Slippery Swimsuit



A character performs an impressive dive into a lake, swimming pool, or other body of water. The audience is amazed at the diver's prowess... so why are they staring and covering their children's eyes?

Hilarity Ensues when the diver notices his or her swimsuit floating leisurely on the pool's surface.

According to Rich Hall, this embarrassing phenomenon is known as detruncus and may happen to either a man or a woman. Women are more likely to lose their tops, but not always.

A subtrope of Wardrobe Malfunction.

Advertising

 * A Hope cigarette commercial features a pool scene, which starts off with one bikini-clad girl diving into the pool. Seconds later, her top is shown floating on the water, and at the end of the commercial, same girl is shown, in the pool, covering her bare chest with her arms, with a dismayed look on her face, and then ducking into the water.
 * Humorously played in the same commercial with a guy, who also dives into the pool, and his Dodgy Toupee comes off.
 * There was an old Snickers commercial where this happened to a surfer.
 * Happens to Smilin' Bob in one Enzyte commercial. Because of what Enzyte claimed to be ("natural male enhancement"), Bob was only too happy to put on a show.
 * The premise of this commercial for some sort of Jewish social network.
 * Happens to Homer Simpson in a CC's potato chips commercial.

Anime & Manga

 * This happens once to Princess Allura in Voltron (a.k.a. Princess Fala of GoLion). A high dive while wearing a bikini leads to her top surfacing before she did.
 * In the Angel Blade: Punish! OAV 2, Ayame, a Highly Visible Hottie Ninja, jumps from a diving board on a 99-meter-tall tower. Naturally, she dives into the pool unharmed... except that she loses her bikini in the water, to the great delight of the men around. And yes, in this case, both pieces of the swimsuit come off -- it is a Hentai series.
 * Happens in School Rumble. Nara thought that it had happened to Tenma and went to retrieve it for her...
 * A girl knows she is a Butt Monkey when she has Super Drowning Skills and, during her first day of school, she still ends up thrown into a pool while wearing a one-piece School Swimsuit... which somehow is slippery enough to leave her completely nude. Ryuubi from Ikki Tousen discovers this the hard way.
 * Tsuda fantasizes that this might happen to Aria in the Beach Episode of Seitokai Yakuindomo. What actually happens exceeds his expectations.
 * SHUFFLE! The first half of episode 9 involves the whole cast enjoying themselves at the beach, including Asa getting her bikini top washed away by a large wave.
 * Happens to Gai in Rock Lees Springtime of Youth. Lee himself thinks it was Sakura, and he shoves the trunks in her face.
 * Yuno's bikini top gets washed away at a water park in Mirai Nikki... but knowing Yuno, she probably did it on purpose.
 * If you see Machiko-sensei (from Maicchingu Machiko Sensei) in a bathing suit, it will inevitably slip off.

Comic Books

 * Seen in a strip of Le Petit Spirou. Spirou and his friend Cassius are at the beach, waiting to get into the water by counting the waves. On cue, the 75th is bigger than the others, stripping the girls from their class as well as their Hot Teacher from their swimsuits -- at which point the boys jump in with diving mask and snorkel to see underwater.
 * This cover for the Spirou compilation #309, with characters from the French-Canadian comic Les Nombrils.
 * Invoked in the Beach Issue of Mazing Man. Guido gets a bunch of girls in bikinis to go into the water with him and flap their arms, because at least one of their tops will come off. It happens all right -- to the ugly chick. Cue In-Universe Squick.

Films -- Animation

 * Happens to Lupin III in The Castleof Cagliostro. He dives underwater after one of the Count's aqua-suited goons. As he swims in pursuit through a tunnel, his boxers start to slip. At the end of the chase he drags the unfortunate goon back into the tunnel... then reaches out to snatch his boxers before they can float away.

Films -- Live-Action

 * Home Alone 2: When Kevin cannonballs into the hotel pool, wearing swimtrunks that were meant for his dad.
 * The Little Rascals movie in 1994 had this happen to Alfalfa, but he was swimming in his underwear.
 * In some surf movie called The Surfer King, this happens to a girl when two guys tell the guy operating a surf simulating ride to turn it up. It causes her bottoms to come off, but she fails to notice and walks away.
 * Buster Keaton loses his oversized rental suit in a public pool in The Cameraman.

Live-Action TV

 * Mr. Bean did it in front of a class of 10- to 12-year-old girls. Also happens when he went to the pool.
 * Even Stevens: Louis was trying to show his dad that he could be serious in a swimming contest.
 * On Fear Factor, three female contestants lost their bikini bottoms during a water challenge.
 * In the Beach Episode of Zoey 101, Dustin loses his trunks. He's so embarrassed that he refuses to leave the water, and by the end of the day he's sick and miserable.

Web Comics

 * Layla of Eerie Cuties loses her top to a treacherous wave in this strip. Too bad (for onlookers) it's at night and too dark to see anything... except for the resident Were Cat.

Western Animation

 * Played with and averted in As Told by Ginger: A group of high school girls conspire to remove Courtney's bikini top comes off at a pool party and reveal not just her body, but also the fact that she stuffed her top to appear more adult. Averted when the main characters find out and counter-plan to help cover up Courtney and retrieve her bikini top before anyone sees much.
 * Dexters Laboratory: After spending all day trying to avoid being pushed in, Dexter eagerly jumps into the pool. Unfortunately. his swimsuit falls off right before he gets out of the water.
 * In The Fairly Odd Parents episode "Emotion Commotion", the embarrassment of losing his swimsuit in front of his crush causes Timmy to wish he had no emotions.
 * Numbuh One in an episode of Codename: Kids Next Door loses his trunks, resulting in an avalanche of jokes about how big his butt is.
 * In the Popeye short Alona of the Sarong Seas, this happens first to Olive, then to Popeye and Bluto.
 * Total Drama Island
 * On the episode "Haute Camp-Ture", Izzy emerges from the pool having found a bikini bottom. Katie then points out that it's her bikini bottom. She quickly dives back under the water, exposing her lower half in the process.
 * Owen loses his trunks during the first ever challenge on Total Drama Island, and during the opening animation of Total Drama World Tour.
 * Occurs in an episode of Dilbert but not to a member of the main cast. An important business client recalls the story of his biggest shame, jumping into a lake when he was a kid, losing his trunks and being forced to walk out of the lake completely nude while all of his friends and family were watching, earning him the nickname "acorn" which haunts him for the rest of his life. Acorn just coincidentally happens to be the name of the new business idea they created for him, however.
 * Happens to Lucius on Jimmy Two Shoes, because he loaded his swimsuit with stolen pirate gold.
 * Mentioned in an episode of Clifford's Puppy Days, where Nina says her swimsuit fell off during a dive because it was too big.

Real Life

 * This is the primary reason that female surfers tend to wear tank suits (and male surfers sometimes wish they could).
 * Actress Jayne Mansfield orchestrated her discovery this way. She untied her bikini top as she was diving into the pool at the launch party for the Jane Russell film Underwater!. She emerged topless and feigning embarassment, upstaging Jane Russell at her own event. As the pool was surrounded by reporters and photographers, she made quite a splash and got a contract with a major studio within a week.
 * The "Get Naked Bikini". (Link SFW... barely)
 * Several competition swimmers with Jaked brand swimsuits have had the suit rip in the posterior area before or during a swim.