Follow TV Tropes

Following

Skinny Dipping

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/skinnydipping_sandraontherocks_9725.png

"You shed the city and lots of other things during the drive. By the time I see that water, I'm good."
Newsanchor Wendy Rieger on skinny dipping in the Chesapeake Bay

Skinny Dipping is swimming, but without the swimsuit. In the nude.

Usually, this is used in fiction for several reasons:

As mentioned above, Skinny Dipping is Truth in Television. It was a common practice back before the 1950s or so, when swimsuits were impractical. It is still done today, though. As a matter of fact, some nudist camps which are otherwise clothing-optional make their pools no-clothing. (It's a little known fact that suit fibers just mean something extra to clean out of the filter system.) However, skinny dipping in public places other than nudist areas can be illegal and bring charges of public indecency or even second degree sexual assault.

Related to Naked People Are Funny. Often the prelude to a Two-Person Pool Party, a Sexy Surfacing Shot, an Outdoor Bath Peeping, Naked People Trapped Outside and A Party, Also Known as an Orgy. Super-Trope to Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen. Contrast Non-Nude Bathing. For anime, see also Furo Scene and Hot Springs Episode (which is not always naked, only often). Compare Waterfall Shower, which can overlap or be a prelude to this at times, and Slippery Swimsuit, where the swimmer started off clothed but wound up naked anyway.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Berserk: Isma is an Innocent Fanservice Girl and always goes spear fishing or otherwise swims naked.
  • In the first episode of DARLING in the FRANXX, Hiro is looking for a wounded bird when he comes across some discarded clothes near a lake. He picks one at random... and it just happens to be the underwear of Zero Two who soon emerges out of the water right in front of him. He has a Freak Out at her nakedness while she doesn't care about it one bit.
  • In El-Hazard: The Magnificent World, the lesbian couple Alielle and Fatora go skinny dipping for Fanservice.
  • In The Familiar of Zero, Luctiana is shown swimming naked in an oasis. Later, Saito suggests he and Tiffania cool off in the oasis. He takes off his shirt and jumps in, then gets flustered when she completely strips down to join him.
  • Naturally for a swimming-based anime, Free!'s first episode sees Nagisa gleefully strip his clothes to join Haruka in the pool.
  • In Freezing, Elizabeth Mably always swims or relaxes in the third year dorm's private pool naked, in contrast with the other girls. In Freezing: Vibration, she shows no reservations about being naked at a public poolside among relative strangers. None of the other girls seem fazed by this, and it's only brought up by Roxanne, whose skimpy one-piece swimsuit attracts much more attention.
  • In Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (part of Robotech), Aisha/Marlene at one point dives nude into the lake. This is unexpected since she is normally very shy.
  • Goblin Slayer: When the party decides to swim in a river, the girls have to convince High Elf Archer to wear a swimsuit. While she complies, she comments on how she had never used a swimsuit before and is baffled by the concept of wearing clothes in the water. Before the girls convinced her, she was about to go in the water naked even though there were men in the party.
  • Gundam:
    • In the first episode of ∀ Gundam, Loran Cehak goes skinny dipping in a river and gets swept away by the current. He's rescued by the Heim sisters, Sochie and Kihel, who also happen to be skinny dipping downstream.
    • In Gundam X, Tiffa Adill goes skinny dipping with some dolphins. Super intelligent Newtype Dolphins.
    • A Gundam Wing artbook has a picture of Relena waist-deep in a spring in the forest, with no clothes on.
    • In G Gundam, Colonel Badass Natasha Zabikov goes skinny dipping in the Highlands. Sai Saici peeps on her and almost gets shot for his "trouble."
  • This trope could have happened in Episode 35 of Hetalia: Axis Powers (The World Series). Italy asks Germany and Japan to strip so they could do something while they are stuck on an island. Germany begins to strangle him, cutting him off. Italy was talking about swimming... but he worded his words strangely.
  • In High School D×D, Kuroka demonstrates she wears nothing under her kimono by taking it off to swim in Issei's pool.
  • In In the Beginning: The Bible Stories, a young Moses and the future pharaoh involve in this. This is how the latter discovers Moses is a Hebrew (he was circumcised), and despises Moses for it.
  • Kagome from Inuyasha loves bathing or swimming in lakes / hot-springs. Usually, Hilarity Ensues. It should be noticed that she later starts using a modern swimsuit when she bathes / swims in rivers and the like, only fully stripping if she's in hot springs / baths. (It'd be pretty unpractical to wear one in such hot water, anyway.)
  • In Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho, Amuro skinny dips right outside her house. Noticing what she's doing, Momoko decides that maybe it's the secret of her success at swimming and decides to skinny dip as well. Humorously, Amuro decides to invite Hakane to go for a swim with her as well, uncaring that she's stark naked.
  • Multiple times in Lupin III, often with Fujiko:
  • Machiko from Miss Machiko is forced into this situation in the opening where two students remove her costume while she swims in the swimming pool.
  • Season 1 of The Mysterious Cities of Gold features a scene where main characters Esteban and Tao decide to take such a dip in the river of a friendly village they're staying at. Season 2 sees Zia get enjoy this too, and even use the opportunity to play a prank on the boys.
  • In Red River, the Shameless Fanservice Girl Nefert invokes the trope on Yuri and herself to trick a guy following them into thinking that they're a group of bored noblemen on an outing, rather than the companions of Prince Ramses.
  • Seven Mortal Sins: In episode 2, after booking a hotel room, Leviathan jumps into the pool in her clothes while Lucifer strips before entering. Leviathan then strips after Lucifer comments that swimming in your clothes is rude. Lucifer then orders her human servant Maria Totsuka to join them, and uses magic to force her to strip and enter the pool when Maria is too embarrassed.
  • Tales of Wedding Rings: When Princess Saphir wears Barely-There Swimwear to the beach, she says normally she would have gone naked, but she wore a swimsuit out consideration for her guests.

    Comic Books 
  • Animal Man issue 76 has Ray and Maxine Baker swim naked in the creek.
  • Billy & Buddy: One comic sees Boule strip nude and run into the ocean for a swim. Bill promptly follows, throwing off his collar in the process.
  • Happens a couple of times in Bone, once off-screen with Fone Bone and Thorn, and once on-screen with Smiley Bone. Humorously, Thorn doesn't care if Fone Bone sees her naked (telling him that he never wears clothes anyway), but when Fone walks in on Smiley skinny dipping, Smiley embarrassedly tells him to turn around until he's put his vest on.
  • Boneyard #10 opens with Michael and Abbey skinny dipping on the beach Although later it turns out to be a dream sequence.
    Michael: Big surprise it was Sid who suggested skinny-dipping... but I noticed you didn't bat an eye.
    Abbey: Don't worry Michael. I know the water's cold.
    Michael: ...Not where I was going with that.
  • One of the first casualties to the dinosaurs of Cavewoman was doing this. His girlfriend is found, naked and catatonic, on a later scene of the same issue. Meriem is pretty fond of it, as well.
  • In Brazilian comic Chuck Billy, Chuck and his hillbilly friends have a habit of going for swims in the river, and they never bother with swimwear. A particular comic has the protagonist and his girlfriend swimming naked... and later, he blushed at her dress, saying it's too revealing. Another story has his City Mouse cousin being scandalized by the habit, thinking it "uncivilized" and wears swim trunks instead, which all the boys find lame.
  • Elektra does this on Elektra: Root of Evil #3 complete with a Toplessness from the Back shot.
  • ElfQuest has had one or two scenes where the elves swim and sunbathe in various states of undress, including total of course.
  • The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers would sometimes go skinny dipping with some girl freaks, having innocent fun and oblivious to voyeuristic police in helicopters or repressed peeping toms crowding the perimeter of a nude beach.
  • In Gen¹³, Sarah Rainmaker is very fond of swimming in the nude and not at all shy about doing it in front of people, even her drooling male teammates. She seems to get a kick of getting people all worked up over her nudity.
  • Harley and the roller derby girls go skinny dipping in Harley Quinn #10.
  • The fourth issue of the 2022 I Hate Fairyland series has Gertrude go skinny dipping after Rotwald and Virgil demand that she bathe due to getting sick of her horrid stench.
  • Jonah Hex: Tallulah Black goes skinny dipping (complete with convenient Scenery Censor) in All-Star Western #34. Jonah enjoys the view before hastening to join her.
  • Junior Braves of the Apocalypse lampshades the generational divide on this trope: on the camping trip, the troop leader suggests that any of the boys without a swimsuit can just swim naked, like he did at their age. The Braves just stare at him for a Beat Panel, comment that that's gross, and follow Buddy's advice to swim in their shorts and underwear.
  • In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1910, Captain Nemo's daughter Janni Dakkar is first seen swimming naked.
  • Speaking of Alan Moore, Lost Girls has a scene where Dorothy does this in a lake while conversing with Alice. Later, all three protagonists swim naked in a hotel swimming pool after being in a sauna.
  • An issue of The Simpsons comic-book ends with the townspeople getting drenched in mud and going skinny dipping to wash off.
  • Sin City: Ava Lord does this in "A Dame to Kill For", putting on a show for Dwight.
  • In The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #7 Peter and Mary Jane go to Cassis for their honeymoon as a gift from one of her rich friends. While walking on the beach Peter begins Angsting that he can't afford to take MJ to fancy places like this. Noticing his mood MJ decides to snap him out of him dragging him to the ocean for a swim.
    Peter: But I don't have my swim-suit...
    Mary Jane: [flinging off her dress] You won't need one!
  • Like other Tamaranians, Starfire only views clothing for practical or protective purposes, not for modesty, so she's swam nude quite a few times, especially when she thinks she's alone.
  • In Teen Titans #50 (3rd volume) Ravager strips and invites Kid Devil to come skinny dipping with her in the pool in Titans Tower.
  • The third issue of TeenAgents has a scene where TeenAgents members Aurik and Seera go swimming naked with Jesse and Jami.
  • Wonder Woman (1987): It's established from the introductory issue that the Amazons swim nude, though while the US Navy had a number of ships off shore they wore things with a bit more modesty than normal for their frequent dips in the ocean.

    Comic Strips 
  • In Calvin and Hobbes, Hobbes says that he never wears trunks due to preferring to go "furry dipping".
  • The Little Orphan Annie strip published on June 14, 1925 had Annie swimming naked and asking her dog Sandy to distract some other people who come across her dress.
  • A frequent occurrence in Modesty Blaise.

    Fan Works 
  • In the Empath: The Luckiest Smurf story "Polaris' Fantasy", both Empath and Smurfette plan on having a night alone together doing this in the Imaginarium beach setting. However, neither of the two commit to actually taking their clothes off and decide to hold off on that until they're married, so they just enjoy a night of moonlight swimming together.
  • In Ginny Weasley: Double Life, after Ginny is hypnotised to remember bonding with Milikan, a talking snake, as a childhood friend, some of their bonding moments occur when they're swimming together, Ginny stripping down rather than bringing a swimsuit so long as she and Milikan are alone.
  • Orange Rose Gathering: During the second chapter, Chloe and Lita sneak to the secret lake in Pallet Town where this is practiced. They get caught while they're peeping and have no choice but to join everyone else.
  • Pokémon Crossing: In one chapter, the boys go skinny dipping when they find a lake during their Route 119 adventure. And then a wild Carvanha tries to attack them.
  • Ripples: Will is fond of doing this during her second childhood on Meridian as Van. Which leads to her Naked First Impression with the young Prince Phobos (which he orders her to never mention again).
  • Things I Am Not Allowed to Do at the PPC: Rule 352 bans swimming in the Fountain of Bleepka while nude. The rule also applies to the HQ pool in the event that it actually exists.
  • Wednesday and the Shifter: Enid Sinclair joins the Nightshades and gets to go on their midnight skinny dip. Jenny Everywhere, a former Nightshade, tags along.

    Films — Animation 
  • Mulan: Mulan sneaks into a lake at night to take a bath in the middle of the night so as not to reveal her identity, but Hilarity Ensues when she discovers her fellow soldiers have decided to go skinny dipping on the lake, under the assumption she was also doing the same. She manages to sneak away while protecting her modesty and secret identity but is still disturbed by having seen all her male friends naked.
  • The Road to El Dorado has the heroes doing this during a montage; naturally, their clothes are stolen by monkeys.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • 1941: A woman (unnamed but credited as the Polar Bear Club Girl because "Polar Bear Club" was written on her robe) goes swimming naked off the California coast during World War II and winds up in a close encounter with a Japanese submarine. She's played by Susan Backlinie, the same actress who was eaten while Skinny Dipping in Jaws, and the scene was deliberately filmed as a parody of the one from Jaws (but she lives in 1941, happily if embarrassed).
  • Adam: At Camp Trans, many camp goers swim naked in the nearby river.
  • Alice in Wonderland: When two goofy young women at a party are bursting to tell Alice a secret but have been sworn to silence, she blackmails them into telling by threatening to expose their habit of skinny-dipping in another family's pond.
  • Alpha Dog: Alma and Julie do this in a swimming pool, and don't mind when Zach walks in on them. And joins them.
  • The American: Jack takes Clara to an isolated river spot, convinced she's a rival assassin sent to kill him. Instead, she strips down to her panties and gets in the water to go skinny dipping, but he's too tense to enjoy the sight and she fails to convince him to join her.
  • An Angel at My Table: Janet goes for a naked swim in Ibiza when she goes there with Bernard.
  • Batman Begins: Bruce Wayne goes to a fancy restaurant accompanied by two Fanservice Extra dates, to sell his Millionaire Playboy image. While Bruce is talking to his rich "friends", the hotel staff comes to him to complain his two dates are now skinny dipping on their fountain and Bruce doesn't waste the opportunity to make himself look even more frivolous by buying the hotel just to allow them to swim in there.
    Maitre D: Sir, the pool is for decoration, and your friends do not have swimwear.
    Bruce: Well, they're European.
    Maitre D: I'm going to have to ask you to leave.
    [Bruce starts to write a check]
    Maitre D: It is not a question of money.
    Bruce: [giving him the check] Well, you see, I'm buying this hotel, and uh, setting some new rules about the pool area. [leaves to join them]
  • The Big Wedding: Nuria goes for a swim in the lake in the nude in order to entice Jared.
  • Blood of the Tribades: Two of the female vampires go into a lake naked, to swim or maybe more.
  • The Blue Lagoon: The two young children, at first, don't want to swim without suits. Their "guardian", Paddy the Cook, convinces them that they don't need suits, just like when they take baths. Unfortunately, they start going "au naturel" all the time, which Paddy tells them is "indecent". In later years, the pair swim naked, but dress when out of the water.
  • Brokeback Mountain: During one of their all-too-infrequent reunions, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist bare it all and jump off a cliff into a mountain lake.
  • Bruce Almighty: The photo of Grace from their weekend at the lake strongly implies this (we don't see it clearly, but she's said to be "perky").
  • The Burning: In the middle of the night, Eddy convinces Karen to take a naked swim in the river. Cropsy spies on them, looking for an easy kill.
  • Charlie Wilson's War: Opens with the titular character naked in a hot tub with several equally naked Playboy Playmates.
  • Chasing Liberty: The president's rebellious daughter Anna decides to go skinny dipping in the Danube so she can "experience freedom at it's utmost freest", much to her bodyguard's frustration.
  • Child Bride: The infamous skinny dipping scene.
  • City of Angels: Nathaniel Messinger (an old, fat guy) does this. Seth follows him into the water, but keeps his clothes on.
  • Cracks: There is a somewhat creepy scene where a teacher takes the girls on her diving team for a midnight swim and they all go skinny dipping.
  • Dark Waters: The first scene of the film shows some kids doing this in a river being polluted by DuPont.
  • Death Screams: One of girls decides to take a break from the bonfire party and go swimming in nude. She's interrupted by the floating corpses of the two lovers from the film's opening, followed by the killer slashing her throat.
  • Doc Hollywood: Michael J. Fox's character gets a Naked First Impression of Julie Warner's character as she walks out of the lake she's been skinny dipping in.
  • Dragonslayer: There is a skinny dipping scene between Valerian and Galen, which also has a nice helping of Samus Is a Girl for good measure.
  • Eloïse's Lover: Eloïse leads Àsia to swim around naked in a hotel pool after hours with her.
  • Forbidden Planet: Commander Adams visits Altaira while she's swimming by herself:
    Altaira: Come on in!
    Adams: Didn't bring my bathing suit.
    Altaira: What's a bathing suit?
    Adams: Oh, murder!
  • Freddy vs. Jason: Begins with a girl skinny dipping at Camp Crystal Lake.
  • Hammers Over the Anvil: Opens with Russell Crowe emerging from the water and taking the practice of riding a horse "bareback" to a whole other level.
  • The Hike: A group of women on a camping trip has one of their members go missing and during the search they find a couple of guys skinny dipping and they managed to convince most of the girls to join them, while the protagonist Kate is frustrated that they're stopped searching and tries to get the girls to leave.
    Guy: It's just a little bit of fun!
    Kate: [looks pointedly at his crotch] I can see that.
    Guy: It's cold alright?
    Kate: Not that cold.
  • Holly Slept Over: Holly strips and is briefly seen naked before jumping in the pool.
  • In Time: Will and Sylvia break away from her boring party to swim in the ocean (her mansion is next to the beach).
  • James Bond:
  • Jaws: The first victim of the Shark is a woman named Chrissy Watkins who is skinny dipping. There's a boy with her who tries to follow, but he's too drunk to reach the water.
  • Jennifer's Body: Jennifer swims naked in a lake to wash off the blood from the previous victim she has eaten.
  • Kiss Me Quick!: The girls, who are already topless, strip off their bottoms when they go into the pool.
  • Liane, Jungle Goddess ends with Liane and Thoren skinny dipping in a jungle pond.
  • The Loft: Vincent and Sarah take a naked swim in the pool on the hotel roof, which quickly turns into a Two-Person Pool Party.
  • Logan's Run: Logan 5 (Michael York) and Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter) do this when they find a lake.
  • Man's Castle: Two lovers go skinny dipping on a whim. Granted, this is The Pre-Code Era, so things were much more lenient when it came to nudity.
  • The Man in the Moon: Dani (Reese Witherspoon) goes skinny-dipping after church instead of doing chores in a swimming hole, where she meets Court.
  • Mickey: Dates at least as far back as this 1918 film, where Herbert is out surveying his land when his telescope finds Mickey (Mabel Normand) sans clothing, taking a dive in the lake.
  • Mistress of the Apes: One of the Bantu maidens takes a naked moonlight dip in the river. Too bad for for her Night Swim Equals Death is in effect.
  • Mrs. Brown: John Brown (manservant and emotional intimate to a grieving Queen Victoria) and his cousin go for a skinny-dip in apparently frigid Scottish waters.
  • The Naked Witch: The naked witch takes a long swim/bath in the pools outside the caves, giving the student the opportunity to indulge in some Outdoor Bath Peeping.
  • National Lampoon's Vacation has Clark swimming naked with another woman in a hotel swimming pool, only to be caught by his family.
  • No Hard Feelings has Maddie invite Percy to swim naked together on the beach at night, only to be interrupted by a group who steal their clothes. This causes an enraged Maddie to charge out of the water stark naked and beat them all up.
  • Now and Then: The four girls stumble upon the Wormer boys, who recently played a prank on them, doing this at a lake, and use the opportunity to get revenge on them by deploying the Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen trope.
  • Oklahoma!: In the 1955 film version, Laurey is swimming nude in a pond just before Ado Annie and Ali Hakim arrive. She manages to get dressed behind some bushes before they notice.
  • Opfergang: Als is swimming nude in the lake when she first meets Albrecht. This is both a Meet Cute and establishes her as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
  • The Parent Trap: Features twins Hallie and Annie playing a hand of Five Card Poker at summer camp, with the loser to skinny dip while the whole cabin watches. Hallie's Royal Flush beats Annie's Straight Flush. They steal Annie's clothes.
  • Planet of the Apes: After landing on a planet after a long time in cryo-sleep, the astronauts clothing is stolen and mostly ruined by the mute humans on the planet where they landed.
  • The Price Of Milk: Rob (Karl Urban) skinny-dips in a vat of milk with his girlfriend.
  • Primal: In this Australian horror film, the first character to catch The Virus gets it from skinny dipping.
  • Project X: Costa puts a "Naked Women Only" sign next to the pool. To the boys' surprise, several of the girls actually obey it.
  • Reefs In The Sea: Plays up the Fanservice quite a bit. Of course, the three girls central to the plot go skinny dipping, in the middle of the night nonetheless.
  • Seventh Son: Tom wanders the woods and comes across a pond where Alice is swimming naked. She tells him to turn around, and when he does, a few seconds later she is out of the water and wearing a dress, presumably summoned by her magic.
  • Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: Ivan and Marichka get nude and play in the water as kids.
  • Sheena: Tanya Roberts in the title role, who has No Nudity Taboo.
  • Sheitan: Joseph takes the visitors to a local hot spring. Although they keep their underwear on, a grroup of locals arrive and strip of naked before joining them.
  • A Single Man: George (Colin Firth) and Kenny (Nicholas Hoult) do this at the beach, in the middle of the night.
  • Siren: Silka entices Rachel to come swimming naked with her as the group is making camp on the beach. The sight is enough to make Ken and Marco join them. And then things get weird...
  • in Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity, Zed sends an android to ensure the guests are in bed where they're supposed to be, but Rik and Daria are still out. Tisa intercepts the android on its way to check the rooms and distracts it by going skinny dipping.
  • Son of a Gun: When Natasha meets JR on the beach at night, she pulls off her dress and plunges into the surf. JR is so tempted that he strips off and follows her, even though he can't swim, and they have a Two-Person Pool Party.
  • Spartacus: Jean Simmons as Varinia delivers some fanservice by doing this (without showing anything explicit).
  • Indulged in by the hero and heroine of Sssssss, leading the heroine's father to turn the hero into a snake. Yeah, you read that right.
  • Swashbuckler: Jane Barnet dives naked off the side of the ship and goes swimming around the caves on the cliff, watched by Ned Lynch. This historically accurate as swimsuits did not exist in the 1700's.
  • Timber Falls: Sheryl goes skinny dipping in the lake in the morning on the mountain, and is abducted.
  • Tommy Boy: Features a woman skinny dipping in a hotel pool while David Spade masturbates.
  • Untamed Youth, doing this in the beginning of the movie is what gets the pair of female leads arrested.
  • Walkabout: Jenny Agutter (again). Quite a long scene.
  • Welcome Home: Bryan and Cassie go skinny dipping together in the pool of the Italian villa they're renting. She tries to make turn it into a Two-Person Pool Party but Bryan can't get into it due feeling like they're Being Watched. He's right.
  • What's Your Number?: Colin and Ally do this in the Boston Harbor. Then they realize it was a stupid idea because the water is cold.
  • Wild Hogs: The four main characters do this but then are interrupted by a family with young children who don't realize this, and then things turn awkward really fast until the Straight Gay police officer shows up...
  • 'Die Wolke ("The Cloud"): Based on a book by Gudrun Pausewang, features two girls doing this. This is presented as a carefree time, contrasted with what happens later when a nuclear plant explodes, making swimming in any natural water source extremely dangerous.
  • The Woman Hunt: Despite being almost out of the jungle and therefore safe, McGee decides to go skinny dipping in a jungle pool. Tony joins her and it starts to turn into a Two-Person Pool Party.
  • Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold: On the beach in Mexico, Yellow hair takes an early morning swim to clean up. The Pecos Kid is a little discombobulated when he wakes up and spots her drying off: still naked.

    Jokes 
  • An elderly man in Florida had owned a large farm for years. He had a large pond in the back, fixed up nice; picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some orange and peach trees. The pond was ideal for swimming, although he rarely did that anymore. One evening he decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn't been there for a while, and look it over. He grabbed a five-gallon bucket with which to bring back some fruit. As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee. As he came closer he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond. He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end. One of the women shouted to him, "We're not coming out until you leave!" The old man frowned, "I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or to make you get out of the pond naked..." holding the bucket up he said, "...I'm here to feed the alligator."
  • "Why do elephants have trunks? Because they're too shy to swim naked."

    Literature 
  • In And Then I Turned Into a Mermaid, Molly's mum goes skinny dipping every day at lunch, which the other kids tease her for.
  • In The Body, the book that was later adapted into the movie Stand by Me, the four boys go skinny dipping in a beaver pond, which turns out to be infested with leeches. This scene was altered for the movie, where they fall in with their clothes still on.
  • In the story "The Echo" by J. Nagibin, a major plot point is that the girl the protagonist befriended does this. The protagonist is forced into a Sadistic Choice when a group of bullies he fears (while trying to be accepted by them) starts harassing the girl.
  • Fiddleback by Elisabeth Honey has a chapter named "Skinny Dipping or Free Willies II". The chapter is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
  • The Freshman Dorm series by Linda A. Cooney plays a more PG version of this in Freshman Schemes by having good girl Courtney Conner and her boyfriend go swimming in their underwear. When pictures emerge, it nearly ruins both of their reputations.
  • The Gates of Sleep: Marina goes skinny-dipping with undines once that we see, but it's clearly a common occurrence whenever the weather's warm enough.
  • Done without even a hint of Fanservice in Brock Cole's The Goats, as the characters involved are pre-teens and only naked because of a horrific camp hazing tradition. Howie and Grace's decision to do this just to get away from the other kids kick-starts the plot, as the misadventures which unfold thereafter are a direct consequence of that choice. The scenes are kept pretty faithfully in the film adaptation Standing Up.
  • In The Great Brain, all the boys go skinny dipping in the local pond on a regular basis; justified In-Universe as nobody owned a bathing suit back then. One summer it was so hot even the grown men went, crowding the boys out. (Girls and women had to stay at home in their large heavy period dresses and sweat the summer out.)
  • His Dark Materials:
    • When Will escapes to a new world in The Subtle Knife, one of the first things he does is undress and go swimming in the ocean.
    • In The Amber Spyglass Mary Malone takes her clothes off to swim after some seed pods, much to the shock and gratefulness of the Mulefa.
  • Jaine Austen Mysteries: Jaine gets in a bit of this at a waterfall in Death of a Bachelorette.
  • James Bond:
  • The Mermaid's Daughter: When Kathleen goes swimming in the ocean, she swims far enough out to pick her feet off the bottom, then takes off all her clothes. The more exposed she is to the water, the better she feels. Harry picks her clothes out of the surf for her.
  • In the Newbery book On My Honor, this is an important plot point, because the hero, Joel, loses his friend Tony, who drowns (since this is a Newbery book).
  • Happens very poignantly in Pictures Of Adam, where Lisa (a girl from a rich family) challenges Adam (a boy from a poor family) to skinny dip in the nearby lake. When they do, she explains to him that "I am not my clothes, or my house... I am what is now in the pool... and so are You", bringing the point across that class differences aren't insurmountable. Lisa is aware of the dangers (stranger-related or otherwise) in such undertaking, so as soon as they get out, she puts her clothes back on.
  • Phryne Fisher and Simon go skinny dipping in Raisins and Almonds.
  • The main characters in The Rest Of Us Just Live Here skinny dip during their private after-prom party at an isolated cabin in the woods. It's for purely platonic fun and bonding: most of them are old friends, and of the two couples present one is in a Secret Relationship.
  • Shatter the Sky: Maren goes swimming naked with her girlfriend Kaia at the beginning of the story, making out (at least) in the water together too.
  • The book series Soup: the narrator and the title character skinny dips in the book Soup and Me. However, their clothes are stolen and they are forced to "borrow" dresses to cover themselves up.
  • In Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Mike, being from Mars (where water is extremely scarce), considers it a great luxury to spend all day in Jubal's swimming pool, which, as Jubal is a freak about hygiene, is swimsuit-free.
  • In the murder mystery Swing Swing Together by Peter Lovesey, young Harriet Shaw witnesses a killing while skinny-dipping in the Thames with friends. As she and her friends scatter, she eventually comes to shore some distance from her clothes but not far from a neighborhood policeman, leading to a brief bit of Naked People Trapped Outside as well.
  • In another Heinlein, Time Enough for Love, Lazarus Long, 2,000 years in the future, has to explain to his daughters/sisters/clones that people in the 20th century actually wore clothes while swimming (and sleeping too). They don't understand why anyone would.
  • Implied in To Kill a Mockingbird. The heroine's brother won't take her to a pond with him and Dill, because they prefer to skinny-dip. Given Dill was stated not to know how to swim, and those trips to the pond were for the sake of teaching him, it can be presumed that Dill didn't even own a bathing suit, therefore making skinny-dipping necessary.
  • In Trial By Journal, one character does this in the hotel pool at night.
  • The Twilight Saga: Bella and Edward in Breaking Dawn. Justified as they were 1) alone on a private island and 2) on their wedding night preparing to consummate their marriage.
  • Venus Prime:
    • During volume 3, Sparta witnesses a half-dozen group of men and women swim naked in the hotel's pool thanks to the business paying them to be what Sparta considers to be less tourists and more like models.
    • In the fifth book, Sparta spends the latter half of the book swimming nude in the world-ship of Amalthea thanks to being altered to the point clothing was no longer needed for her.
  • Wet Desert: Tracking Down a Terrorist on the Colorado River: Julie desires to skinny dip in Lake Powell.
  • A minor plot point on When The Windman Comes by A. Michelis. The protagonist (an 11-year-old boy) discovers photos of a girl in a bathing suit and thinks the girl is Pareidolie, his friend (who is also 11 years old, just like on the photos). But Pareidolie replies that she doesn't even have a bathing suit. Her mother doesn't want her to swim together with other kids as this would be "unsafe" and to enforce this, Pareidolie is obliged to always swim in the nude. At this moment Patrick realizes that Pareidolie's mother is not completely sane.
  • In Young Wizards Nita and Kit have to swim naked before they turn into whales in Deep Wizardry. Bathing suits don't fit on whales.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In this local news report on Haulover nude beach in Florida the reporter does this at the at the end of the segment.
  • In the opening episode of the 18th cycle of America's Next Top Model, Laura says this verbatim. And looooooouuuuuuuuuuuddd!!! And the American girls just go wild.
  • In the "Shark Island" episode of Baywatch Hawaii, Jessie takes up skinny dipping after learning about the Polynesian cleansing ritual. While she's out one morning, a nearby swimmer gets stung by a jellyfish and she rescues him in the nude.
  • Better Things: It turns out Phyllis swims naked without permission in the neighbor's pool. They don't mind her swimming there, so long as she's dressed.
  • In an episode of the beach documentary Bridget's Sexiest Beaches, Bridget Marquardt and Sara Jean Underwood tour Croatia and skinny dip in the Adriatic Sea. Amusingly, they completely ignore the unseen camera crew and expose their butts to the camera, but when some hikers stumble onto the scene, the girls have a Naked Freak-Out and order them to leave.
  • Columbo: In "A Deadly State of Mind", Nadia is murdered by being hypnotized into thinking she's about to jump into a swimming pool, when she's really jumping off a building. She strips naked before she jumps.
  • Conversations with Friends: Bobbi takes her top off quite matter of factly at the seashore and goes swimming (she's only seen from the back and with her long hair covering her though).
  • The CSI episode "Fracked" opens with three teenagers skinny dipping in a hot spring. They discover a dead body floating in it.
  • Crazy old man Leonard does this in "Advanced Criminal Law" of Community.
  • Devious Maids: In "Setting the Table", Spicy Latina maid Carmen is quick to take advantage of the fact her boss Alejandro will be out of the house for a while to enjoy it's luxuries herself, claiming it's "immoral" not to enjoy all the nice things that God has blessed him with, her coworker Sam disagrees, but can only stare helplessly as Carmen flippantly takes off all her clothes and dives into her employer's pool. Of course, the housekeeper comes back sooner than expected and Carmen has to hide inside a piano completely naked as Sam covers for her.
  • Doogie Howser, M.D.: The episode "Look Ma, No Pants" has Doogie skinny dipping in the family pool with his mother’s new boss... until he gets caught by, guess who?
  • Forever: Whenever Henry dies, he reappears naked in the closest large body of water, so swimming naked is the natural consequence. Referenced both in the title and in-universe by name when Henry is arrested for it in the episode "Skinny Dipper". His excuse to his boss is that he's a sleepwalker and he sleeps in the nude.
  • The Fosters:
    • In "Under Water", when Stef is dreading her upcoming surgery for breast cancer, she imagines herself peacefully swimming naked in a pool. After she confides in Lena and asks her to take her swimming, Lena brings her to sneak into an absent neighbor's backyard at night and have a Two-Person Pool Party in their pool.
    • In the Series Finale, they have another nighttime naked frolicking, this time at a seaside resort - only for a resort worker to innocuously collect their robes leaving them stranded outside.
  • Hart of Dixie: On the episode "In Havoc & In Heat", a Heat Wave hits the town and Zoe fantasizes about Wade doing this in their backyard lake. At the end of the episode, she gets up the nerve to go skinny dipping there herself and Wade is the one that ends up watching her.
  • In Canadian series Heartland, Ty first meets one of his Love Interest's Kit when he stumbles on her finishing skinny dipping on a lake in his property. When she sees him she has a Naked Freak-Out and quickly jumps behind her horse to use it as cover.
  • Legend of the Seeker: In "Mirror," a thief (disguised as Kahlan via a magical mirror) convinces Richard to go skinny dipping with her in a lake so he gets distracted and doesn't notice while the other thief is stealing his Cool Sword. She has him completely hooked the moment her Dress Hits Floor.
  • Little House on the Prairie: The 1977 episode "My Ellen," which actually involves young teen-agers (Melissa Sue Anderson was the only bonafide teen at 16, while Melissa Gilbert and the actress who played Ellen (Mia Bendixsen) were 13) skinny-dipping at the beginning of the episode. All that's seen are the girls' bare-shoulders, although several young boys who are classmates of Laura, Mary and Ellen hope to see more. The storyline follows the "accidental drowning" plotline when, upon the discovery that they're being watched, the girls momentarily duck until the boys go away, but Ellen becomes entangled in some wooded brush and drowns.
  • Malcolm in the Middle: In "Houseboat," while bored out of his mind while stuck fishing with Hal, Malcolm hallucinates Brooke Anne Smith's character swimming over to flirt with him while skinny dipping. The same episode implies that Reese is skinny dipping with cheerleaders when Malcolm notices their swimsuits floating across the lake.
  • In Modern Family, we learn that when she was a teenager, Claire was caught by the police skinny-dipping in a neighbor's pool.
  • Murdoch Mysteries: In "Houdini Whodunnit", we learn that Julia was arrested for skinny dipping as a student. This has an interesting effect on William.
  • The Office (US): In "Pool Party", a drunken Robert California ends up skinny dipping in his own pool to the shock and amazement of all the employees (except Jim, who takes the opportunity to make his escape). Ryan and Gabe, who want to impress him and are drunk as well, follow suit.
  • One of Us is Lying: The Murder Club do this while running into the ocean in Season 2.
  • One Tree Hill:
    • In "The Desperate Kingdom Of Love", Peyton and Brooke go skinny dipping after sunbathing at her father's boat.
    • In "You Can't Always Get What You Want", Brooke first meets her neighbor Felix when she catches him skinny dipping on her pool. At the end of the episode, he catches her doing it on his pool, and as she climbs out she tells him her pool is much better.
    • In "Don't Dream It's Over", a jealous Haley asks her nanny Carrie not to wear a bikini at the pool. Carrie complies... by wearing nothing when going for a night swim.
  • The opening of Petticoat Junction shows the girls skinny dipping in the water tank. In fact that's how that particular location gets its (unofficial) name, from the girls' petticoats draped over the side of the tank.
  • In the first episode of Puberty Blues, Sue's parents insist on doing this while drunk, much to Sue's embarrassment.
  • Quantum Leap: "A Leap for Lisa" opens with Sam waking up on a beach confused. Then to his shock, Lisa Sherman emerges from the ocean naked and makes out with him. It turns out to be an Erotic Dream.
  • Schitt's Creek: Johnny and Moira decide to skinny dip in the town's eponymous creek, but Johnny ends up in an embarrassing situation with an off duty police officer.
  • Sex/Life: In a flashback, Billie strips naked and goes into a rooftop pool with Brad (who's also nude).
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World: Marguerite is swimming in a river when John happens upon her and chastises her for being alone in a dangerous area, just as he spots a crocodile coming for her. He draws his gun and tells her to get out of the water, but she refuses thinking it's just a ploy so he can see her naked. By the time she sees the danger coming he has to jump into the crocodile and wrestle with it and she scurries away and grabs his gun to shoot the crocodile, all the while her nudity is concealed by either strategically placed leaves and bushes or her holding the gun close to her chest.
  • Canadian Eve Kelly made a six-part miniseries, Skinny Dipping, were she got people to go skinny dipping in far off locations.
  • Smallville:
    • Clark has a dream about Lana and him skinny dipping in the episode "Slumber".
    • In the episode "Heat", Jonathan Kent goes to Lex Luthor's manor to confront Desiree and finds her swimming naked in the pool.
  • Discussed at the end of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Let He Who is Without Sin...". Dax wants to go swimming with her Comically Serious boyfriend Worf, and when he reminds her that he didn't bring a bathing suit, she responds that she won't tell anybody.
  • The Summer I Turned Pretty:
    • Laurel swims naked with Cleveland in a lake after he gets her to.
    • Belly, Taylor, Nicole and Gini later swim naked in the lake together too.
  • That '70s Show:
    • The episode "Hyde Moves In" had the gang skinny dipping in the Cold Open and lead to Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen situation where they had to drive back home naked.
    • In "Graduation", Eric and Donna plan to go skinny dipping together, only to get lost and Eric finds his sister Laurie swimming naked while Fez walks in on Donna.
  • In the Lifetime Movie of the Week Unanswered Prayers (based on the Garth Brooks song), the protagonist and his First Love do this at the local quarry (it was their Make-Out Point when they were High-School Sweethearts). He wisely doesn't take it any further, but his wife still finds out when they get in a car accident on the way home.
  • Vera: The Victim of the Week in "Changing Tides" was skinny dipping at a stag party before she was murdered.
  • Veronica Mars: In "The Wrath of Con", Veronica confesses in a game of "I Never" that she never went skinny dipping and the group makes her promise that she will. At the end of the episode, she drives up to the beach and fulfills that promise.
  • The Young Riders: In "Ghosts", Sweet Polly Oliver Louise decides to go skinny dipping in a pond during a hot day. But Teaspoon has a similar idea and goes for a swim on the same pond, ignoring "Lou's" desperate objections. When Teaspoon goes for a dive, he's shocked to discover Lou was really Louise.
  • White Collar has Alex making Neal skinny dip with her to prove that he wasn't wearing a wire. It should be noted, Neal is played by Matt Bomer.

    Music 

    Music Videos 
  • The video for "Who's Your Daddy?" by Toby Keith has Tiffany Fallon swimming topless in his pool.

    Pinballs 
  • Implied on the backglass of Future Spa, where a man and woman are swimming in a pool without any clothing visible.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition has the homebrewed flaw "Skinny Dipper" (first called "Compulsive Skinny Dipper"), which gives a character the compulsion to swim nude when encountering large enough bodies of water. Some circumstances (like cold, the likeness of monsters in the water, or onlookers) make it less likely to happen, though.

    Theatre 
  • Discussed in one verse of the song "A Twinkle in Your Eye" from I Married an Angel:
    My sister Sue once took a swim without a stitch on.
    The cop who caught her took her to the jail nearby.
    The judge who tried her held her for examination.
    Of course, it may have been the twinkle in her eye.
  • The characters Alistair and Emma in Alan Ayckbourn's Way Upstream are required to do this at the end of the play, as a celebration of surviving a nightmarish boating holiday: staging the play requires the theatre to have an actual boat on water. There's a reason why Way Upstream doesn't get revived very often.

    Video Games 
  • One of the possible things to do as a teenager in the life simulation game Alter Ego is going skinny dipping. Depending on your choice, you either throw off your clothes and jump straight in (only to discover you're the only person who actually did it, and is thus naked in front of everyone), or, after taking your sweet time getting in, end up being the last person to get out, and are thus naked in front of everyone.
  • In Baldurs Gate 3, Shadowheart's second major romance scene if she abandons Shar involves her and her partner doing this before consummating their love on the beach.
  • Christie in the opening of Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball appears atop a high cliff at night, fully nude, and then takes a dive to swim. Obviously, her naughty bits are framed by shadows.
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, a Heel–Face Turned Aversa implies that she likes to do this:
    Aversa: I usually go for a swim in the lake... Sometimes even in proper attire.
  • In Firewatch, Henry's first task as a firewatcher is to confront two girls who are setting off fireworks and skinny dipping.
  • In Haven, Yu and Kay can take a nighttime skinny dip at the Chogeko VIP resort, awarding the achievement "Mooning the moon". The dialogue "Wanna go for a swim?" implies that a Two-Person Pool Party ensues.
  • As of Late Night, The Sims 3 has a skinny dip interaction with pools and hot tubs. You can only do it when there aren't any Teen or younger Sims on the same lot.
  • If Sean is on good terms with Cassidy in Episode 3 of Life Is Strange 2, she invites him for a naked dip in the lake near their camp, which may lead to them kissing and subsequently Sean losing his virginity to her.
  • In the Japanese opening of Soul Edge, Sophitia appears to be swimming naked in a lake. In the American version bathing suit straps were added to her shoulders.

    Visual Novels 
  • If the protagonist of Daughter for Dessert has ultimately chosen to be with Lily, the two of them go for a hike and find a natural pool. They go for a naked swim.
  • Averted in Double Homework when the protagonist and Rachel run into each other at the pool. The two of them have a swimming race and even make love, but they don't swim naked together.
  • Twice in Melody:
    • The usually sensible Sophia goes to a social gathering in which a group of people are doing this. She agrees because everybody has to drop their phones somewhere to be admitted.
    • After Melody gives a concert, she and the protagonist go swimming in the nude in the hotel pool.

    Web Animation 
  • SuperThings:
    • A disguised Dogfurt rips off his bun to go swimming in the episode "The Pool Party", much to Action Bread's shock and disgust.
    • The way the Double Acids contaminate the water source of Kaboom City in the "New Zings Today" episode "Alarm! Poisoned Water!" is by having Count Garlik swim in the water plant's source water...without his swim trunks on. He actually brought his swim trunks to the occasion, but didn't bother to wear them. Luckily for the city, this was the source water for Prison Island, not the main city.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • The Cimbrean teenagers of The Jenkinsverse embrace skinny dipping with varying degrees of enthusiasm and innocence. Sara just sees it as the logical way to avoid having to carry home wet towels and swimsuits and finds it irritating when people get hung up on the nudity. Adam is willing to try, and decides that he enjoys it after a little initial awkwardness. Meanwhile it takes a near-death experience and an epiphany for Ava to finally join in.

    Western Animation 
  • Finn meets Huntress Wizard while doing this in an episode of Adventure Time.
  • Bob's Burgers:
    • In the Halloween Episode "Full Bars", Louise tries to thwart a gang of teens terrorizing the local trick-or-treater kids. With a stolen cell phone she texts them in the guise of a girl classmate inviting them to skinny dip at a pool, where she laces their underwear with packets of hot sauce.
    • In "A River Runs Through Bob", Bob and Linda go for a late-night skinny dip in the river, but get pulled away by the current and struggle to make it through the wilderness and back to camp.
  • A right of privilege on Freedom Day in Futurama, with "A Taste of Freedom" having the Planet Express crew engage in nude hot tubbing right after Fry is informed about Freedom Day being a holiday where everyone is permitted to do whatever they want to.
  • The Loud House:
  • On The Ren & Stimpy Show, Stimpy invites Ren to go skinny dipping while camping. Since they were already naked, this involves taking off their furs. They are then joined (to their great horror) by a withered old man who just loves skinny dipping. And then by the man's wife, to their even greater horror. The old man later appears through the episode, practicing such activities as skinny stomping and skinny slapping.
  • In The Simpsons:
    • The episode "500 Keys", Homer remembers going skinny dipping with Duff Man. This might be how he ended up with the key to the Duff brewery.
    • Lisa was arrested for skinny-dipping in the Fermentarium at Duffworld (admittedly, she was stoned after drinking the water in the boat ride for a dare) while crying "I am the Lizard Queen!"
  • This is the main plot of the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "A Bacon Strip" (the second segment of "The Acme Acres Zone"), where Plucky dares Hampton into skinny dipping in Montana Max's pool, only for Hampton's clothes to be stolen.
  • The Tuca & Bertie episode "Planteau" has Tuca and a pair of geese decide to swim naked in the pool during the bachelorette party of Speckle's sister Dottie. Dottie and Bertie choose not to participate, the former because she's concerned about the repercussions of being seen nude in public and the latter because she doesn't usually feel like disrobing when she's sober and has chosen not to drink.

    Real Life 

Stop whining, Troper! Just take off your clothes already! Wee!!!

Oh no! Someone has stolen my clothes!!! Good thing no-one could see you on the Internet.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Top

Ren and Stimpy Skinny Dip

Stimpy coaxes a reluctant Ren to go skinny dipping with him in a lake. The pair take off their fur as if it was a item of clothing, though Ren is revealed to be wearing briefs underneath his.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (8 votes)

Example of:

Main / FurIsClothing

Media sources:

Report