Goofy Print Underwear



""Unfashionable underpants of the sort often worn by men in their twilight years.""

- Dragon Quest VIII, in-game description of "Boxer Shorts"

Exposing a character's underwear is always good for a laugh. This goes double if they have underwear with a silly or embarrassing print on them. Boxer shorts with polka dots, or better yet hearts on them seem to be popular. In fact nearly everyone in cartoons seems to wear these. Well, that or these boxers cause trouser accidents.

Presumably, the use of brightly patterned underwear is a visual shorthand, to show that this is their dirty laundry, and not, say, a pair of shorts, a distinction that can be hard to see. Plus the fact that they wear utterly tasteless kecks add to the character's discomfort at being de-pantalooned, especially if they maintain a hard man reputation.

See also Stock Underwear. And no, this doesn't necessarily mean Goofy will be on (or in) the underwear—though that's not ruled out.

Anime and Manga

 * Kamon on FLCL, in a [[media:LupinFLCL.jpg|homage]] to Lupin III.
 * Dr. Z of Dinosaur King.
 * Sunohara Youhei of Clannad, though the hearts on his are actually pink.
 * When Jing steals Dundar's butt-plate in King of Bandit Jing, shreds of heart boxers are seen around the edges.
 * Tulip the giant in Jack to Mame no Ki after tearing off his clothes in a fit of rage. He actually spends the rest of the movie like that, despite having opportunity to get dressed.

Comic Books

 * The Savage Dragon has been known to wear print boxers, including the classic hearts.

Film

 * The pimp at the beginning of the 1977 exploitation flick Fight For Your Life is shown to be wearing loveheart boxers after Kane and his buddies steal his car and his clothes.
 * Murtaugh from "Lethal Weapon 4"; when directed by Riggs to strip to his boxer shorts to distract a madman wielding a flamethrower, Riggs asks with a laugh "Are those little hearts?"

Live-Action TV

 * Abed wore these on Community in anticipation of being pantsed by Troy when he pantsed him.

Newspaper Comics

 * Jon Arbuckle from Garfield's wardrobe of underwear consists entirely of brightly colored (and patterned) boxers.
 * Including a pair that glows in the dark.
 * One strip from the mid-90s also features Jon getting caught outside the house one morning while wearing his bunny footy pajamas.

Video Games

 * King Arthur's traditional garb in Ghosts 'n Goblins once his armor breaks (though according to official artwork, they're strawberries—see below). In one game, he switches instead to long johns.
 * Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is the only game in which he's clearly wearing heart boxers in the in-game graphics.
 * The Spiritual Successor Maximo: Ghosts to Glory also has heart boxers as part of the game-long Homage, with other prints available for purchase. The sequel, Maximo Versus the Army Of Zin, expands this, giving the title character the ability to change boxers to get additional powers (like the ability to get an extra level of armor).
 * In King's Quest VII, the Werebear is left in these after jackalope!Valanice blows off his fur and pants.
 * In Quest for Glory II, while sleeping at the Inn in Raseir, the hero can be seen wearing these when his blanket is pulled off by a rat.
 * In Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, one of the missions has Wario defend himself from a ninja. You must slash at the right time to tear off the ninja's suit. But wait, there's more... (scroll down...)
 * Available for purchase at Binco in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
 * In Spyro the Dragon, the large Gnorcs in Gnorc Cove who defend themselves with barrels are left in these and a tank top after you blow their clothes off.
 * In Rocket Knight Adventures (and the recent 2.5D revival, Rocket Knight), these seem to be part of the uniform for the pig soldiers of the Devotindos Empire.
 * In Mickey Mania, the final boss Pete wears these. The dagger-throwing weasel guards in the same level wear pink polka dots instead.
 * Chuck Greene's default boxers in Dead Rising 2.
 * In the first game, Arthur's heart boxers are an unlockable item.
 * These are an underwear option in Saints Row.
 * These can be seen flying out of destroyed luggage in Angry Birds Rio.
 * As an Idle Animation, Earthworm Jim's pants will drop, revealing these. Don't ask why a robotic suit has underwear.

Web Comics

 * These seem to be Chuy's underpants of choice in Girly.
 * In this Nodwick comic, Artax gets busted for not wearing guild-approved midnight blue underwear with stars and moons. He owns at least one set of pink with hearts.
 * A very rare female example: Fuschia in Pastel Defender Heliotrope.
 * Captain Phi of the Royal Guard has some nice ones in Exiern.

Web Original

 * In The Sims 3 version of My Immortal, "Snap" is wearing these when Ebony catches him and "Loopin" having sex with Dobby watching.
 * Dr. Insano is revealed to have a set of these when Linkara asks him why he's not wearing pants during the Warrior #4 review.

Western Animation
"Dr. Possible: (banging on shuttle portal, yelling) Shego: Is he always this excitable? Ron: Yeah, he doesn't have the same "missing trouser" experience as I do."
 * Tom and Jerry cartoons.
 * In an episode of the Super Mario Bros. cartoon, a Koopa Troopa is knocked out of his shell and has on a pair of yellow boxers with red hearts underneath.
 * They were white when he bought them...
 * In "Underworld Connections" of The Legend of Zelda episodes, when Link hangs upside down, his nightshirt falls over his head to reveal heart-printed boxer shorts.
 * Two examples from Tale Spin: A security guard stripped of his uniform (Baloo and friends swiped it for a disguise) in the "Baloo Thunder" episode, and an undressed partygoer in the "My Fair Baloo" episode, which involved the entire cast disrobing to construct a hot-air balloon from their clothing to fly them out of the jungle in which their plane crashed.
 * Seems to be the preferred undergarment of Disney's Goofy in his more recent appearances.
 * In his oldest appearances, Goofy seemed to prefer red long underwear, as this was the norm for underwear gags in cartoons at the time. Later he wore these same long johns as his alter ego Super Goof.
 * Various characters in Animaniacs.
 * In the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon episode "Attack of Big Macc", the title robot causes a security guard's pants to fall down and reveal these boxers. As they're retreating, Raphael Hangs a Lampshade on this by responding to Macc's statement that he detests violence by saying "I kinda feel the same way about underwear with hearts on 'em!"
 * Jasmine's suitor at the beginning of Disney's Aladdin.
 * Odd, since the Sultan is holding a piece of heart fabric as though it's from the underwear, when in fact it should be from the pants that Rajah bit a hole in.
 * Also one of the guards during One Step Ahead—not hearts, but pink stripes.
 * This carries over to the Sega Genesis game, where if a palace guard is attacked, sometimes his pants drop to reveal heart underwear!
 * In Disney's Mulan, when the Comic Trio goes skinny-dipping, one of them drops his red hearts boxers on Mushu. (It seems the Ancient Chinese invented these, too.)
 * A female Disney example: In Alice in Wonderland, when the Queen of Hearts falls over, her bloomers have, as you'd expect, red hearts on them.
 * Lucky Piquel from Bonkers often has his clothes torn off, often with boxers with hearts on them underneath.
 * Pete from Goof Troop has had them several times.
 * They're pink hearts, not red, but they appear on a cop and off of Gandhi in Clone High.
 * In the Kim Possible series finale, "Graduation," when Shego steals Dr. Possible's spacesuit, she leaves him in a pair of black boxers with pink hearts. He is not amused:


 * Lucius on Jimmy Two-Shoes, in an Embarrassing Old Photo.
 * In The Princess and the Frog, a hunter's red heart underwear is exposed after a gunshot narrowly misses his crotch.
 * Ken from Toy Story 3.
 * In a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon, after Foggy's feathers are blown off by his ill-conceived plan to use dynamite to prank the dog, he is shown to be wearing polka-dot boxers underneath.

Real Life

 * White many stores carry "loungewear" with various patterns and designs licensed from cartoons, television, movies, or so on, finding boxer shorts with red hearts on them is surprisingly difficult.
 * Try looking around Valentine's Day.
 * Look no further.

Advertising

 * One McDonalds commercial has Ronald pursuing the thieving Hambuglar, trying to grab him, but only grabbing his boxer shorts, which - naturally - has pictures of hamburgers on them.

Anime and Manga

 * Ranma of Ranma ½ is often seen wearing underwear with his name (or the first syllable thereof) printed all over it.
 * Also when Tsubasa is revealed to be a boy despite dressing and acting like a girl he is shown to wear pink boxers with yellow smiley faces on them.
 * Several characters in the Pokémon anime are shown wearing white/blue striped underwear, including Ash, a Hitmonlee's trainer in "The Punchy Pokemon", and Meowth imagines Giovanni wearing them while trying to cool down.
 * Naruto's are green with an orange branch pattern.
 * In a filler episode of Dragonball Z, a girl caught Gohan wearing teddy bear print boxers, and threatened to tell the school about "his secret" unless he went on a date with her (and she actually thought the boxers only added to his cuteness) . However, Gohan thought she'd caught him removing his Great Saiyaman costume.
 * Classy Cat Burglar Carson D. Carson spends most of Project Eden (The Dirty Pair movie) running around in his pink with green polka-dot boxers after the girls confiscate his clothes.
 * In Axis Powers Hetalia, Spain has tomato-print boxers. China has panda boxers.
 * Katekyo Hitman Reborn, The entire beginning of the series, especially when it comes to our favorite little Dying Will Bullet that burns off all your clothes (except your underwear, in most cases). As a matter of fact, Tsuna seemingly has a different one each and every time. The boxers return again when Spanner captures him... well... you know the rest...
 * Averted in Fullmetal Alchemist—Edward's boxers are plain and boring. However in a bonus-comic Arakawa is shown asking her assistants to try to design his underwear, and got some interesting suggestion such as Automail-boxers.
 * In the English dub of Sailor Moon, a little boy drops his pants in front of Rini and says "I wear Sailor Moon underwear!" though he is shown holding plain looking briefs in one hand and his shorts in the other.
 * In the original Japanese, he tells Chibiusa "Look at my little elephant!", doing his impression of Shin-chan. The implication was that the little boy was Shin-chan.
 * Soul Eater's titular Soul apparently wears blue boxers with bones on them both in the manga and the anime (and since the series was animated by BONES...yeah).
 * In Seto no Hanayome, Shark Fujishiro is left in his fishie boxers after the Terminator Lunar Papa takes his track suit.
 * In one episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Jaden is shown in boxers with his teacher's cat printed all over them.
 * In Dragon Half, Mig's Teddy Bear undies first lead to his Defeat By Embarrassment at the hands of the heroes, then his blackmail by Vina.
 * From Gintama, we have Gintoki's pink strawberry boxers.
 * In Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?, Orito ends up in purple flower-print boxers during one of the OVA episodes.

Comic Books

 * The Riddler apparently has green question-mark print boxers.
 * Deadpool is occasionally seen in boxers with his logo (a stylized version of his mask) on them.
 * He's also occasionally seen in boxers featuring other heroes' logos, including Captain America. One gag featured him upset that his Squirrel Girl Underoos(TM) were improperly washed. That's right, Squirrel Girl. Might explain why she's so vicious towards him.
 * And to make matters even nuttier, that particular issue happened long before Deadpool even knew that Squirrel Girl even existed. Here at TV Tropes, we like to call this Foreshadowing.
 * His recent adventures take this to a whole new level of horrifying as he has acquired Jean "Marvel Girl" Grey's original costume, complete with tiny yellow panties. An attempt to impress some ladies by stripping down reveals that he wears these when his other clothes are being laundered.
 * David Qin from Strangers in Paradise also had a pair with teddy bear print. They were a gift.
 * A Doctor Who Magazine comic strip featured the Eighth Doctor jumping through various Elseworlds. In the one where he was an ordinary human in a relationship with Dr Grace, the one Doctor-ish touch was the question-mark print boxers.
 * Peter Parker has Felix the Cat boxers.
 * MAD's parody hero Captain Klutz wears boxers with green polka-dots as part of his costume.

Fan Works

 * In Light and Dark - The Adventures of Dark Yagami, Mello has underwear with Ms on them. Dark has the same kind of underwear, except with Ds on them.
 * In the Gender Flip fanfic Nerima Magistra Nelly Magi, Asuma (the male version of Asuna) wears pink boxer shorts with teddy bears on them.

Film
"Paul: Yeah... I like piggies."
 * Agent Simmons (played by John Turturro) in the Transformers live action movie found himself handcuffed to a lightpole wearing some gaudy tropical boxers. Mikaela scoffs at that; the agent is too busy plotting revenge to be embarrassed.
 * It's certainly far better than what he wears in the sequel.
 * In the George Lucas film version of Howard the Duck, the title character was strip searched by police, exposing a pair of red boxers with white polka dots.
 * Christopher Lambert's character in The Hunted wears boxers dotted with cute little pigs, which his lover finds rather amusing.

Literature

 * In the Quebecois novel Le Dernier Des Raisins, Francois's are pink with elephants.
 * In one of the Doctor Who spinoff novels, one of the Doctor's companions has underpants with a carrot on the front. He's not especially embarrassed by them, but another of the Doctor's companions is embarrassed to see them.
 * In Grave Peril, one of The Dresden Files books, Harry Dresden fought off vampires while wearing only yellow ducky boxers. It's since become a running joke in the fandom.
 * especially amusing as he'd stolen them from the vampires' laundry room.
 * In The Saga of Darren Shan, Gavner Purl has bright yellow boxers with tiny pink elephants (a gift from his girlfriend).

Live-Action TV
"First Guy: You got bunnies on your shorts? Second Guy: [archly] Killer bunnies."
 * On an episode of The Big Bang Theory Howard talks the gang into going to a bar to pick up women. They all change out of their standard Superhero symbol boxers ... just in case.
 * On Chuck, super tough NSA agent Casey got caught wearing ones with lucky red clovers all over them [he's handcuffed to a headboard at the time]. "It's like Prague again, eh Casey?" In one of the Chuck comics, he has a Hawaiian print pair!
 * On Cougar Town, financial manager Andy Torres, who is about to meet with an important potential client, demonstrates that he is wearing his "lucky" boxer shorts by pulling them up to show the "wiener dogs and ballons" pattern.
 * In the Monty Python sketch "How to identify different parts of the body", a recurring theme is the identification of "Naughty Bits"—shown as white boxers with red polka-dots. Recurrences include "the naughty bits of a horse"—a horse wearing similar boxers, "the naughty bits of a lady"—a woman wearing boxers and a particularly modest bra in the same pattern, and "the naughty bits of a cabinet minister"—picture of a cabinet minister with polka dot boxers superimposed on top of his clothes
 * A hilarious moment in the popular season 1 episode of Veronica Mars, "An Echolls Family Christmas", features several poker players stripped down to their boxers. Duncan and Logan were wearing identical ones (blue with reindeer heads).
 * In his 60th anniversary special, Mickey Mouse was stripped to a pair of boxers with orange polka dots by an angry wizard. (Mickey had "borrowed" some of this wizard's magic to impress the crowd gathered at the celebration).
 * iCarly: Spencer with his duck pajamas. Then his duck boxer shorts. Sam and her "I love Las Vegas" underwear. Freddie's anti-bacterial underwear would be related to this trope somehow.
 * Survivorman had Scooby-Doo boxers, but it's unclear if he owns some, or it's just part of the "props of items average joes would most likely have if lost".
 * Tim's union jack boxers make several appearances in The Goodies, most notably in "The End" and "Scoutrageous".
 * And in Saturday Night Grease he dons a pair of underpants that have a large carrot on them.
 * There was a laundry detergent ad a while back that had a woman magically teleport the clothes off of a bunch of hunky construction worker types, leaving them in their underwear. Naturally, one guy had bunny rabbit print undies, leading to this memorable exchange at the end of the ad:

"Mama: Lord, where'd you get those, at Banana Republic?"
 * Eiji Hino of Kamen Rider OOO seems to own only this type of underwear.
 * Booth had Christmas boxers in "The Man In The Fallout Shelter" on Bones.
 * In an episode of Mama's Family, Naomi buys Vince boxers with bananas on them.

Music
"Next thing you come to see, Well, there's Tulsa County Sheriff, Standin' there in front of God and CBS and who knows who, Wearin' nothin' but his boots And the belt that held his pistol And his TV Tummy-Toner And his best Smurf boxer shorts."
 * Near the end of Mercedes Lackey's song "The Oklahoma Weed-Whacker Massacre," about a man whose mind snaps under the pressure of competitive lawn maintenance, leading him to run around slicing people's clothing off with his weed-whacker:

Professional Wrestling

 * See those SpongeBob boxers above? TNA wrestler Eric Young stripped down to a pair of those during one PPV, and beat amazingly well-endowed valet Traci Brooks in a bikini contest.
 * At one point in the WWE, proud Canadian Lance Storm was pantsed, revealing that he wore Power Rangers underwear.

Video Games

 * In Crash Bandicoot's second and third PlayStation games, several of his death sequences reveal his pink polka-dot boxers. In one, he doesn't actually die, he's just too embarrassed to go on.
 * In Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, if you shoot the Wizard enemy with the Fruit Bazooka (or attack him by any method in the PAL version), he'll also be reduced to pink polka-dot boxers (though in this case only the dots themselves are pink). This pacifies him.
 * At the end of Mind Over Mutant, Cortex fights Crash in his red polka-dot briefs after he hulks out of his clothes.
 * In Punch-Out Wii, King Hippo has upgraded to star-print boxers.
 * The Soviet Premier in the Allied ending of Red Alert 2 is found hiding under a desk wearing boxers with a red "Hammer and sickle" print motif (He had dressed a decoy in his uniform).
 * In the character videos in F-Zero GX, Antonio Guster and Blood Falcon strip down to their boxers (camouflage and pink with ... something, respectively) when doing their laundry. In Captain Falcon's video, he splits his pants while saving a baby, revealing red polka-dots.
 * In another Wario Ware: Smooth Moves example, one game has a quick draw contest to shoot your opponent's pants down. Your avatar is wearing Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Starman boxers.
 * Wario himself has trouble keeping his pants up on the map screen.
 * In the Metal Slug series, the Prisoners Of War reward you for rescuing them by pulling a giant pair of blue-and-white-striped boxers out of their pants and dispensing an item from them.
 * Also, when the Mars People betray General Morden in Metal Slug 2/X and 3, they strip him to his undies. In 2/X, they're pink bikini briefs; in 3, polka-dot shorts.
 * Agent Smith in the Hitman games is often seen wearing boxer shorts printed with the US Flag.
 * While merchandise and cameos often depict Arthur as wearing heart boxers (as noted above), official artwork has always put strawberries on his boxers instead. In Ultimate Ghosts N Goblins, these strawberries were visible in-game for the first time.
 * In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, every one of Arthur's costumes gives him different boxers, with strawberries as the default. His alternates are blue and white vertical stripes, green with white polka dots, and gold with black stars.
 * Ultimate adds blue with white polka dots and pink with white hearts.
 * Arthur wears vertically striped boxers in the obscure Wonderswan game (which also appear in one of his alternate outfits in MvC3).
 * As mentioned above, Maximo can acquire a variety of different boxers in his games, including monogrammed, cow-spotted, and dollar signs. In the second game, each print gives a different bonus.
 * While monsters in Dragon Quest VIII don't wave any about when they do the move, Yangus pulls out two pairs of blue-and-white striped boxers when he performs the Underpants Dance move. For understandable reasons, this causes the Confusion status ailment.
 * Spyro: A Hero's Tail has Gnasty Gnorc reveal his red polka-dot boxers when he's goaded into swinging so hard that his staff/club sticks into the ground. More humiliating is the fact that this is his weak point.
 * Which is somewhat odd considering that in his first appearance, he wasn't even wearing pants.
 * In the ending of Mario Is Missing, the de-shelled Bowser is shown to wear red polka-dot boxers. Don't even begin to ask how that's supposed to work.
 * Vincent from Catherine spends most of the game in nothing but his polka-dot boxers.
 * Leisure Suit Larry ends up tied to a bed in polka-dot boxers in the VGA remake of his first game.
 * In one Solatorobo 4koma, Red is embarrassed that Chocolat is showing off the Asmodeus while his boxers are hanging to dry. One is white with a single red heart, the other is white with yellow stars. Another piece of official art shows a pair of blue-and-white striped boxers landing on Elh's head, but precisely whose they are is never said.

Web Comics

 * In this Freefall strip.
 * A recent omake of Girl Genius shows that Gilgamesh apparently had "MAD" emblazoned on his boxers (in the world of GG, "Madboy" is slang for a Mad Scientist, which Gilgamesh certainly is).
 * There is also a Wulfenbach sigil, like on everything else.
 * Drecker from Adventurers! had dagger-print underwear.
 * Mr. Mighty from Everyday Heroes has boxers with his logo.
 * Angus in Questionable Content has embarrassing drawers though we don't see them.
 * Nerf Now!!: Appropriately enough, the BLU Pyro sleeps in blue flame boxers.
 * The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob: Rocko Sasquatch in polka-dots (Bob needs Brain Bleach).
 * In Blank It, Aric wears polka-dot boxers and Lemmo wears Space Invaders boxers.
 * Here in Plus EV. Poker-themed, of course.

Web Original

 * When Danielbeast of Lonelygirl15 is shown to be wearing "English flag underwear" (actually the Union Flag) in "Crazy Emo Chick", he protests that he hasn't had a chance to do laundry lately, so they were all he had to wear.
 * In Homestar Runner, somebody once sent in a photograph of their Stinkoman underwear. Strong Bad's underwear apparently has lipstick marks on it, but if they were received from actual kisses... well, let's just say he really is a ladies' man.

Western Animation
"Doofenshmirtz: For your information, I had these way before I met you!"
 * Despite the image at the top of this page, Patrick Starr was embarrassed when he was revealed to be wearing underwear with "Goofy Goober" dancing peanut print in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
 * In the "Steerminator" episode of Darkwing Duck, Steelbeak the villanous rooster had his clothes burned off by recently Back from the Dead Big Bad Taurus Bulba to reveal a pair of boxers with chicken drumsticks on them.
 * A Running Gag on The Critic involved Jay Sherman losing his pants to reveal a pair of underwear with a (usually embarrassing) movie title printed on the rear (such as Back Draft and My Own Private Idaho). This is a subset of a Running Gag established in the pilot: he never buys clothes because studios always send him free items as payment for his movie reviews.
 * A Running Gag on KaBlam! was the introduction of the "surprising shorts," animated shorts that were not part of any of the show's recurring series. Whenever Henry announced the shorts, June would promptly run over and pull down his pants, revealing embarrassing boxer shorts before announcing "Surprising!"
 * In Danny Phantom, being an unfortunate teen whose powers are triggered by his emotions, his pants phase down, revealing his polka-dotted red boxers.
 * At another time, Danny's English teacher, Mr. Lancer, was revealed to be wearing boxers with little Shakespeare heads on them.
 * Blanka/Charlie in the USA Street Fighter cartoon is shown wearing lightning-bolt underpants after returning to human form, likely a visual pun on his electricity attack in the original games.
 * In an episode of Denver, the Last Dinosaur, it is revealed that Corrupt Corporate Executive Morton Fizzback wears dollar-motif underpants.
 * During the Transformation Sequence in Filmations Ghostbusters, Jake and Eddie are seen to be wearing boxers decorated with the FGB logo (a worried-looking ghost face against a circular black background).
 * All over the place in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: in fact, Robotnik's robot wife tells him, after breaking up with him, "And I'm gonna tell everybody you wear polka-dotted underwear!"
 * Tails even lampshades this when he questions the mayor's taste in boxers.
 * Belle's father Maurice accidentally pulls down his pants and is wearing pink polka-dotted underwear when we first see him in Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
 * Ron Stoppable regularly loses his pants (and sometimes shirt) as a Running Gag for the series and his boxers are almost always either polka dots over a solid color or striped.
 * In Phineas and Ferb one fight sequence between the nefarious Dr. Doofenshmirtz and his nemesis Perry the Platypus resulted in the loss of his pants, exposing boxers with Perry's face printed on them, another jab at their Foe Yay-type relationship.

"Marie: Hey are these real leopard-skin undies? (Cartoonish stretching sounds) Eddy: Ack! Edd: That's quite a statement eddy. Eddy:(pulling at his shirt collar with steam coming from it) They're my brother's. What? Marie: Says "Eddy" on the tag."
 * In The Nightmare Before Christmas, as Lock, Shock, and Barrel stuff "Sandy Claws" down the pipe that leads to Oogie Boogie's lair, Santa is shown to be wearing mistletoe boxer shorts under his robe.
 * In Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy when the Kankers are tearing apart Eddy's room Marie pulls out a pair of underwear.

"Numbuh One: THIS UNDERWEAR IS KILLING ME! Numbuh Two: Oh, I know what you mean, mine bunches up all the time, especially the ones with the little rocket ships."
 * The Aristocats: Edgar the butler is revealed to be wearing red and white striped boxers twice in the film, the first being the scene where he is hearing Madame tell her lawyer about the fact that when she dies, her property will be handed down to her cats, and when they die, then it's Edgar that will be owning her property. Edgar however, thinks that the cats will live longer than him, and as a result, he starts to come up with plans to get rid of said cats. The second scene where Edgar's underwear is seen is when a huge chunk of his pants is torn off by a pair of dogs.
 * Linguini from Ratatouille is revealed to be wearing Incredibles print boxers during the scene where he is trying to hide Remy the rat from the other chefs.
 * In The Thief and the Cobbler, Zigzag is wearing pink boxers with purple stylized "Z"s under his robe when he launches himself up through the floor of the throne room.
 * In the Looney Tunes short "The Rabbit of Seville" while dressed as a woman and performing a dance with scissors he cuts off Elmer Fudd's overall straps revealing that he is wearing red boxers with white flowers on them.
 * The Green Goblin in Spider-Man Unlimited loses his pants to a Blob Monster, revealing appropriately Halloween-themed underpants.
 * The Camp Lazlo episode "Campers All Pull Pants" is about Edward attempting to pants everyone in Camp Kidney. Guess what just about every camper is wearing?
 * In the cartoon version of Space Ace, in the episode, Perilous Partners, Borf is shown wearing red boxers with yellow polka dots on them.
 * Also happens to Dexter in the episode, Spoiled Sports, in which in one scene, Dexter's pants are pulled down by the pole to reveal white boxers with red polka dots on them.
 * In the Recess episode "Mikey's Pants", we end up seeing T.J.'s boxers, which are red with blue polka-dots (In another episode, they were only light blue)
 * Codename: Kids Next Door
 * In "Operation: B.U.T.T.", Numbuh One wears Rainbow Monkey underwear.
 * Discussed in "Operation: B.R.I.E.F.S.", when Numbuh One is attacked by Mr. White, a living pair of underwear:

Other

 * William Shatner has told an anecdote about a live-theater performance in which a plot point -- or perhaps just a joke -- was the revelation that his character wore boxers with little whales all over them.

Real Life

 * As noted above, many stores carry "loungewear" with various patterns and designs licensed from cartoons, television, movies, or so on.
 * Don't forget your pink "I ? NY" boxers when going into combat.
 * This is a regular staple of Improv Everywhere's annual No Pants Subway Ride.

Comic Books

 * This Troper doesn't really know the context for these images, but it's Wally West wearing fruity briefs.

Fan Works
"The rumors that I only wear custom-made Shadowwalker Underoos are gross exaggerations. It was only that one unfortunate incident, and anyway the lady involved settled out of court."
 * Invoked by Doug Sangnoir in Drunkard's Walk II while recounting just enough of a Noodle Incident to pique the reader's curiosity:


 * (Just to clarify, "Shadowwalker" is his wife's codename.)

Film

 * Austin Powers uses his Union Jack brief-clad buttocks to overload the FemBots. Well, what else would he wear?
 * Fantastic Mr. Fox: Ash wears printed briefs.

Live-Action TV

 * One episode of Man vs. Wild revealed that Bear Grylls owns a pair of Union Jack briefs. (This may have been a set-up, though.)
 * In a scene in That '70s Show parodying Psycho, Kelso drops his Incredible Hulk briefs before getting into the shower.
 * In Dead Like Me, Mason is shown multiple times wearing nothing but his Union Jack briefs. Which was enough for George to demand he move out of her apartment.

Newspaper Comics

 * Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin's rocketship briefs, used for gags at least three times.
 * Somewhat subverted in that he's actually very proud of them, and (being Calvin) is implied to show them off any chance he gets.
 * Except on the day where he rips his pants and then has to to a problem on the chalkboard, though this may be due to his Ping-Pong Naivete.
 * He finds it hard to be without his cartoon underpants, having a need to gird his loins with funny animals.
 * Not sure if this counts as newspaper comics, but this WWII propaganda poster shows Hitler wearing boxers with swastikas on them.

Video Games

 * The first boss of The Simpsons Arcade game's pants will drop if he is left alone, revealing pink sparkly briefs.
 * The Bokoblins in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword have a predilection for "fashionable undergarments" . . . "fashionable" here meaning leopard print.
 * Raikov gets stripped down to his thunderthong (a lightning-bolt printed leather thong) in Metal Gear Solid 3.

Web Comics

 * Bennie in A Doemain of Our Own wears briefs with steaks and bacon print. When he discovers a rose on Sue's undies it inspires a classic pun.
 * Axe Cop wears underwear with an animated picture of himself chopping off a bad guy's head. He really doesn't do anything halfway.

Western Animation

 * Generator Rex reveals that Rex wears goofy print tighty whiteys, with motorcycles on 'em. They made the evening news.
 * And they helped.
 * As revealed at the end of Tokyo Mater, unpainted metal is actually considered to be the automobile equivalent of underwear.
 * In one episode of Producing Parker, Simon dances in a pair of space themed underwear.

Anime and Manga

 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo Sakaki's kitty underpants (which completely blow her (unwanted) image) in Azumanga Daioh.
 * In a similar, offscreen example, Tsukasa in Lucky Star is particularly embarrassed by absent-mindedly wearing character print underwear on Measuring Day.
 * Also similarly, Yuno in Hidamari Sketch was also hugely embarrassed when her kitten-print undies was revealed in a locker-room prank. (Why does it have to be Yonkoma...?)
 * A Running Gag on Blue Seed involves Momiji displaying a different animal on the seat of her underwear when she does her Once an Episode Panty Shot. The other characters maintain a betting pool on just what's going to show up on her panties any given day.
 * Asuna of Mahou Sensei Negima was embarrassed to no end when a magical sneeze from Negi destroyed her clothes, showing her teddy bear panties to the man she had a crush on.
 * On the cover of Bleach volume 3, you can see that Orihime's wearing polka-dot underwear.
 * In Hayate the Combat Butler, Hinagiku is normally serious... until she was revealed to wear (rather cute) frilled orange panties that didn't suit her at all (although she says she likes them)
 * Misaka Mikoto of A Certain Magical Index/A Certain Scientific Railgun, the Third strongest person in Academy City, wears very childish underwear, something she is very embarrassed about. (No wonder she wears shorts.)
 * And Saten likes to greet Uiharu by flipping her skirt and commenting on the panties she's wearing that day. At least once they were clovers.
 * Popotan—Mii, at every possible opportunity.
 * Parodied by (what else?) Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, in which Don Patch wears panties with ribbons on them, and he makes no effort to hide this (yes, he).
 * Penny in Zatch Bell has underwear with her one-sided boyfriend (Zatch) on them. Then, she accidentally reveals them to Kiyo's class. Their reactions are epic.
 * In Midori Days, Seiji recognizes one character as being American because of her American-flag panties; Shiori's are teddy-bear print.
 * In Dr. Slump, Yamabuki Midori is reported to wear Godzilla panties.
 * At first she wore strawberry panties.
 * In one of the episodes of the second season of Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei, Ikkyu is so distracted by Chiri's Bell Pepper panties that he manages to forget that they were attacked by an alien race piloting Humongous Mecha.
 * The first episode of Himesama Goyoujin has Aoi Misuzu slip on a discarded soda can, showing off her tanuki-print panties to the rest of the tennis club.
 * When Umino flipped up Miss Haruna's skirt in Sailor Moon, it had a big smiley on it. She does have a fairly fun and childish personality to go with it, which of course was thrown out in the English dub.
 * The movie Ultimate Teacher has Ganbachi humiliate Hinako by removing her skirt in front of the whole class... revealing her lucky kitty gym shorts. Naturally, men from all over rush in to have a look. Hinako's maturity is later reflected when she defeats a gang by showing that she's now wearing plain, white panties.
 * In a Running Gag for the Tantei Gakuen Q anime, Kyu (but not the viewer) ends up seeing up Megumi's skirt for a variety of reasons (never because he intentionally flips her skirt up) and blurts out what pattern is on them on a semi-regular basis. The patterns include things like teardrops and bunnies.
 * In one chapter of Magic Kaito, Kaitou flips up Aoko's skirt and recoils in horror - Aoko, knowing that he often does this to her, had put on panties with a fish print! (Kaitou is mortally afraid of fish for reasons that were never explained).
 * In Change 123, when Kosukegawa first meets Mikiri, she's wearing bunny panties . . . and nothing else.
 * In Ookami-san, Machiko has panties with her name on them, and a matching bra . . . though she may have worn them specifically to seduce Ryoushi.

Comic Books

 * Empowered owns a pair of Capitan Rivet-printed panties. And the matching t-shirt.
 * Scandal Savage has a pair of polka dot boyshorts. Ragdoll, meanwhile, has yellow footie pajamas, complete with buttflap.
 * The Red Queen, a member of the Excalibur villain team Crazy Gang, has bloomers with hearts on them.

Fan Works

 * PotterPuffs Harry Potter fan art reveals Death Eater underwear, including Narcissa's hilarious Hello Kitty panties.
 * In the Harry Potter/Sailor Moon/Ranma ½ crossover fic The Girl Who Loved, Intrepid Reporter Nabiki Tendo also wears Hello Kitty panties -- at least she does the one time that Sailor Pluto surprises her in her apartment just after she wakes up.

Film

 * The Charlie's Angels movie.
 * Not so much childish as actually children's underwear. Diaz's character was wearing Underoos.
 * In Dude, Where's My Car? the heroes are menaced by a giant alien woman... wearing pink bunny panties.
 * In Disney's Robin Hood when Lady Kluck is beating up Prince John's guards, one of them grabs her waist and pulls. Her bottom half slides down, revealing purple polka-dot underwear.

Literature

 * Kate Daniels once woke up in shapeshifters' HQ after severe injuries. When she gets out of the bed, she (and Curan) realize she's wearing underwear with pretty little bows. She has yet to live this down.

Live-Action TV

 * On The Daily Show, Kristen Schaal promised to take off a piece of clothing for every sexist comment made by the news media. At first she tried to stop after just taking off her earrings and coat, but Jon Stewart pointed out they had a lot more clips, and she ended up standing in nothing but her Wonder Woman underoos.
 * On My Wife and Kids, when Michael and Junior were renovating the garage with Franklin, Franklin stoops down, revealing the pink panties Kady (his girlfriend) gave him. Michael and Junior go on to admit that they got the same gift from their significant others.

Newspaper Comics

 * Broom Hilda often has an accidental dress lift that reveals a rather nautical set of boxers.
 * Skye from Doonesbury tries to prove she isn’t evil by mentioning she wears Hello Kitty underwear.

Video Games

 * As mentioned before, in a Wario Ware game, you must defend yourself from a ninja. Well, on the easy difficulty, the ninja costume falls off to reveal boxers. On the medium difficulty, the boxers fall off to reveal briefs. And on the third difficulty...
 * In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Trucy Wright's "magic panties" are blue with red hearts.
 * Plum's are huge bloomers with her namesake flower on them.
 * In Super Robot Wars Original Generation, when Seolla axe-kicked Arado for making yet another boob-joke on her, she ends up revealing to Russel, of all people... her teddie bear panties.

Web Comics

 * Anne Onnymous of The Wotch wears Wonder Woman Underoos.
 * Angela in Punch an Pie has a set of Wonder Woman Underoos. It just belays her Adult Child personality.
 * Questionable Content's Marigold has these too, though we don't see them either. Though we are told they have Badtz-Maru on them...
 * The author's LJ blog has the illustration for those interested.
 * In another Nerf Now!! example, the RED Sniper is too distracted by Engie-Tan's strawberry panties to notice the BLU Pyro sneaking up behind him . ..
 * Chloe in Eerie Cuties—pink, frilly, and with baby chicks. Probably not something you'd expect from a Succubus. Then there are Doom Panties, with only one little skull with a bow for ornament, which probably elevates them to Happy Fun Ball status.
 * Hatsuki of Moon Over June has a huge collection of these and often wears them around the house.

Web Original

 * When the Monkey King came to Whateley Academy in the Whateley Universe, he raided panties from every girls' dorm there. Some of the trophies included teddy bear panties, and a pair of My Little Pony panties that he left on the flagpole. Rumor has it they belong to Dragonrider, the daughter of supervillain Devilmaster.
 * In Lady Lumps VS Boy Bumps, some characters are revealed to wear underwear with a picture of the person they love printed on them (sometimes with hearts, too). For instance, Amy has Sonic on hers, Sakura has Sasuke on hers, and Cloud has Sephiroth on his.

Western Animation

 * On Total Drama Island, Heather fixes Gwen's pants during a mountain climbing challenge so she could rip them off when she was halfway up the cliff and reveal the Perky Goth purple skull panties to the world.
 * In the movie Rugrats in Paris Coco LaBouche loses the back of her dress revealing purple underwear with green hearts and pink S's which are supposedly dollar signs. You can see it here.
 * Rita from Flushed Away is revealed to have blue-and-white striped panties during the scene where Roddy accidentally pulls down her pants while escaping from the Toad and his henchrats while using the sewer gate's main cable as a zipline. Rita then proceeds to use said cable as a belt shortly after escaping.