Briefs Boasting

"I love a guy in a speedo, it shows off the package."

— Anastasia Ashley, surfer and swimsuit model

After excessive amounts of Ms. Fanservice throughout the years, women being used for Fanservice has become a given. A large part of fanservice involves wearing very little clothing, whether you like it or not.

So with all of these factors, many expect that women being near-naked is just part of fiction, not of any relevance. This is different for male characters. As you would expect, male fan-service usually requires some form of plot value, and in this case, the value is in being played as a show-off.

Men shown wearing very small underwear are usually used as show-offs. There may be a reason for this: as mentioned above, the only time someone wears very little clothing in fiction is when they get played for Fanservice, and because men are played for Fanservice less, they tend not to show very much skin. So writers think that men showing skin around the legs area would just be showing off something. Mr. Fanservice will often wear briefs or bikini briefs.

Some note on criteria: Examples must have some form of boasting or masculinity to them, otherwise you have one of the other underwear tropes. See Real Men Wear Pink, Man in a Bikini, and Goofy Print Underwear. A part of any good Muscle Beach Bum. Contrast Uncool Undies.

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Examples:

Advertising

• This Australian advert takes the piss out of what are colloquially known there as "budgie-smugglers".
• These skimpy swimsuits (with leopard spots, no less) were first popularized by Angelo Ciciliano - better known as Charles Atlas - in the ads advertising his bodybuilding program.
• In Levi Strauss & Co.’s 1989 “Pick Up” TV ad, a young woman watches as her boyfriend tries to fix their overheated car by the side of a rural highway. Enter the studly Dan Gauthier in a pickup truck, playing a resourceful man who sheds his Levi’s jeans and uses them as a hitch to tow the car, revealing his briefs. The woman rides with him in the truck while her boyfriend unhappily steers the car at the other end of the sturdy pants. Gauthier then shifts gears abruptly and conveniently disconnects his bumper; leaving the boyfriend, the car, and the jeans behind.

Anime and Manga

• Free!: The Mikoshiba brothers notably use swim briefs while all of the other characters wear jammer-type swimsuits (although Rei used briefs for a short while... a pretty goofy set with a penguin), and the both of them are lovable dorks. Nagisa, the most shameless (well, willingly shameless) of the Iwatobi Swim Club, also shows off a pink speedo when he and his teammates are shopping for swimsuits in one episode.
• Played with in Komi Can't Communicate. Absolute narcicist Naruse does bring a sexy swimsuit to the beach to show off his figure, but it's T.M.Revolution's skimpy "Hot Limit" costume rather than just swim briefs.
• One Piece: Franky is rarely, if ever, seen without his infamous swim briefs and nothing else covering his bare legs, causing bystanders to call him a pervert. Even when the Straw Hats are off exploring in the extreme cold, he never covers up his legs.
• In one Beach Episode of Sailor Moon, a trio of boys come hit on Usagi and the girls as Rei and Makoto are checking out guys with a pair of binoculars. The most prominent of the three is wearing a tiny pair of swim briefs and is introduced crotch-first complete with a "boing!" sound effect.

Asian Animation

• Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf features a tiger named Brother Tai whose only proper clothing is a pair of blue briefs. He's also quite proud of his muscles and will often proudly flex them for others to look at.

Film - Animation

• Vitaly from Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is a circus tiger who wears blue briefs and used to be a showy, proud acrobat until he lost his mojo due to an accident.

Film - Live Action

• Blood Boiling Youth AKA “Hot Young Bloods” features a scene wherein Joong-gil (Jong-suk Lee) dances in his high school uniform shirt and his briefs; clearly reminiscent of Risky Business, which was released a year after this film is set. He follows that up by admiring himself in a mirror and saying out loud how handsome he thinks he is.
• At the start of Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee’s character Lee faces off against an unnamed opponent (portrayed by Sammo Hung) while dressed in black wrestling briefs, shoes, shin coverings, and gloves. The opponent is dressed in nearly the same garb except his briefs are bikini-style.
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show: In stark contrast to the dorky Brad, whose wearing “tighty-whitey” briefs serves to emphasize his nerdy nature, the muscle-bound and highly sexualized Rocky is wearing nothing more than a pair of quite tight golden mid-rise briefs throughout the entire musical. This is invoked on Frank's part; he designed Rocky to be little more than a masculine sex object, and the choice of underwear emphasizes that, making his otherwise constant nudity more comedic and blatant.
• Peacemaker partakes in this in The Suicide Squad, much to the chagrin of other members of Task Force X.
• In Think Like a Man Too, Candace (Regina Hall) gets a lap dance from a male stripper clad in red bikini briefs in a strip club just prior to a fight breaking out.
• The muscular Terry Crews‘s character Latrell wears black swim briefs at the beach in a scene in White Chicks.

Live-Action TV

• When Outkast was on The Chris Rock Show in 2000, Andre 3000 came out and performed in briefs, ski boots, and a rainbow pipe-cleaner cape.
• Lucifer (2016):
  • Lucifer plays for being the world's most annoying neighbor while undercover. He does this by throwing a front lawn party in American flag swim briefs with bikini-clad women and a DJ in his garage.
  • The middle-aged but in-shape crime boss Bashir Al-Fassad is encountered by Chloe and Dan and then Lucifer and Eve bathing in his black bikini swimsuit followed by some sunbathing.
  • During a montage of Lucifer attempting to be a "cliché bad husband" (boyfriend in this case) to Eve, he watches TV while drinking beer and eating junk food wearing an open bathrobe with white briefs, white socks, and a visibly dirty white undershirt underneath.
  • Lee Garner AKA “Mr. Said Out Bitch”, a criminal and also notably the only soul to date that has ascended from hell to heaven (Jesus has neither made an appearance nor been discussed at length yet in the series), while at a yacht party changes into tiger-print swim briefs in anticipation of ‘having relations’ before being murdered and subsequently realizing it he is in hell and his hell loop is his murder and the moments leading up to it. He had previously made an appearance in every season premiere since the second, and the first *two* times he was stripped (by Lucifer!) to his underwear - which Lucifer referred to as “manties” at one point - though both incidents are played for humor, not masculine boasting.
• Luis Fernando, the male lead and resident playboy from María la del barrio was often shown tanning or swimming at his mansion's pool in swim briefs early in the show's story. In one scene, the heroine Maria, who has a crush on Luis Fernando, becomes visibly flustered and tells him to cover himself up when he comes by to flirt with her.
• At the 2016 MTV Movie Awards Alexander Skarsgĺrd (who starred as the title role in The Legend of Tarzan that year) came onto stage to present an award wearing a full tuxedo top complete with bow-tie and jacket plus dress shoes and dress socks with garters - but no pants; just briefs. “Nope, no pants,” Skarsgård said to fellow award presenter Samuel L. Jackson and the audience. “Me Tarzan, gotta give the fans a little skin.”
• The 2005 Saturday Night Live skit “Sexual Harassment and You” has football player Tom Brady as an office worker who approaches another played by Tina Fey at the end of the skit in office attire except that he is wearing no pants. Since he has no pockets to speak of at that point in time, he puts the card she gives him with her phone number in the front of his briefs.
• The Todd from Scrubs is known for his over-the-top macho behavior and frequently stripping down to his “banana hammock”-style briefs in front of other people. In one episode, when J.D. is kicked out of his apartment, Todd offers to let him stay at his place... on the condition that he join him and put on bikini briefs with him.
• This segment from the Australian news program This Day Tonight with reporter Sue Faulkner.

Music Videos

• Jennifer Lopez’s “I Luh Ya Papi” video (featuring French Montana) features several younger, fit men in just bathing suits - most of whom are wearing the standard speedo-style swim briefs.

Pro Wrestling

• WWE wrestler Angel Garza incorporates this as part of his gimmick; at the of the match, he's wearing tearaway wrestling tights, and always during the match, he rips them off revealing (briefs-style) wrestling trunks, much to the delight of the female (and male!) crowd members.

Sports

• At UFC 133, welterweight fighter Dennis Hallman surprised spectators by eschewing the usual trunks (that extend to a few inches above the knee) in favor of speedo-like shorts. When Hallman's opponent Brian Ebersole won by TKO in the first round, UFC president Dana White expressed his appreciation by awarding Ebersole $50,000 for "getting those horrifying shorts off TV as soon as possible". Hallman later explained that he had worn the shorts after losing a bet.
• Contestants wear bikini-style posing trunks when they compete in bodybuilding and physique contests.

Video Games

• In general in Dead or Alive franchise, the fanservice is a main element to the story, not just for men but for women too, with their characters having desirable bodies and dressing skimpy outfits as alternate costumes. Saying this, male characters usually have outfits for female fans where they show a lot of skin, like speedos and briefs, being Jann Lee and Brad Wong some of the most show-off male characters of the series which fit with this trope.
• Final Fantasy VII: During the mission to infiltrate Don Corneo's mansion, Cloud can be given a pair of tight-fitting bikini briefs as a keepsake if he chooses to spend time with the bodybuilder Mukki at the Honey Bee Inn. Although never actually shown being worn by Cloud himself, many of the musclebound men are wearing briefs of the same kind.
  • Also, there are some men at the resort town Costa del Sol roaming around in their swimming briefs.
• Heroes of the Storm has Starcraft character Tychus Findlay in a very skimpy pair of blue and orange swim briefs for the Suns Out, Guns Out summer event, complete with Pec Flex animations.
• Draven was the first male character in League of Legends to wear swim briefs for his Pool Party skin, fitting for his flamboyant and showboating personality. A few years later he would be joined by Braum, who is one of the manliest and most muscular characters in the game.
• Leisure Suit Larry is not a very muscular or attractive man, but he sure believes himself to be; in Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!, he needs a bathing suit before he can go swimming, and creates a very tiny "European style" one out of a piece of cloth and some dental floss. It doesn't provide much in-universe fanservice, but fits Larry's ego quite well.
• In the Beach Episode scenes from the Persona games, the male characters that wear skimpy swim briefs are usually the manliest of the group, but are seen as being a little out of touch especially when the other guys are wearing board shorts:
  • Persona 3: In the Portable version, Akihiko's choice of swimsuit makes Yukari blush due to how short it is. Akihiko states that briefs like his are better suited to reduce swim resistance, since he mostly came to the beach to do training.
  • Persona 4: During the beach scene exclusive to Golden, Kanji wears a very skimpy pair of bikini briefs, causing Yosuke to complain that he's seeing "things that [he] never needed to see". Kanji doesn't seem to see the problem with them. Due to a humorous Wardrobe Malfunction, he loses his swimsuit and ends up having to improvise a bikini out of seaweed.
• Most boxers from the Punch-Out!! series wear boxing shorts appropriate for the occasion, but Super Macho Man wears briefs that show off more skin than the rest of the cast, save Donkey Kong. Super Macho Man is an egotistical Hollywood casanova who is introduced in the wii game by flexing his muscles and then his butt. Soda Popinski also wears one, because he was a Head Swap of Super Macho Man in the NES game.
• Zangief from the Street Fighter games is a Husky Russkie wrestler who sports colorful, usually red briefs.
• Lee Chaolan from Tekken franchise is an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy who's the step-brother of Kazuya Mishima and wants to get revenge to him and the whole Mishima family for the humilliations he suffered in the past. However, he has an arrogant personality and he loves his body, at the point of being seen in tiny swim briefs just to show-off in public as well as his alter-ego, Violet, and usually wearing a bowtie and sunglasses... and nothing else.
  • In Lee's story ending from Tekken 5, he's seen lounging at a tropical resort while a lady massages him, when his adoptive father Heihachi arrives as his personal servant... wearing the same type of skimpy swimsuit Lee would probably wear, along with a bow tie strapped with a bomb as a means to humiliate him.
• Godbert Manderville from Final Fantasy XIV is typically seen wearing nothing but pure white satin briefs. Everywhere he goes. Even in public? Especially in public. The Original Manderville Man only modifies his wardrobe for formal occasions: he adds a snazzy white coatee. And changes into black satin briefs.
• Yakuza 0 features the NPC Habu, AKA Sotenbori's AKA “Walking Erection”. He has a very toned physique, and shows it off by never wearing more than his underpants (full-rise briefs), shoes... and a smile. This is in sharp contrast to the teenage boy encountered in the Rise of the Dragon substory in the same game, whose Bontan pants (and those of other high school students) have been stolen (by none other than a young Ryuji Goda, no less!) and is mortified to be seen in public in his “tighty-whiteys”, as Majima calls the poor kid’s briefs.

Visual Novels

• Extracurricular Activities: Darius's underwear tends to alternate between briefs and thongs, and that's if he's wearing clothes at all.
• Sin With Me: Darius wears snug black speedo-style briefs and, as a Shameless Fanservice Guy, has no qualms about showing off his body.

Western Animation

• Animaniacs (2020): Niels Niedhart, a recurring antagonist in the revival series, is a muscular Austrian-accented man who's a very athletic Jerk Jock usually wearing pink briefs.
• Family Guy: Quagmire is often shown wearing a pair of leopard print briefs. This seems to emphasize his status as a sex fiend.
• Johnny Bravo: In the ending of the third pilot episode "Johnny Bravo and the Amazon Women", Johnny ends up on the Island of Beautiful Men, populated entirely by handsome and muscular men, many of whom are wearing swim briefs. One of the inhabitants offers Johnny an extra swimsuit if he wants to join them, an offer that Johnny seems perplexed by but not entirely opposed to.
• King of the Hill: Much like Quagmire, ladies' man Boomhauer is often seen wearing animal print briefs (yellow or orange, and black) as both underwear and a swimsuit. His brother Patch (Brad Pitt), appearing in one episode only, wears similar but differently colored briefs (zebra or white tiger print perhaps).
• In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, the human counterpart of Dumb Muscle bodybuilder pegasus Bulk Biceps wears red speedos at the beach.
• The Simpsons, "The Springfield Files": When Agent Mulder flashes his FBI badge, there is a picture of him posing in a Reclining Venus position in black underwear. It is a reference to the red speedo that Mulder wears in "Duane Barry", an episode of The X-Files.
• Total Drama: Alejandro, a prideful and seductive Dashing Hispanic, wears a speedo as swimwear.
• X-Men: The Animated Series has a short glimpse of Gambit in swim briefs alongside Rogue in her swimsuit in an early episode.

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