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.
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
Sex And The City 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
Modesty Bedsheet 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.
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
Fan Service one- a woman wearing solely a bedsheet is, well, a woman
wearing solely a bedsheet...
See also:
Peek A Boo,
Modesty Towel,
Modesty Rags.
Examples
Anime
- Ouran High School Host Club 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. [1]
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- Also parodied in Puni Puni Poemi, 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 Fullmetal Alchemist: It was just Hawkeye getting her feet licked by Black Hayate, causing her to make the strangely sexual giggling.
- In Monster, Eva uses one.
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.
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.
- Spoofed relentlessly in the Austin Powers films, where Austin and occasionally another character wander around nude while all kinds of objects pop up to cover their naughty bits, despite
occasionally usually resembling said naughty bits themselves.
- Likewise, in the Simpsons Movie, when Bart is skateboarding through town naked (because he lost a bet), in most of the scene some convenient piece of scenery covers his naughty bits... and then he skates past a fence, which covers everything except that. Probably made it past the censors on grounds of Rule Of Funny.
- 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.
- Used in the Iron Man 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 Dawn Of The Dead, where the lighting and body position of the woman was used to obscure her chest area.
Live Action TV
- Veronica Mars: "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 Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
- 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... (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.
- The "showering with underpants" version is 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 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 How I Met Your Mother has an especially glaring example - Marshall and Lily some how manage to have sex on the kitchen floor 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...
- Averted?...in Dexter, when Dexter is in bed with Lilah the tangled sheet only covers the groin region of both.
- In an episode of House, the patient and his girlfriend start off the episode with a 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.
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.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- Parodied (of course) in The Simpsons, 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 the South Park 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 Bill Cosby are having traditional sex.
Truth In Television
- Although in real life it tends to be a "negative body image bedsheet" rather than a Modesty Bedsheet per se.
- Or, in some cases, a "heat tolerance bedsheet".
- Or, in this troper's case, a "who left the curtains open" bedsheet.
