Ask The Tropers

I don't think there was such a trope or, if there was, it was not under the name you've given. If there were, and it was cut, the redlink you've given would go to a page saying so and explaining why it was cut, like in the Other Wiki and TV Tropes redlinks in your post. That link just goes to a page saying we don't have it, period.

You can always go to the launch pad and make the trope yourself.

I must be going insane, because I was pretty sure I learned about that type of gag on TV Tropes. But, if it doesn't exist, I'll try and launch it, then.

^ probably a Mandela Effect?

...with name like that, I would like to guess that it's a porn trope and got cut on the ground of No Lewdness, No Prudishness. But I can't find it on Permanent Red Link Club, so it's unlikely.

^ Looking it up, it's some sort of suit shirt thing

Yes, it's completely innocent of any porn associations. A dickey is a loose shirt front (a starched piece of cloth worn on top of your shirt under a tuxedo jacket) which went out of fashion a long time ago. Apparently, the flapping dickey was an old comedy trope where the shirt front would come loose and flap in a comic way. Come to think of it, some clowns still use this trope, as part of their very exaggerated costumes.

Yes, this is an old, old comedy gag that I haven't seen used in years and even then it was used to show how out of touch the comedian was with modern comedy.

It's possible that it has a different name, but if TV Tropes doesn't have it at all (which sounds more likely if it isn't even listed on pages for outdated tropes), then it sounds like it's worth taking to TLP.

Edit: Is it possible that it existed, but was lost in The Great Crash without being remade? That happened a decade ago, and you did say the site had it a long time ago. If it was something that was lost during the crash, then a Forgotten Trope sounds more likely to be, well, forgotten during recovery than something more familiar to modern audiences.

We do have Classy Cravat, for what it's worth. If not the same idea it's probably similar to.

No, it's totally different. To start with, a cravat is the predecessor of the necktie, while a dickie is a detachable front for your shirt. And one trope is about looking, well, classy; the other one is about looking silly because your clothing is in disarray.

It's basically the equivalent of a backless waistcoat (but you know, as a shirt) crossed with a bib, since sometimes they were made out of waterproof material (well, as waterproof as you could get in the 1800s). You wore a dickie if you couldn't afford to launder your actual shirts (this was before household bleach), much less buy a new one, but as time went on, industrial processes improved and shirts became cheaper, so wearing a dickie became a sign of being outdated as well as poor. So the joke here is that not only were you wearing a dickie, you were wearing a bad dickie badly since it was curling up and not even covering up what it was supposed to cover.

The joke was kept alive well into the 20th Century by a combination of circus clowns and modern stand-up comedians who learned it from their Borscht Belt predecessors, who in turn were directly mentored by Vaudeville performers who used it as a stock bit. Pretty much a Forgotten Trope now, if this thread is any indication.

Could be worth a launch, though it might be slow to pick up traction.

Wait, is the thing the dad was struggling with in the beginning of Peter Pan a dickie?

^ Knew I'd seen it somewhere. That's probably the example most people will remember from their childhoods.

There you go, that's it. Mr. Darling wears an overstarched dickie because he's kind of overstarched and uptight in general.

I say we take this to the launch pad. Lets see what happens.

Checked the Wayback Machine; Nada results. Launch pad it.

That's what Eddy's parents got him for Christmas in "Jingle Jingle Jangle" too, wasn't it?

Just a comment on Unsung's post: my impression is that dickies were worn not so much because you couldn't afford to wash your shirt, but because you didn't want to starch it (which is not just expensive, but also uncomfortable). A dickie was starched and stiff to give a very smooth appearance.

That's fair. You're right, I think they were worn with formalwear for longer than they were with other clothes because of the desire for that perfectly starched look. I should've mentioned something about the starch, since I think that's the whole reason it sticks up, so it is a big part of the joke. I believe that's even still around occasionally, even making a comeback in some circles.

I also sort of made it sound like only poor people did this, which isn't true, but people in general didn't change clothes as often in that period because doing laundry took all day (sometimes all of several days for a family), so dickies were more common, including less formal dickies for people who had to say, work in an office, like a banker or mortician, the growing middle class, or for servants or wait-staff.

^^^^ - Did you just check for the trope itself? Try any indexes it should've been on?

Shirt dickies (or"bosoms") are still available from Amazon Drygoods and Pickling Works. I would imagine mostly for theatrical purposes.

Shouldn't this discussion continue elsewhere?

The discussion is over, pretty sure a bot necro'd the thread.