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Hot pants, mini shorts, daisy dukes? Whatever you call them, it can be a great way to Show Some Leg without having to worry about a Panty Shot. This is mostly a female trope, but there have been a few males to slip in. This trope became popular in real life around the mid-1950s, and even though it has never been at the height of fashion, it's never really gone away either.
For added sexiness, combine with Zettai Ryouiki, She's Got Legs. If you don't want anyone seeing your legs, just add tights.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Nair depilatory famously used the song (see Music below) as part of an ad campaign that ran from the late 1970s well into the 1980s.
- Masculine example Played for Laughs: the L&P ''Stubbies'' advert
 shown in New Zealand. Also pokes fun at the The Seventies.
- Stubbies are a brand of men's shorts popular in Australia and New Zealand in the 1970s, and was a common part of schoolboys' uniforms.
Anime and Manga
- Pokémon: Misty's best known outfit includes very short jean-shorts.
- And in later generations, yellow shorts of the same length.
- Yoko from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
- Kallen from Code Geass.
- Revy from Black Lagoon. Permanently unbuttoned.
- Lyrical Nanoha
- Kanzaki Kaori of To Aru Majutsu no Index is an unusual example: she wears a pair of jeans... with one leg cut off. Goes really well with her tied-up white T-shirt.
- It's supposed to be a disguised magic ritual.
- The one-legged jeans are also part of Kisara Nanjou's style of choice in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple.
- Envy of Fullmetal Alchemist. Hard to place as a male or female example.
- Alois Trancy from the second season of the Black Butler anime frequently wears these, to the point that his "Booty Shorts" have pretty much reached memetic status.
- Serena Tsukino from Sailor Moon (known as Usagi in the manga and Japanese version) wears an olive green-colored pair with one of her outfits, particularly in early episodes.
- Also the Amazon Quartet's final disguise in Super S (known as Amazoness Quartet in the manga and Japanese version).
- Sakura Kyouko from Puella Magi Madoka Magica wears cut-off jean shorts as part of her civilian outfit.
- Mew Zakuro from Tokyo Mew Mew.
- Anzu Mazaki/Tea Gardner from Yu-Gi-Oh! occasionally wore short shorts as part of her outfits, when she wasn't wearing a mini skirt.
- Let's not forget Shizuka/Serenity during Season 3 and the second half of Season 2.
- Mai Kujaku/Valentine from the same show normally wears a purple skirt with a white corset, but wore purple short-shorts and a black corset when she was temporarily Brainwashed by Dartz during the events of Season 4.
- Speaking of Valentine, Faye's trademark yellow outfit in Cowboy Bebop probably counts.
- Part of Haruhi Suzumiya's Unlimited Wardrobe. She wears cuffed jean shorts when the story wants to remind you she's the Tomboy to Mikuru's Girly Girl.
- By the series Standards, Hana-chan from Ojamajo Doremi wears these. With cute little hearts on each side.
- One Piece: Nami in the 10th movie, One Piece Strong World, wears a pair of super short jean shorts.
- Ururu in Oku-sama wa Mahou Shoujo tends to wear short shorts, as opposed to dresses like her friends.
- The titular Revolutionary Girl Utena.
- Akasha Bloodriver from Rosario + Vampire is shown to wear this under her gown when she removes the latter right before her sacrificial attempt to go Medieval on Alucard's ass. Of Corsets Sexy also comes into play.
- Mizuho Asano from Bleach is commonly seen in hot pink short-shorts.
- Both Shiro and Anri from Adekan occasionally do this. As in, daisy duke shorts on a dude. Anri usually wears long pants, but the legs of them appear to be detachable which make them kind of creepy chaps-shorts.
- In Vividred Operation, not only are the girls commonly seen wearing bloomers, but short shorts are part of the school uniform.
- In the Dragon Ball Z filler scene of the Invisible Spaceship, Bulma is wearing short light purple shorts in addition to baring her midriff. This only applies to the original dub, however, as she is wearing underwear in the Japanese version and the redub which was changed as a means of censorship.
- Heero Yuy from Gundam Wing. Being designed after a female model, it doesn't do much for his already diminishing masculinity. He switches to white full-length pants for the OAV sequel, however.
Comic Books
Fanfiction
Film
- Alice in the first Resident Evil film, though the shorts are partly concealed by the red dress she's wearing.
- Trillian the first time we see her in the main story, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
- Kristofferson in Fantastic Mr. Fox wears short-shorts. Though it is most certainly not for sex appeal. At least we assume.
- Worn by Candice during her fatal gymnastics practice session in Final Destination 5. Justified as most other gymnasts were wearing this as well during the same scene, including the gymnast that got Candice killed accidentally by sheer carelessness.
- The title character of Tamara Drewe. As a disapproving older woman notes, "She poured herself into those shorts. She'll give herself thrush."
- Felicity Shagwell in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. They're skin-tight.
- Half of the scenes featuring Steve Christy in the original Friday the 13th has him wearing shorts shorts, an ascot and not much else.
- In The Master, many of the navy men in the beginning of the movie. They were very much out of uniform.
- Pepper Potts in The Avengers, as well as being barefoot. Since she usually wears business suits and high heels, this shows how relaxed she's become around Tony since their relationship started.
Live Action TV
- The Dukes of Hazzard has Daisy Duke, to the point where "Daisy Dukes" is a well-known nickname for really short jeans. It's worth noting that due to TV censorship rules, she had to wear flesh-colored tights underneath. When The Movie was released in 2005, the tights weren't necessary any more, and viewers actually got to see her legs.
- Doctor Who - Amy sports a pair in the Hungry Earth, but the group were supposed to be in Rio.
- Charmed: Part of Billie's Amazon outfit.
- Each of the girls in H2O: Just Add Water . Justified due to the setting being the Gold Coast which is in the tropical north of Australia's eastern seaboard.
- Blue Water High is another Australian offender.
- Are You Being Served?: During German week the staff is decked out in Lederhosen. There are two pairs of extra-short shorts, worn by Miss Brahms and Mr Humphries.
- Victorious for pretty much all of the girls. Justified due to the setting being California.
- A number of Sentai heroines, including Yoko Usami (Yellow Buster) of Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters, Amy Yuzuki (Kyoryu Pink) of Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger and Moune (Gosei Yellow) of Tensou Sentai Goseiger.
- Ally of Austin & Ally. Justified due to the setting being Miami.
- Officer Jim Dangle, of Reno 911!.
- Graeme in The Goodies episode "Scoutrageous". So tight that he can't bend over in them. Almost certainly intended as Fan Disservice.
- Zoe Hart of Hart Of Dixie, who is a town doctor. Frequently lampshaded.
Manhwa
Music
- The Trope Namer would be the 1957 song "Short Shorts" by the Royal Teens. You may know it via Popcultural Osmosis as "that song from the Nair commercials".
- Rin Kagamine from Vocaloid.
- Katy Perry's song "California Gurls":
California girls, we're unforgettable
Daisy Dukes, bikinis on top
- 3OH!3 brings up the trope again in "Starstrukk":
Nice legs, Daisy Dukes
Makes a man go [whistle]!
- Extremely prevalent among K-pop girl groups, especially Girls' Generation.
- Japanese guitarist Teru is a rare male example of this (usually combined with Bare Your Midriff).
- 69 Boyz & Duice's "Daisy Dukes".
- Pixie Lott. Every second outfit she wears involves a pair of these.
- Miley Cyrus, as evidenced in many candids.
Mythology
Professional Wrestling
Video Games
- Hilda, the female protagonist in Pokemon Black And White, has quite short shorts.
- Also Bugsy, the Gym Leader of Azalea town, wears them, which only adds to his already very girly looks.
- As does Whitney, Clair, Elesa (in the sequels) and Skyla.
- The respective best endings in Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission feature Samus Aran in blue and red short shorts and tanktop.
- Matsu from Sengoku Basara wears very short shorts (which are slitted up the sides to boot), making her certified Hot Mom material.
- Laharl from Disgaea Hour Of Darkness, he is 1313 but looks like he is 13.
- From Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice comes Salvatore the Magnificent, who is also equipped with a pair of short shorts.
- In Disgaea Dimension 2, Laharl trades his shorts for pants. However, his vassal Etna takes his place in this trope as she trades her skirt for really short shorts.
- Yuffie of Final Fantasy VII and its expansions changes outfits most frequently out of the cast, but always includes short shorts and stockings.
- Yuna, from Final Fantasy X-2 wears tiny shorts underneath her half-skirt thing. Rikku had a pair in both games.
- Lightning Farron from Final Fantasy XIII counts, with tight biker shorts that double as Modesty Shorts.
- Alyssa Zaidelle from Final Fantasy XIII-2.
- The only free DLC costume for Serah (Style and Steel) featured a pair in favour of her usual mini-skirt.
- Ken Amada from Persona3. He even wears them in the winter!
- Scharlachrot from Arcana Heart 3.
- Lara Croft of Tomb Raider wears these in her most iconic outfit.
- Desdemona in City of Heroes.
- The Soviet commando, Natasha, from Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. In the Russian winter.
- In Katawa Shoujo, Lilly's pyjamas involve a relatively modest top and a pair of very short shorts. Hisao sure appreciates the view.
- Akari Ichijou of The Last Blade wears a variation of a Miko outfit that includes these.
- Poison in Final Fight has EXTREMELY short shorts (especially in the official artwork).
- SAXTON HALE of (the backstory comics of) Team Fortress 2 is so manly that he rarely wears much more clothing at all!
- Bullet from Blaz Blue Chrono Phantasma wears uncomfortably tight-looking hottopantsu that resemble a belt more than anything else.
- Minogame from Hellsinker wears a kind of very short brown jeans shorts. One interesting thing to note is that while Minogame is a Hermaphrodite he is always referred to as male.
- Sharla from Xenoblade Chronicles starts with the latest combat Daisy Dukes as her default equipment.
- Fallout 3 has a Raider outfit of this type added with The Pitt.
- Mega Man ZX has Aile and Grey(The latter being one of the few male examples of this trope.).
- For Fire Emblem: Awakening, all of the series' previous protagonists got redesigns for their DLC appearances. Gaiden's female protagonist, Celica, received an outfit with a pair of shorts so short that even with the in-game picture cutting off just barely past the waist, it still shows bare thighs. (Full version here◊.) Not entirely surprising given that the artist commissioned for her redesign normally does erotic doujinshi.
Webcomics
- Homestuck: In a rare male example, Jake seems to be associated with short shorts above and beyond any of the other characters - both of his alchemised outfits in Act 6 Act 4 feature them, and even earlier on when he was wearing much longer shorts he one point tried to wear Lara Croft-style gun holsters and thought to himself that he'd probably need to be wearing shorter shorts to pull them off. Not only that, but Jake's class is the Page, whose god tier outfit features memetically speedo-length shorts. At any rate, the fandom sure appreciates it all. Mostly.
Web Original
- Homestar Runner's "creepy pants" are a pair of hot pink/purple shorts of the 'Daisy Duke' variety (an American form of shorts made by cutting the legs of snug jeans, sometimes so much so that the white pocket liners can be seen). It is later revealed that he was out of his mind on Strong Sad's anti-depressants at the time.
- Part of Taylor-Ruth of Hanging Rock Comics fame's iconic outfit.
- In the Whateley Universe, one of the many problems with the new costume of THE CRIMSON COMET!!!. Granted, she just got the superpowers and the curves a couple weeks ago and she hasn't gotten over it yet.
- A character named Daisy_Duke appears in Shadow of Israphel wearing, you guessed it, daisy dukes.
Western Animation
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