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Hot Men at Work

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He can grind my angles any time.
When asked what we wanted to be when we grew up, we hid the truth and listed who we wanted to sleep with when we grew up. "A policeman or a fireman or one of those guys who works with high-tension wires."

For all the female fanservice out there, there are male equivalents, too. This is the male version of Wrench Wench.

Builders, plumbers, and gardeners tend to be big, strong men, so why not have them with their shirts off, regardless of health and safety issues? And if the steelworker or blacksmith's hot, sweaty body can be outlined by flickering flames, what is a burn or two?

There is also the possibility of something termed "builder's backside" (Plumber's Crack) being seen.

This trope has a rather intense brother, Firemen Are Hot, and two bisexual cousins, Fair Cop and Good-Looking Privates.

Compare Workout Fanservice. Contrast Construction Catcalls, where builders Wolf Whistle at a sexy lady walking by.

Nothing to do with a certain band performing in Arizona in July.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • The classic Diet Coke ad, where every day at a certain time, a bunch of office women flock to their window to watch a construction worker (model Lucky Vanous) outside strip off his shirt and enjoy said drink.
  • Liquid Plumr have been doing this with their ads. The ads are outright parodies of porn, with a hunky plumber showing up saying he's there to "snake the drain" or "clean the pipes."
  • The Cleaning Hunk's various incarnations for XtraPine, still present on YouTube but no longer at www.cleaninghunk.com (or probably on TV either).
  • One commercial featured a bunch of women trashing their apartments in increasingly-insane fashions, just to spend time with the hot maintenance man.
  • GE Energy had one of the most bizarre examples ever. Notable for containing Hot Men and Women At Work. And that's without even mentioning the interesting choice of theme song which seems to push this commercial into Go-Go Enslavement territory.-

    Anime & Manga 
  • Invoked by Mori in Ouran High School Host Club during a manliness contest - to increase his chances of winning, he chopped wood without a shirt ("for some reason").
  • Sengoku Basara has Katakura Kojuro, who apparently unwinds from a long campaign by way of vegetable gardening. While he's not shirtless, there's something undeniably hot about a samurai who can garden. The fact that he's prime Mr. Fanservice with a sexy scar and loads of Homoerotic Subtext with his boss doesn't hurt either.

    Comic Books 
  • In a Cherry Comics story, Cherry gets turned on by a the hot guy cleaning the pool. And sleeps with him.
  • Red Ears: A bored woman tries to seduce the handsome young window washer who's hanging outside her window by stripping in front of him. However, he's Not Distracted by the Sexy.
  • The Simpsons - when Homer is framed for one of Mr Burns's crimes and sent to prison, Marge hires a whole team of buff shirtless men to do the housework. Lisa points out that Homer didn't do any of the stuff they're supposedly filling in for, but Marge isn't listening.
  • The artwork of Tom of Finland, mixture between this and Leather Man.
  • Wonder Woman Vol 1: At one point a handful of the Holliday Girls take a walk through Washington D.C. in order to ogle some construction workers on a hot day. The girls end up being kidnapped by a secret underground society where they, with Wondy's eventual aid, rescue all the captives and overthrow the autocratic rulers.

    Fan Works 

    Film — Live-Action 
  • In Cannibal one of the main characters looks longingly at a pair of shirtless carpenters working just outside his window.
  • A justified example in Cool Hand Luke, where the men tarring the road go shirtless because they're working under the hot sun all day, but it's still Paul Newman bronzed and oiled up (with none of the men displaying any sunburn that might detract from the Fanservice. Dragline even imagines that the unnamed woman washing her car in front of them (who he nicknames 'Lucille') was ogling them and deliberately making her car washing sexy just to tease them.
  • Far from Heaven has a white woman fall in love with her big strong black gardener, played by Dennis Haysbert. Inspired by the plot of Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows, with the gardener role played by Rock Hudson.
  • Invoked in The Full Monty. Although most of them were out of work, and only one really qualified as "hot." But "sexy working-class guys" was at least the idea behind the plan.
  • The chef in Jumping the Broom for some reason has a scene outside in nothing but overalls catching fish.
  • The poolboy in Legally Blonde. This trope is taken farther than normal with him, as his "uniform" was a thong.
  • In Om Shanti Om, one of the dance numbers requires the main character to be dressed in nothing but jeans, work gloves, a work helmet and possibly a lot of body glitter.
  • Using another gardening example: in Something New, Sanaa Lathan's character finds herself getting a little hot and bothered watching Simon Baker dig up roots in her yard.
  • The opening scene of Tamara Drewe provides the audience with a nice view of a handsome male character's naked torso as he's chopping wood outdoors.
  • Parodied, of course, in Zoolander. After retiring from male modeling Derek Zoolander attempts to join his father and brothers working in a coal mine. Hilarity Ensues.

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 
  • On Body of Proof, Megan visits her landscaper boyfriend at his job and doesn't hide her pleasure at finding him shirtless. Seeing as he's played by Mr. Fanservice himself, Jamie Bamber, one can hardly blame her.
  • Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a construction worker. Anya, watching him work, imagines having sex with him.
  • Fiona on Burn Notice gets some information about an assassin in a Season 2 episode by visiting a demolition company claiming to be the publisher of hot-men-at-work calendars. She even tells the foreman (who is legitimately hunky, assuming that the puff in his polo shirt was air and not gut) "I think I'm looking at Mr. January right here."
  • Charmed (1998): Leo is introduced as a mild Mr. Fanservice who Phoebe and Piper ogle as he does work around the house. He actually keeps most of his clothes on, never stripping down to anything less modest than a vest. Given that he's actually their whitelighter posing as a handy man, turning the sisters on was not part of the plan.
  • Show Within a Show example- CSI, "Two and a Half Dead".
  • Invoked in an episode of Designing Women when contractor Anthony winds up in a Bachelor Auction. Suzanne puts him in a tight tank top and very small jean shorts. Anthony's a handsome enough guy but hardly the buff and brawny type.
    • Subverted by Rusty, the contractor the firm often uses for projects. He has a huge gut and Mary Jo always makes him bend over to examine a floor-level outlet to force the other women to look at his plumber's crack.
  • At least one episode of Desperate Housewives, with Edie walking past a construction site.
  • May be part of the reason why Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs has gotten so popular.
  • Ty Pennington in Extreme Make Over Home Edition.
  • Mentioned at least twice on Frasier - once when Roz mentions that she intends to spend her vacation getting her house renovated, in the company of 'hot sweaty construction workers'. On another occasion, after a bad date, she expresses her intention to go home, put on something slinky, rip out her sink and call building maintenance.
    • Also, the character of Joe, who we first meet when he comes to fix a scrape on Frasier's hardwood floor, and who catches Daphne's eye.
  • Michelle on Full House makes a killing selling lemonade to the construction workers outside. When she mentions their shirtlessness, Stephanie and Becky race outside to get a good view.
  • Game of Thrones. Arya Stark comes across Gendry smithing swords while shirtless. Given that Maisie Williams was too young to legally satisfy Gendrya shippers, her reaction is merely some subtle downward eye-flicks. They do sleep together much later in the series though (by which point the actress was now twenty).
  • Brilliantly parodied in The IT Crowd when Jen has to distract a woman to sneak Roy out from under her desk, by looking out the window and saying: "Ooh, a builder working with his shirt off.. just like on the television." All the women run to take a look, to reveal a pale, flabby guy staring vacantly back at them.
  • This was basically the idea behind reality-tv show Joe Millionaire. A bunch of women were told they'd be romanced by a rich, handsome young bachelor. The twist was that he wasn't really rich; he was just a construction worker. But they still got the "handsome" part.
  • Subverted in Kenny vs. Spenny during the challenge "Who can get further with the other guy's mom". Spenny tries so hard to seem unintentionally sexy and flirtatious when helping Kenny's mom do yardwork that he only manages to anger her because he was doing such a terrible job.
  • Appears in an episode of Las Vegas when two window washers are doing work on the Montecito casino's many hotel windows while shirtless. Justified because they were specifically paid extra to follow this dress code to placate the guests.
  • MST3K did this in one episode (San Francisco International Airport), with a shirtless Dr Forrester and Frank doing some repairs in Deep 13. Dr Forrester is in nice shape.
  • In a first-season episode of MythBusters, preliminary testing required jackhammering a large hole in M5's sidewalk twice. Adam wore his usual t-shirt, Jamie spent most of those sequences shirtless.
  • In The O.C. season 2 premiere, the Cohen's house was being remodeled by burly construction workers. The neighbors have started calling their house "The Manhole".
  • Occurs in a Poirot episode, with a gardener, Adam Goodman. He turns out to be an undercover agent but he is one sweet looking guy.
  • Charlotte in Sex and the City fantasizes about the gorgeous rose gardener—and eventually kisses him—during her first marriage. Her mother-in-law proclaims that she's proven herself part of the family once she finds out about the fling, heavily implying that the other women of the family have had similar dalliances with the staff.
  • In an episode of Total Divas, John Cena and Bryan Danielson invoke this when they go shirtless for the sake of a wood chopping contest with their respective women (the Bella Twins). The girls themselves set the tone in a rare Gender Flip by coming out the door just wearing bras and tight jeans.
  • True Blood
    • Jason Stackhouse as Road Crew. Also Hoyt.
    • Terry and Lafayette as hot cooks.
  • A chapter of Two and a Half Men saw Enrique Iglesias playing one of these.
  • Piper's whitelighter and eventual husband, Leo, in Charmed. He initially poses as a handyman, and there are a couple of lovingly focused shots of his butt (during one while he was looking up their fireplace, Phoebe enters and lustily comments "My, Santa, you've changed.") And a Shirtless Scene or two as well.

    Music Videos 
  • In the video for the Aerosmith song "Crazy", Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler drive past a hot shirtless tractor driver who catches their attention.
  • Fifth Harmony's song "Work from Home" features them singing while hot construction workers go about their business around them.
  • The Jane Deere Girls' video for "Wildflower" has hunky farmhands go shirtless while pitching hay bales. This would leave your torso looking like a scratching post.
  • In the Madonna music video for "Express Yourself" Madonna oversees an entire factory of shirtless, hunky workers.
  • The Village People.

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • All Grown Up!: Angelica expresses disappointment when the gang are redecorating Kimi's room as a surprise that there's no hunky guy in a tight white t-shirt that one would normally see on one of those reality shows. She then sees Phil wearing a white t-shirt and the sight Squicks her out enough (he's ten, she's known him since he was a baby and he's also a gross slob) that she agrees to distract Kimi while they're working.
  • Animaniacs had a skit that parodied the famous Diet Coke ad, where the guy the women are gushing over is the portly Flavio the Hippo.
  • In The Cleveland Show, Jr. takes up work with a bunch of Mexican house builders and comments he'd keep working there, until they all take off their shirts and reveal they're very ripped, much to his disgust.
  • Happens in The Simpsons, with the Springfield steel workers. "We work hard, we play hard!"
    Bart: Dad, why did you bring me to a gay steel mill?
    Homer: I don't know!
  • An episode of X-Men: Evolution provides some rather shameless Fanservice by having Cyclops and Wolverine go without their shirts while helping rebuild the Mansion.

    Real Life 
  • When a dance club called The Throckmorton Mining Company was under construction, there was a huge sign up that read MEN AT WORK, ENTER IN REAR.
  • You can get really nice print fabric with pictures of men who fit this trope on it. Construction workers, firefighters (of course), and lumberjacks— just to name three of them. All cheeky grins, winking, posing to optimally display one's posterior in jeans, and a lot of them disturbingly resembling John Sheppard.
  • There was a promotion by a certain dishwashing liquid that would send you plates with pictures of men like this on it. Just get 3 of the codes and you could have plates with sexy firemen and pool boys on them.
  • A classic image in both Nazi and Soviet propaganda — the former glorifying the Master Race, the latter the Working-Class Hero.


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Jayce working the forge

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