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If he's got no eyeballs, what exactly are those supposed to protect?

"What is the purpose of the goggles?"
G-Man, Psychonauts

A character wears goggles or other eyewear, despite the fact that they don't have an actual use. In many cases, they'll only ever wear them above their eyes (see picture) like some weird hat. It's not that the goggles can't do their job, it's that they're never used in the first place.

Unused articles such as this often make up the Rummage Sale Reject. Goggles are popular, because they look cool. If you can actually get something out of them besides protection, then it's probably because your Goggles Do Something Unusual.

If a character has a logical reason to be wearing goggles, like pilot with aviator goggles, it doesn't count as this trope, even if he never actually gets to use them.

See also Purely Aesthetic Glasses for when glasses don't actually correct vision. Contrast Stylish Protection Gear for functional, protective goggles that also happen to look really cool. Sub-Trope of Useless Accessory.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • During the Hades arc of Angel Sanctuary, Katou wears goggles around his neck for no good reason, other than Rule of Cool.
  • Subverted in Attack on Titan. When the main form of combat is high-speed aerial acrobatics, goggles are pretty much the only way to keep from losing one's vision-correction apparatus. They also serve much in the same way as pilot's goggles, although that raises the question of why more characters don't wear them, as only Hange is shown to wear them more-or-less regularly — and she wears glasses anyway.
  • In Bakemonogatari, Oshino Shinobu wears a motorcycle helmet and goggles, despite appearing to be maybe six or eight years old and spending most of her time sitting around in the shade.
  • Bleach:
    • Shiba Ganju was supposed to have goggles as part of his design, but Kubo lamented that he simply forgot to add them every time he drew the character. However, the goggles do appear on Ganjuu in some color spreads.
    • Renji, meanwhile, likes wearing expensive sunglasses over his forehead tattoos, but are broken easily in fights. He substitutes a bandanna instead.
    • A variation occurs in one of the anime omake: Tousen is seen using binoculars. This would be fine, except TOUSEN IS BLIND.
  • Parodied in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. Bubble-uba, a minor villain, wears three pairs of goggles on his forehead, and has an extra-large pair wrapped around his waist.
  • Codename: Sailor V: Sailor V's mask is this. Unlike Sailor Moon's similar mask in the manga it has no point aside from obscuring her face. When she becomes Sailor Venus she continues to wear it offscreen for a bit and during her introduction (probably so viewers/readers know that she and Sailor V are the same person) ditches it once she joins the team and her identity is never revealed due to it.
  • In early chapters of Chrono Crusade, Rosette wears a pair of goggles over her wimple. She uses them a grand total of once, while she and Chrono are on a plane and attempting to board an enemy's blimp. Chrono wears them, too, but it's the only time he's ever seen with goggles, and he takes his off once they make it in, but Rosette's stay on until she gets her militia outfit.
  • Death Note:
    • In one of the Death Note Relight specials a shinigami, possibly Light Yagami, is seen (pictured above) with goggles when he doesn't even have any eyes!
    • Matt, a frequent gamer, also wears goggles at all times. Though they might be worn to protect his eyes from glazing. Or maybe he's cosplaying Raz from Psychonauts.
  • In Digimon, it borders on a Running Gag that the lead character always wears goggles. It started with Taichi/Tai, then Daisuke/Davis actually started wearing Taichi's original goggles. Then Takato wears them because he watched a different version of Digimon on television. Then there's Takuya, Taiki/Mikey, Tagiru, Haru, Tsurugi in Next, and Hikaru in D-Cyber. Strangely, the very first guy to wear goggles (another guy named Taichi in V-Tamer 01) actually got them as a gift from a pilot and used them for that very purpose. In several instances, the characters do actually use them. The problem is that nobody else seems to ever be bothered by whatever condition prompts the current goggle boy to wear them.
    • Davis/Daisuke's Image Song is actually called "Goggle Boy," and he has an audio drama track called "Goggles." He does say that he wore them specifically because Tai/Taichi did, so it's kind of a Goggles Do Something Unusual Because They Do Unusual Things For My Role Model.
    • Tamers subverts this. Takato's goggles come in handy in a digital field, among other places; the other two members of the Power Trio have sunglasses which they use in the same situations.
      • Frontier featured a similar subversion, with Takuya using his goggles to cover his eyes while underwater. This came in handy since that meant he was the only group member who could see underwater and they weren't just swimming blind.
    • Well, every lead character aside from Masaru/Marcus, but that's probably because he's too manly for them. However, fans prefer goggles. Note that Masaru doesn't look like an Elementary / Junior High school student, despite the fact that he is the latter. Similarly, Hiro also completely averts this with a goggleless outfit.
  • Doraemon: Nobita and the Winged Braves: Several Birdopian characters in the anime, including the new protagonist Gusuke, wears goggles 24/7 on their foreheads, even during intense, high-speed chase sequences or when they're battling Phoenixia the fire-breathing eldritch monster at the end, where having goggles over their eyes would seem useful. Oddly enough the manga story the anime's adapted from avert the trope, with Gusuke and his rival Tsubakuro pulling their goggles over their eyes during the Icarus Rally.
  • Erwin in Girls und Panzer. Since her goggles are transparent, many viewers never notice them, and often fan artists and cosplayers leave them out. But since she is emulating Erwin Rommel, listed below under Real Life, she does indeed have goggles on top of her hat the way Rommel did. However, she is never shown wearing them over her eyes.
  • Gundam:
    • Basque Ohm from Gundam 0083 and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam literally wears goggles that seem to serve no purpose. However, it's possible that they cover an injury of some sort as it was hinted he was tortured by Zeon during the One Year War.
    • Quatre Raberba Winner of Gundam Wing has a pair of goggles. The practical way to use them would be for crossing the desert — the only time he does wear them is inside his Gundam.
    • Quatre's goggles are more for sentimental value; the prequel novel Episode Zero shows that they belonged to Rashid, leader of the Maganac Corps, and mark the young man as one of them, which makes the Maganacs the first real friends he ever had.
  • Canada from Hetalia: Axis Powers sports a pair of goggles on his head in a few illustrations of his military uniform. Oddly enough, his brother America is the one who wears a uniform resembling that of a pilot, but only is drawn with goggles once or twice. Considering Canada's WW2 role as the airplane manufacturing/flight training center for most of the British Empire and the fact that his uniform seems to include a parachute, he's probably a bombardier or navigator, so the goggles aren't totally superfluous.
  • Subverted with Kidou from Inazuma Eleven. In the third season Kageyama explains through a flashback that he gave him his goggles to concentrate on the field, because they narrow his vision, allowing him to predict where the ball will land at all times. He also keeps the goggles because they're his trademark. Dylan, on the other hand, wears goggles with no explanation, while Amagi from the sequel wears his goggles on his chin.
  • Koga the Jerkass Noble Demon of Inuyasha wears a sheathed sword that he never uses during battle. Lampshaded when he finally draws the thing to whack his way free of a demon's giant clutching hand. When his pair of loyal minions express surprise that he's never used the sword before, Koga admits he doesn't even know how to fight with it — he just took the sword off a corpse to carry because he thought it would make him look cool.
  • In Knight Hunters, both Ken and Omi wear goggles as part of their mission clothes. Averted in the last episode (and lampshaded in the accompanying outtakes for this and an earlier episode), when Omi actually uses his to see the infrared beams.
    Omi: Finally a use for these goggles I've been wearing for 24 episodes.
    • Played straight with the nonsensical orange jacket Ken wears around his waist as well.
  • Yuuno's side-pouch in Lyrical Nanoha, which we never see him use. Some Fan Web Comics (Omake (?)) have made speculations on what he places in there. Arnage actually has redundant goggles.
  • In Manga Shakespeare, Benvolio of Romeo and Juliet wears goggles but is never shown using them.
  • Dominikov from Murder Princess. Come to think of it, he kinda resembles a more family-friendly version of the image up top... usually (he's the one on the right).
  • Napping Princess: In her pirate outfit, Ancien has a pair of goggles. When she climbs to the outside of a towering Enginehead, she actually discards them (and her pirate hat), despite it seeming like the situation would make the goggles useful.
  • Naruto:
    • In the early design stages, the titular character was also supposed to wear a pair of useless goggles. However, the artist found goggles too hard to draw, and so replaced it with a headband after the first few issues. Attention is called to it, as one of Naruto's mentors notes he's wearing the goggles as a replacement for the hachimaki actual ninja wear; it's taken as a sign of his immaturity. In the original one-shot, the goggles weren't useless; he wears them when riding his motorcycle. The goggles in the first few chapters of the series proper were a holdover from that one-shot.
    • After Chapter 2, Konohamaru takes to wearing goggles on his forehead in order to emulate Naruto. After the Time Skip, when Konohamaru and his teammates are now genin, he wears a Leaf headband instead.
    • Averted with Obito, who wears goggles properly over his eyes. Likely due to being an Uchiha, he took very good care of his eyes, protecting them from debris with the goggles and using eye drops to moisturize.
    • One chapter briefly features a character named Kosuke who wears goggles, which is weird since he's a toad (albeit a magic one).
  • One Piece:
    • Parodied in an occasion. Zoro was fighting Braham whose guns shoot bright flashes to blind his opponents from seeing the bullets. Believing that the goggles should protect his eyes so he can fight properly, he put them on, declaring that they would protect him from the flashes... then his opponent calmly pointed out that the goggles had no shades, rendering them useless for this fight.
    • Captain Eustass Kid however wears raised goggles as part of his normal fashion.
    • Wanze of Cipher Pol. is a chef who wears googles on his forehead. In an SBS question corner, the author said that they were to prevent him from crying when he chops onions. In response to another reader's statement that onions irritate the nose to cause tears, Eiichiro Oda said that Wanze sticks them in his nostrils.
  • Pokémon Adventures: The first noticeable difference between Gold and the male PC for the second generation games is that Gold wears goggles and Ethan doesn't. Occasionally, Gold does wear his goggles though.
  • Gadgeteer Genius Heihachi of Samurai 7 always wears a "pilot's helmet" on his head, which has goggles on it, which he never has over his eyes (which are always closed anyway). He's shown actually wearing the goggles in one episode during a heavy rain storm, but it still doesn't explain the pilot's hat though.
  • Rin-rin in Sister Princess habitually wears a pair of goggles pushed up on top of her head. Given that she's a maker of robots and other technotoys, they may be welding goggles or other similar eye protection, but she's never seen with them actually over her eyes.
  • The aptly named Goggles from the Splatoon manga wears the Pilot Goggles item from the games on his head. Like in the games, he never pulls them down.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: The protagonist, Simon, averts this trope by actually wearing his goggles to protect his eyes and provide illumination while digging underground tunnels. It is worth mentioning, however, that Simon wears the goggles on his forehead at all times, even when not underground, and even in space. He is also the only one to wear them even though he is by no means the only one who digs tunnels.
  • In Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, Syaoran's goggles appear useless at first, but then he finds an underwater country and uses them for diving.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V:
    • The Protagonist, Yuya Sakaki averts this trope. Aside that he uses them to hide his feelings, they protect his eyes when he is riding into bushes, puddings or other nasty things. In the Synchro Arc, he uses his goggles whenever he's in a Riding Duel.
    • Averted with Yuto in his first appearance. They protect him from flying debris, but they break. After that, he ditches them.

    Card Games 
  • Chandra, a Planeswalker in Magic: The Gathering, wears a pair of goggles on her brow.
    • As did Jaya Ballard, whom Chandra is arguably an Expy of. Going by flavor text, the reason appears to be that before becoming a Planeswalker, Chandra was trained in pyromancy by Jaya. So either it's Jaya's goggles passed down, she wanted to look like her teacher or she was simply told that goggles are a good thing when Playing with Fire.
    • Although you never SEE her wear them, in the webcomic series her face is covered in soot and ash, except for the goggle marks around her eyes. So conceivably, they actually DO do something.
    • In the card Act on Impulse, Chandra finally gets serious and wears the goggles. She warns we don't want to know what happens when she does.
    • Jaya's goggles are now represented on a card, subverting this trope. Chandra's goggles, however, have been confirmed to do nothing.

    Comic Books 
  • Averted in Garth Ennis's The Boys. One of the team's resident sociopathic anti-heroes, The Frenchman, initially appears to wear a pair of basic goggles on his bald head for purely aesthetic reasons. However, when he enters combat and draws them on to his eyes, their utility is quickly demonstrated as he rips his opponents apart like wet tissue paper and is immediately covered in viscera.
  • Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot wears flippers all the time, in case he needs to swim.
  • The Flash: Wally West and Bart Allen both wore lenses in their masks for some time, despite it being shown by other speedsters (or themselves when out of costume) as unnecessary as their speed aura protects them. This was more pronounced with Bart, who had wide lenses while Wally's were small and just part of an Expressive Mask. For Wally, it just seemed to be Rule of Cool and later to distinguish him from Barry Allen, while Bart. Subverted with Jesse Quick, who also wore this for a while, but it was shown she was actually short-sighted and occasionally wore glasses outside of uniform, so the goggles were probably for corrective reasons.
  • Depending on the artist, the Marvel Comics Foolkiller sometimes wears what appears to be goggles instead of the usual domino style mask.
  • Hellboy does not wear goggles. However, the fact that the filed-down horn stumps on his forehead were mistaken for goggles by many early fans goes to show how ubiquitous the "goggles as fashion accessory" idea is. Even Guillermo del Toro, the director of the first pair of movies, thought they were goggles.
  • Punchy in The Intimates usually wears his goggles on his forehead, but whenever he's required to do a lot of moving around he'll pull them over his eyes. This is less a fashion statement and more a matter of comfort — the goggles are part of his costume, meaning he has to wear them constantly according to his Superhero School's rules, but wearing them over his eyes all day would be uncomfortable and pointless
  • Will Feral in Kingdom wears an aviator's hat and matching goggles for no particular reason. Dingo Star's shoulder pads and pouches might also count.
  • New Mutants: when asked by Warlock why he bothers to wear goggles when his powers protect him while he's "blastin'", Cannonball responds that they just look cool, okay?
  • Retro Girl of Powers used aviator goggles when flying, for some reason, despite being a level nine "We as a species just pray to dear God they're good folks" power.
  • Robin (1993): The extra two sets of goggles lenses that don't cover Redback's eyes don't appear to have any use outside of giving her a spider-like aesthetic. Though of course she's never seen outside of costume, nor confirmed to be human so given that she's in the DCU they could possibly be covering another two sets of eyes.
  • Averted in Starman, where the hero's goggles protect his eyes from the odd conditions of flying at high altitude with an extremely bright staff.
  • Hay Lin in W.I.T.C.H. likes to wear a pair of goggles just above her forehead.
  • Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark originally wore aviation goggles to protect her eyes during flight and help disguise her identity, however she eventually started wearing the goggles as a hairband instead.

    Comic Strips 
  • In the Malaysian 4-panel comic strip Lawak Kampus, the main character Vanness seems to have goggles permanently glued to his forehead for no reason, including a comic where he's having a Cucumber Facial. The comic's artist Keith Chong is a huge manga nerd, and appears to be lampooning the "useless goggles" common in anime.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Alien³, a prisoner preparing to violate Ripley slips his goggles over his eyes for some reason. Fridge Horror comes into play if you wonder whether they would actually serve a purpose in the events to follow.
  • In AVP: Alien vs. Predator's director's commentary, the director said that originally only one character was to wear goggles on his head. The other cast members thought it looked cool, so they all wore goggles on their head... which meant they had to be fogged up so they wouldn't reflect the cameras.
  • A character in Can't Hardly Wait wears goggles on his forehead. They are actual swimmer's goggles. He never goes swimming.
  • Although the thermal goggles in Hollow Man actually do something quite important for the film's plot, a possibly unintentional Shout-Out occurs when the room fills with steam, prompting a character to declare "The goggles are worthless!"
  • In F. Bondarchuk's Inhabited island the gear of an alien guardsman includes fa-abulous pink (!) ski goggles. They almost never put them on, even during shooting practice, obstacle courses (with fire barriers) and actual combat raids against insurgents.
  • J-Bone in Johnny Mnemonic wears a pair of ski goggles across his forehead throughout the entire movie.
  • Imperial defector Bodhi Rook wears protective goggles on the top of his head for almost all of his screen time in Rogue One. Yes, he's a pilot but he flies a cargo shuttle in space so their utility would seem limited. The only time they might have been useful — on the dusty desert planet of Jeddha — he still doesn't wear them in the prescribed fashion.
  • In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), both Raph and Mikey have sunglasses as part of their clothing, but both never use them. Mikey's don't even seem to be the same size as his face! Averted with Donatello's high-tech scanners.
  • Randall in Time Bandits wears an old-fashioned flight helmet with the goggles always perched on his forehead, unused.
  • In Top Gun, the bad guys wore their visors at all times while flying, while the good guys never did.

    Literature 
  • Otherland: Features a lower class subculture referred to as "Goggleboys", whose goggles are actually low cost virtual reality rigs. Middle and upper class copy their aesthetic to look hip and cool, featuring goggles that are purely decorative.
  • In Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain, goggles are the trademark of the supervillain mad scientists, handed out when the community accepts you as a true Mad Scientist. The goggles are actually perfectly functional, but by the time anyone gets them, they've probably already bought or invented better ones, so most just wear them as a symbol.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Jasper in The 100 wears goggles as a hat-like accessory. The fact that he stops wearing them after he crosses the Despair Event Horizon implies that he thought it looked cool, and now doesn't care for it.
  • In Battlestar Galactica (2003), the Colonial Marines wear goggles on the top of their helmets, but they're very rarely actually worn and their exact purpose is never explained. Presumably, they're standard ballistic goggles like the kind we have today. The directors probably agreed to keep them there but leave them off due to Rule of Cool and so we could see the actors' faces.
  • Mason's death in Dead Like Me. He was searching for the ultimate high and put a drill into his brain. He wore safety goggles.
  • The trope name is said verbatim by Topher in a Dollhouse deleted scene where he tries on some goggles that are meant to go with his interactive computer screen.
  • Selina sports goggles on top of her head in Gotham, in a nod to Catwoman's 2000s redesign by Darwyn Cooke. Those are night vision goggles, which serve a purpose.
  • Power Rangers Dino Charge: Heckyl wears fancier welding goggles (or so they look like) around his neck. It is implied in a late episode that they can protect from the petrifying effects of one monster's amulet.

    Music 
  • Doctor Steel was never seen without his goggles, regardless of his attire. Somewhat justified, as he was a roboticist and was seen in one video welding.
  • Rabbit of Steam Powered Giraffe wears steampunk-style goggles on his hat.
    • He finally gets to wear them in the music video for Automatonic Electronic Harmonics. Reportedly he was completely blind with them on
  • Till Lindemann of Rammstein wears goggles in the original video for "Du Riechst So Gut" just because they look cool. Onstage, they have an obvious purpose.
  • Elton John didn't really need glasses; he wore them as a tribute to Buddy Holly.

    Pinball 
  • Captain B. Zarr from The Party Zone, who wears aviator goggles and a propeller-topped polka-dotted aviator helmet just because.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Konnan goggles had a tint, so they might have had some use. Except he wore these during his Filthy Animal WCW run, where the large majority of events were indoors. So what they did was probably impede his vision.
  • As a wrestler, Leva Bates wears goggles to protect herself from eye pokes (she's made use of other "armor" such as headphones to block out Jillian Hall's singing) As a referee though, the goggles serve no purpose besides restricting peripheral vision.
  • Becky Lynch wore goggles as part of her "steam-punk" persona, but they served no real purpose in the ring.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Iron Kingdoms: A lot of mechanics and warcasters appear in both figures and art wearing goggles of various types. While they generally have no rule-mechanical effect, a pair of solid protective goggles are an eminently sensible accessory for people who spend a lot of time around experimental steam engines and high explosives,
  • Magic: The Gathering:
    • Chandra Nalaar wears her goggles on her forehead almost all the time. At least one card, which shows her actually wearing them over her eyes, lampshades this by claiming she only pulls them down when things get really bad.
    • Braids keeps her goggles on her head even after becoming an Arisen Nightmare. That said, there is one picture of her wearing them properly (the Scourge art for the card Skulltap).

    Toys 
  • An example from toys (and the associated comic/cartoon/etc): The G.I. Joe enemy troops called Vipers have a wraparound helmet with opaque facemask ... and goggles atop the helmet!

    Video Games 
  • Advance Wars: Flak wears goggles and a helmet. No-one's quite clear on why Flak would need head protection. Also Eagle, who always wears his goggles around his neck. Apparently they're his lucky goggles. He IS a pilot, though.
  • Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island: Beaux wears a pair of goggles on his head that he's never actually seen using as protective eyewear. One of his alchemy requests is for you to make a Glass Sphere to help him repair one of the lenses, which makes one wonder... what exactly does the boy use the goggles for, anyway?
  • Borderlands: Patricia Tannis, an archaeologist, constantly wears aviator goggles. Gaige of Borderlands 2 also wears a pair of goggles on her head that she never puts on.
    • In a wasteland with, as shown in some areas, lots of blowing dust. She's encountered indoors, though, so has no need to keep them down — unlike a lot of the outdoor NPCs (who take great care to keep wrapped up, for the most part, against the elements, including goggles).
    • In the original game, Roland and Mordecai both have goggles. Mordecai at least wears his over his eyes, while Roland's remain up on his forehead.
    • Sasha in the Telltale spinoff series Tales from the Borderlands wears a pair of goggles around her neck for most of the game (from Episode 1 to about a quarter of the way into Episode 4). She puts them on precisely once when she's moving particularly fast, but she takes them off during the same scene and never wears them again.
  • BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm gives us this Flavor Text for the Steampunk Fedora item:
    A needlessly expensive novelty hat with glued-on goggles, which do nothing.
  • Weirdly averted in Champions Online, where one of the various upgrade items is a pair of goggles. The text for it reads something like "Actually does something." You can choose to have Goggles for a head item, an eye item, and a neck piece, leading to three pair of goggles, only one of which is on your eyes but all of which are purely aesthetic.
  • City of Heroes and City of Villains have goggle appearances, including ones always stay on the forehead. Like every other cosmetic choices, there's no gameplay result. Which actually means that every single piece of your equipment, other than any weapon-based powers are an example of this trope. Some good examples would include things like utility belts, wings, armor, bandoliers, extra swords/guns, tails, and claws.
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: The actual quote is said word-for-word during the Mount Rushmore mission in the Allied campaign, when President Ackerman activates the various laser cannons installed in Mount Rushmore to attack your forces.
    Peacekeeper: My eyes! The goggles do nothing!
  • Crash Bandicoot: Coco Bandicoot wears a pair of goggles on her head in Crash of the Titans, Crash: Mind Over Mutant, and Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. Justified, considering Coco's mechanical aptitude, but for the most part, her goggles are merely cosmetic. Subverted in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, where both Crash and Coco wear aviator goggles over their eyes... albeit only in the airplane levels.
  • Danger Girl introduces new character JC, the teenaged Canadian Wrench Wench, to the team, whose outfit has a pair of goggles that doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than identifying her as the gadget expert. Even during a cutscene when she attempts to fix a submarine, her goggles are above her eyes.
  • Dark Forces Saga: Jan Ors actually uses the goggles she wears on her head twice. Somehow, both the Empire and Jabba the Hutt let her keep them on after she was captured by them.
  • Digimon: If you're a protagonist, odds are that you're wearing a pair of useless goggles. Keisuke manages to avert it however in Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory, as his goggles (though more of a visor really) are actually his Digivice, and he needs to put them on to log into Eden. He is shown with them on while using an item in battle.
  • Dragon Quest II: Both the Prince of Lauraisa and the Prince of Cannock wear goggles as part of their headgear. While this may be justified by the fact both live close to small patches of desert, they're never shown actually using them. (The Princess, meanwhile, doesn't get any goggles of her own.)
  • Fable: A variant. The Leather Armor has a dagger in a sheath attached to the sleeve. You can't do anything with it, but it looks cool.
  • Fallout 3: None of the many goggles have a stat bonus other than armor class, and they're both harder to find replacement components and no better as armor than glasses that do have stat bonuses. In addition, some of the costumes and headgear in the game feature goggles. This means that if a player wants he can have one pair on a helmet, one pair around his neck (as part of the costume) and at the same time wearing a pair.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy VI: Goggles are an equippable item, which prevent blindness. Unfortunately, a glitch with the Evasion stat in the game made it so blindness doesn't affect the accuracy of physical attacks as it's supposed to, making them useless. The Goggles, quite literally, do nothing. This was fixed in the remake. Sadly, the goggles aren't actually drawn on your character. Ironically, the Blind status effect (rendered irrelevant by the above-mentioned glitch aside from preventing Strago from learning enemy spells) does make a character look like they're wearing goggles.
    • Final Fantasy VII: While Cid never uses his goggles in the intended manner, despite actually being a pilot, they do provide a nice place for him to stick his pack of cigarettes. Reno also boasts a pair, except without cigarettes, seeing as he's a very competent helicopter pilot.
    • Final Fantasy X: Rikku wears a pair of goggles in her swimwear. When she takes it off, there's another pair of goggles around her neck as part of her normal outfit, but she doesn't actually don them. The actual reason most Al Bhed have goggles is safety, technically — but it's got more to do with safety from Fantastic Racism than sparks and metal shavings, as they specifically wear opaque lenses that hide their spiral eyes. For whatever reason, Rikku elects not to do this when she becomes Yuna's guardian.
    • Final Fantasy XIV:
      • Cid Garlond wears a pair of goggles up on his forehead, not because as an engineer he may need them at any time, but to hide the Third Eye that marks him as a pureblooded Garlean.
      • Using the "adjust visor" toggle on the character screen when wearing a pair of goggles or glasses raises them to the forehead position.
      • In the aftermath of the Stormblood expansion, the Player Character receives the "Scion Adventurer's Outfit" which boasts the same aether-detecting goggles the rest of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn use, but they are a decoration, thus fit into this trope. This goes the same for the Mogstation-purchased outfits based on the other Scions.
  • Fortunes Run: Your character wears goggles on her forehead all the time, even in fight scenes when she's slicing up enemies by way of katana and splashed by blood.
  • Fossil Fighters: Champions: The male player character wears oversized goggles over his hair. The setting has a plausible reason to have them — keeping dirt of the eyes while cleaning fossils. However, this is never seen, and when the other major charcters don't have goggles either, including the female Player Character, they never amount to more than an accessory.
  • Gears of War: Baird has goggles that seem to serve no apparent purpose... but being the squad's self-proclaimed Smart Guy and Mr. Fixit, they would seem to have a potential use for him. Averted in Gears of War 2, as in the part where Delta Squad rides Reavers, he puts the goggles over his eyes, since they are flying.
    • Funnily enough, Baird does wear his goggles properly as part of his "Mechanic Baird" multiplayer skin. They still don't do anything, but at least it makes sense now.
    • Also, Dom has a gigantic Ka-Bar-esque knife strapped to his chest. Guess when he actually pulls it out? The knife at least gets some use in Gears of War 3: Dom lends it to Marcus who needs it to help move a rusty lever. He dies before he can get it back, but Marcus holds onto it and uses it to kill Queen Myrrah.
  • Guild Wars 2: Used as an achievement. The player character must don a pair of goggles (and nothing else but their underwear), and proceed to dive into a pool of lava from an immense height. As the fall will kill the player character due to the height before the lava even does any damage, the goggles really didn't help at all.
  • Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja: The main character wears a pair of strange triangular goggles that are never used.
  • Jak and Daxter: Both titular characters (even though one is an otter-weasel hybrid) wear goggles around their heads. In Jak's case this trope is averted: his goggles are useful in the first game for sniping out enemies and Dark Eco crystals using yellow Eco; in the third he wears them while out in the desert. Played straight with Daxter in most games, until he eventually puts them to use while being flung through the air to dismantle planes in Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier. He also wears his goggles over his eyes in an early cutscene in Jak X: Combat Racing.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Cid and Goofy wear goggles. Though it's possible that Cid may use the goggles while working on Gummi ships, it's hard to imagine what use they would serve for a Captain of the Guard who uses shields as weapons.
  • Kingdom of Loathing has an accessory known as beer goggles. The enchantment is "They do Nothing!" Ironically, said enchantment allows them to be pulverized into twinkly powder (as opposed to useless powder). Which means that the fact that they do nothing means they do something. But if they do something, they can't do nothing. But if they don't do nothing, then they can't do that something... ow, my brain.
  • Kirby: Planet Robobot: The titular pink puff gains a headgear containing goggles upon taking the Robobot Armor for himself. However, for some odd reason, he refuses to wear them on his face.
  • Lego Star Wars II: Some of the NPCs in the Mos Eisley Cantina and in the Tatooine levels are wearing what appear to be bucket hats with goggles around the crown. This hat can also be chosen in the character builder. These have no effect on gameplay, but boy, do they ever look cool.
  • Marvel's Avengers: In his first, patchwork suit, Iron Man wears a pair of goggles around his neck despite his eyes already by covered by his helmet.
  • Nostalgia (Red Entertainment): Melody's pointy witch hat sports a pair of goggles for some reason. She never wears them.
  • Paladins:
    • Played straight by Ruckus, who has forehead goggles and never puts them on.
    • Averted by Barik and Pip. They have forehead goggles at champion select, but put the goggles over their eyes when the action starts. On a similar note, Fernando also puts his helmet's visor down.
  • Persona 3: The protagonist has an MP3 player around his neck, with headphones hanging on his chest. Except for the opening cutscene, he never uses them onscreen. Although Fuuka upgrades the headphones at the end of her Social Link, and the upgraded headphones unlock the Scathach persona. The player is then referenced in a bit of a Mythology Gag in which lancer and Butt-Monkey Yosuke (voiced by the same voice actor as P3's protagonist) is shown to also be wearing an MP3 player. He's actually shown wearing them in battle, even tapping his foot (Though not quite in-time to the battle music, sadly.) And shown taking them off post-battle.
  • Pokémon inverts this with the Safety Goggles held item that debuted in Pokémon X and Y. Like other held items, it is not visible on the Pokemon holding it. But it grants protection from Sandstorm and Hail damage and from powder-based moves.
  • Portal 2: The Goo Gear Snorkel item from summer 2011 for the co-op robots don't really help much against the deadly goo in the test chamber levels.
  • Psychonauts: Raz lowers his goggles over his eyes before entering a person's mind... for no apparent purpose. In "The Milkman Conspiracy," this becomes lampshaded by the interrogative Men In Black: "Who are you?" "Who is the Milkman?" "What is the purpose of the goggles?" It's then subverted when the boss threatens to pluck out his eyes:
    Razputin: Ha, you can't! ''That'' is the purpose of the goggles.
  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart: Rivet has a pair of goggles that she never wears over her eyes. They're mainly there to show off the ray-traced reflections in the lenses.
  • Shadow Hearts: Covenant has Yuri wearing a small satchel on his back (with trailing buckle-straps). While one could argue that's where the millions of random items you collect or buy over the course of the game end up stashed, you never see Yuri use it. Seems he took a few traveling tips from Lara Croft.
  • The Sims 2 has goggles you can wear on your forehead, but not over your eyes. A lot of user made content involves giving your character other equipment such as weaponry, backpacks, etc. that don't do anything.
  • Soldier of Fortune. The night vision goggles do almost nothing. And enemies can still see you in the darkness without night vision. In Soldier of Fortune 2, thermal goggles allowed you to see through walls (but were less compatible with sniper rifles).
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Sonic the Hedgehog: There are goggle sprites in the original game. See them here. They were removed from the game before being programmed to do anything. It's speculated that they were intended to be SCUBA gear.
    • Sonic Adventure: Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik wears not only goggles that never leave the top of his head, but also spectacles. So he couldn't wear his goggles even if he wanted to. The only time he actually wears his goggles in one scene in Sonic Adventure 2, where he dons them for dramatic purposes. Of course, they're back on top of his head in all of the scenes immediately following. Being the Mad Scientist he is, Eggman probably uses them when welding his Mecha-Mooks together... it's just that we never see him doing it.
    • Sonic Riders: The heroes wear goggles even before they know they're going to compete in a hoverboard competition, and once they start competing, they never put their goggles over their eyes. This isn't so for the antagonistic Babylon Rogues. Amusingly, in addition to not being used, their sunglasses/goggles are far too small to actually be worn.
  • Splatoon: Zigzagged. Googles are among many pieces of headgear in the game, with some only worn on the forehead, while others are actually put on by the character. Not that shielding your eyes does anything gameplay-wise.
  • Super Robot Wars' Ratsel Feinschmecker wears enormous aviator goggles as a Paper-Thin Disguise, in homage to Char Aznable's similar trick with Cool Shades. They're useless because the disguise fools absolutely no one.
  • Tales of Hearts's Hisui has a pair of goggles that flip randomly between the top of his head and around his neck. He actually keeps them on in battle and off when out of it, but no particular significance is given for that.
  • Tales of Vesperia: Rita has a pair worn on her forehead that do absolutely nothing. She also apparently has a pair of glasses tucked into the collar of her shirt that are never used.
  • Team Fortress 2 being a game where cosmetic items only serves an aesthetic purpose, goggles aren't exempt from this.
    • The Engineer's in-game model wears goggles, but they do nothing gameplay-related, and he has no eyes underneath. The most popular fanmod that removes said googles looks so freaky to some that it ascended to Memetic Mutation as the "Staregineer".
    • The Medic received a pair of mad scientist goggles (resembling the strange device Egon wore in Ghostbusters as a hat; they're called "Ze Goggles" and with the description "Nothing".
    • Scout now has the Planeswalker Goggles, which are supposed to keep the bugs out of his eyes as he runs, but considering you never see bugs in-game, they really do nothing. (Although wearing them with the Bombing Run makes him look like Raz).
    • Similarly, the Heavy has the War Goggles that does nothing but making him partially look like his Team Fortress Classic counterpart.
    • Though set bonuses that change in-game stats have since been patched out of the game, goggles/hats/wigs/doo-rags still have a function: they help distinguish strangers from friends, and show what other games the player owns if they have a buy-in bonus.
  • Tekken: The goggles that Hwoarang wears but never puts over his eyes. There is a cutscene in Tekken 5 (and Dark Resurrection), where Hwoarang is riding his motorbike... with the goggles still up on his hair.
  • Terraria, you can craft goggles out of two lenses (as in the organ itself), they do nothing more than give one measly point of defense so they're more for decoration than anything for your character. During Halloween, the Steampunker sells steampunker goggles that are completely vanity only and their not even worn over the character's eyes compared to the former example.
  • Time Crisis: Captain Rush wears a pair of orange goggles around his neck. Being a US Army soldier and all, you'd think they'd come in handy...
  • Torchlight: The Alchemist wears them proudly in the loading screen and other art. All classes can wear helms that show up as just goggles, and in the case of the Vanquisher the goggles strap ties up her ponytail as well.
  • Vacant Sky: There's a tombstone that reads "RIP Jiroriseth Moss: The goggles did nothing".
  • Warcraft:
    • Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos has an ending credits movie, in which Archimonde is "filming" a movie, complete with several takes. In one take, there's a dragon attack, and while running away, someone says "The goggles! They do nothing!!"
    • Worldof Warcraft:
      • One quest in Cataclysm gives a pair of safety goggles. It's pretty obvious what they do. (They do have armor, but less than a helmet (which occupies the same slot) would generally give.)
      • The mage Tier 13 set has what looks like a pair of glowing goggles — on the forehead. They are meant to just look cool as the particular set has been dubbed "Technomage."
  • WarioWare: Wario wears his goggles when riding his motorcycle but Mona doesn't wear hers on her scooter. Her monkey even wears his goggles.
  • The Wonderful 101: Luka Allen Smithee has a pair of goggles that are more or less just decoration. Subverted in the epilogue, in which he becomes "Wonder Goggles", and they fire laser blasts.

    Visual Novels 

    Webcomics 
  • The character of Jyrras Gianna from Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures gains goggles in his new outfit, which are never used. Doubly unnecessary, in that he also wears glasses (which he doesn't need but wears for image's sake). He did use goggles during the non-canon spy spoof arc, but their only purpose was to hide his eyes, as villains are not allowed to be 'cute'.
  • A bonus strip of Darths & Droids has Bria/Jyn questioning why Bodhi wears goggles when he does his piloting in a pressurised cockpit, and Bodhi coming up with increasingly unlikely reasons, all of which happen over the course of the story. (One of them is in fact happening while they have the conversation, but Bodhi's goggles are perched uselessly on his forehead.)
  • Averted in Exterminatus Now: Dewhurst's goggles did protect him from the blood splatter, at the cost of becoming opaque (and thus, requiring to be lifted after use).
  • Since a character redesign, Shelly Mander of Femmegasm wears goggles for no reason.
  • Used every which way in Girl Genius, as befits its mad science milieu.
    • Wooster wears goggles and a leather jacket when he's using Gil's open-cockpit flyer and unlike most media, actually LOOKS like he's been in an open-cockpit aircraft (dirty with visible marks where he's had the goggles over his eyes to see.)
  • Arby from God's World wears goggles and is not shown to put them to use.
  • Averted, in Gunnerkrigg Court here, and then lampshaded in Tom's rant.
  • In Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name, Veser wears a pair of goggles around his neck. A partial example, since it helps with his shark motif, and may somehow be related to the fact that his mother is a selkie.
  • The heavy use of this trope in steampunk is lampshaded in this Hark! A Vagrant.
  • Homestuck: The trope name is referenced by Meenah upon encountering Kanaya, who glows because she is a rainbow drinker. Meenah is blinded by the glare and says, "The goggles do nothing [to help]."
  • Averted in The Last Tomorrow: Avril eventually uses her googles as eye protection while repairing a broken weapon.
  • The Commander in Manly Guys Doing Manly Things has these. Lampshaded here.
  • Zaraki Yagami of Mitadake Saga's alias -is- The Boy with Goggles. The goggles don't serve a purpose.
  • NEXT!!! Sound of the Future: The signature outfit for Megpoid android units features a pair of goggles that are presumably there for style rather than function, since a Megpoid's purpose is to be an Idol Singer.
  • Parodied (maybe) in Penny Arcade with the character of Charles. Ever since his redesign, he has kept a pair of goggles on his forehead. Lampshaded when he gets asked if he's going swimming.
  • Averted and lampshaded in this strip of PS238, when Moonshadow uses high-tech goggles to scan what another character is holding:
    Moonshadow: It's a flash drive with a bluetooth transmitter attached to it.
    Cecil: How do you know that?
    Moonshadow: The googles, they do something.
    Cecil: You're quipping now. Stop it.
  • Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal presents to us the advanced rules for Rock, Paper, Scissors. As the Alt-text/Votey specifically points out: Goggles: They Do Nothing
  • Sock from Welcome to Hell wears goggles on top of his hat for apparently aesthetic reasons, even as a demon.
  • Weregeek gives us this.
  • Pocky Robot parodies subversions of this at end of this strip.

    Web Original 
  • Jenny Everywhere: aviator goggles are part of her basic character design, even though she's not necessarily an aviatrix in most stories. That Jenny is keen on adventure does leave open the potential for subversion, though...
    • Played straight in one origin story, where she buys an old pair simply because they make her "look awesome".
    • Another story has it that she was Amelia Earhart's daughter, and inherited them.
    • The Genesis of Jenny Everywhere (another origin story for a different version of Jenny) offers no obvious explanation why she wears them, but the fact is lampshaded constantly.
  • Liam Dryden of the band Chameleon Circuit sports a fairly awesome pair at times, notably in live concerts, his "Time Travel" outfit, and when he and Alex Day are raiding Wal-Mart. Liam even lampshades the fact that he just wears them on his head as a hat most of the time in the Wal-Mart video.
  • Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: Mad Scientist Dr. Horrible wears goggles on his forehead; he does no more than adjust them until the end, when he becomes a true villain.
  • The kiwi from Kiwi! dons a pair of pilot's goggles before jumping off the cliff. But he doesn't ever use them.
  • Many in The League of S.T.E.A.M. wear goggles (it's steampunk, what do you expect?) but they rarely seem to be used for anything.
  • Alex Steacy of LoadingReadyRun wears welding goggles at all times, apparently for the look.
  • http://www.southperry.net has a goggle smiley inspired in part by one of MapleStory 's bosses, Rellik, and in part by The Simpsons quote below. The goggles became wildly popular, and people began editing their avatars to include them. Nexon (MapleStory's publisher in North America) saw this and created Gachapon (egg-machine that requires real money in exchange for random items) only goggles equippable by players. There is an inscription on them stating "Who says the goggles do nothing?"
  • In Mitadake High, one of the characters wears goggles (and is in fact referred to as The Boy With Goggles). There are a number of ways to inflict temporary blindness on other players, and Goggles is no exception to them. More than once somebody playing Goggles has yelled the memetic phrase after being blinded.
  • The Plumber Knight Returns: Mario has goggles as part of his new costume, but only puts them on while suiting up, wearing them around his neck otherwise.
  • Stuart Ashen invokes this trope at the end of his Cyber FX review, in which the eponymous goggles are rather useless.
  • That Guy with the Glasses had That Chick with the Goggles.
  • Vdex Project once had goggles in the Secondhand Shop. Lampshaded in the achievement you get when you buy them.

    Western Animation 
  • Amphibia: Sprig wears goggles on his forehead, which seem to be a part of his hat, and never puts them over his eyes.
  • Boo Boom! The Long Way Home: Jack always wears a pair of pilot goggles, but they are more for the show than anything else. In Episodes 23 and 24 he briefly uses them as protection during a blizzard, but the other characters (who don't have goggles or any other form of eye protection) don't seem bothered by the snow either.
  • Bucky O' Hare sported a pair of snazzy aviator goggles that seemed to serve no purpose other than to look cool. While he might be excused considering most of his adventures took place in space, the goggles stayed up even when he was piloting the Toad Croaker inside planetary atmospheres that had just been turned to swamps.
  • Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: Both Monterey Jack and Gadget wear goggles on their head as part of their normal outfit, but rarely (as in, maybe once or twice ever) wear them over their eyes. This is despite the fact that they fly around in a high-speed air vehicle without a windscreen all the time. Once Monterey wore his normal flightcap goggles on his head and a second pair actually over his eyes.
  • Defenders of the Earth: In the first episode, Mandrake is seen wearing goggles in the scene where Ming attempts to electrocute him, Flash, the Phantom and Lothar, though there is no discernible reason for this and none of the others are wearing similar goggles. Also, the goggles seemingly appear out of nowhere and disappear just as abruptly.
  • Dex Hamilton: Alien Entomologist: Jenny, Zap and Tung all wear goggles. Jenny and Zap never wear them over their eyes (despite Zap being the group's pilot), while Tung never takes his off his eyes.
  • Launchpad in DuckTales (1987) wears his goggles atop his head. He only wears them over his eyes once or twice in the entire series. The same goes for the character Darkwing Duck.
  • Frida from El Tigre. In one episode, after her goggles fall off and break, Frida shrieks, "Those are prescription!" However, she rarely, if ever, wears them over her eyes.
  • Averted in Generator Rex by Rex and Caesar, who use their respective goggles several times in situations where they are actually needed.
  • Happens in Kim Possible with the "future" gear of "A Sitch In Time". The "future hat" also does nothing.
  • Slightly averted in Rocky and Bullwinkle with Rocky, in that he does mostly use them when he's flying, even though he stills wears them on the head most of them time even when they're not needed.
  • Ōban Star-Racers has Molly, who, being a Star Racer pilot (basically a podracer pilot) always wears her goggles on her forehead and has even been seen sleeping in them. However, since inside her vehicle she is safely concealed behind a plastic dome, she doesn't really need to protect her eyes. Since her mother also wore a pair, which are constantly seen in flashbacks on top of her head, chances are very high that Molly initially got hers because they looked like her mother's.
  • The Simpsons: The Trope Namer, born from a line uttered by Rainier Wolfcastle acting the lead role in the in-universe Radioactive Man movie. Note that in this case the goggles were supposed to do something, they just didn't work. Rainier's line is even said to be one of Matt Groening's all-time favorite quotes from the show.
  • Unlike his teammates who have helmet visors, Air Enforcer of the Skysurfer Strike Force has goggles that he never uses even in mid-flight.
  • Star Wars Rebels: Hera Syndulla has a pilot's headgear and goggles despite the fact that her cockpit is shielded against the vacuum of space, which has no wind to begin with. She finally used the goggles in "Wolves and a Door", when she was riding a Loth-wolf.
  • Star Wars Resistance:
    • Tam Ryvora wears a visor on her forehead. She has yet to actually use it as eye protection, despite the fact that she works as a mechanic.
    • Aunt Z, owner of the Colossus' only cantina, also constantly sports goggles on her forehead.
  • Steven Universe: Peridot's visor seems to lack any purpose beside aesthetics. It's gotten to the point that, whenever she works with something that would require safety goggles, she puts a pair on over her visor.
  • Transformers: Animated is fond of this:
    • Blitzwing has goggles built into the helmet of his robot mode head. Not only does he A) Not wear them, B) Not need them, what with being a robot and all, C) Could not pull them down over his eyes even if he did, but D) his "angry" face already has a red visor over its eyes and his "calm" face has a monocle, which means that he is essentially wearing two pairs of equally-useless goggles! Blitzwing is the KING of Goggles Do Nothing.
    • Prometheus Black still wears his visor thing even after turning into a sentient mass of acid. Maybe it's so we don't have to see whatever the hell his eyes must look like.
    • And once again Jetfire has aviator goggles that are apparently part of his head.
  • Many of the racers of Wacky Races and all four pilots of Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines (as well as Yankee Doodle Pigeon) have headgear with goggles, but at no time do the goggles go to use protecting the eyes. Once in awhile, Wacky Racer Red Max will have his goggles covering his eyes.
    • Similarly in the Hanna-Barbera vein, Motormouse and Autocat (from The Cattanooga Cats) sport crash helmets with goggles that go to no use in protecting the eyes.
  • Dr Two-Brains in WordGirl wears a pair of goggles on top of his head as part of his Mad Scientist aesthetic. For the most part this trope is played straight, though there are some aversions (such as when he's tunneling out of jail) when he slides them over his eyes for protection.
  • In the Animated Adaptation of Wyrd Sisters, Granny Weatherwax inexplicably has a pair of goggles strapped to her pointy hat. The trope is later subverted though: in the scenes when she goes broomstick-flying, she wears the goggles to protect her eyes. Which is entirely in character for the ever practical Granny.

    Real Life 
  • Neon coloured goggles are popular in rave and Cybergoth culture, purely for aesthetic reasons.
    • Ditto Steampunk, though their goggles tend to be more monochrome, made of brass and have gadgets on them.
    • Rivethead as well.
    • Even Cyberpunk is guilty of this with its signature mirrorshades — though they might be waiting for display glasses.
    • Some pairs of rave goggles even have a grate under the lens, making them harder to see through than shutter shades.
      • They can have some use when they are used to mask bits of headgear (such as a headband holding Cyberlox in place) but that is it.
      • Appropriately lampshaded in this Gangnam Style parody video. (0:44)
  • US Army soldiers are all issued ballistic safety goggles to protect against dust and shrapnel, and almost every unit has the standard that they be secured to the Kevlar helmet over the special clamp that is used to mount a separate night vision device. This is a uniform standard, but the goggles themselves are difficult to use in this configuration, and likely become deformed, scratched, uncomfortable, or too cumbersome to use as eye protection. With the change in the US army to a brimless helmet, the goggles (normally covered by a cloth sleeve) work better as a brim to shade they eyes than they do when used as intended. Furthermore, soldiers are all issued ballistic sunglasses, which are usually worn (as intended) in addition to the mostly useless goggles on their helmets. The main reason you never see this in TV or movies is that the glasses cause horrible reflection and distortion, and goggles further have a tendency to fog up, making this "protective gear" potentially fatal in combat. Most soldiers will have multiple pairs of goggles and some even use them as intended, but the ones already on the helmet are the least likely to see actual use.
    • People's Liberation Army Marine Corps. Never were they once shown wearing their standard issue goggles over their eyes; even when they require eye protection they wear their own (the issued goggles on their helmets/tuques). Can be justified by the same reasons as the American army example above.
    • Ditto for the Russian Army, which has lead to the oft-asked question why they wear them at all, if they're not going to use them, even in the cases where this would be obviously useful, like for tankers driving over the wet streets "unbuttoned." In that case at least, the goggles could be used any moment, the infantry, OTOH, seems to never even take the goggles out of their cloth cases, like in this training video.
  • Ancient Greek soldiers had a habit of tipping their Corinthian helms up to rest on their foreheads for comfort when out of combat. Natives living near Magna Graecia in Italy, inspired by the way this looked, created a style of helm called the Italo-Corinthian, which was meant to be worn as a cap but still had eye holes and a nose-guard that no longer served any purpose whatsoever, other than looking cool.
  • German general Erwin Rommel was always seen wearing a pair of goggles pushed up over his cap. While this was part of his carefully cultivated image as the Desert Fox, the goggles also served a practical function: in the desert in a moving vehicle, sand and grit will be blown back into your face and eyes. Especially in vehicles where the glass windscreen has been removed as dangerous and impractical (it reflects the sun, and if hit will throw glass fragments around). For that reason, sand goggles were widely issued to both sides. Rommel continued to wear his goggles (which were actually British anti-gas shields given to him by a captured British officer) in Italy and France, where the practical need for them was a lot less.
  • Brazilian food company Sadia has as its mascot Lequetreque, a chicken wearing biker goggles.


 
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Alternative Title(s): The Goggles Do Nothing

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The Goggles Do Nothing!

Whilst playing Radioactive Man, Rainier Wolfcastle puts on a pair of goggles when he's about to be hit by acid, only to learn that they're not quite as effective as he thought.

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