Hand-or-Object Underwear

When a person covers up their nudity using their hands or an object. Unlike Scenery Censor, this is intentional on their part. Can be done with men or women.

Typically related to Sex for Product (advertisements claiming that the audience will be more attractive to members of their desired gender if they have the product), Public Exposure (a character who poses nude for painting or sculpture may be using something to cover themselves to keep the picture or sculpture tasteful), You Can Leave Your Hat On (a striptease can be prolonged by using hands to cover up exposed naughty bits), Reluctant Fanservice Girl (a character ends up in a state of undress against their will and will likely attempt to cover themselves depending on their extent of lacking clothes), Naked Freak-Out (a character freaked out by their nudity is likely to impulsively cover themselves with whatever they can grab hold of), and Naked People Are Funny (the nude character covering up their privates can help in the nudity being humorous).

See also Bankruptcy Barrel (a character wears a barrel because they lost their clothes or to show that they are poor), Godiva Hair (nudity covered up by the person's long hair), Modesty Bedsheet (when a naked character uses a bedsheet as cover, usually post-sex) Modesty Towel (when a naked character stays modest by wearing a towel around their body, usually after bathing), and Improvised Clothes (a character avoids going naked by making clothing from whatever they can find). Among photographers, the breast version is sometimes known as the "Arm bra" or "Hand bra".

---

Examples:

Advertising

• Several adverts for impotence cures use the joke of a man not needing to hold the object over his genitals, implying it is hung there.
• A UK TV ad involving an old man covering his groin with a full shopping basket.
• They did this in an ad campaign for Wireless computer products with monitors and towers covering the naughty bits.
• This aussieBum - Jackpot commercial depicts men getting naked and covering their crotches with their hands. NSFW
• Kathy Ireland did a naked print ad for the Bulova 98R01 Ladies Watch covering her breasts◊, with the Tagline, "I'd feel naked without my Bulova."
• The promotional posters◊ for Caprica feature Alessandra Torresani (who plays Zoe Graystone) in a variant of this, covers her breasts with her arms while holding an apple beside her face, and strikes a Boobs-and-Butt Pose.
• A Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle advert featuring Keira Knightley's involves her covering her breasts with a hat.◊
• A Curry's ad did this, with customers and staff covering up with electrical appliances such as kettles and toasters. It also included a sly visual gag of having a concealing TV display a large cockerel on its screen.
• A series of Ekosport adverts featured a woman on a snow-covered mountain, who looked down and realized she was naked, covering her breasts with her hands while her downstairs was covered by the brand logo.
• A FedEx advert has two naked models on a catwalk. The rear one is covering her bits with fanned out tickets, while the front one is using a flowerpot- the pot covering her groin and the two lots of attached flowers covering her breasts.
• This Brazillian Havaianas ad had a man suffer from Slippery Swimsuit at a public pool. He uses the Havaianas flip-flops to cover himself, but one girl tricks him into lifting them, giving an eyeful to all his female admirers.
• Used in this IKEA advert, where a man and woman engage in some foreplay that results in the man losing his underpants and forced to use a framed photograph to cover his groin when they are walked in on by their children (mildly NSFW).
• This Koolanoo commercial, where a woman loses her top in the pool and a man uses his hands to cover her breasts.
• Orangina:
  • Strangely enough, the bear in Orangina's first CGI commercial is wearing a leaf over his groin. It is strange because the other men are wearing trunks.
  • A large male cougar who appears in one of the print poster adverts has a normal-sized man sitting on his lap. The cougar is completely naked, and the (clothed) man's leg is the only thing lending the cat any modesty. The fact that the man's leg is attempting to cover the cougar's groin lends itself to comical implications.
• A recurring theme in PETA advertisements, since they've mostly turned to pictures of pretty women, willing to pose naked and declare that they don't eat meat. Or, as they often declare, "I'd rather go naked than wear fur".
  • An Italian(?) ad featured a variation: The model adopted a pose that actually gave a clear view of her pubic hair, with a caption to the effect of, "The only fur I am not ashamed to wear."
  • Parodied by The Onion. "I'd rather be raped by an animal than wear fur."
• The Stereo Warehouse in Seattle, WA has advertisements for their annual We've stripped our prices naked sale featuring the male sales staff hiding their shame with various car speakers and boxes
• Virgin Atlantic used this trope, in the form of a generic burlesque act, to promote discount fares with the slogan "We've Taken Loads Off".
• The infamous "Life is Short" ad for Xbox depicts a newborn baby being shot out of his mother before rapidly aging while still airborne. As a baby and toddler his privates are covered by a trail of Censor Steam due to his speed, but when he grows into a pre-teen he begins covering himself up with both hands. It actually makes some degree of sense - outside of the obvious - in that going that fast with no protection would be especially painful in that area and the boy is probably just acting instinctively.
• An YSL Opium perfume ad featuring Sophie Dahl did this, covering her breasts with her hands and crossing her legs to cover her groin.
• Done in three adverts for Merry Go Round clothes. The first features a girl going to a blind date naked, covering herself with her bag and her hands. The second has a young guy delivering pizza naked, covering himself with the pizza box. The last shows a different guy naked in his classroom, covering himself with his textbook as he makes his way to the front of the class, before being hauled down the corridor naked.
• This advert for Ikea shows a man undergoing a gradual Humiliation Conga as various stuff in his apartment breaks. When his pot boils over, he has to use his towel to contain it; soon, he realises his car is being towed, leading to him running after it on the street fully naked, clutching his genitals with one hand and pointing in disbelief with the other.
• A Kofola advert sees two young guys following a girl one has a crush on. They accidently follow her into a nudist colony, meaning they both have to strip naked. After running forward into the colony covering their bits with their underwear, they swap to glasses of the Kofola drink to barely protect their modesty, in front of the girl they followed, who is somehow wearing a bikini.
• Several adverts for Axe/Lynx deodorant, where the set up is that if the deodorant smells of what it is advertised as, the guy will hitch-hike naked. In each he is suddenly transported to various locations, his clothing being ripped off and left fully naked in public. One sees him teleported to a busy motorway, holding himself with his hands before trying to catch a ride uncovered. Another has the backdrop disappearing and having his clothes fly off in front of a bus full of older women. He holds a sign over his parts before lifting it, revealing himself to the bus. This one has him naked in a club, although we don't see him covering himself up.
• An advert for the clothing store Answear is set in the 1700s, but one woman comes out dresses in modern clothing. When she realises internet hasn't been invented yet, meaning that she couldn't possibly have those clothes, they disappear off of her body, leaving her naked, covering her chest with her hands and bottom with a fan, whilst a butler looks on through his fingers.
• There was a station ID for Cartoon Network where Sheep from Sheep in the Big City covered himself with the Cartoon Network logo after losing his wool.
• The woman in the "viral" Juiced ad does this for her breasts quite successfully when her shirt gets removed, after the inital shock of being stripped wore off. After her skirt gets removed she's left in just a g-string and loses the rest of her composure, becoming far less successful in this trope.

Anime & Manga

• In Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, the transformation of Io/Battle Lover Sulfur involves the hand variant. Notable in that he's the only one out of the five magical boys (eight (and later ten) if you count the bad guys) to need it.
• Bleach anime episode #229. Ikkaku is in the bathroom about to take a bath, with only a towel around his waist. When Keigo's sister Mizuho walks in, Ikkaku's towel falls to the floor and he has to cover himself with his hands.
• Happens in the Manga adaptation of Breath of Fire I when Ryu catches Nina bathing in a lake, she uses her wings to cover herself. Ryu does it himself later when his Dragon Transformation destroys his clothes and he comes back to his human form naked.
• Digimon Fusion: In episode 7, while the group is bathing in an onsen, they come under attack from a group of Meramon. Taiki and Zenjirou preserve their modesty with Starmon and the red Pickmon respectively. The two Digimon are not amused.
• The premise of Dr. STONE is that everyone on Earth was Taken for Granite for thousands of years, during which time their clothes have realistically disintegrate. It becomes a bit silly when you notice that every woman on Earth seems to have frozen in a position where their arms block their breasts, and that whenever a full-body shot of a statue is needed, moss or other plant life is strategically covering just the lower half.
• Full Metal Panic!
  • The last episode of Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu. most of the school have their clothes destroyed thanks to a bacteria that disintegrates synthetic fibers being accidentally spread by Sosuke and Onodera, causing a school-wide Naked Freak-Out that has most students struggling to cover themselves with their hands.
  • In a non-comedic example, during "The Second Raid" Kaname is being chased by an assassin while only wearing a robe and her underwear. She distracts said assassin with her removed robe and shoots her with a stun-gun while covering her breasts with her arm.
• Hanaukyō Maid Team:
  • Episode 11: Taro does it after Ryuuka intrudes into his bath area while he's naked.
  • Episode 14: Taro also does, while bathing with Konoe in the natural hot spring.
  • La Verite episode 1: Taro does it when several maids manage to disrobe him without his knowledge to help him get dressed. Later, several maids (including assistant Security chief Yashima Sanae) do it after one of Ikuyo Suzuki's gadgets rips off their clothing, leaving them naked.
• Hayate the Combat Butler:
  • This shows up in the bath scene in Chapter 325 in the Manga.
  • Hatake does this after Maria sees him naked when she catches him chasing Tama out of the bath in episode 22.
• France's rose from Hetalia: Axis Powers. Also on at least one occasion, his pet dove Pierre.
• In the pool OVA from Higurashi: When They Cry, Keiichi has his "lucky" swim trunks ripped from him and is seen naked by Rena, Mion, Rika, and Satoko who all stare. When Rena fawns over his cute "Sea Bear", it makes him realize he's naked in front of his love interests causing him to have a Naked Freak-Out and hurriedly cover himself with his hands as all the girls laugh at him.
• Infinite Stratos: Ichika finds out Charlotte's true gender when he walks on her in the shower naked, causing her to have a Naked Freak-Out and cover herself with her hands.
• The agents of Nudist Beach from Kill la Kill wear only semi-automatic handguns, tactical combat belts, stockings, and sleeves, appropriately enough.
• Master of Martial Hearts: Aya covers herself while fighting at the pool after one punch takes off her bikini top. She manages to beat her opponent without the use of her hands.
• In Midori Days, Seiji uses his hand to cover himself after his sister drops his shorts in front of a crowd... forgetting that his hand is a girl named Midori. When he checks on Midori, she's passed out and foaming at the mouth.
• The Misfit of Demon King Academy: As soon as she gets reincarnated as a completely naked half-demon, Emilia Ludowell quickly uses her arms and hands to cover her exposed breasts.
• In My Hero Academia, Class 1-A fights Mirio, whose power generally requires him to pull a Full-Frontal Assault. This is generally censored by the poses that he gives, which is Lampshaded afterwards.
  "I tried to make it so you wouldn't see my willy! Sorry if you got a peek. But anyway, that's a taste of what it's like to fight me."
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi does this a lot, given the amount of Clothing Damage in the series.
• In Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shinji first sees Pen-Pen when he's about to get into the bath and is so surprised that he runs out into the living room. He's covered by can of beer on the table. Shortly after, Misato picks up the can of beer to reveal... an even smaller box of toothpicks. It's at this point she says to Shinji that he forgot his clothes, so he then covers himself with his hands and exits off camera.
  • Rebuild of Evangelion revisits the joke with Asuka, except replace "toothpicks" with "can of beer with bent straw" that also covers her breasts.
• Melfina does the hand version whenever she's in the tank that lets her navigate the ship on Outlaw Star. The Toonami edit gave her a bikini, which makes this kind of needless.
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: At the end of episode 10 in the D-City Rock music video, there's a segment where the girls get stranded in the desert and are unable to hitch a ride - until they strip down to nothing but signs that say "Go to D-City".
• Queen's Blade does this for both tops and bottoms: the ends of Melona's hair form hands that are her only covering for her breasts at any time, and the Elves never wear panties. Alleyne uses leaves for panties, and Echidna uses a live snake.
• Ranma ½: Although Female!Ranma's male mind (and, therefore, complete lack of feminine modesty) make an Shameless Fanservice Girl out of her more times than not, she usually covers her breasts and crotch when in the presence of people she does NOT want to see her naked — such as Kunô, Happôsai, or public bath patrons.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: In the Hot Springs Episode, Kamina uses Boota to cover up his naughty bits and Simon's parts are often covered up by his drill, which drops by about a foot and increases in size by a factor of three or so. At the end of the episode, this is done by Yoko when her bikini top suffers a Wardrobe Malfunction in front of the boys.
• Tokyo Crazy Paradise: Tsukasa is forced to assume Sandro Botticelli's Venus pose when she is temporarily Taken for Granite (see here.

Art

• Aphrodite of Menophantos: Aphrodite is completely naked, struggling to cover herself up with her hand and a sheet. The implication being she is emerging from a bath and unwilling to be seen in such a state.
• The Birth of Venus (Botticelli): Venus is covering her breasts with her right arm and using his left hand to cover her crotch with her hair.
• Psyche and Cupid (Bouguereau): In "The Rapture of Psyche", Psyche is so overjoyed by Cupid's embrace that she braces herself, which also serves to cover her breasts.
• The Fallen Angel: Played With. While the nude Lucifer's leg is the only thing standing between the viewer and his crotch, the reason both out and In-Universe is not shame nor censorship. Well, it is about shame but not in the traditional sense. In Christian art, Lucifer being naked means he is to be (extra-diegetically) shamed — it has nothing to do about whether Lucifer In-Universe feels embarrassed of his own naked body. Furthermore, Alexandre Cabanel belonged to the Academic art movement, in which nudity as a symbol of divinity is an Enforced Trope. Meanwhile, Lucifer's entire pose is meant to convey tension and being closed off, and pressed-together legs are necessary for that.
• Olympia: The model is covering her genitals with her left hand.
• The Return of Spring: While the woman's vagina is unobstructed, her crossed arms leave her breasts unexposed.
• The Rape of Proserpina: While Pluto and Proserpina are both nude, a strand of cloth (presumably what remains of Proserpina's attire) conveniently covers Pluto's genitals, though some public hair is visible.

Comic Books

• In a Archie's TV Laugh-Out story, Cheryl suffers from a Wardrobe Malfunction that rips her dress in the middle of a party and uses her hands, and then a blanket to cover herself.
• In the Astro City story "Who's a Good Dog?", G-Dog defeats the Lichen-Thrope by pulling its human master out of its torso. The guy is stranded in the street in nothing but red boxers, desperately covering his crotch with his hands.
• In Birds of Prey #106 Huntress strips out of her dress to change to into her costume when she notices Creote in the room, making her clutch the dress to her chest and ask him to turn away. He gives her a Fascinating Eyebrow, giving he's a Straight Gay and she knows it but she Death Glare's him anyway and insists on him turning around.
• In The Darkness Dr. Kim Fang resorts to this when one of Jack's Darklings accidentally yanks off her Modesty Towel. She covers herself with her arms while glaring daggers at them while they all clap, enjoying the show.
• Excalibur's Genoshan member Freakshow covers himself with a stop sign after demorphing from his monster form the first time we see it. (However, he still has underwear, which doesn't really make sense... and is unnecessary, because of the stop sign.)
  • That's a trope itself in Marvel Comics (Exiles did it nigh-constantly)... Characters who've had their clothing destroyed will regularly be shown in underwear — usually underwear at least as modest as some teammates' outerwear — yet have dialog indicating they're stark naked. Yeah, there's a history of Marvel editors realizing that ye gods, there's too much flesh, and demanding the artists put the character in briefs or a one-piece.
• Firestorm likes to inflict Defeat by Modesty on people by destroying their clothes causing them to freak out and resort to this.
  • Plastique is seen trying to cover her crotch with her hands after Firestorm de-atomizing her clothes to get the bombs she was carrying - much to her panic the amusement of her would be victims.
  • He also does this to Felicity Smoak, dissolving her polyester dress into suds, leaving her naked. She covers her chest in horror while the rest of her body is covered in Censor Suds.
• Issue 68 of the Futurama comic book begins with the Planet Express crew naked and unable to remember why. When their nudity isn't covered up by conveniently located objects, they rely on using their hands to obscure their privates, with one panel showing Fry holding a clock over his crotch.
• In Danger Girl: Back In Black, Sydney Savage's zipped-down corset gets ripped off while she's riding a bike on the open road requiring her to cover her naked chest with her arm.
• Happens to Power Girl in issue 9 of her series. She runs out the shower in a Modesty Towel while chasing after a kid and dashes down the stairs after him, runs past a neighbor, and collars the kid, at which point her towel drops, giving the kid and a neighbor a good look at her naked body (the reader is not so lucky, due to a strategically placed carrots and an arm). She covers herself with bread and a pie pan borrowed from her neighbor and flees to her room to get dressed.
• In The Ray Lucien Gates powers have no Magic Pants and destroy all of his clothes. The first time he uses them, he ends up naked on a beach and it's not until some female admirers point it out that he realizes and covers himself with his hands. When he comes back home, he has only a guitar covering himself.
• In #8 of Queen Sonja, Red Sonja's chainmail bra is slashed in a fight with her opponent Ariok and she has to cover her left breast with her hand.
• Red Hood spends part of Issue 6 of Red Hood and the Outlaws completely naked, walking about using his hands and a palm leaf to cover himself, along with bandages on his torso after his clothes get destroyed. Could also double as Naked People Are Funny.
• In Secret Six, they first encounter the Mad Hatter sitting on a throne of skulls wearing nothing but a hat over his genitals. Turns out, it wasn't just to cover them.
• She-Hulk:
  • In The Sensational She-Hulk #16 she Hulks Out to a huge savage gray form and ends up tearing her clothes in the process. When she returns to her normal She-Hulk form, she's topless, using an arm to cover her chest while using the order to hold the tattered remains of her pants.
  • The cover of The Sensational She-Hulk #40 has her naked while clutching the Comics Code logo to cover herself. It's even the page image of Fanservice!
  • She-Hulk Vol 2 had this trope happen in at least two issues.
    • In issue 26, She-Hulk finds out that she lost her pants after taking down a spacecraft and covers her pelvis with her hands until Larry Ryan gives her his shirt to wear around her waist.
    • In the 32nd issue, Jazinda tries using her space ship's matter transporter to teleport Jen into the ship. However, the teleporter was designed for Skrulls, so it accidentally only teleported her clothes, leaving Jen naked in public trying to cover herself with her hands from the cheering crowd.
• From The Simpsons comics, Lisa had to wear a Titanic Squishee bucket in place of her standard clothes. Cue the squick.
• Poor Spider-Man. The first issue after the whole Superior Spider Man debacle and what happens? He gets his costume unraveled by a villainess who can control threads. He stops her before she can undo the mask, but he's forced to make webbing underwear to preserve his modesty.
• Issue 28 of The Superman Adventures has Jimmy Olsen in Superman's body explain that he's avoiding looking at Lois Lane and Professor Hamilton because he can't control his X-ray vision. His confession leads to a panel where Lois and Hamilton are shown with transparent clothing, Lois covering her breasts with her arm while her pelvic region is obscured by Hamilton's clipboard and Hamilton's rear is covered up by the panel border.
• Issue eight of Teen Titans Go! has Mad Mod use hypnotic clothing to brainwash Beast Boy, Starfire and nearly everyone in Jump City. Cyborg frees everyone by using sonic weaponry to destroy the clothes, leaving them naked. The civilians affected by this are shown desperately trying to use their hands to obscure their private parts the instant they realize they're naked, while Beast Boy covers his groin with his hands after it is initially obscured by Robin's head.

Comic Strips

• In Snarfquest, Telerie covers her breasts with her arms after Snarf uses her white shirt as a White Flag to surrender.

Fan Works

• John Gage uses it in the Emergency! fic "A Woman Scorned". A woman attacks him while they are camping and steals his car and clothes (which he'd removed as they were about to get it on), leaving him naked in the woods. First, the only thing he finds upon reaching a road is a burger wrapper reading "Dinky Burger", and hopes no women find him due to how mortifying it would be to be seen with the word "dinky" over his male anatomy. A trucker who gives him a ride gives him a baseball cap, and he shows up at Roy's with the cap in front and a rag behind.
• A Naked Padawan, a Star Wars fic has Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon taking shelter in a cave from a windy snowstorm. Obi-Wan has to strip naked because his robes are soaked and need to dry by the fire. The next morning, a couple of female Jedi arrive to pick up the stranded duo. Obi-Wan forgets briefly that he's naked and ends up slipping, landing on his back and sliding down the hill, skidding to a stop right in front of the new arrivals. He jumps up and stands with his hands in front of his, er, anatomy, stammering and embarrassed until Qui-Gon throws his robes to him.
• In The Day The Dursleys Came To Hogwarts Harry's accidental magic turns Draco into a ferret. Draco climbs onto the teachers' table to attract attention and when Snape changes him back, he's buck-naked. After falling off the table, he grabs two plates and covers himself in front and back while running out of the Great Hall.
• Slight variation: In the CSI fic “Face the Music”, Grissom has been stripped by the guys who captured and tortured him. When the rescue happens, Brass quickly puts his jacket over Grissom to try and restore some of his battered friend’s dignity.

Films — Animation

• Batman: Assault on Arkham: Harley Quinn covers her breasts with her arm after taking off her top and doing some Toplessness from the Back to distract a guard in the Arkham basement.
• In Bedknobs and Broomsticks, the Secretary Bird does this after his clothing (minus his necktie) gets blown off of him by King Leonidas' yelling. Though, he didn't really have anything to cover up in the first place...
• The lead character in Chicken Little loses his pants on his way to school and has to make a pair out of his homework.
• The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: An otherwise naked Wallace wears a box saying "May Contain Nuts."
• In The Grinch (2018), there is a scene where Cindy-Lou Who has her friend Groopert dressed as Santa Claus to test a trap intended for Santa. After grabbing the cookie and activating the trap, Groopert loses his clothes and ends up naked. He uses the cookie to cover up his privates.
• The Little Mermaid (1989): Ariel unintentionally does this with Flounder after she's been turned into a human by Ursula, and he's helping her swimming up to the surface.^note Her fish tail turning into human legs means she's bottomless, so the way she's holding Flounder obscures her genitals.
• The Mitchells vs. the Machines has a scene where Katie recalls an incident where she and her family got lost during a wilderness trip and had to walk home naked because they burned their clothes to keep warm. We then see a brief scene of the Mitchells awkwardly sprinting past their neighbors the Poseys in the nude, with Rick holding a potted plant over his groin, Aaron wearing a bush around his pelvic area, Katie holding a mailbox over her body and Linda covering herself using some tied-together sheets of paper/cardboard.
• In Over the Hedge, Verne covers himself with a cookie after he loses his shell.
• Strange Magic: One of the goblins does this with a leaf after a fairy points out that he's naked, even though its the only time anyone notices this.
• The Finale Movie of Teacher's Pet has two instances of this trope.
  • At the end of the song "I'm Movin' On", Leonard and his mom's clothes somehow leave with the rest of the ensemble participating in the song, leaving them out in the open in their underwear and covering up.
  • In the closing number "Proud to be a Dog", Spot is shown blushing and covering his crotch with his hands to the lyric "With his pants not on".
• Toy Story 2.
  • Bullseye covers his privates (or lack thereof- Toy horses aren't generally known for being anatomically correct) with his hooves after his saddle (and Woody) fall off his back.
  • Earlier, Hamm does this when he trips and his coins fall out (again, this is made all the funnier by the fact that he doesn't actually HAVE anything to cover up, for the same reason as above).
    "Alright, nobody look 'til I get my cork back in!"
• In an earlier version of Turning Red, Mei would have tried having a relaxing bath only to be interrupted by her mother causing her to cover up her breasts after turning into her giant red panda form which is naturally covered up with fur.

Films — Live-Action

• In 68 Kill, Chip wakes up at the motel and discovers all of his belongings stolen, including his clothes. He has to scuttle to the office covered in nothing but a very small hand towel.
• The Accidental Spy; Has a hilarious Jackie Chan fight scene starting in a Turkish bath has him fighting in the nude against a couple of Mooks, in a busy Istanbul market, all the while trying to cover up using newspapers, hand brooms, bowls of spice and other objects.
• Uma Thurman as Venus makes her entrance in a re-creation of the Botticelli pose in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
• In Airheads, Pip (Adam Sandler) uses his cap when he's caught making out with station employee Suzzi.
• In Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, Alan loses his trousers and underwear while wriggling out through a window. He attempts to cover his genitals with his hands but is then confronted by an armed police officer who demands he put his hands up.
• In the musical movie The American Mall, during the "The New You" song, two of Madison's back-up dancers rip off Joey's clothing and he covers his groin with his hands... even though he was already in his boxers.
• American Reunion:
  • A pantless Jim covers himself with the lid of a pan, however, we learn later that the lid is made of glass and transparent. There is an up-close shot before he gets a frying pan to replace it.
  • Mia cover her chest with her hands when her bikini is stolen while she was sunbathing.
• An American Werewolf in London. "Mummy, a naked American man stole my balloons!"
• The Archer: When she discovers that Michael's spying on her when she's showering, Lauren covers her breasts with both hands, along with slumping down under the peephole.
• An extended scene in Austin Powers, featuring both Austin and Vanessa Kensington nude, covered up by all sorts of objects. Some are particularly obvious, such as Vanessa covering her breasts with small pitchers of cream from the tea service.
• Played with in Battle Beyond the Stars, where the only material covering the impressive breasts of Ms. Fanservice Action Girl Saint-Exmin of the Valkyrie resembles a pair of silver hands.
• In Beyond the Lights, Noni is asked to remove her top during a photoshoot, requiring her to use an arm bra.
• Film/{{Burlesque}]: While flirting with Ali, Jack walks into the kitchen and comes out naked and holding a box of cookies over his crotch.
• In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Captain America mannequin at the Howling Commandos exhibit in the Smithsonian certainly looks like it's doing this with its shield after Cap takes his old uniform back.
• In Carry On Dick, Dick Turpin (Sid James) robs the clothing of Sir Roger Daley (Bernard Bresslaw) and his Lady wife (Margaret Nolan), leaving Sir Roger to cover himself with only his big hat.
• Chalet Girl, When Kim is caught naked by her Love Interest and his family she uses her oversized ski gloves to cover herself.
• Charlie's Angels (2000): After Dylan ends up falling naked in someone's backyard pool, she grabs a donut-shaped floater to cover herself.
• In A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song, after she gets locked outside her house naked Katie attempts to cover up her nakedness by first using a potted plant (which subsequently breaks) and later a welcome mat, just in time for her Love Interest to catch her.
• The need to carefully select your shield is demonstrated in Cloud Atlas when the Parents Walk In at the Worst Time and the young lad sleeping with their daughter grabs the cat, who promptly sinks its claws into a sensitive spot, causing him to fall out the window and break several bones. The medical report stated the Cause Of Injury was "pussy".
• Desperados (2020): After she gets locked out naked in the hotel, Wesley uses her arms and later a seat cushion to cover herself as she searches for her friends.
• When Christen escapes naked from the truck in Escape Room (2017), she covers her breasts with her arms; not entirely successfully.
• Eyes of Laura Mars: One of Laura's photos has a topless model wrapping one arm over her breasts.
• Fantastic Four (2005)
  • The first time Johnny Storm flames on, he vaporizes all of his clothing; later, when he finds Reed and Sue, he spends a considerable amount of time awkwardly prancing around naked with his ski partner's pink jacket wrapped around his waist.
  • On the bridge, when Susan Storm is invisible and stripping off her clothes so she can cross the bridge undetected, her powers suddenly fail and she finds herself standing in her underwear in the middle of a crowd. She immediately freaks out and tries covering herself with her hands.
• Farewell, My Queen: Sidonie briefly does this when she undresses to put on the queen's dress, using both hands to cover her breasts and groin. However, she didn't keep it up for long, letting Marie-Antoinette see her nude then (another hint Sidonie's attracted to her).
• During A Fish Called Wanda, Archie uses an apparently vacant apartment to seduce Wanda. However new tenants arrive during his nude dance, so he fumbles to retrieve the closest object to cover his privates. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a portrait of the lady of the house.
• The Flash (2023). When the teenage Barry Allen realises he has superpowers, he zooms off at Super-Speed before his older Alternate Self can warn him about Required Secondary Powers. As a result his clothes catch fire from the friction, whereupon he panics and tears off his clothes in the middle of the street causing a multi-vehicle Disaster Dominoes which include a truckload of music instruments. He returns naked and abashed, holding a tambourine over his groin. Then when older Barry tells him he can vibrate through solid objects, he immediately vibrates through the floor leaving his clothes behind. Cue a woman's shriek from the apartment below, after which a naked Barry returns with a cooking pot held over his groin.
• Inadvertently funnily done in Friday the 13th Part 2. Terry gets out of the water from Skinny Dipping, and finds her clothing missing. She then covers up her chest, calling out to the guy who stole them. Funny in that she does not cover her groin (which was out of frame).
• The... climax of The Full Monty shows the men use the caps of their policeman stripper outfits to cover their naughty bits before tossing them away to general cheering.
• In George of the Jungle, Innocent Fanservice Guy George walks out of the shower naked in front of Ursula and her best friend Betsy. Ursula quickly grabs things for him to cover up with and hurries him off to get dressed while the awestruck Betsy comments: "I see why they made him King of the Jungle..."
• Ghost Rock: When John Slaughter is taking a bath in a waterhole, he suddenly notices that Savannah is watching him. He quickly stands up, then realizes his mistake, and pulls his hat off his had and clamps it over his groin.
• Go: When the hotel room catches fire, Simon bolts naked from the room into the corridor, holding his clothes over his groin and butt.
• During the first death scene in Halloween (1978), Michael's sister covers her breasts with her hands as she's being killed. She reflexively covers her breasts when she sees her little brother in the room to avoid exposing herself to him (in the split second before he begins attacking her), then continues to keep them there in a futile attempt to defend herself. Apparently, keeping her nipples from showing up on camera is more important than either hiding her groin or fending off a knife attack.
• Hannie Caulder: When Hannie interrupts Frank Clemens in bed with a prostitute, he claps his hat over his crotch, even though he is still wearing longjohns. However, given what the girl was doing at the time, it seems very likely that his flies were open.
• I Love Trouble: Sabrina uses Peter as one when a group of boy scouts happens upon her when she's naked after Skinny Dipping. Still a little miffed from a previous argument, Peter proceeds to walk towards the scouts while ignoring Sabrina's surprised protests as she desperately clutches behind him for cover. When she really pisses him off with a comment, he abruptly leaves her, exposing her to the eager boys. The scene closes with an embarrassed Sabrina squealing in alarm trying to cover herself with her hands as the boy scouts' cameras are going off.
• In the 1974 TV movie It Couldnt Happen To A Nicer Guy, a man is picked up by a beautiful woman, raped at gunpoint, and dropped off naked in a small town, forcing him to cover himself with a Yield sign.
• Hilariously parodied in The Jerk, when Steve Martin leaps from the bathtub and goes charging outside naked but covering his groin with his pet dog. Once outside, he picks up another dog to cover his backside. The dog he uses for his front is easily twice the size of the one he's holding behind him.
• At the end of Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), Pat Boone ends up a tree completely naked, trying to hide his body from a group of Italian nuns. After being suddenly deposited on the ground, he grabs a sheep and runs off clutching it to his groin.
• Jungle: While bathing in the river in the Indian village, Yossi, Marcus and Kevin discover that they have attracted an audience of all of the females in the village, with one old woman taking a particular interest in Kevin's junk (as he puts it). The three men hurriedly cup their hands over their privates.
• Lady Ninja Kaede: When Kaede demonstrates her Doppelgänger Spin technique, her third duplicate appears naked. On noticing the other two staring at her, this Kaede looks down, sees her nudity, and hurriedly crosses her arms over her boobs.
• Last Train from Gun Hill: When Rick tears off Catherine's blouse, she covers her breasts with her arms.
• In A Man with a Maid, one of the naked women Jack photographs in his studio covers her nethers with a top hat.
• The Mask of Zorro: After Elena has her nightgown's top sliced off by Zorro, she gasps indignantly and grabs his hat to cover her chest. They have The Big Damn Kiss and when he leaves, he snatches his hat from her grasp. She's too awestruck by the kiss to react to her state of undress until her father and his soldiers arrive and she hurriedly grabs a robe to cover herself with.
• Danielle De Luca does this in Naked Fear when she initially wakes up naked and a little while after when she's walking around looking for someone, despite being in the middle of the wilderness and having no one around for miles.
• One for the Money: Morelli barges in on Stephanie in the shower, causing her to cover herself in panic. He gives her a Modesty Towel and handcuffs her to the shower rod, while he searches her apartment for his car keys. When he can't find them, he comes back and takes away her towel and leaves her naked and handcuffed to her shower rod. She has to call her friend Ranger to get her out, while she's barely covering herself with the curtain.
• Perfect Addiction: Sienna covers her breasts with one arm as Kayden eats her out in the shower. This is clearly for the actress, as they're otherwise (non-explicitly) naked.
• The Pit and the Pendulum (1991): Following her Shameful Strip, Maria covers her breasts and crotch with her arms and hands.
• Pitch Perfect: Chloe walks in on Beca showering after hearing her sing (With Chloe herself being naked) and demands Beca audition for the Bellas. Beca doesn't take her intrusion well and spends the whole scene trying and failing to cover herself with many objects.
• Happens in the third Police Academy, when Mahoney schemes to get Harris' Yes-Man Procter naked and trapped outside. He winds up at the Blue Oyster Club.
• Taken to the extreme in Project A, when Inspector Hong hogs the shower for himself while a line of recruits, including Jackie Chan's protagonist, stands in a row holding only their shower buckets over their privates. While washing, Hong realized he forgot his bucket and orders one of his recruits to give him one; the recruits responds by pelting Hong with their buckets. (He did say "give", throwing with force does count as giving)
• In The Proposal, when Margaret finishes showering and is searching for a towel, but all she finds is a cloth mitt that she then holds over her barely covered crotch while her other arm is across her chest as she leaves the bathroom to get a towel, when the small annoying family dog stands in her way yapping at her, while she tries to get past it with only her arms to cover herself. When she does, she makes a run from the wardrobe, and collides with Andrew who is also naked (getting ready to take a shower of his own). They both have a Naked Freak-Out and scramble away trying to cover themselves.
• A topless model hastily covers her breasts with her arms when Ki-su rides his bike through the backstage area of an underwear fashion show in Quick.
• Revenge (2017): When Stan walks in on Jen as she is changing, she hurriedly covers her boobs with her arms.
• Revolver (1973): When Vito walks in on Grappa in bed with two women, one of the women picks up a pillow and holds in front of her.
• In Rio Lobo, Amelita covers her breasts with her arms when an outlaw breaks into her home to hide from the law.
• Road House (1989): During her striptease, Wesley's girlfriend Denise covers her breasts with the dress she's just taken off, then with a cowboy hat she borrows from a patron after throwing the dress away, and then with her arms after she puts the hat on. Then she covers them with nothing.
• Robin Hood: The Rebellion: Guy of Gisborne, having been Mugged for Disguise and stripped of his armour and clothes, arrives naked at the Sheriff's castle in the middle of the night, and has to convince the guard to let him in and then meet the Sheriff holding his hand over his crotch.
• Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt: When Romasanta enters the room while Barbara is bathing, she crosses her arms over her breasts.
• In Rush Hour 2, Inspector Lee and James Carter end up running through the streets of Hong Kong completely naked after a fight at a massage parlor. A short time later, Carter is using two garbage can lids to cover himself and Lee is using two old newspapers to do the same. The scene was a deliberate Call-Back to The Accidental Spy.
• A Safe Place (1971) has a naked hippie lying on his back with the corner of a blanket pulled over his crotch.
• Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend: Following the Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen incident, the three soldiers arrive in the Brethren camp wearing a horse blanket (Devlin), a towel (Maitland), and a clump of branches (Clegg).
• A Shot in the Dark invokes the trope when Inspector Clouseau visits a nudist colony to question a suspect. He borrows a guitar just so he can hold it in front of himself, and has a pool float on his back.
• Snapshot (1979): When Elmer is taking Polaroids of Angela and persuades her to take off her blouse, she covers her breasts with her arms.
• Stand Clear of the Closing Doors: When Mariana and Ricardo are naked after having sex, Mariana's breasts are covered by both of their arms.
• The Summer of Sangaile: When Auste has Sangaile undress to measure her for a dress which Auste's making her, she self-consciously covers her breasts with both hands at first.
• In the first part of the film version of Till Death Us Do Part (set during the Second World War), Alf Garnett is having a bath in front of the fire when the National Anthem is played on the radio. Being a patriotic Englishman, he stands up — then realizes he's facing a photograph of the King and Queen which is hanging on the wall. He's forced to cover his groin with his hands until the anthem finishes.
• Done with Uma Thurman and a speaker stack in The Truth About Cats & Dogs.
• In Up Pompeii, Rumpus uses his shield to cover his groin at Ludicrus Sextus' orgy and after returning from Erotica's bath.
• What's Your Number?: Where Colin eats an apple and casually talks to Ally, all while being naked and having only a hand towel, and a banister, to cover his family jewels. We see all but that part.
• Wildcats (1986): Goldie Hawn's character walks in on the football team she's coaching before they've had a chance to put on their pants, so they cover their groins with their helmets. At first.
• In Wonder Woman (2017), Steve Trevor covers himself with his hand when Diana walks in on him in the bath.
• In the 2003 Russian film Zolsuhka, the title character (played by Yuliya Mavrina) has her clothes vanish, leaving her covering her breasts and groin with her hands. This is a kid's film...
• In the 1992 Matthew Broderick film Out On A Limb, his character gets his clothes and car stolen at gunpoint, leaving him fully naked. He covers his genitals with a mailbox, but is promptly caught and laughed at by a busload of female students. He is picked up on the highway (still fully naked) by two brothers, and later dons a scarecrow's outfit.
• In Zig Zag (2002), a stripper covers her breasts when ZigZag and Singer walk in on her audition, prompting Cadillac Tom to wonder how she would have dealt with dancing nude in front of 200 men.
• The Big Cube: During a party at Charles' mansion, Bibi does a strip tease. She's removed her bra when Charles arrives home unexpectedly, causing Bibi to cover herself with her arms.
• Mad Love (1995): After Matt and Casey have sex next to a car in a forest, they lie together, with both of their arms covering her chest.
• In The Night Clerk (2020), Bart walks into the pool area where Andrea is swimming topless. When she sees him, she covers her breasts with her hands.

Jokes

• There was a man who saw a lake and decided to go swimming on a hot day. He didn't have a bathing suit, but since he was alone, he took his clothes off and jumped right in. Suddenly, he heard female voices and giggling, and quickly covered up with the nearest object he could find: an old discarded bucket by the shore. "Hello, ladies," he said, rather embarrassed. "You know, I can read minds," one of the women said. "You can?" asked the embarrassed man. "Yes," she replied. "You're thinking that old bucket has a bottom."
• A vicar was entertaining a visiting bishop, and the two decided to go swimming in the nearby lake. They had no swimwear but decided it wouldn't matter since there was no-one in the vicinity. After a while, a group of women from the village suddenly appeared, and the vicar quickly covered his nether regions with his hands and ran to his clothes in the bushes. The bishop did the same but instead covered his face. When the vicar asked why he hadn't covered his privates, the bishop answered: "Most people recognize me by the face".

Literature

• Discworld
  • Archchancellor Ridcully quickly demands Ponder Stibbons' hat for this purpose in Terry Pratchett's Night Watch when his bathtub ends up in the courtyard (long story) and he realizes that among the men of the City Watch there are, in fact, also women. He did have his own hat, but he was wearing that one and refused to take it off.
  • Averted by Vimes in the same book: when he returns from his time-traveling in his birthday suit, he doesn't waste an instant trying to cover up, but rushes home to defend his family from a vengeful killer.
  • Ridcully himself saw this trope in action in Reaper Man when an unlucky shopper's suit ran away and he chased it into the street, with only a hastily-grabbed washcloth to serve as a substitute garment.
  • The master bathroom at the Ramkin country estate is decorated with white marble lovelies dignified with urns, bunches of marble grapes, and the ever-popular length of gauze which had, happily, landed in just the right place to stop art from becoming pornography.
  • In Maskerade, Greebo the cat turns into a human when cornered by an angry shopkeeper, and grabs a nearby bowl to cover himself — thereby spilling cold pork drippings on his crotch.
• In the Ian Fleming novel Dr. No, James Bond first encounters Honey Rider emerging from the water naked (instead of wearing the famous white bikini of the movie) and is surprised when her version of the standard female modest gesture includes putting one hand over her crotch and using the other to hide her badly broken and disfigured nose instead of her breasts.
• The Finishing School Series: Around the climax of Waistcoats & Weaponry, the werewolf Captain Niall does this with his top hat when he realizes that Sophronia is present during a confrontation.
• In The Hollows: Black Magic Sanction this happens to Rachel after she returns to her normal size. During Trent's speech on a stage. In front of a crowd. And news cameras. She uses the pages of Trent's speech to cover herself.
• In Hungry as a Wolf, Wolf Cowrie is forced to cover himself with his Stetson when Susannah Twohill walks in on him as he's getting out of the bath.
• In David Rakoff's Verse Novel Love Dishonor Marry Die Cherish Perish a character photographs another posed with oranges in front of her bare breasts.
• In spite of the title character not really having issues with nudity, the children's book Nuddy Ned's Christmas at one point has Ned climb on top of a giant Christmas tree and use the star ornament to cover up his genitals.
• The Odyssey: When Odysseus washes up on Scheria, he is completely naked and caked with salt from the sea. He grabs a leafy branch and holds it over his privates while he approaches princess Nausicaa, who has come to the shore to wash clothes with her handmaidens. Nausicaa gives him some of the fresh laundry so he can cover himself properly.
• Rivers of London: In Whispers Under Ground, Peter describes a statuette found in a murder victim's home this way:
  It depicted the ever popular "Venus-Aphrodite surprised by a sculptor and struggling to cover her tits with one hand and keeping her drape at waist height with the other" so beloved of art connoisseurs in the long weary days before the invention of Internet porn.
• Star Wars Legends: The X-Wing Series features Wes Janson having this happen to him. After months of pulling pranks on Wedge, he earns Wedge's "greatest revenge" — he's tricked into a situation where he's naked, covered in what looks like fruit-and-leaf compost, and the only thing around to cover himself with is a life-sized stuffed Ewok doll. Then he walked into a room filled with the rest of the crew.
• In Shadow of the Conqueror, after Cueseg's Naked First Impression gets a chilly reception from Lyrah, he covers himself with his hands.
• In the Firefly novel What Makes Us Mighty, the crew is staying in a fancy town. Mal and Zoe are talking about feeling that something dangerous is going on as they walk into Wash and Zoe’s suite. Wash seems to have been showering or something because he’s naked when they enter and quickly covers his privates with a towel while attempting to reprimand Mal for not knocking. Mal is too anxious to get the non fighters on the crew off-world to worry and Zoe kisses Wash and tells him to get dressed.

Live-Action TV

• Alias: In "The Counteragent", Sydney is doing this with her chest while being scrubbed naked in a Decontamination Chamber.
• Altered Carbon. Takeshi Kovacs wakes up to find Poe has brought a woman to his room. Mistaking her for a hooker he gets out of bed without bothering to get dressed, only to find she's an attorney for his employer. Poe quickly grabs her briefcase and uses it to shield Kovacs nether regions, then gets some clothes when the attorney demands her briefcase back.
• Angel:
  • In "I Will Remember You", during his day as a human, Angel uses a tub of ice-cream to hide his groin as he's returning to bed with Buffy.
  • In "Life of the Party", Angel does it with a pillow after he's caught by his team having sex with Eve.
  • In "Smile Time", Nina covers her breasts with an arm after waking up naked from her werewolf transformation.
• On Baby Daddy, Riley decides to go the full monty for Ben, only for Danny, Tucker, and Bonnie to walk in on the two of them, forcing her to use a pillow and her arms to cover herself. Later in the same episode Ben tries to alleviate her humiliation by doing the same for her while the two spent a night at a posh hotel, only for circumstances to lead the two of them being locked out of their hotel room, and him forced to take the elevator with only his hands covering his crotch, all while in front of not just his brother, roommate, mother and girlfriend, once again, but tourist who join them on the elevator, one of which taking a quick pic of his junk to his horror.
• Battlestar Galactica (2003): In "Home, Part II", Number Six uses a Modesty Chair which she straddles backward when she talks with Baltar. Probably inspired by the famous Christine Keeler photo◊.
• Being Human:
  • George does this after stripping naked before his werewolf transformations. The Real Life reason for this is that George is Jewish while Russell Tovey... isn't.
  • Mocked in the second season premiere when Daisy catches George naked next to the bloody carcass of a deer. She teases him when he gets up covering himself with his hands.
    Daisy: Ah, that's sweet. You might tear someone's throat out but God forbid anyone should see your winky.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Spoofed in "Go Fish" when Xander struts into the pool area having secretly joined the swim team, only to be confronted by the female Scoobies staring at him in surprise and some rather frank appreciation. Even though he's already wearing speedos, a suddenly embarrassed Xander grabs a float board and a tube of lotion to cover the same region.
    Xander: I'm undercover!
    Buffy: Not under much.
  • In, "Nightmares", Xander finds himself in class in his boxers. His response to that is to cover his chest.
  • In "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" after Buffy turns back from being a rat, she's naked. She covers herself with her arms when she realizes (despite already have the lower half of her body hidden behind a box.)
• Benny Hill wrote and performed in an extended sketch spoofing The '50s' nudist camp films, using every conceivable trope (and prop) to send up life in a nudist camp without anything actionable being displayed.
• Conversed in a first-season Castle episode. Beckett complains that the fictional Detective Nikki Heat is naked on the cover of her debut novel, and Castle points out that she's holding a gun, "strategically placed".
• In the Dad's Army episode "Things That Go Bump In The Night", Pike has to strip naked because his clothes are attracting a pack of dogs. He subsequently spends the last part of the episode naked, using two small bags to cover his genitals and backside. He later Don's a potato sack.
• DCI Banks: In "Friend of the Devil", Jackman arrives at a hotel looking for the father of a victim. After getting no answer to a knock at the door, she opens the door and the man suddenly appears holding a pillow over his crotch.
• Desperate Housewives:
  • Susan Mayers does this with a potted plant in Pretty Little Picture after she loses her Modesty Towel after it gets stuck in Carl's car door and it drives away, leaving her locked outside her house naked. Rumor has it that Teri Hatcher started out with the idea to "just get this one out of our system" and went naked before the cameras started rolling.
  • In "Move On" when Claire strips naked to put her own clothes to wash at night, she's caught by Tom when she makes a run to her room nude, covering her chest with her arms. Strangely, when Tom sees her, she turns around.
• Doctor Who: In "Gridlock", when the Doctor passes through a Flying Car occupied by a nudist couple, the woman is holding a strategically-placed magazine.
• Dog Eat Dog: Rose covers her breasts with her hands after playing strip darts.
• The 2003 sitcom Eve has a funny subversion when Rita steps out of her house in a Modesty Towel to grab the paper, only to find a crowd of paparazzi waiting for her and she drops the towel in shock... but decides to use her hands to cover her green-cream-masked-faced instead of her naked body.
• Father Brown: In a flashback in "The Two Deaths of Hercule Flambeau", Flambeau attempts to hide in a wardrobe to avoid Lisandra's father. When the father opens the door, the naked Flambeau is clutching a straw hat in front of himself to preserve his modesty.
• The Flash (2014): In "Flash vs. Arrow", Felicity's blouse catches fire after Barry races her at superspeed to STAR Labs. She pulls off the blouse just as Caitlyn and Cisco enter, and hurriedly holds her handbag up to cover her chest.
• Forever: Given how Henry is Naked on Revival after each death, and the show was made for broadcast television, this trope naturally comes into play. The first time we see Henry die and revive, he comes out of the East River on what is clearly a very cold day (so he can't just swim until he finds a discreet spot to emerge). He covers himself with his hands until two police officers approach him, at which point he raises first one hand, then the other in surrender. In "Look Before You Leap" he's using an old pizza box to cover himself when Abe arrives to give him a ride home.
• The Fosters: In the Series Finale, Stef and Lena go Skinny Dipping at a hotel beach resort only for an oblivious hotel worker to pick up their discarded robes. Later, they are seen running frantically across the property, only covering up their fronts with palm fronds before finding some Modesty Towels. This later follows:
  Stef: "We have to go to the front desk to get a new key."
  Lena: "In our towels?!"
  Stef: "Well, we can wear the palm fronds if you would prefer."
• Friends:
  • Chandler falls into a Honey Trap set at the restaurant by a woman he knew from 4th grade, so he ends up in a restroom cubicle with only the girl's undies to wear. Eventually, he has to cross the whole crowded dining room, hiding behind the unhinged cubicle door.
  • When Chandler turns up the volume on the TV to drown out the noise between Joey and his new girlfriend (who Chandler had developed feelings for as well), Joey opens the door and asks Chandler to turn it down, covering himself up with a dartboard.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Missandei does this when she catches Grey Worm watching her bathe in "The Mountain and the Viper"...after letting him have a long look.
  • Averted when Daenerys deliberately rises from her bath to converse with Daario in "Second Sons."
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: In "If I Had A Hammer", a bunch of grapes does this for Hercules as he models nude for Salmoneous.
• Highlander pulled a pillow version with Duncan in one episode as well. Only it was apparently not his doing, a female immortal bounty hunter had him tied to the bed.
• Played for Fan Disservice in the 1978 mini-series Holocaust, as naked women file into the gas chamber (ostensibly a shower) watched by leering guards.
• Horrible Histories: The man who has his toga stolen during the Shouty Man's ad for the Roman Baths uses a book from the bath library to preserve his modesty.
• Hustle: Danny Blue loses a game of Strip Poker and attempts to salvage what is left of his dignity with a strategically placed cushion.
• Happens a couple of times on Law & Order: SVU most notably in "Acceptable Loss", when they arrest a suspect who is enjoying a hot tub in the buff. The detectives have to cuff his hands in front of him to allow him to cover essential areas.
• Legend of the Seeker: Kahlan does this when Richard catches her taking a Waterfall Shower in "Elixir".
• Lost Girl: In "Caged Fae" during Bo's Shower Scene in the prison, she's show covering herself with her hands while all the female prison guards leering at her.
• M*A*S*H
  • A very early episode has Hawkeye bet Trapper that he could walk stark naked into the mess tent and everyone in the camp would be too bored to notice. Hawkeye manages to cross the compound wearing only a hat and boots via a creative camera setup with soldiers carrying long planks between Alda and the camera. Once in the mess tent, he manages to stand in line and get some food before someone notices and drops their tray. He then backs out using an army tray to cover himself.
    Trapper: Pay up.
    Hawkeye: [covering himself with the tray] I left my pockets back in the Swamp.
  • Once, Hawkeye and Winchester manage to get B.J. good: Beej wakes up in the nurses' tent, surrounded by women, and completely naked in bed; he tries to grab the sheets, but they're nailed in place. Finally, he gets a pillow and covers his more interesting bits with it, then backs out of the tent... to a full waiting audience.
  • Another episode has Margaret stealing Hawkeye and B.J.'s clothes while they are in the shower. They have to leave the shower tent with "Their heads held high, and their hands held low".
  • In the episode where Winchester has a supply of newspapers and decided not to share, someone stole his clothes while he was showering, but left one of the newspapers, which he used to get back to the Swamp without showing anything.
  • One of the film's most famous scenes was of a showering Hot Lips doing this when Hawkeye and Trapper exposed her in full view of the base. Without that bit of history, the TV series simply painted Burns and Houlihan as intolerant. Which they were, but in the film, their bitterness was somewhat justified.
• Merlin: In "A Servant of Two Masters", Arthur walks out from behind a modesty screen in the buff, only to be confronted by Guinevere who has rushed into his chambers to rescue him from a Brainwashed and Crazy Merlin (long story). Arthur grabs a pillow to cover himself as Guinevere tries to explain herself. What makes the scene is that Gaius, the elderly court physician is also present, trying to hide Merlin behind a curtain and clearly struggling not to laugh.
• Midsomer Murders: In "The Oblong Murders", a woman walks in on Jones while he is in the shower and is obviously enjoying the view. He hurriedly grabs a washcloth to cover himself.
• In one episode of Mr. Bean, the title character got locked out of his hotel room naked, and is forced to navigate the building wearing signs. Amusingly, the sign he wears over his genitals reads "Private" and the sign over his bottom reads "Exit". In the same episode, he loses those signs later, only to replace them with "Out of Order" and "No Entry" respectively. And beforehand, he covered his front with a fire extinguisher.
• MuchMusic in Canada once had "Not Much On Day", which featured host Rachel Perry hosting nude while covering herself with her arms, sitting down with her legs in front of her as well as various objects, including newspapers, lights, trophies, Censor Boxes, balloons and melons.
• The Naked Trucker And T Bones Show, would serve as one of the best examples of this, were it still around. A fine case of Exactly What It Says on the Tin, it's a show about two guys, T-Bones (played by David Koechner) and the nameless Naked Trucker (played by the incomparable Dave "Gruber" Allen, everyone's favorite guidance counselor). Naked Trucker is never seen wearing more than a baseball cap, boots, and a guitar.
• On NCIS, a stray iguana startles Tony awake, and Gibbs and Kate come running, guns drawn, at his startled outcry. As soon as they realize it's not a threat, the others turn to Tony (who'd been sleeping in the buff), and he grabs a chair to invoke this trope.
  • A later episode features a flashback to a young Ducky bringing a date home, only to find his mother - who's supposed to be on vacation in Majorca - naked on the couch with a blanket covering her. While this doesn't entirely cover this trope, the mother's naked lover hiding in the wardrobe does, as he's covering his privates with a hat. (More specifically, Ducky's hat.)
• The New Avengers: In "Three Handed Game", Purdey bursts in on Gambit as he is posing as a life model for a sculptress. He hurriedly grabs a sheet to cover himself up.
• One Piece (2023): In "Romance Dawn", Helmeppo is posing naked in front of a mirror when Zoro suddenly bursts in, causing him to cover his crotch with a teddy bear with long blonde hair like his own.
• On One Tree Hill:
  • In "Are You True?" Lucas covers himself with a basketball after his teammates steal his clothes while he was showering in the locker as a hazing.
  • In "Champagne for My Real Friends, Real Pain for My Sham Friends" Lucas is playing basketball with Rachel, when turns to her and finds she's topless with only the basketball as cover. Then she throws the ball at him.
  • In "Pictures of You" Shelley poses for a picture topless with her hands covering her breasts.
  • In "Sympathy for the Devil" Owen covers himself with a newspaper when Brooke kicks him out of her car naked.
  • In "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream, Part 1" When Nathan catches his mother Deb Skinny Dipping, she uses her arms to cover her chest.
  • In "Deep Ocean Vast Sea" when the ad Nathan was filming gets suddenly canceled, the crew starts taking everything apart, including pulling off the Modesty Towel he was wearing for the ad, making him have to use a pillow to cover himself.
  • In "Your Cheatin' Heart" Alex tries to seduce Julian by stripping naked and coming on to him while they're working, but he rejects her and has her use a pillow to cover herself.
• The Order: In "Free Radicals Part 1" Jack uses his hands to cover his crotch after he's caught naked.
• A Halloween Episode of Psych, with David Naughton as a guest star, paid homage to the scene in An American Werewolf in London by having Sean and Gus find a self-proclaimed werewolf in their garage, wearing nothing but a bunch of balloons.
• One later episode of Red Dwarf has Lister and Rimmer being marched into seeing the captain after getting accidentally infected with nano-tech that disintegrates their clothes and hair. They use both hands to cover themselves as they are marched once again down that long corridor.
• Rizzoli & Isles: In "Class Action Satisfaction", Jane and Maura have to take a decontamination shower after being exposed to a potential pathogen. After coming out of the shower and waiting for her clothes, Jane tries to keep a medical waste bin between her and anyone else.
• Saturday Night Live
  • A series of sketches had Rob Schneider starring as the "Sensitive Naked Man". The basic plot of each sketch is Rob, holding an object or objects fitting the situation over his nether regions, trying to get some other character to open up to him so he can figure out why they're so uncomfortable. It's never just because he never wears clothes.
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar and Will Ferrell ("Not too much, though. This ain't no queer magazine.") spoofed this in a Saturday Night Live sketch for "Holding Your Own Boobs" magazine. SMG was actually topless in the sketch, which was pre-recorded.
• Scorpion: In "Ice Ca-Cables", while at the nudist hot springs with Walter to collect sulfide, Paige awkwardly hugs the container close to her body the entire time.
• Scrubs
  • J.D. is caught doing the naked chicken dance by Dr. Cox. Instinctively, he grabs the nearest object he can reach to cover up his privates — which unfortunately turns out to be a picture of Cox's son. Given Cox's (understandable) anger, J.D. switches it with a different picture... that turns out to be of Dr. Cox.
  • A subversion occurs in another episode with the guest-character Molly Clock; she covers her breasts with her arms even though she's wearing clothes because she wants the men to whom she's talking to pay attention to her words, not her body.
• Chris in Skins does the hand variant when he gets locked out of his own house naked.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In "Doctor Bashir, I Presume", Leeta gets so excited by Zimmerman's offer of her own cafe to run that she walks over to him, all excited, completely forgetting that she was in the middle of getting and hadn't got around to putting anything else on yet. When she realizes, she grabs a bouquet of flowers to cover her chest with as she retreats to the bedroom to get dressed.
• Strange Hill High: After Templeton has his trousers stolen in "The Lost and Found Boy", he hides in his locker covering his privates with a textbook.
• Harriet Hayes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip gets caught topless in her dressing room by some of the men and covers up her breasts with her arm.
• On the season 7 finale of That '70s Show, Kelso was forced into this trope after Hyde stole his robe upon catching him and Jackie about to do it, first using a garbage lid, then a hat to cover his nether regions during his escape.
• Three's Company had an episode where they played strip poker, ending with a "winner take all" hand. As they left Furly's apartment (where the game was held), Larry was covering himself with a newspaper, the two girls he brought with him had Modesty Towels, Jack was wearing a box and Furly had two pillows.
• Will Truman of Will & Grace got to do this with a book and a sofa pillow in an episode when Grace has temporarily moved out of his apartment but keeps dropping in unannounced. ("Remind me to buy you a bookmark.")
• In an episode of Without a Trace, two agents have their tryst interrupted by a phone call from their superior. The man rolls of off the woman and we get a very brief example of Shoulders-Up Nudity before she quickly employs this trope and gets up.
• After losing his Slippery Swimsuit, Alex has to wear a deflated pool toy as a diaper in the final episode of The Worst Year of My Life, Again.
• Xena: Warrior Princess: In "Adventures in the Sin Trade (Part II)", Xena ambushes Amazonian Queen Cyane while she's having a massage and it's wearing nothing but loincloth, forcing her to cover her breasts with her hands. But she surprises Xena by fighting back and in a Curb-Stomp Battle where with one hand covering her chest manages to steals all of Xena's clothes right off of her one by one and then dressing herself in them, leaving Xena naked but for a leather thong underwear, causing Xena to cover herself in a rug before fleeing in shame and anger.
• You Can't Do That on Television: At the end of "Fads and Fashions," Moose has nothing to wear but a cue card. Which Ross then insists she return, because it belongs to the studio.
• In The Young Ones, Neil runs into the room wearing a T-shirt and holding a strategically placed flowerpot to angrily confront the others. It escalates until he is about to hit Rik with a kettle held in both hands overhead, when Rik says, "Neil! How are you keeping that flower pot up??" He drops the kettle, grabs the pot and flees for the stairs.

Music

• The opening shot of the Aerosmith video for "Livin' on the Edge" features Steven Tyler naked and covering himself with just his hand.
• It toes the line between this and Scenery Censor, but the only thing giving coverage to Holly Valance in her video for "Kiss Kiss" is some very strategic Lens Flare Censor.
• The CD booklet for Maria Conchita Alonso's 1992 album Imagíname has the lyric sheet printed over a close-up picture of her using her arm to barely cover her breasts, with a slight hint of her left nipple visible. There is also a more complete picture of this, complete with her jeans unbuttoned and her black panties visible. The back cover of the CD jewel box is a blue-tinted picture of her topless and covering herself with a guitar.
• This Prince album cover. Bonus: if you observe it more carefully, you'll see that it actually combines this trope with Gag Penis.
• The video for Ratt's "Way Cool Jr." ends with a naked woman walking away from the camera down a sidewalk with a guitar covering her butt.
• Several pictures in the CD booklet for Rihanna's Rated R'', some of which are combined with Of Corsets Sexy and Hot as Hell, since her hair is done up to look like devil's horns.
• In the music video for Bon Jovi's "Misunderstood", the male protagonist has his clothes ripped off by dogs, rendering him fully naked on the street and having to cover himself with his hands.
• Dave Navarro from Jane's Addiction covers himself with his hands in a ad for PETA shown here: https://www.thesun.ie/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/02/NINTCHDBPICT000560544809.jpg?w=620&fbclid=IwAR1JXEBYOZBYrJyXqoAGIRxcHgvO_J7dYpj89bqAD1j4amUJj3j3Z2QEI3g

Pinballs

• In Data East's Playboy 35th Anniversary pinball, a woman in the swimming pool covers her breasts with her hands after losing the top of her bikini. Because the Playboy Mansion is no place for indecent exposure...

Print Media

• Demi Moore, very much pregnant, on the August 1991 cover of Vanity Fair.
  • Spy Magazine shortly thereafter parodied the cover◊ using her then-husband Bruce Willis.
• Janet Jackson on the September 1993 cover◊ of Rolling Stone.
• The January 2009 cover◊ of GQ features Jennifer Aniston wearing only a necktie, but she is posed in a way that no naughty bits are shown.
• Lucy Pinder practically made a career out of this, before finally appearing topless. There were two good reasons why this was much awaited.
• Tomomi Kasai of AKB48 ended up getting Kodansha in serious trouble for a handbra shot in one of the photobooks... because the handbra in question belonged to a little boy. The backlash was so strong that Kodansha ended up canceling the photobook's release, rather than simply omitting the image from it as they'd been planning on.

Pro Wrestling

• Francine would do a photo shoot almost naked, covered by nothing but Shane Douglas' ECW World Heavyweight Championship belt. Melina would later imitate it with the tag team title belts of Johnny Nitro and Joey Mercury.
• Kelly Kelly during her Exposé dance segments and some photoshoots.
• This happened in No Mercy 2004 when Dawn Marie walked into a locker room when Jackie Gayda was getting dressed and was topless with her arms wrapped around her breasts. Dawn proceeded to cut a promo on Jackie, taunting her about her affair with Charlie Haas.
• A male version is on the cover of the 1998 D-Generation X home video, with Shawn Michaels wearing only his WWF World title belt.
• Starfire has been seen several times without her mask while working for World Wonder Ring STARDOM, but something is always obscuring her face in place of it. (Dragon Gate luchadors Flamita and Draztick Boy were also caught in that particular shot)
• After Francine, Terri "Marlena" Runnels was the most infamous for her willingness to appear almost naked. A trait she passes on to wrestlers not particularly known for doing so like Jacqueline after they worked with her, but no one ever reached the levels Terri would take it. To introduce her "Terri Invitational Tournament" she did a promo where she was sitting on a couch naked with only money covering her.
• Allysin Kay uses red High-Class Gloves for this in these pictures, since she is topless. Oddly crossed with Unusually Uninteresting Sight, since of the few comments made about those pictures, none acknowledged her being topless, they just complimented the gloves and her hat.

Video Games

• In The Adventures of Lomax, when you attack a werewolf, it transforms into a small naked lemming who covers himself with his hands.
• Castlevania Chronicles: The She-Wolf conveniently covers herself up as she reverts back to human form.
• One official art of Darkstalkers depicts Morrigan and Lilith suggestively embracing each other while naked. Lilith covers Morrigan's breasts with her hands, while Morrigan uses their bat wings to cover below their waists.
• In Dead Rising 2, you can play Strip Poker, and the women will keep playing until they're down to their panties. Once they're topless, they cover themselves with their hands.
• When playing as Donald Duck in Disney's Magical Quest 3, losing a life while wearing Donald's version of the armor costume (which has Donald wear nothing but a helmet and a barrel) causes Donald to lose the barrel and cover himself in embarrassment.
• Echocalypse: In artwork of Vivi showing her in a tube, she is shown stark naked covering her massive bust with her hands while other portions of her body cover other...secrets.
• In Elite Beat Agents, failing the first section of one song results in Mr. Virus, the rival, ripping off the clothes of Cap White, the person you're trying to help. She promptly covers her breasts with her hands.
• In Fear Effect, this happens when Hana drops her Modesty Towel to distract a guard holding her at gunpoint, whom then gets killed by Deke sneaking up behind him. Hana then covers herself with her hands while warning Deke not to stare, as she's killed men for less.
• In Jazzpunk, the female attendants at the Kai Tek Resort are topless with leis acting in a manner similar to Godiva Hair.
• In The King of Fighters 2000, A promotional artwork has Vanessa doing the "arm bra" variation alongside the other members of the Hero Team (who are all posing stylishly). Seeing as she was the only female member of the K' Team that year, the implications of this should be very clear.
• Several times during Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail!, Larry loses all of his clothes and has to sneak back to his room naked, covering himself with an object related to the last scene.
• Magical Drop: Happens to World in her Magical Drop V panic animation, her ribbon falls off and she is forced to use her arm to cover her chest.
• The "Naked Raiden" sequence in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. If you have Raiden stand against the wall in just the right place in the examination room where he first wakes up after losing his clothes, you'll see him without his hands over his genitals...only to find that HE HAS NONE. He's like a Ken doll! No wonder he's embarrassed.
• In the Arcade Game Rampage, your character is a human who's been turned into a giant mutant animal. If your Life Meter empties, you turn back into a (naked) human, and your character hastily covers their naughty bits and scurries off-screen.
• When standing still while playing the streaking minigame in Saints Row 2, the player character will stand with their knees together, shivering and covering his/her privates with their hands.
• Shantae and the Seven Sirens: Rag and Bones-es can be resurrected with the Refresh Dance, which causes them to immediately start covering themselves with their hands, before they pop off.
• Spyro: Year of the Dragon: Two of the baby dragons exhibit this trope when hatched, one of which is appropriately named "Modesty".
• Tekken: This happen with both Williams sisters in Anna's endings.
  • In Anna's ending in Tekken 2, Nina sneaks into the bathroom as Anna is stepping out of the shower. Startled at Nina's appearance, Anna turns around, and Nina takes a picture of her with a camera. Then, Nina laughing holds up the picture, which shows Anna covering her bare breasts with her arms.
  • In Anna's ending in Tekken 3, Anna and Nina are sunbathing at the beach. Three men approach the sisters, two of them flirt with Anna one with Nina. Jealous Anna is getting more attention, Nina walks up behind Anna and pulls the upper half of Anna's bikini down, leaving a mortified Anna's breasts exposed trying to cover herself as Nina walks away victorious.
  • Anna has her revenge on Nina in Tekken 5, The sisters are fighting on a castle's rooftop with swords as part of a movie. When they both slash each other dramatically, Anna falls to the ground defeated. The director stops the scene and is talking to Nina when her armor suddenly begins to fall off from the damage Anna caused. As Nina desperately tries to hold onto her armor, Sexophone music plays and Anna is shown laughing at her sister's humiliation.
• Tofu Tower (Naka): The Satyrn cards, from chests on floor 21 and above, shows a Satyrn clearly not wearing a bra, but the way she plays the flute and the angle of the shot causes her arm to block the view of most of her breasts.

Visual Novels

• In Double Homework, Rachel, after she finds that the protagonist is (accidentally) in the locker room with her, covers her breasts with her hand.

Web Animation

• Minilife TV: In "Mini-Monster Mayhem!", after Clair transforms Michael from a Blob Monster back into a human, Michael covers his crotch with a skull when he finds out he's naked.

Webcomics

• City of Reality has an arc where a character is seeking to undo a series of involuntary transformations caused by an evil magician. Naturally, the people so reverted frequently come back sans clothing, leading to some interesting moments.
• Dangerously Chloe, has Teddy doing this when a naked Naomi barge on him showering. Although he only remembers to cover it when she comments that at least one part of him is happy to see her. He spends most of the arc covering himself with either his hands or a pile of clothes.
• Drowtales: In chapter 46, the only thing preserving Kuso's modesty is his helmet.
• In El Goonish Shive, Elliot covers his breasts with his arm when he realizes he placed glasses in x-ray mode on Tedd's face. Later, Sarah hugs her purse to her chest when told about that feature of the glasses while Susan is trying them out.
• Florence Ambrose from Freefall has done this from time to time. Unfortunately for her, since she has multiple sets of mammaries thanks to her nonhuman nature, even with the help of her tail it leaves some of her "naughty bits" uncovered. Her fur thankfully covers anything she has on her chest unless she's nursing or in heat (former has never happened, and the latter is unlikely to happen in such a nonsexualized comic) — but she still covers the same area as human ladies would due to cultural conditioning.
• Garnet and Gure: The Kor-Gumi, depicted in this cartoon, is an eight-armed, woman-like creature that makes use of her many hands in lieu of clothing.
• Girls in Space - Red wears a hand bikini in the Shower Scene which sets up the "Across the Universe in a Bath Towel" storyline.
• Done by two soldiers in Chapter 5 of Lotta Svärd: Women of War when Taimi runs to the men's sauna to ask for help. Her childhood friend Juhani gets embarrassed and covers himself up with a towel, and another soldier is shown sitting with his fists between his thighs for the same effect.
• Ménage à 3 features periodic occurrences. Two examples:
  • In a sequence that begins here, Gary uses in sequence a cushion, a live cat (fortunately very briefly) and finally his hands.
  • Matt needed to improvise when being kicked out by Dillon after having sex.
  • An unfortunate Gary once had to use his hands to cover another man once Yuki shows up unannounced. To the uninitiated, Yuki has... a bit of a problem with penises.
• Happens in Shifters here, during Ferrah's Out-of-Clothes Experience. Upon realizing that she's naked she quickly crouches and covers her chest with her arms.
• Ozy of Ozy and Millie resorts to this whenever the Llewellyn hair curse hits him (i.e. here), at least until he finds some pants.
• During the Schlock Mercenary book The Sharp End of the Stick, a group of Toughs are captured and stripped naked. Assorted objects intervene to prevent anything "naughty" from actually showing while they're unclothed, at one point even Lampshaded in a strip's author's note, explaining that Schlock's arms spread in a yawn conveniently covers body parts for which there was nothing in the scenery to block the view.
• One Sluggy Freelance arc has the main characters use this trope when Gwynn got drunk and accidentally summoned a swarm of clothes-eating moths. A good thing Torg had Emergency Pants.
• In TwoKinds, Keith does this with his hands when Laura, his ex, walks on him while he's modeling naked.
• Sandy has her shower curtain pulled away and covers herself up with her arm and leg in the 2007-04-01 strip of The Whiteboard.

Web Original

• Invoked by this Fun T-Shirt worn by Maisie Williams (in the actual video, she can barely hold herself out of putting her hands into place).

Web Videos

• The Rebecca Romijn Hand Bra as presented by Funny or Die. She tries it out on Mary Holland later in the video. The ending shows a man trying a Hand Cup, but based on the fact that he's blurred out, it doesn't work as well.
• In this short, a fully naked woman (played by former Survivor contestant Amanda Kimmel) runs into an elevator, with her only protection being her tights and her hands, which she places firmly over her breasts and groin. She is later given an Elmo costume by the man also in the elevator.
• Vegan Cooking Exposed is about a nudist creating vegan meals while naked for the whole video. She usually covers her breasts and crotch by holding the food in question or the ingredients in front of her, or with objects placed on a table.

Western Animation

• Classic film shorts loved this trope, especially when Donald Duck or Daffy Duck lost all their feathers. It was especially funny when a Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal did this in response to losing their shirt (admittedly, their only piece of clothing).
• Archer: In "Swiss Miss" Archer uses a shaving kit to cover himself, which turns out to be a bad move when he accidentally activates his electric razor, resulting in him having to get stitches on his penis.
• The Amazing World of Gumball episode "The Rerun" had Gumball put his parents into a ball pit after they've become babies. After they return to their normal ages, they are in nothing but their underwear, with Nicole covering her breasts with two balls from the ball pit.
• In Avatar: The Last Airbender this trope is played at least four times. The first time is in The Winter Solstice Part 1 when Zuko saw Iroh get up from his hot springs and the object for censoring was Zuko's hand blocking the camera. Later Iroh has a piece of cloth covering him. It the extras for that moment said "Earthbenders: 0; Naked Shackled Guy: 3". After the battle, Zuko tells him to put on some clothes. The second time is when Chong the nomad spots Sokka's underwear. Sokka uses Momo to cover himself up. The third time was in Aang's first nightmare in "Nightmares and Daydreams" when Aang goes into the Fire Lord's room and tells him he is gonna defeat him but we get this unexpected gem:
  Ozai: Really? [Brings his face close to Aang.] How do you plan on doing that when you're not even wearing pants? [Cut to Aang's scared face, as he looks down to see that Ozai was telling the truth, and screams.]
  Aang: Oh no! [Aang quickly covers himself with a white Air Nomad shield pulled out of thin air. The camera zooms out to a larger shot of Aang shaking with embarrassment. Suddenly, giant eyes begin to appear all around him. The eye's close and disappear. Cut to the shot of the giant Fire Lord laughing as Aang slowly backs out the door. The Fire Lord raises his arms to the ceiling, while surrounded by flames, laughing heartily.]
  • And in the same episode, it is played again but reversed.
  Ozai: Really? You're going to take me out? You're not even wearing pants!
  Aang: No, Fire Lord Ozai. You're not wearing any pants. [Ozai looks down and sees Aang is right. He quickly pulls over a shield with the Fire Nation emblem on it.]
  Ozai: No! My royal parts are showing. Noooo!
• The Beany and Cecil episode "Wild Man of Wildsville" has a scene where Go Man Van Gogh gets his pelt caught on a tree branch and falls out of it naked. During his descent, he has his hands over his genitals.
• In the Camp Lazlo short "Nudist Camp", Lumpus is left naked when Lazlo steals his uniform while he's bathing in the lake. He covers himself with a trunk, a potted plant, and his own hands.
• Codename: Kids Next Door:
  • In the episode "Operation: A.R.C.T.I.C.", after the KND are hit by a "Nude Torpedo", both Numbuh One and Numbuh Five manage to cover their bodies completely with both hands, thanks to the art style (giving them thin torsos and very large hands).
  • Numbuh One covers himself with his hands when he loses his swimming trunks in "Operation: B.U.T.T." Near the end of the episode, the Delightful Children from Down the Lane cover up their pelvic areas with their hands when the other members of Sector V steal their pants and skirts.
• In the Cow and Chicken episode "P.E.", Chicken, Flem, and Earl end up naked when a pair of bullies steal their clothes while they're showering. To cover up, Chicken holds a clock, Flem holds a potted plant, and Earl holds a bucket. As soon as they get to the cafeteria to buy towels, they use cafeteria trays to cover their shame.
• Disenchantment: In the season 2 episode Our Bodies, Our Elves, it's Wash Day in Dreamland, where all people in Dreamland wash their only garment and thus have to go naked for the day. While the mayority of the people don't care, Elfo is quite embarrassed to be naked on wash day, so he franatically covers his privates with his hands and complains how he can't cover his butt at the same time.
• In the Columbia Cartoons version of The Emperor's New Clothes instead of being in his underwear after the swindlers give him his "new clothes" like in other versions he is naked, the first time his privates are covered by his mirror he is posing in front of, and as he's parading down the street to show off his new outfit they're covered by a flag, then by the townsfolk.
• The Fairly OddParents! frequently uses this trope especially in concert with another trope Naked People Are Funny. For example, one episode has Cosmo and Wanda poofing Timmy out of the bathtub to his favorite comic store, but they neglected to dress him. As a result of Timmy has to go through town covering up his "private parts" with his hands. He, also, uses a newspaper and his pink cap.
• Family Guy:
  • There's an episode where the Griffins meet a family of nudists, and this trope is unsurprisingly used a lot. The hand variant sees a lot of use, but most notably, teenage Jeff Campbell says hello to Meg while squirting a water gun held at his crotch.
  • In another episode, after Peter is caught with his pants down by Lois, he hides his crotch using a pillow.
  • In the "Switch The Flip" episode, Lois covers her breasts with her hands while she and Peter are laying in bed naked under a unisex bedsheet.
• In episode 7 of Final Space, Nightfall walks into Gary while the latter is changing from his prison outfit into his civilian clothes, and is completely naked. He quickly grabs his friend/pet Mooncake to cover his privates.
• Futurama:
  • The Planet Express crew is having a barbeque and Nibbler is begging for a burger, but no-one gives him one. Then Amy's falls out of her sandwich and lands in her cleavage. Seeing his chance Nibbler leaps onto her chest and devours it along with her bikini top, forcing her to cover up her breasts with the buns.
  • Done later in an Adam-And-Eve homage with what are noted to be "strangely sticky" leaves.
• In the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero episode "Grey Hairs and Growing Pains", Lady Jaye is among the G.I. Joe members who ends up regressing to a child, eventually losing her pants because they're too big for her. For the duration of the episode, her lower body is covered up by her shirt. After the heroes are finally restored to their normal ages, however, Lady Jaye forgot that she didn't have pants and is seen desperately pulling down the front of her shirt in an attempt to stay modest.
• The poster for Hoops features lead character Ben Hopkins doing this using a basketball, him being a basketball coach. He also actually does this in episodes 5 and 9.
• King of the Hill: Multiple:
  • After getting his clothes blown off by a tornado, Hank Hill was once forced to make an on-the-spot choice between a potted cactus plant and the Texas flag for this purpose. Being a proud Texan, Hank went with the cactus.
  • When Hank and Peggy find out they weren't alone in a nude lake, Hank covers himself with a pack of hamburger buns, while Peggy covers herself with a plate.
• The Looney Tunes Show: Yosemite Sam covers himself with a cardboard box while fleeing naked from the FBI through the Spargle building in "Off-Duty Cop".
• On the Mission Hill episode, "How to Get Head in Business Without Really Trying", Andy covers his crotch with a cactus plant as he's running from his boss (whom he thinks is out to get him for sleeping with his fiancée, but was really going to ask Andy if he wanted some sliced grapefruit for breakfast).
• Mr. Bogus: Multiple:
  • In a claymation short used before the second act of the episode "Bad Luck Bogus", Bogus does this with an item that he took out from a safe after his pants get pulled off when they get snagged on the safe door.
  • Brattus does this with the bottom of his shirt after a cotton candy cone steals his pants in the first act of the episode "Waterboy Bogus".
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
  • An episode revolving around small-but-cute flying pests called Parasprites had a gag that was a send-up to this trope: they were snuggling next to Rainbow Dash against her will, and she wanted them off her. They still try to snuggle at her, shaping themselves into a few different configurations, one of which looked like a bikini covering her censorable bits (even though a pony's mammaries aren't by their forelegs).
  • In one episode Rainbow Dash pulls Fluttershy's sheets off to get her out of bed, she gasps and covers her chest even though they usually don't wear clothes (spoiler: they're ponies!), Rainbow Dash gives her an annoyed look and Fluttershy grins sheepishly.
  • Another episode has Discord using a vacuum to suck Rarity's goo-covered Gala dress off of her, causing her to rear up and cover her chest and crotch while slinking away in embarrassment.
• The final episode of Perfect Hair Forever has a pinup of a nude Brenda covering herself with her arms.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998)
  • The girls cover themselves with their hands as they return to the Professor after Nanobots eat all their clothing in "Nano of the North."
  • Brick does this as well in the episode "The Boys Are Back In Town" after Blossom pulls his pants down in an effort to embarrass him.
• Rolling with the Ronks!:
  • Mormagnon covers himself with a leaf after his ceremonial costume disappears in "I Smell a Hat".
  • After Walter takes the rest of the Ronk tribe's clothes to tie them together and use them to stop a saber-toothed tiger in "Fashion Victims", some of the naked Ronks prop up obscured by a bush, a rock and some huge leaves to cheer for Walter stopping the saber-toothed tiger before they look down and proceed to cover themselves with their arms and duck out of view once they realize they're nude.
• The Simpsons
  • From the episode "Bart After Dark":
    Belle: ...Are you wearing a grocery bag?
    Homer: I have misplaced my pants.
  • A similar incident happened on "Summer of 4 ft. 2", where Homer uses the welcome mat from Flanders' beach house as a bathing suit and ends up getting arrested for indecent exposure when he steps outside.
  • On "Selma's Choice", Lisa had to wear a towel home after she got high off the hallucinogenic water on "The Little Land of Duff" ride and went skinny-dipping in Duff Gardens' Fermentarium.
• Skinner Boys Has the episode "The Curse of Invisibility" has an Invisible Streaker moment and that character does this.
• SpongeBob SquarePants would frequently have naked characters cover themselves with their hands in spite of not having any visible genitals to begin with.
  • Patrick and SpongeBob frantically try to cover each other's privates with their hands when they are seen naked at the Krusty Krab at the end of the episode "Pranks a Lot".
  • When Squidward tears off his Kuddly Krab uniform in rage in "Bossy Boots", a police officer promptly writes a ticket and puts it on Squidward's groin.
  • The episode "Feral Friends" features SpongeBob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, Mrs. Puff, Pearl, Squidward, and Larry the Lobster turning into non-anthropomorphic sea life for two hours because of the centennial cycle of Neptune's Moon. After everyone returns to normal, they are left naked. SpongeBob and Patrick are unfazed by their sudden nudity, but Mr. Krabs, Mrs. Puff, Squidward, and Pearl cover themselves with their hands as soon as they realize they're nude and Larry preserves his modesty by making a loincloth out of a flower.
  • In "The Incredible Shrinking Sponge", SpongeBob uses a pickle slice to cover up his nudity when he sweats so much he shrinks (due to a sea urchin). At the end of the episode he winds up growing so big he uses the Krusty Krab as clothes... with everyone still inside.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: In "Cupid's Errant Arrow", a nude Ensign Boimler initially covers his genitals with his hand when he sees Ensign Mariner, and then he wraps his Starfleet uniform shirt around his waist.
• Tak and the Power of Juju (2007):
  • The episode "A Shaman's Shaman" has Keeko walk away while covering himself with a rock after Tak accidentally burns up all his clothes.
  • In "The Three Chiefs", the Chief attempts to have Tak demonstrate his magic by using it to shear a sheep he's holding. While Tak is successful, he also accidentally removes the Chief's clothes, resulting in the naked Chief covering himself with the sheep he is holding.
• Taz-Mania: In "Kee-Wee Cornered", after Taz accidentally rips his own tail off, he covers his butt with a hat.
• Teen Titans (2003):
  • Toyed with: when Beast Boy removes Raven's cloak, she covers her chest as if she were naked, even though she isn't.
  • Also when See-More uses his X-ray vision to stare at Starfire, she covers herself with her hands as though she was naked.
• Total Drama
  • In "If You Can't Take the Heat...", Harold has to cover himself with a pillow. His cabinmates hid all his clothes and moved his bed out to the dock (where all the girls were swimming the following morning) to get back at him for leaving his dirty underwear lying around.
  • In "X-treme Torture", Geoff climbs on a moose to ride it as per the requirements of the challenge, but he also wants Bridgette to check out the tattoo on his butt so he drops his pants before taking off. Chef's not patient enough to wait, however, and unleashes the moose, which easily launches the unprepared boy off of its back. Geoff goes flying while only his hands cover — and protect — his crotch.
  • Heather covers her breasts with her hands after a tree branch rips off her top in "X-treme Torture".
  • DJ's turn on the mechanical surfboard in "Beach Blanket Bogus" comes to an undignified end when a shark jumps up from the pool beneath and rips off his shorts and underwear in one go. DJ runs out of the studio back to the trailer with his hands covering his crotch.
  • Happens to Owen in the theme song for World Tour.
• Trollhunters: Played with in the "What Do They Fear?" Episode "Where Is My Mind?". While Mary isn't actually naked, it's implied that she is in the pixie-induced fear vision she's stuck in, as she spends the whole episode running around covering herself with her arms.
• Wakfu. In the second season's Gobbowl arc, there is a magic potion allowing females to gender-bend into males, but which unfortunately cease to have effect if the subject says the word "Gobbowl". Thus, a Fanservice Extra trying to sneak in the stadium under the guise of a shirtless male has to cover her chest with an arm when she returns to female form. Later, the same thing happens to a topless Amalia, who grabs a gobbowl shield to cover herself.
• In W.I.T.C.H.'s fifth episode, Cornelia (in the midst of threatening her sister Lilian for turning off her alarm and making her late for community service sign-ups) raises her hands, leading to her baggy pants falling down. It's downplayed seeing as her shirt hides her undies, but she still awkwardly covers her lower half with her hands while holding her shoes in one of them.

Real Life

• This is at least Older Than Feudalism, as it's found in numerous classical sculptures (Example◊), as well as The Birth of Venus (Botticelli).
• The Other Wiki even has a page for this trope: Handbra
• There is a bit of a legend at Oxford. ^note The same story has many versions around the world, often involving clergy. Look to the jokes for an example. As a formerly all-male institution, there is a short section of the Cherwell that has been fenced off for men to bathe in the river. Naturally, only the oldest and most esteemed professors, still quite fond of the old traditions, use these facilities. When the fence came down in a flood one day, the professors were too busy to notice. However, when a boat carrying several young female students went past, the professors flung their hands to shield the ladies from their most private of parts. One professor, however, flung his hands to his face. When asked about it later, he said, "I don't know about you all, but I'm known by my face around here."
• To protest against a shortage of protective equipment, a number of German medical professionals arranged a photoshoot using this trope, covering themselves with medical equipment and paperwork.
• In 2012, after pictures of a naked Prince Harry (he'd lost a game of strip billiards) partying in a Las Vegas hotel suite surfaced, many snide comments were made about him using his hands to cover his... crown jewels.

---