy Print Underwear as loungewear on a rainy day.
  • Once in For Better or for Worse John and Elly get embarrassed over a 2-year-old April showing her pink pull-ups to people at the park.
  • In a Liberty Meadows strip, when Jen bends over to get her pocketbook, Dean recites the rhyme. Jen punches him. Dean complains: "I thought women liked poetry..."
  • In one Spy vs. Spy strip, Black Spy attaches a razor blade to White Spy's gun so why he draws it, the blade cuts through his belt and drops his pants. When White bends down to pull them back up, Black clobbers him.
  • One Zits strip has Jeremy taking a picture of Walt, whose pants fell down while he carried heavy boxes.

    Fan Works 
  • The Loud House:
    • In Snotty Sickly Linky, Lincoln catches a cold and the cure is to walk around in his underwear, much to his embarrassment.
    • In Sunday Skivvies, Lincoln is reading comics in his underwear, then Luan, in order to demonstrate how rude it is, strips down to her underwear and reads a comic, much to his embarrassment.
    • In Nice or Mean? Lori, Luan, Lynn, Lola, and Lisa are trying to be nice to their brother Lincoln by stripping down to their underwear and reading comics with them, since he likes to read in his underwear. He's too embarrassed to read.
  • Star Trek: Enterprise:
    • In Hoshi's Birthday Surprise, Porthos is angry at his dog-sitter Malcolm Reed for not feeding him cheese, and so locks a sleepwalking Malcolm out of his quarters. Since Malcolm sleeps in his underwear, this leads to eight people seeing him in his undies.
    • In Radiant Orb, a Parody Fic of the series, T'Pol is in her underwear for no reason, parodying the show's tendency of showing characters in their underwear.
  • In the Odd Squad fanfic Full Circle, Oscar rips off his numerous layers of clothing so he can get changed into his outfit for '50s night at Club 24. When he steps out of his office and asks his assistant Oswald what she thinks, however, she tells him that he ripped off one too many layers of pants, exposing his boxers. He then darts back into his office to put on the pants that go with his outfit.
  • In the Punch-Out!! fanfic Shining and Sweet chapter "Happy Hour", a drunk-off-his-ass Aran Ryan runs around in nothing but his boxers.
  • A Red Rose in the Blue Wind (crossover of Sonic the Hedgehog and RWBY), has Sonic deal with CRDL this way by using his speed to hang their pants on a lamppost outside, leaving them in their underwear.

    Film — Animated 

    Film — Live-Action 
  • American Horror House: As apart of a sorority Initiation Ceremony, Daria and the other pledges are sent to rob a frat house. With the penalty of being dressed only in their underwear.
  • In the 1933 short Beauty and the Bus, Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly win a car at a theatre lottery. Ascending to the stage to show the MC their winning ticket, Patsy slips and falls off the stairs; in the process she accidentally rips the MC's trousers off, leaving him in his boxer shorts.
  • Carry On Behind: When the cabaret guests have been seated on over-painted chairs, their clothes rip when they stand up, exposing their underwear; especially Arthur, whose underwear has hearts on it.
  • Carry On Constable: When Constable Benson is on patrol, his braces are stolen by a pickpocket, causing his trousers fall down as he walks around the neighbourhood and reveal his underwear.
  • Doctor in the House (1954): When Jane brags about how easy the exam was for her, Grimsdyke yells out after that her slip is showing.
  • In Extreme Ops, Kittie's pants rip when Will tries to pull her back up from hanging over the mountain, allowing him to see her panties.
  • Inspector Gadget (1999): Gadget gets pantsed by his robotic double during their big fight scene.
  • In the Italian comedy Le Comiche 2 the main recurring victim is accidentally stripped to his underwear, revealing he is wearing a bra supporting breasts he received during an undesired augmentation surgery. The joke is entirely based on the fact that this guy is forced to wear a female garment due to the newly acquired assets.
  • In the Hindi film "Madhoshi", a male model is posing for an art class, dressed only in a loincloth. One of the girls in the class intentionally drops a banana peel on the floor as a prank to get the authoritative teacher to trip on it. But when the teacher slips on the peel, she grabs onto the model's loincloth and accidentally tears it off, leaving the horrified and thoroughly embarrassed model in only his tighty-whities in front of the entire class.
  • On the Buses films:
    • On the Buses: When Stan parks too close to Vera's bus, she can't open the door and has to climb out through the cab window. This causes Stan and Jack to laugh when they catch sight of her pink knickers, which Jack calls a "right pair of passion killers".
    • Mutiny on the Buses:
      • After he lands in horse manure, Stan has to remove his trousers, which causes him great embarrassment when he returns to the depot and Blakey sees his light blue boxers.
      • When Nymphy Norah rips her dress during their Catfight, Olive's bra is in full display.
    • In Holiday on the Buses, Joan's bra is exposed when Blakey accidentally rips her top trying to get past her so he can attack Stan.
  • The Room (2003): After being caught having sex in Johnny and Lisa's apartment, Mike and Michelle flee. But Mike realizes he forgot his underwear. Under the guise of having forgotten his book, he grabs the underwear from behind Claudette. Well, Claudette, she saw it sticking out of his pocket, she pulls it out, and she's showing everybody his underwear.
  • Transformers (2007): During the battle between Bumblebee and Barricade, the Decepticon Frenzy attacks Sam and ends up pulling off Sam's pants in the scuffle to kill him, forcing a terrified Sam to run for his life in his Goofy Print Underwear.
  • Up Pompeii films:
    • Up Pompeii: When Nero inspects Lurcio after he has become his newest champion, Lurcio worries that his slip is showing.
    • Up the Front: When Lurk is Disguised in Drag for El Puncturio's Knife-Throwing Act, Colonel von Gutz throws a knife at him. It doesn't harm him but causes his knickers to fall around his ankles.
  • In the movie "Goldy II: Saga of the Golden Bear" the main villain, Boss Cooperman has his pants ripped off by a bear while he gives a speech on a stage, revealing his polka-dot underwear in front of the public.

    Literature 
  • Occurred two times in Meet Molly, when the titular protagonist and her two friends were hosed down by Molly's brother, Ricky while going home wearing their hula costumes. The former pulled off an antic in revenge by dumping Ricky's underwear over his sister Jill and her best friend.
  • Angela Nicely: In "Supermodel", when trying out to be a model for a clothing magazine, a woman named Melanie asks Angela what her hobbies are. When Angela reveals she can stand on her head, she demonstrates, and her skirt falls down, showing her underwear and embarrassing her mother.
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid:
    • In one of the books, Rodrick locks Greg out of his hotel room while the latter is in his underwear.
    • Later in the same book, Greg climbs up a tree to save a blanket his little brother Manny threw up into it, only for his pants to fall down, exposing his embarrassing Wonder Woman underpants.
  • The Saga of Darren Shan has a trio of vampires take their clothes off to walk through a patch of thorns that would shred fabric, just to make this joke on Gavner Purl. He's wearing pink and yellow elephant print boxers, which he says he got from a girlfriend. Of course, when he dies in the next book, and his last words are "I'm sorry if my snoring kept you awake", the manga adaptation says that he was addressing said girlfriend. The manga adaptation also plays up the fanservice angle of getting the muscular vampire warriors out of their clothes, making it a lot of people's favorite page.
  • Dirty Bertie: Zigzagged in "Pants". Bertie loses a bet with Nick, meaning that he has to go to school in his underwear, but he skirts the rules by saying that he is wearing them— under his trousers. He then tricks Nick into exposing his underwear by asking him if he's Going Commando.
  • Ellen and Otis: Pointed out by Otis in the "biennial beet" chapter of Ellen Tebbits when he notices that Ellen tore her dress.
  • In "Don't wear polka dot underwear with white pants", protagonist Mandy Berr suffers an embarrassing incident on the playground when her polka dot panties are visible through her white pants, and the class bully Dennis is the first one to notice who ends up gathering a crowd to see her undies and makes fun of Mandy by calling her "Polka Dot". She comments they are her lucky pair and the faux pas is so bad she forces her Mom to get rid of the white pants by showing her the problem and promises to never wear her Polka dot underwear again until the end of the book.
  • The kids' book P is for Poop contains the lines "U is for underwear, Dad's only PJs. V is for view, too much on display", as the girl expresses disgust at her dad sleeping in his underwear.
  • Roys Bedoys:
    • In "Don’t Be Greedy, Roys Bedoys!", Roys plays video games in his undies and doesn't see why he can’t just go to the store without getting dressed first.
    • In "Distance Learning Has Rules, Roys Bedoys!", Loys walks up to Roys in his underwear while Roys is doing online schooling with his classmates.
    Live-Action TV 
  • Adventures in Wonderland: In the episode "To Tear is Human", Alice gets embarrassed when her pants get ripped during a game of Charades and is laughed at, which might be considered Laser-Guided Karma due to her having laughed at a boy who embarrassed himself by dropping his lunch tray at school. By the end, Alice learns to not laugh at others' misfortune from the experience.
  • On the first episode of The Big Bang Theory, Leonard and Sheldon go to retrieve Penny's TV from her heavily-muscular ex-boyfriend. The scene cuts to them leaving minus their pants.
  • The Brady Bunch: In the episode "Law and Disorder", Bobby ruins his good suit by rescuing a cat in an abandoned house. He returns home, and is then revealed in the laundry room in his undershirt and underpants placing his dirty blazer, dress shirt, tie and slacks into the washing machine.
  • In Community, Ahbed and Troy both pantsed each other to the amusement of the other study group members. Pierce decides he wants in on the fun and pantses Shirley. He then learns the valuable lesson that it is never okay for a guy to pants a woman.
  • Friends: At Barry and Mindy's wedding Rachel accidentally tucks the skirt of her hideous bridesmaid's dress into the back of her underwear and ends up walking down the aisle with her orange panties visible. After the ceremony she's humiliated and asks Ross why he didn't say anything. Ross replies that interrupting to point it out would have been worse.
    Ross: What was I supposed to do, stand up and yell "Hey, Rachel, your butt is showing!"?
  • In one episode of Hannah Montana, Miley accidentally splits her pants (though the result is never shown), and a young girl who sees the tear on the seat points at her and recites the rhyme.
  • Happy Days: At their army physicals, Potsie and Ralph were forced to strip, exposing their Goofy Print Underwear.
  • Kamen Rider OOO: In his debut, a wall is broken in front of Eiji Hino while wearing nothing but underwear. Double points since it also serves as a Memetic Outfit.
  • Malcolm in the Middle: In the episode "Funeral", when the Wilkerson family decide to all go off and do whatever they want without worrying about anybody else, Malcolm in anxiously getting ready for his date with Julie. When Julie unexpectedly arrives at the house early, nobody pays attention to the fact that she starts heading for Malcolm's room before he is dressed and ready to go. As a result, she walks into his room while he is wearing nothing but his Tighty-Whities. Malcolm is humiliated, but Julie is horrified and she subsequently storms out of the house.
  • In The Mighty Boosh, Howard is trying to impress some goth girls. When he gets up, his incredibly tight trousers split through the rear to reveal his goofy, colorful, and decidedly not goth briefs. The girls just laugh at him.
  • Modern Family, In the episode "On the Same Paige", Cam teases Mitch for being too modest and easily embarrassed, including being too embarrassed to be seen in his boxer briefs in the gym locker room. Later, in order to prove that he can go out on a limb and take a risk, Mitch dresses up like a bumble bee for the parents' talent show at Lily's school, and flies across the stage on a wire. However, when he is unable to get down, Cam tries to pull him down by yanking on his pants, but instead only manages to rip the pants off. This ironically leaves an embarrassed Mitch swinging on a wire in his boxer briefs in front of the entire talent show audience.
  • Several scenes with Bulk and Skull in the first season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers end up with at least one of them accidentally exposing their underwear.
  • In the "See Here, Private Partridge" episode of The Partridge Family, 10-year-old Danny accidentally receives a draft notice. After Shirley is unable to convince Army officers of their error, she sends Danny to his induction physical. He goes in the locker room and takes off his clothes with the adult recruits, and is then shown wearing only his underpants completing each stage of the physical.
  • Peewees Playhouse, Peewee is flying around the world and says "I see London... I see France... I see Moscow's underpants!"
  • Radio Enfer: While practicing speleology with Vincent and Léo at school, Dominique is able to reach the part above the girls' locker room. Both Vincent and Léo fight over going there as well, with the latter pulling the former's pants to prevent him from going there, thus exposing Vincent's underwear much to Léo's amusement.
  • Star Trek: Voyager: In "Twisted", an anomaly is causing the rooms in the spaceship to change position, resulting in a guy standing in the engine room in his undies.
  • That '70s Show pulled this in an episode where Eric pantses Donna during a pick up basketball game, exposing some rather unflattering Sears Catalog bloomers and humiliating her. Eric apologizes at the end of the episode with the Spoof Aesop, "I shouldn't have pulled your pants down in public, once you started letting me pull them down in private."
  • Happens a few times in the British television Series Uncle Max:
    • In the episode "Uncle Max Goes to the Arcade", Uncle Max and his nephew Luke make the acquaintance of a woman and a young girl in the arcade, but a group of bullies begin to harass them. Max then uses the claw from the claw machine to pants the leader of the bullies, revealing his cartoonish boxer shorts to his friends, who laugh at him at he runs away.
    • In "Uncle Max Goes to the Cinema", Uncle Max competes with another moviegoer to see who can eat the most snacks. They use the straws from their sodas to suck up additional food. When a young usher enters the theater to see what the commotion is all about while holding a tray of snacks, Max and the other moviegoer proceed to suck up all of the usher's snacks, but are also accidentally able to suck up most of the usher's clothing, leaving the embarrassed usher in only his bird-themed boxer shorts in front of the entire theater.
  • In one episode of Wizards vs. Aliens, a group of bullies threatening the main characters have all their clothes except for their garish boxers disappeared, causing them to run away in horror.

    Music 

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Ric Flair has on more than one occasion been stripped down to his underwear, usually pastel-colored briefs.
  • Goldust was stripped of his attire at WrestleMania 12 by "Rowdy" Roddy Piper to reveal he was wearing women's underwear, but given the nature of the character, it was more creepy than funny.
  • In another example involving "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, he ripped the kilt off Brother Love at Wrestle Mania 5, exposing red underwear which was no different from all the other wrestlers' trunks. Nonetheless, Brother Love fled the ring in embarrassment.
  • Vickie Guerrero was once revealed to be wearing granny panties with her catchphrase, "EXCUSE ME!", written on them.
  • Billy Gunn, Chuck Palumbo and Rico got pantsed en masse by Al Snow, Maven and Torrie Wilson to reveal they were all wearing skimpy thongs, going with their Ambiguously Gay gimmick.
  • Jimmy Hart got pulled out of his pants during Saturday Night's Main Event, revealing that he was wearing bright red briefs.
  • In 2002, Molly Holly had a few instances (two on TV, plus house shows) where she was revealed as wearing granny panties, to go with the prude character she was playing at the time.
  • Roberto Rodriguez was once revealed to be wearing underwear with a picture of Alberto Del Rio on them.
  • Ivory got stripped down to her underwear while she was in Right To Censor, which included granny panties with little flowers on them.
  • In 2001, Lance Storm was pantsed by Edge and Christian to reveal he was wearing Power Rangers underwear.
  • Stacy Keibler was probably the most frequent target on the roster during her time with the WWE. Her unmentionables being exposed was Played for Laughs as much as it was for Fanservice.

    Puppet Shows 
  • Between the Lions: In the first Un-People/Re-People segment, during a marching parade, the Un-People place the "Un" on the sign, "Best Dressed", changing it to "Best Undressed". As a result, everyone's clothes disappear, save for their tanktops and underwear. Fortunately, that problem was fixed, thanks to the heroic Re-People!

    Theatre 
  • Noises Off has this as one of its points. Most of the characters lose their trousers (or skirts) at least once through the play.

    Video Games 
  • When Crash Bandicoot gets hit by a scimitar in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, his pants are cut off, revealing his pink polka-dot boxers.
  • In Ghosts 'n Goblins and Ghouls N Ghosts, protagonist Sir Arthur loses his armor after the first hit and has to fight on in his heart/strawberry print boxers. Another hit reduces the life counter.
  • In Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, Arthur's 3D counterpart loses his clothes when he only has one segment left on his Life Meter. Unlike Arthur, he can actually acquire a variety of different boxer shorts (though hearts are the default).
  • In Punch-Out!!, King Hippo's trunks fall when Little Mac punches him in the mouth.
  • Three Wonders: In Midnight Wanderers, the characters lose their clothes after taking a hit. However, their shorts are drab and utilitarian.
  • In Rocket Knight Adventures, enemies are stripped to their underwear when defeated. This can also happen in the revival Rocket Knight, but only to the pigs and it depends on how they're defeated.
  • In The Simpsons Arcade game, the first boss' pants will drop as an Idle Animation, revealing sparkly pink briefs.
  • In ToeJam & Earl, Earl occasionally drops his pants and has to stop for a moment to pull them back up. (Funnily enough, his boxers are almost identical to his shorts.) Also implied to happen during some elevator rides to the next level if two are playing.
    Earl: Oops.
    Toejam: Get a belt, Earl!
  • In WarioWare: Smooth Moves, one minigame has two cowboys in a quick-draw contest. The winner shoots the opponent's pants down.
  • Puyo Puyo Sun: When Arle encounters him, Ragnus uses magic and ages himself up to prepare to fight her, only for his armor pants to fall down, revealing his underwear and causing both characters to blush in embarrassment.

    Web Animation 
  • Homestar Runner:
    • Strong Bad has lost his pants often enough to get a page about it on the Homestar Runner Wiki.
    • In the Strong Bad Email "stand up", Strong Sad shows the viewers a video of a young Strong Bad doing stand-up comedy at the school talent show, only to be embarrassed when his pants fall down onstage.
    • In "weird dream", Strong Bad says he once dreamed of "The United States in tight-white brand underdrawers" after eating too many pudding pops.
    • In the Powered by The Cheat short "New Boots", PBTC Strong Bad is drawn wearing baggy pants that expose his underwear, which the real Strong Bad complains about: "You made my underwears showing! Everyone knows I don't wear any underwears!"
    • In "senior prom", Strong Bad crashes a prom, wielding a remote that will make everybody's pants poof away. Unfortunately, he winds up in his boxers because he was the only person at the prom that was wearing pants.
    • Main Page 24 has a gag of Strong Bad walking by in the background in his underwear (thankfully blurred out), trying to find his pants.
    • In "nightlife", Strong Bad gets kicked out of Club Technochocolate after he somehow loses his pants (which he blames on his pants being "mysteriously drawn" to the club's "lightèd floors"), leaving him in leopard-print briefs.
    • In "Halloween Hijinks", Teen Homestar ends up in ridiculous stripèd boxers after Teen Strong Bad manages to liberate him from his "absurd zig-zaggèd pants".

    Webcomics 

    Web Series 
  • In the Troom Troom video "26 Awkward Situations at College", one of the awkward situations profiled involves a young man in a P.E. class, which is very invigorating for him until the elastic on his nylon pants gives out, causing them to fall down and reveal his blue briefs to the rest of the class. Despite his efforts to keep his pants up, he is unable to do jumping jacks with the rest of the class without his pants continuing to fall down.
  • In the "123GoTrends" video "We Tested TikTok DIY Clothes Hacks", Adam is embarrassed on a first date when his pants sag and his date inadvertently gets a peak of his bright red boxer briefs with white stars on them. He is then able to repurpose a pair of suspenders and clip one end to his socks and the other end to his tucked-in shirt under his pants, thus his shirt stays tucked in even if his pants start to sag.

    Western Animation 
  • In the first episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, where all the pants got controlled by a pair of intelligence-enhanced jeans, everyone lost their pants.
  • In The Adventures of T-Rex, the Transformation Sequence of the titular dinosaur superhero group involved each member having his clothes sucked off, revealing their boxers, which matched their costume colors.
  • In the first episode of Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, Fionna pulls down her pants and exposes her panties in protest to being fired by her boss, Queenie.
    Fionna: No one even cares about your dumb tours! (pulls down pants)
    Queenie: (flinching and looking away) Jesus! Stop!
  • In Alvin and the Chipmunks, Alvin ends up in his boxers after gluing himself to the saddle of a bucking bull while competing in a rodeo.
  • One Running Gag in Animal Mechanicals is Komodo pulling a pair of underwear out of his arsenal.
  • Bratz:
    • In "Pet Show", a flashback shows that while Burdine was bragging after winning the previous competition in question, the runner-up let his dog tear off her skirt during her acceptance speech. As a result, she had to slink offstage covering her bloomers with her trophy.
    • In "Truth or Dare", Sasha cites splitting her pants while dancing in the cafeteria as the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to her.
  • The Casagrandes:
    • In "V.I.Peeved", Hector embarrasses his granddaughter Carlota by wandering around the living room in his underwear while she's making a video.
    • In "Maybe-Sitter", Hector forgets to wear pants when trying to dress up formal for a party.
    • In "Achy, Breaky Art", Frida rips off her dress to reveal a jumpsuit underneath. Carl tries, but belatedly realises that he's only wearing underwear under his clothes.
    • In "Battle of the Grandpas", Hector's pants fall down, revealing his red underwear, which angers a bull, causing the bull to charge at him.
  • Danny Phantom: The titular character is the main victim — the last episode alone goes through at least three different shots of him losing his clothes in a comedic manner to reveal him wearing nothing but his underpants...in a row. Some fans have chronicled his development by looking at his underwear choices throughout the series.
  • Elmer Fudd had his undies revealed in a comedic manner a lot.
  • The Fairly OddParents!
    • In the episode "Chin Up", Timmy rips off his clothes to attempt a superhero moment while in a comic book to reveal his superhero costume, neglecting that he doesn't actually have one.
    • In the episode "Class Clown", Beta Bitch Veronica arrives to the mall wearing an outfit made of tissue paper, sugar, and powdered milk. When Timmy crashes into her knocking them both into the mall fountain, the outfit dissolves as a result.
  • Futurama: Happens to Fry in episode one (in the Applied Cryogenics building) and the later repeats of that scene in other episodes.
  • Pinky Dinky Doo: In "Stinky Pinky Doo", Daffinee makes fun of Pinky's bad breath but gets karma at the end of the episode when she bends down and rips her dress, exposing her bunny underwear.
  • In Hero: 108, there's a Running Gag involving Woo the Wise in which his robe lifts up at random moments against his will, exposing his red underwear.
  • The Jetsons: In "Instant Replay", Rosie the robot angrily rips the dress off a snobbish socialite who had insulted the titular family. Both Jane and the woman had entered a party wearing identical dresses, which led to the whole conflict.
  • Kim Possible: Ron's Running Gag. It got to the point where even the Ron toys released had "pants losing action".
  • The Loud House:
    • A Running Gag is that Lincoln, the main character, likes to read comics in his underwear.
    • In "Health Kicked", Lynn Sr.'s too-tight leather pants rip off, causing his two eldest daughters to gag.
    • "Legends" ends with Lynn Sr. and Lincoln losing a bet and having to go to the airport in their underwear.
    • In "Making the Case", Lincoln takes an embarrassing video of Luna splitting her pants.
  • In the Monster Farm episode "Tractor Terror", Cowapatra has her polka dot bloomers revealed when the berserk tractor snags off the bandages covering up her pelvis.
  • Mr. Magoo: Similar to the Alvin and the Chipmunks example above, Waldo winds up with his polka-dot boxers exposed in "Saddle Battle" when a bucking bronco throws him out of his pants, thanks to the glue Prezly put on the saddle to keep Waldo on the horse.
  • My Gym Partner's a Monkey did the same thing as early as the advert for the show. Why animals wearing no clothes themselves find it funny is unknown.
  • In Phineas and Ferb, Doofenshmirtz turns out to have Perry the Platypus-printed boxers. Since Perry is his nemesis, this is awkward, to say the least.
    Doof: For your information, I had these way before I met you.
  • The Pink Panther: An episode of the cartoons had the Panther as a vigilante of sorts, defeating villains by reciting the rhyme, and then cutting their belts off, allowing him to defeat them in the confusion. This doesn't work on the Big Bad though, as he happened to be wearing two pairs of pants.
  • Punky Brewster: In "The Quartersize Quarterback", Allen involuntarily drops trou in an attempt to catch a football. Margaux laughs at his polka dot boxers.
  • In Sabrina: The Animated Series, Sabrina and Chloe have their pants fall down in front of the cafeteria and Gem in the series splits her pants.
  • In a dress-up short for Shimmer and Shine, Leah wishes for her and the genies to change out of their old outfits. Shine messes up the wish, leaving them all in their colorful underwear, which Leah clarifies is not what she meant.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: has some of the most examples of this trope out of any shows, down to even the theme song.
    • During SpongeBob's boat rampage throughout the city in "Mrs. Puff, You're Fired", Patrick's pants somehow get stuck on SpongeBob's face, leaving Patrick running after SpongeBob's boat in his underwear.
  • At the end of Tokyo Mater, Kabuto is seen in underwear after Mater beat him in a drift race. Since all of the characters are vehicles, Kabuto is stripped of his modifications and is left unpainted.
    Kabuto: I'm stock!!! (his ninjas all laugh at him)
  • What's with Andy?:
    • In "Busting", Andy is flung through the air and loses his pants.
    • In "The Very Bad Idea", Andy is flying with some balloons and, to avoid crashing into the power lines, loses weight by stripping down to his underwear.
  • Woody Woodpecker
    • In the featurette "Janie Get Your Gun", towards the end of it, when Woody is holding up Ms. Meany's (a.k.a. Calamity Jane's) train attached to her hat at the wedding reception, he falls into a hole and her wedding dress falls (or gets ripped) off, leaving her in her pink bloomers or pantalets, and mortified.
    • In another Woody Woodpecker featurette, "Witch Crafty", after the witch rides the flying broom into a tree at one point, the broom is left stuck there as well as her purple mini dress which she falls out of and lands on her feet on the ground. Noticing the viewers see her in her pink corset (or bustier) and white bloomers (or pantalets), she modestly tries to cover up with some shrubbery and exits the scene.

    Real Life 
  • In January 2023, during a concert in Inglewood, CA, Harry Styles slid across the stage while performing his song "Music for a Sushi Restaurant", which caused him to accidentally split his leather pants. Because a large part of his bare leg was visible, there was much online debate over whether he was wearing underwear at all, but one prominent video of the incident showed that he was definitely wearing what appeared to be black briefs, as too much of his leg was bare for them to have been boxer briefs.
  • The issue of pants falling down unexpectedly in public is a frequent issue in karate and other forms of martial arts, given the baggy pants often required to be worn as uniforms, along with the relatively flimsy drawstrings on the pants that can snap or break easily, especially given the amount of leg and waist movement required in martial arts:
    • In 2011, a video went viral of a Wushu performance given by a University of Viginia student named Keenan Stone at UCLA in California. In the middle of his routine, the elastic waistband of Stone's uniform pants snapped, causing his pants to fall to his ankles and leaving him in his black boxer briefs in front of the hundreds of people in the stadium. Despite his embarrassment, Stone kicked off his pants and successfully finished the routine in his underwear.
    • A similar (albeit less publicized) incident happened at a Kyokushin Karate Tournament in Laval, Quebec in 2008. As two young men were fighting in the tournament, one of them unexpectedly had his pants fall down, leaving him in his black boxer briefs and jockstrap in front of the roomful of spectators. Despite having his pants around his ankles, the young man was able to sweep his opponent. The video of this incident was later uploaded to You Tube.


Alternative Title(s): Standing There In Underwear, I See London

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Underwear Felony

Penny's had her chance to impress Emperor Eddie and she was doing so well, only for her yo-yo to disrobe Poor Eddie, exposing his underwear. Angry and embarrassed, he sentenced her to prison for ten thousand years.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (4 votes)

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Main / FelonyMisdemeanor

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