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Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal

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"You know what's weird? Donald Duck never wore pants. But whenever he's getting out of the shower, he always puts a towel around his waist. I mean, what is that about?"
Chandler Bing, Friends

While characters having inexplicable collars is an animation cheat, one might think a character who wears a full outfit might be easier to draw.

But if your characters are Funny Animals, you are bound to run the gamut of animals until you hit unfamiliar ones. A full outfit has a high chance of obscuring what species a character is, so you're bound to find just enough clothing to make it quirky to that character without covering up the most basic cues, with the major exception of White Gloves. Characters with distinctive tails might not get pants, and ducks are rarely given shoes. Some half-dressed cartoon animals wear shoes, but others do not. Also, shirtless ones are more likely to wear shoes than pantless ones.

Half-dressed cartoon animals often, but not exclusively, come in two variants,

  • Pantless or Bare-bottomed: wears a shirt, coat, vest, or some other kind of top, but no pants, shorts, or overalls, or a skirt and very rarely with any underwear on.note  This also refers to characters wearing dresses or skirts (even long ones) with shirts but without underwear. This variant is more common in male animals than in female animals.
  • Shirtless or Bare-chested: wears pants, shorts, overalls (which often border on fully dressed), or a skirt, but without a shirt or any other kind of top. Some characters wearing skirts without shirts are not wearing any underwear. Some characters of this type wear vests in such a way that the chest isn't covered, which can border on fully dressed. This variant is a lot more common for female characters than the pantless variant. Overlaps with Walking Shirtless Scene.

Very importantly, this does not mean a character without an outfit is automatically regarded as "naked". Most animal characters from The Golden Age of Animation wore no clothes whatsoever, but acted denuded only when random comic violence rendered them featherless or furless, with their underlying bare skin (and occasional Goofy Print Underwear) revealed. Hence, feathers and fur have long been grandfathered in as an acceptable animal analogue for clothing. Strangely, if a half-dressed character loses their shirt they will suddenly realize their crotch is exposed.

In general, they won't wear any footwear as it has the issue of not communicating the "animal" part of their name/species. Female characters are likely to be depicted wearing a skirt, but that's mostly a gender clue. So it's a good thing that most of them lack primary and secondary sexual characteristics anyway.

A form of Lampshade Hanging involves having the character wrap a towel around themselves (which kinda makes sense, as wet fur/hair is as form-fitting as a wet T-shirt). Sometimes further Lampshaded by having the towel fall off.

The majority of half-dressed cartoon animals are on the Civilized Animal and Funny Animal tier, but half-dressed cartoon animals can range from Nearly Normal Animal and even Beast Man on the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism. However, as Beast Man are more humanoid than they are animal, they can look very unnerving to some (Especially if they are nearing Little Bit Beastly tier). As a result, pantsless and shirtless Beast Men aren't very common.

See also Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females. Related to Barefoot Cartoon Animal. Subtrope of Appropriate Animal Attire.

Oddly enough, this is something of a Truth in Television: people who dress their pets in costumes, or just to protect them from extreme cold, tend to leave off pants so the animal can relieve itself without making a mess.


Example Subpages:

Other Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • If you go to an AMC/Cinemark/Regal (most of the United States) movie theater, you will see a campaign backed by Sprint reminding people to turn off their phones, with the tagline "It takes a lot of phone calls to make a movie. And only one to ruin it." In one particular ad in this campaign, the topic of the calls between the moviemakers and the creators is whether a cartoon hedgehog should be wearing pants. The aforementioned "only one to ruin it" moment comes when the animators, fed up with the time consuming project and senseless bickering, put pants on the hedgehog...and leave the fly down.
  • The Waffle Wiffer, the 1960s Aunt Jemima frozen waffles mascot, sported a red turtleneck sweater and boots.
  • Sonny the Cuckoo Bird for Cocoa Puffs cereal had a striped sweatshirt.
  • Chip the Cookie Dog for Cookie Crisp cereal sported a turtleneck and burglar mask.
  • Sydney the Dunkaroos kangaroo had a safari hat, T-shirt and vest.
  • Fruit Brute the werewolf from the General Mills Monster Cereal line had multicolor striped overalls. Some iterations added a blue or white t-shirt underneath them.
  • Sugar Bear of Golden Crisp cereal has a sky blue T-shirt. He initially had a green sweater in the late 1960s.
  • Buzz the Honey Bee for Honey Nut Cheerios has a yellow and gold T-shirt and white shoes.
  • Dig 'Em the Frog from Honey Smacks cereal has a baseball cap, T-shirt and sneakers.
  • Charlie Chickenhawk, one of two mascots for Kentucky Fried Chicken in Australia during the 1980s, only wears a Confederate hat and pants with suspenders.
  • A 2010 ad campaign for Kia Motors features rapping, half-dressed hamsters.
  • B.J. Penguin, one half of the original mascot duo of Kid Cuisine frozen foods, sported a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of red hi-tops. His friend, The Chef, however, was a fully dressed polar bear in a white chef's costume and hat. The current mascot, K.C. Penguin, wears red hi-tops as his regular wardrobe, making him an Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal.
  • Rory Raccoon of Post's Sugar Sparkled Flakes had a Sherlock hat (alternatively, a police hat with a "guard" badge), bowtie and sport coat.
  • The Trix Rabbit's array of disguises usually applies to this trope.
  • Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl of the United States Forest Service were both shirtless forest mascots. Smokey has his signature ranger's hat and blue jeans, while Woodsy started out with his matching green hat and pants. Woodsy later added a white shirt and loafers to his ensemble.
  • In a Raid commercial, an ant with a news microphone wears a vest.
  • A late 1990s Cartoon Network bumper features Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Fred Flintstone, and I.M. Weasel being denied service at a shop due to its "No shirt, no shoes" policy. To get service, they resort to dressing Quick Draw in Fred's tunic, but the horse is still denied for not wearing pants.
  • While the Energizer Bunny is normally an Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal, he has dipped into this territory a few times since the transition to CGi by wearing a sweater for a holiday commercial and a football shirt for a commercial where he partakes in a virtual football game.
  • Otter Pops
    • Strawberry Short Kook only wears a skirt, hairbow, and heels.
    • Little Orphan Orange only wears a skirt and hairbow.
    • Louie-Bloo Raspberry only wears a shirt and beret.
    • DJ Tropicool only wears a shirt, baseball cap, sneakers, and headphones.

    Anime & Manga 

    Comedy 
  • As with the Trope page quote, Dutch comedian Harry Jekkers mentioned the fact that Donald Duck wears no trousers during one of his shows in the early nineties. In fact, he points out that a Duck, while walking as a normal human being, wears no pants. What follows is his outrage when he points out that when this same Duck is in his natural element — swimming in water — he suddenly starts wearing swimming trunks. Cue laughter from audience.

    Comic Books 
  • Male youths and some of the ground-dwelling animals in The Autumnlands: Tooth & Claw eschew shirts.
  • Swedish children's comic Bamse has an interesting case of this, as the older the character's design is the more "nude" they tend to be. Most characters wear some form of clothing, but the amount varies from a simply bow-tie to full clothes. One exception, Wolf, remains completely naked but that's probably due to the Grandfather Clause. Skalman walks around naked half the time too, since his only article of clothing is a hat, and he generally only wears it outdoors.
  • This trope is mocked in The Beano Annual 2009 when the Nibblers (an old 1970s strip about a group of mice) meet the Ratz (a 2000s strip about a group of rats).
  • Two of the main Bone characters in Bone are usually half dressed: Phoney wears a t-shirt with a star, and Smiley wears a vest (yet is embarrassed to be seen naked). It is unclear on what exactly the Bones are, but they have been referred to as "small mammals" several times by the rat people.
  • Carls Large Story: Carl wears his favourite vest... and nothing else.
  • The Fox and The Crow: Fauntleroy Fox wears a white collar, a blue bowtie, blue trousers and yellow gloves. He also has a matching straw hat when on the town.
  • Fritz the Cat only wears a red turtleneck.
  • In the original comic books, Howard the Duck was a Donald lookalike, lack of trousers and all. However, the George Lucas film version wore pants.
    • At some point, Disney actually threatened legal action against the likeness of Howard the Duck; Marvel comics responded by having all future depictions of Howard appear wearing pants.
      • A story in the HTD black and white magazine contained a Lampshade Hanging with a twist of Take That!, as a failed animator turned haberdasher forces Howard to start wearing pants. The guy let him keep his human girlfriend, though.
      • Lampshaded by Howard at least once. "My lawyers tell me I have always been wearing these pants."
    • There was an earlier story where Howard's enemy Doctor Bong transformed Howard into a human. The funniest part was seeing Howard brooding while sitting on a bed, his bare human butt clearly visible and his coat coming down to mid-rib level.
    • Interestingly, in Marvel Zombies Vs. Evil Dead, if you didn't know better you'd swear someone took the pupils out of Donald Duck's eyes. The Zombie Howard has white feathers (as opposed to yellow) and wasn't wearing pants.
      • Speaking of Marvel Zombies, it appears "My lawyers tell me I've always worn pants" is a Running Gag these days - he gives the line to Jackie when she questions his existence in Marvel Zombies 5.
  • Evolved over the course of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics). Early on, most characters wore partial clothing ranging from nearly fully dressed (Antoine only lacks pants) to nothing but shoes (Sonic, of course). Over time, more characters were added and often featured with more complete outfits. Following the 2013 continuity reboot, many characters are starting to shift towards the current Sega look with females donning full sets of clothing and males with gloves and shoes with a few extra pieces to set them apart.
  • In comics and picture books based on The Sooty Show, Sooty usually wears red shorts with braces. (He doesn't in the show itself.)
  • Olivier Bommel in Tom Poes wears nothing but a coat, no pants.
  • Alopex, a mutant arctic fox in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW) has thick enough fur to cover everything, but still wears a sarashi as a top.

    Comic Strips 
  • In one strip of Red and Rover, Red put a sweater on his dog Rover, who walks and acts like a regular dog. Rover looked down at his unclothed back half and mused that he felt more naked with the sweater on than with it off.
  • Over the Hedge plays with this trope. Verne's shell does act as clothes for him, leaving him without it either naked to be confronted by the Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol or to take part in a limbo contest (for example), or with tighty-whitey briefs. That does not, however, preclude his wearing clothes over it, usually full suits that include pants, shirt, and shoes. RJ's fur is more of an all-purpose covering, although he also wears clothes over it, most notably a parka when preparing for winter and a pair of undies and a robe when getting ready for a nude scene.
  • Most of the cast of critters from Pogo.
  • Shoe: Perfesser Cosmo Fishhawk wears a shirt, sweater and shoes. He also has a sportscoat.
  • Ziggy until December 2009. After that he wears Long Pants.
  • Snoopy from Peanuts as "Joe Cool": sweater with his name on it and sunglasses.
  • Dutch newspaper comic Fokke & Sukke cranks this up to eleven by not only having both Fokke (a humanoid duck) and Sukke (a humanoid canary) walk around with no pants, but also explicitly showing their (human) penises, with which they are very preoccupied. In case they do wear pants, they will have holes to accommodate their genitalia. Obviously, given their names (which are real Dutch names), lampshaded very often.
  • Heathcliff is normally entirely nude, like any housecat, but in one comic he disguises himself as a professor. The Comics Curmudgeon mentions the strange things about the comic in question and the post is titled "Also, I know several professors, and they rarely go naked from the waist down in public."
  • Pugad Baboy has this with Polgas, the talking dog protagonist, who sometimes goes around with just a t-shirt. (In his other guises, such as his secret agent alter ego Dobermaxx, he may wear full clothing though, and more recently he also has shorts on.)
  • The eponymous stuffed tiger of Calvin and Hobbes normally doesn't wear clothing at all, but in one strip, he dresses up in an attempt to go to school in Calvin's place.
    Hobbes: See? I told you it wouldn't work!
    Calvin: Of course not, dummy! You didn't put on any pants!
  • Sabrina at See-CAD: Unlike the later Sabrina Online series which spoofs the trope, it is played straight in See-CAD when Sabrina complains about getting paint on her fur in art class.

    Fan Works 
  • Zany To The Max:
    • Zak (when separated from Ko), Pakko, and Makko all wear shirts but no pants.
    • Takko and Jakko Zarner also wear shirts but no pants.
    • Averted with Jot, Zot, Sikko, Coach Nurse, Sekoila, and the Yarner twins. They are all Barefoot Cartoon Animals.
    • Subverted with Dot, who is revealed to wear a black shirt in the first episode ("The Blue Dot" segment), making her a Barefoot Cartoon Animal as well.
  • Averted in Family where the Warners actually wear clothes, only taking them off when they’re filming Animaniacs.
  • In Hail to the King (Qwapdo), the unnamed protagonist is a human who wakes up in Equestria in King Sombra's body. He comments on how he has an awesome armor and cape, but no pants.
  • In A Sly Encounter, a Sly Cooper and Sonic the Hedgehog crossover comic plays with it, when Sally is confused why people would need privacy when dressing, with Sly insisting on her wearing pants and a shirt. He squicks himself out when thinking about Murray without pants, and (as he is a hippo) without fur.

    Films — Animation 
  • Disney Animated Canon
    • Abu the monkey from Aladdin only wears an open vest and a hat. Unlike most examples, he is a pet and a 'real' animal, so it's particularly bizarre.
    • Roquefort the mouse from The Aristocats is usually naked, but is occasionally seen wearing a hat and coat at times.
    • The Beast from Beauty and the Beast actually starts out as one, wearing only a tattered set of pants and a long, dark red cape. When he starts to become more polite, he becomes a Barefoot Cartoon Animal.
    • Abby Mallard from Chicken Little, which was somewhat strange considering that the majority of the rest of the cast either wore full costumes or nothing at all (with the possible exception of Fish Out Of Water, but his helmet was for breathing, not really for fashion).
    • Timothy Q. Mouse and the crows from Dumbo are pantless, but the stork is more or less fully dressed.
    • Hyacinth Hippo from the "Dance Of The Hours" segment of Fantasia wears only a sheer tutu.
    • Agent Wendy Pleakley from Lilo & Stitch has three extremely short and stumpy lower appendages that could be called legs in the same way a table's can, and doesn't wear anything over them. Even when he's Disguised in Drag, whatever skirt or dress he has on isn't long enough to reach past what passes for a waist.
    • Many of the Donkey Boys from Pinocchio appear to have lost their pants during or after their transformation.
    • Bernard the mouse from The Rescuers. Miss Bianca is either an example of this trope or an Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal. Jake in the sequel wears a slouch hat and a shirt, but no pants or shoes (possibly justified as being a kangaroo mouse, he has big feet).
    • The anthropomorphic cast of Robin Hood (1973) follows the bottomless male/fully-clothed female rule. Possibly because a medieval tunic/jerkin with no trousers looks a lot less risque than a medieval peasant blouse/corset with no skirt.
    • Winnie the Pooh wears a shirt with no bottoms. It should be noted that in the original book illustrations, Pooh only wore the shirt during winter, going au naturel otherwise.
  • The Swedish movie The Ape Star has a talking gorilla that wears pants and shoes but no shirt.
  • Mr. Snake and Ms. Tarantula from The Bad Guys (2022), they are only wearing a shirt, since they can't fit into normal pants.
  • Bee Movie lampshades this trope.
    Reporter: Who are you wearing?
    Barry: Calvin Klein, and I'm not wearing pants.
    • Not only are the male bees pantsless, but the female bees are that way as well. Apparently they don't make pants with sting holes.
  • Fritz and other characters in Fritz the Cat and its sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat.
  • Various animal characters from Hoodwinked! including the Big Bad Wolf, Boingo the bunny and Twitchy the squirrel. The Wolf initially wore a blue hoodie in the first movie, and later added pants to his wardrobe for the sequel.
  • Po, Tai Lung, Master Monkey, and Master Crane from Kung Fu Panda all wear shorts, but no shirt.
  • Both Waternoose and Roz from Monsters, Inc.. Besides those two, Celia, maybe a couple other females, Sulley when wearing a tie at the end, and the grocer and octopus (both in aprons), everyone else runs around stark naked—-fur and general reptile/amphibian/fish/insect anatomy rules acting as modesty.
    • In Monsters University, most members of a fraternity (e.g. Oozma Kappa, Roar Omega Roar, Jaws Theta Chi) wear a themed varsity jacket, but are always without pants or shoes.
  • In Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Mr. Peabody is usually an Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal, but his period costumes when he's Time Traveling fall into either this category or Barefoot Cartoon Animal.
  • The Mouse King from The Nutcracker Prince movie is considered this trope as he wears a cape, a crown and an armor plate.
  • The aliens from Planet 51. While the male aliens all wore only shirts (and no pants), the female aliens all wore shirts in addition to dresses and skirts. However, they still went barefoot. While this was supposed to indicate their society and thus their mode of dress was similar to America during the 1950s, it really just raised unpleasant speculation on the anatomical differences between the males and females.
  • In Rango, the main character's regular duds consist of a red tropical shirt. There are a few supporting characters including Wounded Bird and Waffles the horned toad that apply to this trope as well.
    • Most of the other (anthropomorphic) animals are either fully clothed or Accessory Wearing Cartoon Animals. Rango gets a new outfit that includes pants before too long and remains fully clothed for the rest of the movie.
  • Edmund from Rock-A-Doodle, upon being transformed into a cat by the evil Grand Duke of Owls, starts out naked when he is rescued by the other animals, but he immediately had to put on a shirt and a hat because everyone else was wearing clothing, and only he isn't.
  • The Secret of NIMH - The film that launched a thousand furries. Pretty much every character. There is even a scene in the third act where Justin suggests to Mrs. Brisby that she remove her cape (the only thing she wears) so that it won't 'get caught on something.' The scene unintentionally turns Justin into a pervert in the eyes of some fans.
    • The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue depicts Mrs. Brisby's sons Timothy and Martin wearing a shirt but no pants and running around barefoot. Later on, Timothy meets a girl mouse named Jenny who also wears a shirt but no pants and also runs around barefoot.
  • Tiger from An American Tail only wore a purple short-sleeved shirt.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Halfway through Alvin and the Chipmunks, the chipmunks start to wear just sweaters/sweatshirts, though Simon wears glasses.
  • Bedknobs and Broomsticks: In this Disney live action animated movie. Miss Price, Professor Emilius Browne, and the 3 children accidentally go visit, underwater in the ocean by the isle of Naboombu. There they see half-dressed fish underwater, when their bed gets pulled up by a fishing hook, they arrive on the Isle of Naboombu and they meet a sailor bear who wears a shirt but no pants or shoes on. They go visit the Lion King Leonidas who has a soccer match. Most of the animals at the game wears both a shirt and shorts but only one doesn't wear shorts such as the alligator. Also the Cheetahs shorts fall down before he pulls them right back up. Some of the Animals sitting in the Bleachers only wears a shirt but no pants.
  • Referenced a couple of times in Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers.
    • At the beginning of the film, a young pantsless goat is told by a teacher that he is “not Donald Duck”, so should put some pants on.
    • Later, when Sweet Pete is holding Chip hostage:
      Chip: Where’s Dale?
      Sweet Pete: He’ll be here. Keep your pants on.
      Chip: I don’t wear pants.
      Sweet Pete: Yeah, I noticed. It’s not something to brag about.
    • A CGI snake named DJ Herzogenaurach, wears only a black hipster fedora and a white shirt with a blue mark on it, but no pants, but considering that he is a snake and snakes don't have limbs. So a hat and a shirt was the only thing DJ Herzogenaurach could wear.
  • Early cinema's Le Cochon Danseur, a 1907 short film based on a popular French vaudeville act. The pig even uses a Modesty Towel when his waist coat is pulled off.
  • Kangaroo Jack Charlie and Louis run into a kangaroo with their truck. Louis then puts his red lucky jacket with the $50,000 in the jacket on the kangaroo and take their pictures. The Kangaroo then wakes up and takes off with Louis red jacket and they go on a wild chase after the Kangaroo wearing only the red jacket with money in it.
  • The 2018 film adaptation of Peter Rabbit features the main character in his iconic blue jacket. Contrary to the books, this trope is also applied to most of the supporting talking animal characters, wearing only a shirt, blouse and/or jacket.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) Longclaw, despite being wise, she is half-naked and the only thing she wears is a gold chest plate.
  • Space Jam: A New Legacy: White Mamba only wears a The Goon Squad team shirt and no pants. That is justified though, since her serpentine lower half is a tail, so she didn't have much to wear.
  • Star Wars: In a variant, The Phantom Menace suggests droids view their outer coverings as clothing with C-3PO embarrassed about being "naked".
  • Roger Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit wears red overalls, and a blue and yellow bowtie. Only one of the weasels wears pants, and for some reason he hikes them right up to his chest. (Possibly because weasels have low waistlines and short limbs, so this is the only way he can reach the pockets.)

    Literature 
  • Possibly subverted in Redwall; on one occasion the Big Bad Badrang cuts a random minion's belt when he finds himself in need of a piece of cord, and everyone sniggers when said minion's kilt drops off. On two occasions, prisoners have suffered a Shameful Strip, which presumably wouldn't matter if they didn't consider clothing important in some way. In contrast, the cartoon show followed this trope; as well as most of the characters only wearing shirts, it showed Skalrag wearing variously only a cloak or nothing at all, and unusually depicted the female character Trefoil with an unclothed lower half as well.
  • In the Little Critter book series written and illustrated by Mercer Mayer, Little Critter can be seen wearing a shirt but no pants in the book When I Get Bigger, In the book I Just Forgot Little Critter can be seen wearing a rain coat but not only forgets to wear his boots, he forgets to wear his pants. Also in The New Potty Little Sister takes off her diaper in order to go potty. Also in the book I Was So Mad Little Critters animal friends who are playing baseball can be seen wearing shirts but no pants or shoes. Now days in the recent Little Critter books, Little Critter wears overalls and isn't seen half dressed or undressed anymore.
  • In The Muddle-Headed Wombat, Wombat's usual outfit is a battered old straw hat and an overcoat with nothing beneath it. (The supporting cast are Accessory Wearing Cartoon Animals.)
  • In the chapter-heading illustrations of Garry Kilworth's Welkin Weasels series, Montegu Sylver appears fully clothed including shoes, though he is apparently wearing nothing but a cloak on the cover illustration and is described in the text as not needing anything more than a cloak since he has fur. Scruff and Maudlin wear only jackets and hats. Bryony Bludd wears a full skirt which would not look out of place in the Victorian era the books are based on except for the fact that she is apparently topless except for a very large neck-bow. Mayor Jeremy Poynt fits the "jacket and hat" rule, with the addition of spats - but no shoes.
  • Koziołek Matołek, from the Polish children's book series of the same name, is a shirtless, anthropomorphic goat.
  • John Varley does this with an eight year old boy for the show-in-the-book in The Golden Globe
    John Valentine: Interesting. But what about the pants?
    Gideon Peppy: Donald Duck never wore pants.
    John Valentine: Yes. And Donald Duck was a cartoon, a water fowl, and imaginary. And, apparently, sexless. You should bear in mind that my son is a real little boy.
    • Sparky gets a female sidekick with basically the same dress
    • And they “morph some britches on ’em” for the “Planet of the Prudes”, Vesta.
  • In both The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Tale of Benjamin Bunny has Peter Rabbit and his cousin Benjamin Bunny wearing only jackets and shoes but no pants.
  • Destined to Lead: Resurge is this for most of book one, and continues to be even after coming into possession of a chripl-skin vest.
  • In How to Be Comfortable in Your Own Feathers, the Bird Doc wears a Labcoat of Science and Medicine, but nothing else.
  • A Bed of Your Own!: The horse wears a shirt and nothing else as his sleepwear.
  • The Tailor of Gloucester: The first buck mouse to be seen wears only a fancy coat.
  • The Tale of Benjamin Bunny: Benjamin, Peter, and Benjamin Sr. wear no pants.
  • The Tale of Mr Jeremy Fisher: Jeremy wears coats and shirts, but no pants. This comes in useful when the trout spits him out due to not liking the taste of his clothes.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Alien Gordon Shumway from ALF wore shirts on occasion. He's usually not shown from the waist down, but this trope is considered plausible based on his wardrobe in the animated series of the same name.
  • Ants in Your Pants: The Protagonist of the series, Lickety Split, only ever wore a pair of overalls.
  • Barney the Dinosaur is occasionally portrayed like this.
  • CBBC mascot Gordon T. Gopher wore a t-shirt and trainers. His successor Edd the Duck usually wore a jumper that was long enough to cover his bottom half, with just his feet sticking out.
  • The male animatronic characters in Dinosaurs didn't wear pants. Females wore dresses sometimes, but if they were dressed as if they would wear pants they went bottomless too. This was pointed out one episode in which they showed Earl wearing a pair of pants because of censorship happening all over the show. This was lampshaded, during the Very Special Episode no less, when Robbie, while high on "happy plant", collapsed in a fit of hilarity upon realizing that none of them wore pants.
  • Who can forget Humphrey B. Bear? The strange thing about any discussion involving him, of course is that people point out his lack of pants. Never mind that he's a bear wearing a (rather stylish) boater and waistcoat - which it has to be said, is not something bears are known for. Oh no. A bear not wearing pants? Disgraceful!
  • Daniel Striped Tiger on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood usually wears a wristwatch and nothing else.
  • The Muppets: Rizzo the Rat wears a jacket and hat but no pants, as does Pepe the Prawn. Of course, neither of them are never seen from the waist down, so it's usually a moot point.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 once addressed this phenomenon during a '50s educational short in which a Porky Pig figurine could be briefly glimpsed atop a desk. Tom Servo: "Get Porky some pants!"
  • The three adult animals in Odisea Burbujas Patas Verdes (a toad), Mafafa (a lizard) and Pistachón (a bee). Patas Verdes and Pistachón wear no pants at all, but they do have hats and clothes over the waists. Mafafa wears a dress as she's the only female, but nothing else.
  • Jiminy Cricket only wears a top in Once Upon a Time.
  • Referenced in the "Close Encounter" sketch on Saturday Night Live in which Kate McKinnon's red neck character describes herself, after her pants have been removed by the aliens, as "Porky Pigging it."

    Mascots 
  • Goleo, the mascot of the World Cup 2006 doesn't wear pants.

    Pinballs 

    Puppet Shows 
  • Between the Lions:
    • The son Lionel wears a shirt and a hat, but no pants.
    • Some of the other characters on the show are also half-dressed animals, including Walter Pigeon who wears a cap and an open vest, and Clay Pigeon who wears a sunhat, a beaded necklace, and a skirt.
  • Most of the characters in Dinosaurs wear anything but pants, and it's not just the male ones. Fran and Charlene might wear a nightdress if they were going to sleep, otherwise the female characters all are pantsless too. Lampshaded in "Baby Talk", when censorship goes amuck, Earl shows that, as part of the push for censorship, the pants that he suddenly is forced to wear, to Fran's horror. The two characters who avert this trope are B.P. Richfieldnote  and Baby Sinclairnote .
  • Referenced in The Funday Pawpet Show Theme Song - "Pawpets, Pawpets/We will sing and dance/Pawpets, Pawpets/We're not wearing pants"
  • Lamb Chop's Play-Along: Hush Puppy only wears a shirt.
  • While Herry Monster from Sesame Street is usually only seen from the waist up on the show, various merchandise of him, as well as his illustrated appearances depict him wearing only a pair of red and white striped pants.

    Theme Parks 
  • Zigzagged in the first and third versions of Journey into Imagination at Epcot in Walt Disney World: Figment is sometimes seen nude but other times has just his top half covered (usually with a yellow and red shirt).

    Web Animation 
  • Homestar Runner:
    • Homestar does not seem to wear any pants, but he does wear a shirt, shoes (that look exactly like his feet, but with blue soles stuck to them)Proof  and a propellor cap (he calls it his "buzzer"). Also, Marzipan's ancestor, Old-Timey Marzipan, seems to wear a skirt... but it's actually her body. Strong Bad lampshaded this on one occasion.
      Strong Bad: You've gotta be kiddin' me! I'm the only one that wears any pants!?
    • In one Strong Bad E-Mail, Homestar claims that he always wears long white pants. Strong Bad also lampshades the apparent "soles stuck to the bottom of his feet". Whenever Homestar is shown shirtless, his entire torso is censored via pixellation, with two exceptions: In Strong Bad's fan fiction in the Strong Bad Email "fan club", Homestar is just wearing a fig leaf, and in the 2014 Halloween cartoon "I Killed Pom Pom!" Homestar dresses up as Tobias Funkë, wearing nothing but cut-off shorts and blue skin paint.
    • It gets even weirder when Strong Sad, who doesn't seem to wear any pants (or anything for that matter), is rather concerned about buying his favorite underwear back from an online auction in "Bug and Mouth Disease".
    • Coach Z seems to be naked, but on a few occasions it's implied that he's actually wearing a green jumpsuit. That he never removes or washes.
      Strong Bad: Hey, I always wondered, is your skin green or are you wearing a green body suit? Y'know with footies and sockies.
      Coach Z: Oh, I got footies alright... athletes' footies.
  • The Annoying Thing/Crazy Frog is often depicted with only a leather jacket, helmet, and goggles. This is a bit of a subversion in that unlike almost all others the Crazy Frog has visible naughty bits.note 
  • In Minilife TV, Vince and Zach's boss, Keegan Kubrick, is a faun who wears a tuxedo without pants, which is lampshaded by Chris and Ian.
  • Happy Tree Friends: The fashion choices of the titular critters are varied, with some of them preferring just a top, with no pants, or vice versa. These examples include Pop's robe and hat, Cub's diaper and beanie, the Mole's turtleneck sweater, Mime's shirt, Cro-Marmot's loincloth, Flippy's army jacket and hat, and Lammy's sweater.
  • Played With by Eric Schwartz in his "Amy The Squirrel" Amiga-made animation. Amy goes out for a walk to work wearing only a skirt, prominent breasts covered only in fur, and no underwear either. Unlike most cases of a Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal, Amy's walk instead causes a large number of accidents as every guy on the way turns to gawk at her, then runs into something, implied to be because she's half-naked.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Half Dressed Funny Animal

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A Taxing Story

A story about death and taxes... set in a bright colourful magical talking pony land.

How well does it match the trope?

4.33 (12 votes)

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Main / PatterSong

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