Pimp Duds



The standard attire for all men who... help young women earn money for college. You know, managers in the intimate entertainment industry. Guys who... how shall I put this?... manage a harem of prostitutes. Pimps. Street walkin', jive talkin', bitch slappin', bling wearin' pimps. This is their uniform:


 * 1) One hat, with a brim that extends at least 15 centimeters in every direction. Some sort of giant feather or other ostentatious decoration is preferred.
 * 2) One suit that appears to have come from the campiest of 1970's B-movies. Should ideally be made at least partly out of fur (real or imitation), and this fact should be immediately obvious to anyone who sees it. (Leopard or zebra are the most recommended patterns; ermine is much too sophisticated in most contexts.) Excessive poofiness is a plus.
 * 3) One cane, usually with handle covered with jewels or some sort of intricate design. The pimp must carry this cane at all times even if... especially if they have no trouble walking whatsoever.
 * 4) One pair of excessively large sunglasses with excessively large frames.
 * 5) As much bling as the pimp's body can support. At least one of these should be in the shape of a giant dollar sign.
 * 6) Tall platform shoes (optional).

All parts of the uniform should be an exceptionally bright color. Purple, orange and white seem to be popular choices, but pretty much any color other than black, brown or grey can work, so long as it shines brighter than the Las Vegas strip.

Extra points for gold teeth.

Wearing one of these outfits can also get completely innocent people confused with pimps.

Kinda Truth in Television -- you can't really identify a pimp on sight this way, but the idea has a basis in reality.

See also Rainbow Pimp Gear. Sub-trope of Stock Costume Traits.

Anime & Manga

 * In Fullmetal Alchemist, Greed seems to be going for this look. He wears a boa and Cool Shades and is introduced with a Paid Harem. Also, not a direct example, but Kimblee almost always wears a snazzy white suit which has been given the Fan Nickname of "the pimp suit".
 * Dragon Ball: Android 15 wears an outfit which resemble these. In the English dub, they even gave him the voice of a stereotypical pimp/gangster to match.
 * Sir Crocodile, a superpowered gangster in One Piece, fits the bill, wearing a fur pimp coat and rings on all of his fingers. Later appeared Donquixote Doflamingo manages to even out-pimp him - and is it any surprise that they are rivals?
 * Suitengu of Speed Grapher  always wears a white greatcoat with a fur collar and favors displays of conspicuous consumption such as cigarettes wrapped in bills kept in a gold case. Since he runs a club that caters to every pleasure, he arguably actually is a pimp.

Comic Books

 * In PS 238, as a practical joke to Zodon, the resident Gadgeteer Genius tampering with his holographic disguise results in looking like he's wearing Pimp Duds.

Fan Works

 * The Hentai Zone, a Ranma One Half ecchi dōjinshi, puts Tatewaki Kunō into this outfit (warning: NSFW).

Films -- Live-Action

 * I'm Gonna Git You Sucka
 * The ex-pimp Fly Guy wears this kind of outfit when he goes out on the town. He also wears high heel shoes with miniature aquariums in the heels. Watch it here. It should be mentioned that Fly Guy's high heels with aquariums feature dead goldfish because a) they were in storage for a long time and b) he can't open them to feed the fish anyway. Also, he just got out of the slammer at that point; fashion has passed him by.
 * There is also the "Pimp of the Year" pageant flashback.
 * King George in Coffy goes a bit lighter on the bling than some examples, but makes up for it by wearing a half-cape that matches his orange harvest gold suit and orange-rimmed sunglasses.
 * Upgrayedd, the pimp from Idiocracy, wears a giant orange fur coat.
 * American Gangster plays with this trope. The main character, Frank, actually makes a point to avoid dressing like a pimp, saying that "the loudest person in the room is the weakest one". His strategy of keeping low profile works until his wife buys him a luxurious fur coat, which gets him noticed by the police immediately. However, other gangsters don't have Frank's common sense, and it's worth noting that the film is set in The Seventies...
 * The Boppers are dressed like this in The Warriors. They appear in only one scene, though.
 * Running Scared has a textbook example of pimp, from the costume to the attitude.
 * Dead Presidents (which is set in the Bronx between 1969 and 1973) has a pimp as a minor yet important character, and he somewhat dresses this way.
 * Austin Powers dresses in pimp gear to celelbrate visiting The Seventies in Goldmember.
 * Stu runs afoul of a pimp wearing a tacky, unbuttoned silk shirt in Phone Booth. When Stu tries to bribe him to go away with his Omega watch, the pimp counters with his "solid gold Rolex, motherfucker!"

Live-Action TV

 * In the Seinfeld episode "The Wig Master" Kramer ends up, through a series of coincidences, fighting a prostitute in front of a pink Cadillac while he's carrying a walking stick, wearing a woman's large brimmed hat, and has on the eponymous garment from Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The whole chain of events, ending in his arrest, can be witnessed here.
 * Manswers mentions these kinds of clothes when discussing how much a pimp makes a year.
 * Lazy Town: Robbie Rotten isn't a pimp, but his standard outfit looks somewhere between a pimp outfit, a spandex catsuit and that of a refined 1890s gentleman. Then there's the original Icelandic stage play, where he wore the full pimp outfit, complete with cane.
 * Although Huggy Bear in Starsky and Hutch dresses this way, he isn't a pimp. It was just The Seventies.
 * "Sweet Daddy" Williams on Good Times dresses like this, which make sense since he's an actual pimp.
 * Scrubs: J.D. and Turk wear this in one of J.D.'s Imagine Spots.
 * On The Colbert Report, Stephen wore one of these during the brief time he worked as a pimp under the name "Big White Chocolate".
 * All the male characters (Tracy Morgan, Tim Meadows, Ray Romano, and Vince Vaughn on the short-lived recurring Saturday Night Live sketch "Pimp Chat" wore Pimp Duds.
 * One episode of CSI has a pimp contest at a strip club (officially a contest between smartly-dressed DJs), with the contestants wearing various levels of ostentatious Pimp Duds.
 * In one episode of That 70s Show, Kittie imagines how a party at her house could go wrong. In her fantasy, Michael Kelso and Steven Hyde are dressed in standard Pimp attire. Extra points to Kelso for no shirt and an open jacket.

Music

 * Flavor Flav
 * Humpty Hump from Digital Underground (it's not the 1970's style Pimp Duds; it's more of a 1990s spin on it. He does wear excessive jewelry and fur coats like a pimp, and has a furry hat).
 * Also Eek A Mouse has been known to channel this trope on occasion.
 * As Snoop Dogg became Lighter and Softer he began to wear these in his music videos, due to the outrageous 1970s cartoon pimp image being more palatable than the real-life, modern day, sexually exploiting vulnerable young women for money kind of pimp that Snoop had been.

Pro Wrestling

 * The Godfather had this as his gimmick, though the look wasn't quite as outlandish as it could have been (it was the Attitude Era).
 * Kelly Kelly wore this kind of costume for Halloween 2007, though she somewhat mistakenly referred to herself as a "gangsta."

Puppet Shows

 * He's not a pimp, but Dr. Teeth from The Muppet Show dresses exactly like this. He's probably supposed to be a hippie.
 * "They didn't call him a pimp, but I know a pimp when I see one. They called him The Count." -- Dave Chappelle
 * Sweet Daddy D, the "Player in the Management Profession" from the Jeff Dunham stable, is as stereotypically dressed as possible.

Toys

 * No, seriously. LEGO Space Police III features Brick Daddy, a.k.a. SPACE PIMP, an alien gang leader dressed in purple pimp duds. The fandom was very, very amused.

Video Games

 * The Magic Booster Pack for City of Heroes contains a very wide-brimmed hat and long jacket that are easily re-purposed into being a pimp outfit.
 * Saints Row 2 allows you to dress up as one, and some run around town.
 * There's a character who dresses just like this (and indeed, is the same profession as that described) in the video game Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude.
 * The Black Baron from Mad World dresses like thi-- Aww hell naw.
 * Partial example: This trope is why Sun Quan's outfit (a fur-lined vest) in the Dynasty Warriors games gets the Fan Nickname "Pimp Coat".
 * While it doesn't appear in the game itself, a lot of people find amusement in modifying screenshots from Bioshock to put the Big Daddies in these.
 * Pokémon: Honchkrow, especially when he's Shiny. Seriously. The description of how he orders Murkrow (witch birds; "witch" being a rhyming euphemism for a certain misogynistic B-word and "bird" being a British slang term for a girl) around to do his bidding and takes a lion's share of what they have does nothing to shake off the pimping implications.
 * Not a whole suit, but you can get a purple pimp hat in Fable. It's hidden near a brothel, guarded by a door that requires you to have had sex enough times to pass.
 * Team Fortress 2: The black Demoman class now can randomly get (or craft) the Hustler's Hallmark, a sweet-looking pimp hat. For bonus pimp points, he can wear this hat along with a pair of slatted shades, which apparently belong to Homestar Runner.
 * Final Fantasy
 * The Red Mage's hat has the Fan Nickname "Pimp Hat" because it's of a similar shape and sports a fancy feather.
 * And for another partial example, among fans of the Emperor in Dissidia and/or people who main him, his rather odd-looking staff has been dubbed the pimp stick, both for its obvious visual qualities (and being attached to a guy with an Exburst that is... questionable), and for the fact that the move where the Emperor basically slaps the opponent with the cane is amazingly effective and useful.
 * A possible clothing choice for a male Malkavian in Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines.
 * One of your patients in Amateur Surgeon is a pimp who wants you to bling his insides, with things like a golden ribcage, a new, golden kidney, and jeweled sutures staples.
 * In Oddworld, the richest Glukkons, called Glockstars, wear this.
 * World of Warcraft supplies nearly every item one could ask for in making pimp duds for anybody able to wear leather or better. It's very popular for banking toons; there's even a diamond-tipped staff that sparkles. The downside is that you can't wear your pimp shades and pimp hat at the same time.

Web Comics
"Torg: (calling from jail) Turns out this isn't the best outfit to be peddling farm animals in."
 * In Sluggy Freelance, Torg has to wear Pimp Duds after all his clothes are eaten by moths, and the only new clothes he can get come from raiding a Salvation Army drop off bin. He later tries selling a cow in order to get money for less tacky clothes, but that presents its own problems.

"Rocky: ...I said your sister dresses like a ho but that doesn't mean you should start pimping her out.
 * A teacher named Raven acquires one of these via Imagine Spot in this El Goonish Shive comic.
 * The Order of the Stick: The rest of the outfit may not be particularly fancy, but Belkar has the hat down pat.
 * Buwaro of Slightly Damned uses one of these as a disguise for a while. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Robotic Jive Turkey Sweetdaddy Jupiter Velvet of Skin Horse wears clothing like this. His creator is the living embodiment of Funk.
 * In Our Little Adventure, Julie obtains the look thanks to a Hat of Diguise.

Norveg: I beat you to that joke when Julie donned the hat in the store."

Web Original

 * Gaia Online has a pimp set which basically fits this trope, and if you mix and match items you can create this whole outfit.
 * Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog has the aptly-named villain "Purple Pimp".

Western Animation
"Bender: Stupid anti-pimping laws..."
 * A Pimp Named Slickback from The Boondocks.
 * During the Futurama cast's jaunt to 1947 Roswell, New Mexico, the Professor attempted to disguise himself in order to blend in. Though he was probably going for a Zoot Suit, he ended up looking like a pimp in orange.
 * Bender pulls this off in a less ostentatious way in "Put Your Head on My Shoulders" alongside a couple of floozies. In court. While being charged for pimping.


 * The Boogie Man from The Powerpuff Girls episode "Boogie Frights" dresses like this. Obviously not a pimp (it's a kid's show), but a nod to Blaxploitation films as part of the episode's 1970s vibe.
 * In The Simpsons, getting nearly assaulted by a pimp (in standard pimp dud gear) is one of the reasons Homer hates New York. (He was visiting the city in 1972.)
 * From King of the Hill, one-off character Alabaster Jones (voiced by Snoop Dogg), the main mack daddy of Oklahoma city, fits the bill with his flashy white suit and cape. Yes. He has a cape.
 * Mission Hill: The pimp who mistook Posey as a prostitute who offers erotic massages, dresses like this. Andy lampshades this when he describes the man as a "good, old-fashioned, bell-bottom and platform-shoe pimp," then asks if he's seen him on the show, Beretta.
 * An episode of Jimmy Two-Shoes had Samy wear these. Yes, on a kids show.
 * In the The Angry Beavers episode "Long in the Teeth", Dag and Norb try to outcompete each other's coolness (and incisor length)...and are briefly seen wearing outfits like this. (Ah, what children's cartoons of The Nineties got away with!)
 * A crocodile wearing Pimp Duds is occasionally seen in the background of Rocko's Modern Life, mostly at Cafe Chameleon.

Real Life

 * James O'Keefe supposedly wore them when he visited the ACORN offices. (Turned out, not so much.) No gigantic hat, and his suit wasn't particularly garish, but he did have a fur coat, sunglasses, and a cane -- in the framing sequences. In the portion of the video shot inside the office, he's clearly not wearing the coat.