Basic Trope: A scene where the male character is temporarily topless.
- Straight: Bob takes his shirt off for a scene.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob, Charles, and Dan are all shirtless simultaneously.
- Walking Shirtless Scene.
- Downplayed: Bob unbuttons his shirt for a scene, but keeps the shirt on, covering his shoulders and back.
- Justified:
- Bob removed his shirt because it was too hot for him to keep it on.
- He removed his shirt because he was about to cannonball into the swimming pool.
- He tore his shirt into strips to bandage Alice's arm.
- He's changing shirts.
- Inverted:
- A Walking Shirtless Scene character puts a shirt on for a single scene.
- Bob is showing off his legs and butt by not wearing trousers, but he is wearing a shirt.
- Gender Inverted: Alice takes off her shirt.
- Subverted: A shirt hits the floor and Alice gasps… but then there's a full shot of Bob, and we see he's fully clothed. He actually just opened a closet, pulled out a shirt to get a better view—the shirt that hit the floor—and revealed Charles and Dan kissing. Alice and Bob had locked them in the closet earlier.
- Double Subverted: …and when they come out, we see Charles is shirtless.
- Parodied:
- Bob takes off his shirt to reveal a not-particularly-compelling physique. All the other characters think he's wildly attractive.
- Or conversely, Bob—who is very hot—takes off his shirt, and all the other characters shrug and say, "Meh."
- Zig Zagged: Bob is wearing a shirt; a very thin, wet, white shirt that does not obscure view of his torso whatsoever.
- Averted: All male characters keep their shirts on.
- Enforced: Avoid the Dreaded G Rating.
- Lampshaded: "Nice pecs. Why do you ever wear shirts?"
- Invoked: Bob is fighting an Action Girl and takes off his shirt to distract her.
- Exploited: Bob took off his shirt for temperature reasons, but he flexes for Alice while he's at it.
- Defied: Bob refuses to take his shirt off for anything.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "Why does ever guy on The Trope Show take off his shirt once per season? Is it written into the guys' contracts or something?"
- Played For Drama: Bob's friend Michelle wants to surprise her girlfriend Emily by cleaning their shared apartment while she's at work. Bob agrees to help, but after a few hours of work, he starts overheating and has to take his shirt off to cool down; Michelle suggests they both take a short break and watch some TV. Emily — who has been cheated on before — finishes work early, goes home, and walks in on her girlfriend hanging out with an unknown, half-naked man and assumes the worst.
- Deconstructed: Bob takes off his shirt and soon gets cold. All the characters agree that goosebumps, shivering, and complaining about how cold you are, is not sexy.
- Reconstructed: It might not be sexy, but Bob's One True Love doesn't care, and hugs him until he's warm.
Beware of exploding ovaries on your way to Shirtless Scene.
