Even he's surprised to see them still using this gag in 1953.
"I can't keep this dickey down, Ricky!"
— Eugene, Artists and Models
A Forgotten Trope whose material origins are so old that we need extra context: A dickey is a false shirt front, a roundish piece of starched cloth, paper, or synthetic material, which was used under a formal jacket to "cheat" the look of a tuxedo. Dickeys were cheap, comfortable, and easier to launder, which made them popular at a time when doing laundry was labour-intensive. But they were considered unfashionable and had a tendency (exaggerated in fiction) to flap upwards, humiliating the wearer.
Hence the Flapping Dickey gag — a man, typically someone who is a bit of a blowhard or who is losing his cool, will have his dickey pop out of his waistband and flap up into his face. Flapping dickeys were a common vaudeville gag for decades even after laundry became much cheaper. Examples in more recent recorded media appear to be mostly aimed at children's fiction, with an audience who wouldn't be familiar with it.
Examples:
Films — Animation- Dumbo: The circus ringmaster, who introduces the acts dressed in a three piece suit with red tails and while shouting boisterous hyperbole about the quality of the acts, finds his introductions vexed by his dickey flapping up and hitting him on the underside of his nose.
- Peter Pan: Part of Mr. Darling's exasperation with his imaginative children is that he's late for a party and can't find his dickey, which turns out to have been repurposed by the kids as their pretend treasure map and, naturally, it flaps up into his face during the scene.
Films — Live-Action
- Artists and Models, a Martin and Lewis picture from 1955, has Rick (played by Dean Martin) walk in on Eugene (played by Jerry Lewis) trying to get dressed before the ball. Eugene struggles with his dicky flapping straight in front of his face when he tries to powder his face, in typical Jerry Lewis physical comedy style while Rick chides him for being so out of date.
Eugene: I can't keep this dickey down, Ricky!.
Rick: Anybody ever tell you that dickies went out with horse cars?! If you're going to rent, why don't you rent a modern dress shirt, something like about 1922. - Hold That Ghost: At the end of the film, the two main characters are running a party when Costello's character, Freddie Jones, encounters a maitre d', who had fired them from an earlier job, working as a temp waiter. Freddie tweaks the waiter's dignity by ordering him to fix his tie, fix his vest and to pull down his shirt, at which point, his dicky pops up and rolls up in classic scroll-like fashion.
- Laurel and Hardy: A variation using at least the elements of a loss of dignity with the loss of a shirt-front appears in, Blotto one of the duo's talkie shorts. They humiliate an upstanding waiter while getting drunk (hence the title) and, as part of the humiliation, rip off his shirt-front. In this case the dickie was held on by some kind of giant double-sided sticky bandage which they then rip of his bare chest.
- The Three Stooges: While dickeys don't necessarily flap in the shorts, they always come loose at some point or another. In the 1954 short "Income Tax Sappy," Shemp spreads mashed potatoes and gravy on his dickey after it gets untucked and covers his plate.
Literature
- The Discworld: In the Discworld Fools' Guild Diary, a "false springy shirt front" is a required part of a clown's clothing.
Live-Action TV
- Out of Jimmy's Head: Tux the Penguin is a loud, brash, vaudeville-type comedian who, as a penguin, only wears a dickey to create the tuxedo look. He is hit in the face by his dickey (on its own, not using a pull string) on a regular basis.
Puppet Shows
- Sesame Street: In the Elmo's World episode about getting dressed, Elmo asks Mr. Noodle how he gets dressed, and Mr. Noodle dresses himself in a collared shirt, a dickie, and a bow tie. As this happens, the bottom button of the dickie comes undone and it sticks up. Mr. Noodle can't get it to stay down unless he holds it down.
Western Animation
- Looney Tunes:
- A Corny Concerto: Elmer as the presenter is wearing an ill-fitting tuxedo. He keeps trying to hold the dickey in place while introducing the first segment, and when it finally hits him in the face, he just tears it off.
- Long-Haired Hare: This was a part of the Clothing Damage that the pompous opera singer Giovanni Jones undergoes as Bugs Bunny forces him to sing an absurdly long note.
- Rocky and Bullwinkle: This is a key part in one of the transition gags. Bullwinkle, clad in a tuxedo from the waist up, attempts to sing an opera song, but his dickey curls up and knocks over the music stand, causing chaos on stage.
- The Simpsons: An example of a latter-day use of the trope shows up a few times, notably part of Krusty's comedy schtick. Each time he does the flapping dickey gag, though, it's mocked for being cliché and old-fashioned, showing Krusty's desperation to get a laugh and fading skills in actual comedy. For example, in "The Last Temptation of Krust", the bit is called out by name and goes right alongside a racist Chinaman skit.
- Tom and Jerry: Tom wears one (along with a tailcoat, false shirt cuffs, and no pants) in "Cat Concerto", where he's attempting a serious and dignified performance of Liszt's second Hungarian Rhapsodie. The dickey malfunctioning before Jerry even shows up is the first sign of the chaos and Clothing Damage in store.
