Walk of Shame

Shame, shame, shame!

Ah, the Walk of Shame. The shameful jaunt with head turned down. Maybe some optional disguises out of your bedroom, hotel room, etc.

There are two types of Walk of Shame.

After Sex: Usually after a one-night stand, it is walking out of the bedroom, apartment, or home early in the morning with the same clothes you wore the night before or perhaps wearing no clothes at all. Some college students and average adults consider walking out of your one-night stand something to be more proud of than ashamed of, hence the existence of the "stride of pride". Seeing your roommate return home with messed up hair and wrinkled clothing can incite some interesting interactions. Naked People Trapped Outside usually defaults to this. This is the more figurative and/or colloquial version of the trope.

Humiliation Gauntlet: One was just involved in an embarrassing activity and having to go past a line of people aware of what happened. Unlike the former, there is nothing to be proud of. This could come after an Insignia Rip-Off Ritual or Rejection Ritual. If you are being escorted to the police vehicle in front of a crowd, that is a Perp Walk. This is the more literal and/or traditional version of the trope.

The aforementioned Perp Walk is a subtrope of this, involving getting arrested for an alleged crime where one is shown on a walk to the police car for a ride to jail.

Both instances are sometimes Truth in Television. Regardless, this is prime fodder for both dramatic and comedic possibilities. See also Sexiled.

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Postcoital/Nudity Examples:

Comic Books

• Crushed The Doomed Kitty Adventures has our heroine routinely fail at acquiring some MacGuffin or other, always resulting in a fatality. The good news is Crushed belongs to the Temple of Infinite Lives, which acts as her Respawn Point. The bad news is that only her body is restored; all loot, armor, weapons, and clothing get left behind. This means Crushed must trudge home through town buck naked. The shame starts wearing off after the first dozen times.

Fan Fiction

• Duran And Kiyohime's Omake Theater: A prequel chapter to the rest of the story, Chapter 121 is set in Shizuru's college dorm before the rest of the series, and Natsuki and Shizuru have just made love for the first time. Natsuki is preparing to head to her own apartment, and Shizuru asks her to stay. Natsuki says she's not eager to do the "walk of shame" past Shizuru's dorm mates in the early hours of the morning. She relents, however, saying she'd get more sleep there than if she took the time to go home. Shizuru begins thinking of the two of them moving into a small house together. She does wake in the morning to find Natsuki has stolen all the covers.
• Inter Nos: Shizuru and Natsuki have been intimate for some time. However, they have just arrived in Shizuru's villa in her homeland, and during a lovemaking session, Shizuru decided to tease Natsuki by leaving hickeys in very visible places. Natsuki is suddenly very embarrassed to be seen in public; not because people will know she's Shizuru's partner, but because they'll know exactly what they've been up to. Shizuru teasingly suggests that she can say that the marks were made by a lamprey.
• In the Teen Titans fanfic "One Thing Leads to Another", this is said to Speedy when he is seen trying to sneak into the Tower after a one-night stand. He is missing a shoe and can't even remember the girl's name.

Films — Live-Action

• Harper Valley PTA: Stella's first victim, after she successfully conned him into thinking she was going to have sex with him, finds himself naked in a hotel hallway. He covers himself in a firehose and tries to walk home, only for a policeman to ask him "Where's the fire?"

Literature

• At the end of the Honor Harrington short story "From the Highlands", Anton Zilwicki spends the night with his new girlfriend, Cathy Montaigne. While trying to slip discreetly back into his own quarters early the next morning, he finds that his daughter Helen — who totally ships them — has stayed up the whole night waiting for him. Perched on a couch. Big, cheesy grin on her face.
  "So! How was she?"
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • It is mentioned that when Tywin Lannister became Lord of the Westerlands, he had his late father's mistress exiled, forcing her to walk through the streets naked and announce she's a whore on her way out of Lannisport.
  • In A Dance with Dragons, Cersei is imprisoned by the Faith on suspicion of adultery, incest, and murdering the previous High Septon. Cersei only confesses to adultery, allowing her to avoid execution, but is forced to do a "walk of atonement," where she has her head shaved, her clothes stripped, and is forced to walk through King's Landing while a septa rings a bell and yells "SHAME!" with every step.

Live-Action TV

• The Big Bang Theory: In the episode "The Benefactor Factor," Leonard is being accosted by an elderly, wealthy donor, and he manages to not fall for her temptations. Eventually, in a ride in her limo, Leonard decides to just go for it in order to fully secure the funding the university needs. The morning after:
  [Leonard's walking in the hallway back to his apartment with his hair messed up, and his outfit wrinkled]
  Penny: Good morning, slut.
  Leonard: What?
  Penny: Oh, please, I recognize the walk of shame when I see it. All you're missing is a little smeared mascara and a purse with panties wadded up in it.
• How I Met Your Mother made a bit where the characters enjoy the Halloween Parade on Halloween but also the Walk of Shame parade the next morning. When they find Robin in a nurse costume and shoes in hand, it sparks debate as to who she slept with, but in fact she didn't sleep with anyone; she just spent all night making an adult diaper commercial.
• Law & Order: SVU had the detectives trying to get information about someone involved in the swinger scene. After raiding a sex club, one detective announced that anyone willing to talk about that person would be taken out the back door; anyone not willing could go out the front where the press had already gathered. (The "dress code" for that club was full-nudity.)
• In a 1977 Saturday Night Live Parody Commercial for "Hey You," a perfume for one-night stands, we see Gilda Radner doing a walk of shame after spending the night with a bar hook-up.
• Scrubs used this quite often, due to the focus on the characters' professional and personal lives. Once Elliot had to get back to work after a crazy date but having misplaced her old scrubs, she ended up throwing in the disheveled clothes she wore on her date into a machine that would dispense fresh scrubs. Needless to say, Chief of Medicine Dr. Kelso walked in on her while she was changing and she had to explain herself.
• She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: In the episode "Ribbit and Rip It", Nikki actually uses the expression when referring to Daredevil having to walk out of Jen's in his superhero suit and carrying the boots in his hands, making it obvious how he spent the night.

Music

• Bowling for Soup has a song aptly titled "Walk Of Shame", about a man and woman walking home alone after a drunken one-night stand; the man, in particular, has no pants, because he left them at the bar.

Websites

• Walks of shame feature heavily on Texts From Last Night, whether from the walkers or people watching them.

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Humiliation Examples:

Advertising

• The "Shame or Glory" advertisements try to get people to use less plastic bottles... by showing a man buying sparkling water in plastic bottles, only to be hounded by Septa Unalla ringing a bell and calling "Shame!". He goes through The City Narrows where he is pelted with refuse, and we find out that he was bringing the water to Gregor Clegane's actor who joins in the shaming. The ad is then revealed to be for an appliance that turns tap water into sparkling water. And ships Gregor/Unella.

Fan Fiction

• BURN THE WITCH (Miraculous Ladybug): After the Witch Hunter incident is over, Lila's transgressions have been broadcasted to all of Paris, including hurting Rose enough to turn her into an akuma, trying to throw Marinette to the angry mob riled up by Witch Hunter, and worst of all, creating a fake charity and running off with the donations. After her mother and the principal have discussed the terms of her punishment, she's forced to walk out of school in plain view of everyone, surrounded by a terrible smell and with rashes on her arms from jumping into the Seine and trying to evade the mob.

Films — Animated

• The Lion King II: Simba's Pride: Happens to Kovu when he is exiled from the Pride Lands for allegedly planning the Outsiders' ambush on Simba. All the animals present even sing a song about it.
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: After Mile's hand gets stuck to Gwen's hair at school, they had to be taken to the medical room to be separated. Afterwards, Miles walks through the hallway and everyone looks at him which makes him extremely uncomfortable and he develops an Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat.

Films — Live-Action

• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022): In the prologue, a young Dale experiences this in the school cafeteria after his "pencil-in-the-eye" gag doesn't go over well with his classmates.
• Spider-Man: No Way Home: After Peter's identity is revealed and rumors about him having murdered Mysterio spread, he enters his school and walks down a corridor with numerous other students surrounding him and taking pictures. Watch the scene here.

Literature

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: After Harry's name unexpectedly comes out of the Goblet of Fire, he has to walk past the entire school; not to applause, but to a buzz of everyone talking at once, assuming he cheated, as he is underage.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • In Dothraki society, riding a horse is so important to one's social status that a man who does not or cannot ride one is not considered a man at all. After Daenerys' brother Viserys tries to hit her and is restrained by her khas (bodyguards), she orders them to make him walk back to the khalasar without his horse so everyone can see his shame.
  • In A Dance with Dragons, Cersei is imprisoned by the Faith on suspicion of adultery, incest, and murdering the previous High Septon. Cersei only confesses to adultery, allowing her to avoid execution, but is forced to do a "walk of atonement," where she has her head shaved, her clothes stripped, and is forced to walk through King's Landing while a septa rings a bell and yells "SHAME!" with every step.
• Starship Troopers: If someone drops out of training, the walk to the exit across the training ground is called the walk of shame. In the movie, the protagonist nearly takes the walk, but then his home city is destroyed in an attack just as he's about to leave.

Live-Action TV

• Branded (1965): The intro sequence contained the Branded soldier forced to walk away in shame from his fellow soldiers after being stripped of rank, buttons of his shirt, and his sword broken in two.
• Chopped: Whenever a contestant loses a round, they are seen walking through a lonely bare hallway to the exit, and forced to say an epilogue as to why they lost.
• Stranger Things: In the Season 2 opener, Will feels uncomfortable while walking down the school hall as everyone is looking strangely at him because of how he came Back from the Dead in the previous season.
• Veronica Mars: In the first season episode "Clash of the Tritons", Veronica is framed for making and distributing fake IDs, and when she's arrested by the sheriff's department by her locker, she's escorted down the hallway past many of the rich kids who dislike her and love to see her get humiliated like this.
• The Weakest Link: Someone who was voted off would have to walk a fair distance across the stage to get off it, it was even called "the walk of shame".

Video Games

• Pokémon Legends: Arceus: After healing the final frenzied Noble, the sky turns red for no clear reason, and in a fit of paranoia, the leader of the Galaxy Team has the player exiled on suspicion of causing the red sky. He forces the player's commander, Cyllene, to walk you to the gate in front of the entire town.

Western Animation

• Bob's Burgers: In the episode "Broadcast Wagstaff School News", Tina is falsely accused of being the Mad Pooper. She slowly goes to the principal's office as various students come out of their classrooms and watch her.
• Family Guy:
  • In "Road to Europe", this happens to Peter and Lois at KISS-Stock when Lois bungles the lyrics to "Rock and Roll All Nite", revealing to all that she lied about being a diehard KISS fan.
    Lois: Why is everybody glaring at us?
    Peter: Why, Lois? I'll tell you why! Your faux pas last night at the concert was so upsetting, I had to call a university professor to tell me what phrase I should use to describe it!
    (cut to Peter calling said professor)
    Professor: Use "faux pas".
    Peter: Thanks, Professor.
  • Occurs in "And I'm Joyce Kinney", when Lois enters the church after it's publicly revealed that she once starred in a porno flick.
• In the Hey Arnold! episode "Arnold Betrays Iggy", Iggy is angry at Arnold because he learns that everybody in school knew that he wore bunny pajamas and mistakenly assumes Arnold told them (In truth, it's actually Sid and Stinky who correctly guessed Iggy wore bunny pajamas and Arnold never said anything about it). Arnold tries his best to ask for forgiveness from Iggy who gave him the cold shoulder. Eventually, Iggy orders him to walk in front of the whole neighborhood in bunny pajamas so that he can forgive him. Arnold reluctantly complies but when Iggy eventually learns the truth, he tries to stop Arnold which is too late. Arnold goes out of his apartment in bunny pajamas with the whole neighborhood watching and laughing at him as he walks around.
• Rick and Morty: In the stinger of "Amortycan Grickfitti", New Transfer Student Bruce Chutback is forced to walk down a school hallway with other students laughing at him after it gets revealed he wore the same pants for two consecutive days.
• The Simpsons: In "Homer the Great", after being thrown out of the "Stonecutters", Homer's punishment includes walking home naked with a stone chained to him. A birthmark then reveals he's The Chosen One... which leads to him still having to walk to his coronation naked, with an even larger rock chained to him.
• Total Drama Island: Invoked, where the eliminated contestant has to leave the island by walking down the "Dock of Shame" in front of all the other contestants and boarding the "Boat of Losers," as to make the experience more humiliating. The second season continued this with an actual "Walk of Shame," a mock red carpet where eliminated contestants walk to the "Lame-o-sine" to leave the games. Many of the contestants leave the game this way with their heads held in shame — and in a few cases, kicking and screaming.

Real Life

• Happened during the Cultural Revolution to "counter-revolutionaries" (read: those who opposed Mao).
• As part of his Insignia Rip-Off Ritual, Alfred Dreyfus was paraded in front of soldiers and the crowd.

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