Who Wears Short Shorts? - Television Tropes & Idioms

Dem Daisy Dukes

We wear short shorts!

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:

Advertising

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.
Black★Rock Shooter
Yoko from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
Kallen from Code Geass.
Revy from Black Lagoon. Permanently unbuttoned.
Lyrical Nanoha
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS introduced this trope to the franchise with Subaru and her Barrier Jacket, which consists of a tank top, coat, cape, and jean shorts combo.
- Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force added two more short shorts-wearing females to the line up: Arnage Huckebein and Isis.
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.
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.
Sakura Kyouko from Puella Magi Madoka Magica wears cut-off jean shorts as part of her civilian outfit.
Mew Zakuro from Tokyo Mew Mew.
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 Serenity during Season 3 and the second half of Season 2.
- Mai 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 rolled-up 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.
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.

Comic Books

Ramona Flowers, love interest of Scott Pilgrim, frequently wears short shorts, often with brightly colored tights underneath.
Ninjette from Empowered habitually wears a pair apparently held together at the sides by shuriken and with her nom de guerre printed across the seat.

Fan Fics

This is part of Cure Western's outfit in Pretty Cure Hollywood Stars, resulting in at least one comparison to Misty from Pokémon (see above). The rolled-up jean shorts carry over to her Super Cure form, and Super Cure Western even pairs them with Grade B Zettai Ryouiki and, in the last episode, gold tights!
Haruhi Suzumiya Flanderizes this in the Pretty Cure-style reboot, SOS Pretty Cure, and it even features in her Cure outfit, along with Grade A Zettai Ryouiki!
Who wears Shadow's short shorts? CRYPT! And subsequently gets his ass kicked by her.

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.

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 anymore, 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.
- Turlough also sports a nice pair in "Planet of Fire".
Charmed - part of Billie's Amazon outfit.
Each of the girls in H2O: Just Add Water.
- Blue Water High is another 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.

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".
- Or an episode of The Simpsons.
- The song had a Shout Out in Sheb Wooley's "Purple People Eater".
Rin Kagamine from Vocaloid.
Katy Perry's "California Gurls":
California girls, we're unforgettable
Daisy Dukes, bikinis on top
The Alpha Bitch in Taylor Swift's "You Belong with Me", who is also played by Taylor in the music video
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).

Mythology

Most vanaras (monkey-like creatures) in Hindu Mythology wears this.

Professional Wrestling

Stacy Keibler. "She's got legs, and she knows how to use em"
Lay Cool.

Video Games

Hilda, the female protagonist in Pokémon 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.
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) with her otherwise modest outfit, 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.
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.
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 Last Blade wears a variation of a Miko outfit that includes these.

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.

Western Animation

On Family Guy, Peter once went through a Daisy Duke phase.
Brian: It looks like a walrus flossing!
- In The Movie Joe's wife dies and he gets her legs. Leading him to proclaim "Who wears short shorts? I wear short shorts!"
On Total Drama Island, Heather, Katie, and Sadie all wear very short shorts
Sym-Bionic Titan's Ilana wears these on occasion as part of her Unlimited Wardrobe.
Lola Bunny wears a pair of short gym shorts as part of her original Memetic Outfit.
On Mission Hill, Jim returns from Japan with the latest thing there, brightly colored short shorts with Hello Kitty style decorations. Andy thinks they're ridiculous, but is soon the butt of scorn from the hip crowd because he isn't wearing them. When he finally comes around, he finds they're no longer hip, as they've gone mainstream and worn by the middle-aged.