Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist

• Main
• All Subpages
• Create New

I wanna hamburger!

Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the Discworld. Tourist, Rincewind had decided, meant "idiot." —The Colour of Magic

The stereotypical dress for a tourist/someone on vacation (especially your type 2 Eagle Land one) is for them to be wearing a Hawaiian shirt, and often a Panama Hat and sunglasses as well. Note that the dress can be permanent for a character with a carefree personality, and it doesn't seem to depend upon tropical weather for a character to dress this way. Tourist characters may also have a bulky camera hung around their neck.

See also the Asian variant, Japanese Tourist.

Examples of Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist include:

Advertising

• A commercial that aired in military networks overseas about blending in your surroundings while living an another country had a Hawaiian shirted penguin singing about himself. The other penguins don't feel comfortable and a polar bear shows up coming to consume him.

Anime and Manga

• Showing how omnipresent this trope is, in the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, when Fuhrer Bradley is on vacation, he is shown wearing a Hawaiian shirt despite living in a fantasy world where there is no Hawaii for the value of the resulting Sight Gag.
• Axis Powers Hetalia has a little sketch of Germany as a tourist in Hawaii, complete with a lei and a Hawaiian shirt.
  • and don't forget Canada, who dresses in one to visit Cuba.
• Principal Kuno in Ranma ½... although in his case, he spent an extremely long vacation in Hawaii itself and went native.
• Junichiro Tokuoka from .hack//Liminality, ZERO and AI Buster always wears Hawaiian Shirt. His work ethics in developing The World's Japanese server is reflected in his "Tokuoka time;" that is, his bizarre sleeping habits. When he woke up was "morning;" when he had his first meal was "noon;" when he went out to drink was "evening." The team worked according to Tokuoka Time regardless of what the actual time was.
• Howard from Gundam Wing dresses like this all the time; it matches his cool, laid-back personality.
• Episode 48 of the Kirby anime has a bunch of these tourists come to Dream Land.

Comic Books

• The Joker dresses like one in The Killing Joke.
  • A similar outfit even appears as an Alternate Joker in Lego Batman

Film

• At the end of Aladdin, the Genie becomes one of these after being freed, complete with Goofy cap. This is actually a reference to a (sadly no longer shown) short film that played in the guest queue for The Magic of Disney Animation at Walt Disney World's Disney-MGM Studios called "Back To Neverland," where Robin Williams played a Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist (with the Goofy cap).
• A few of these can be seen in Lilo and Stitch. Of course, given that it takes place in Hawaii and Lilo's sister works at a tourist trap, that's probably no surprise.
• In The Sword in the Stone, Merlin returns from Bermuda (and the 20th Century) wearing a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, and, of course, bermuda shorts.
• We see these in the Cold Open of Despicable Me, in Egypt. The climate somewhat justifies the simple dressing, not so much the Hawaii prints.
• There's a couple in Flushed Away, set in Britain. It should be noted that this takes place in a community of sewer rats - maybe rat tourists would be at serious risk if they visited legitimate above-ground landmarks?
• The last thing that was seen worn by Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs.
• Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas both feature variations on the Hawaiian Shirted Tourist.
• In Twins, the two couriers who deliver the car to the garage try to pass themselves off as tourists by wearing Hawaiian shirts.
• The Running Man. Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to sneak through an international airport disguised as a tourist. The woman he's holding hostage threatens to throw up on him as she gets airsick.

"Go right ahead. On this shirt no-one will notice."

• The escaped mass murderer in Sleepover Nightmare dresses like this. It's as un-intimidating as it sounds.

Literature

• The cover of at least one edition of The Tough Guide to Fantasyland pictures tourists dressed this way.
• Comes up at least twice in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, both times while dealing with covert operations. Once in the Legacy of the Force series (which had a shirt that changed colors and patterns whenever the wearer wanted), once in the X Wing Series.
  • Wedge and a couple of other Wraiths, in order to go through another iteration of The Infiltration, had to disguise themselves as tourists from the planet whose hat is idiocy. This involved wearing a shockingly ugly selection of clothing.

Wedge: The sooner we finish, the sooner we can get off this planet and I can get out of this hat. Tyria Sarkin: Not to mention the lavender short pants? Wedge: Not to mention them, Flight Officer Sarkin. Or else.

• He's not a tourist, but Dexter in the novels by Jeff Lindsay (the inspiration for the television series of the same name) always wears these to work. Justified Trope, as Dexter explains that Miami is far too hot to wear suits to work and that anyone who does ends up removing the jacket anyway.
• Twoflower of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic is a combination of this and Japanese Tourist
  • In The Film of the Book, he's actually wearing a shirt that looks vaguely like a Hawaiian shirt, and stands out in the mass of more stereotypically Medieval European Fantasy dressed Ankh-Morporkians.

Live-Action TV

• Angel once pretended to be one. To a mob boss. While the guy was trying to flee LA. And he made small talk, acting completely ignorant.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Spike hits Rock Bottom when he's forced to dress this way after his clothes are shrunk from a leaky pipe.

Look at me! I mean, am I even remotely scary anymore?

• In the TV film of The Colour of Magic, Twoflower was changed from an Asian stereotype (specifically Japanese, referencing the large number of Japanese tourists who visit the UK) to a stereotypical American tourist, and dressed this way.
  • There was always a little bit of American tourist element in the character even in the book.
  • It is worth noting that while the shirt used in the final cut was hideous, it was in fact toned down from its literary origins because the original version interfered with the green screen.
• In Mork and Mindy, Mork dressed as one of these at the beginning of the episode "Mork's Night Out" when he thought he and Mindy's family were going on vacation.
• Jimmy James from News Radio once went on "vacation" (which was really just wandering around the office), and dressed this way to to signify that he was on vacation.
• Wash from Firefly likes to wear Hawaiian shirts, which is naturally indicative of his comparatively light and carefree personality.
• Hawkeye, Trapper, BJ, et al. often dress this way on Mash as part of their general defiance of all things military.
  • Jeff Winger spent an episode of Community channeling Hawkeye. Halfway through the episode, he started wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
• In the "L.A. at Last" episode of I Love Lucy, Fred is decked out in this manner as soon as they check into the hotel, to the degree that the other three laugh at him.
• In Burn Notice Sam Axe's tendency to wear Hawaiian shirts and khakis makes it easier to impersonate tourists on the fly.
• In the Taiwanese Series Drunken to Love You, Jie Xiu and Xiao Ru go to their honeymoon wearing equally-flowery Hawaiian shorts.

Music

• Jimmy Buffett, of course!

Newspaper Comics

• Look at any comic strip, anywhere, anytime, set at a tropical resort. Almost every character will be dressed this way. (In the case of some characters, such as Jon Arbuckle in Garfield, the couture may actually match the overall personality!)
• Zonker in Doonesbury has a fondness for these.

Professional Wrestling

• Puerto Rican Superstar Carlito Caribbean Cool dressed this way as part of his gimmick. He even used to have a tropical-themed talk show called "Carlito's Cabana."

Tabletop Games

• The Hawaii card from Steve Jackson Games' Illuminati: New World Order showed two tanned, smiling natives shoving one of these into a red, glowing crater.

Theatre

• During the preshow for Cirque Du Soleil's KOOZA, one of the performers plays an obnoxiously enthusiastic audience member who fits this trope to a tee. He's referred to as "The American Tourist" in the program—though, at least in the U.S. tour, there's a joke in which the emcee reveals the tourist is Canadian, which is perhaps an in-joke regarding the company's home country (and Canada, after all, is part of North America).

Video Games

• The recurring character of Duane in the Broken Sword games fits this. Though if his (probably but not undoubtedly delusional) hints that he's working for the CIA are correct, it could be part of an act.
• The Tourist role in Nethack starts with a Hawaiian shirt and an expensive camera.
  • If a shopkeeper sees any character wearing a Hawaiian shirt (this can be avoided by wearing armor over it), they'll charge one-third more for items and pay one-third less for anything the character sells them (Tourists always get that penalty until level 15, regardless of whether they're seen wearing the shirt) The presumed reason is that the shopkeepers see them as suckers and thus change the prices.
• At any rate, while it doesn't change your actual outfits, the Nerf Arm armor in Final Fantasy IX is one of these, called Aloha T-Shirt. Similarly, the matching pieces for it is the Straw Hat, Pearl Armlet and Sandals.
• Jack Carver of Far Cry for PC wears one of these. Justified in the fact he was only supposed to drop off and pick up the journalist who paid him, not get stuck fighting shitloads of mercenaries.
  • Said mercenaries also refer to him as "You! In the shirt!"
• In We ♥ Katamari, you can roll up an "American Guy", who is about three times as wide as the average person, wears a Hawaiian shirt and a baseball cap, and has a camera hanging from his neck.
• Tommy Vercetti from Grand Theft Auto Vice City.
  • Ken: "Hey, I loved 1978 too, but, y'know, this isn't gonna be a beer and strippers do."
• One Hundred Percent Completion in Super Mario Sunshine gets you a Hawiian-styled T-Shirt for Mario to wear. Suitable, as he's currently on vacation.
• Kahn, the lead Elite Beat Agent wears one of these shirts (and a strange expression) during the intro to the Material Girl stage set on a tropical island... even though the other agents are the ones going to the island, not him. (And, in Kahn Mode, he doesn't wear it when he's actually on the island himself.)
  • On that topic, in the first Ouendan game, there are some tourists in the Festival Episode that help you out.
• Wii Sports Resort, where the Miis are wearing Hawaiian Shirts during some of the more casual sports. Fitting as they are pretty much on vacation on a Tropical Island resort.
• The Tourists, naturally, in Evil Genius.
• One of the victims you could save in Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Along with his accompanying wife, they become werewolves after a certain time has passed during the stage, for some reason.
• The Hawaiian shirt Scott from Pokémon Emerald wears. Granted, he's not actually a tourist, but... Look at it! ^{[dead link]}
• The poorer tourists from Tropico.
• In the Twisted Metal-esque Playstation game Rouge Trip", one of the passengers you pick up is a stereotypical fat, obnoxious, HST.
• Toejam and Earl in Panic on Funkotron featured HS Ts as enemies that used their cameras to stun you if your eyes were open.

Web Comics

• El Goonish Shive displays a couple of the most painfully stereotypical American tourists imaginable in a British museum looking at the statue of Abraham.

Western Animation

• In Histeria!, a couple always shown on Miss Information's tours were dressed this way.
• Dale wears a Hawaiian shirt on Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.
• Babs Bunny turns into one in Tiny Toon Adventures when she visits Wackyland.
  • Babs and Buster also are dressed that way in the ending Couch Gag variant where they say "Aaaaaaaaaloooooooha!"
• Grandpa Max in Ben 10 constantly wore a red tropical shirt as he and his grandkids vacation around the country seeing the sights and fighting villains. It's not just a matter of Limited Wardrobe as he's seen wearing it in an alternate future and the two sequel series. Naturally, this is lampshaded throughout the franchise. He really likes that shirt.
• My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: Rarity and Sweetie Belle's father is seen dressed like this plus a straw hat and everything in the episode "Sisterhooves Social". Their mother is clad in the equally stereotypical tennis outfit. The reason for the outfits is that the two are leaving on a one-week vacation.

Real Life

• While in office, President Truman made frequent visits to his favorite vacation spot in the Florida Keys, and was often photographed there wearing what he called his "Key West Uniform" (Hawaiian sport shirt, white shoes and a pith helmet). His staff would follow a similar dress code, and even hold contests on each visit to see who could come up with the loudest shirt.
• In Hawaii itself (where Hawaiian shirts are called "aloha shirts"), this trope is played straight in that tourists can be seen with aloha shirts, and inverted in that aloha shirts are also considered business or semi-formal attire.
• The Batik shirt is a uniquely Southeast Asian take on this trope.