Loafing in Full Costume
Sometimes a Superhero (or villain) will be doing completely mundane things like fishing or shopping or just hanging around the house, but he'll still be in full costume. In some works, particularly in comedies, this is a form of Limited Wardrobe: the hero has no other identity, and thus no other clothes. Fans who put a lot of thought into it, though, will wonder why the hero doesn't at least change into civvies when he's trying to blend in with the other guys in the food court. If the hero actually has a civilian identity, then there is of course no excuse.
This can also apply to certain kinds of uniforms, provided that they don't too-closely resemble civilian clothing to the point where it's not at all impractical to leave them on. If it's a school uniform, that's its own trope.
Very common in animated series, as new animation models are expensive.
Compare Limited Wardrobe
Advertising
- In American Express ads, Superman (in costume) has lunch with Jerry Seinfeld in a diner and walks around with him in public.
- A DirecTV commercial featured a city overrun with crime and disasters. The next cut is a superhero in full costume watching TV and ignoring the telephone.
Anime and Manga
- In Tentai Senshi Sunred, the hero characters always wear at least their masks all the time, if not their whole costumes.
- In Ratman, the evil organization's mooks, the Jackies, spend all their time in skeleton costumes. They even bathe with it on!
Comic Books
- The Silver Age Superman was a big offender, to the point that the writers had to reconsider why he even had a secret identity in the first place. This ultimately resulted in the Byrne reboot.
- This was common in the Dark Age when creators seemed to give up on having characters with secret identities and so all costumed heroes were shown in costume all the time. See early Youngblood for one example.
Film
- Happened in some lucha films. One film has El Santo in bed asleep, wearing full ring gear including his cape.
Live Action TV
- On Star Trek, the Enterprise crew seem to constantly wear their uniforms, even when they're sleeping, off duty or on leave. Exceptions are startling, such as Uhura's loungewear in "The Tholian Web". Later incarnations of the show did show crewmembers in their civvies/nightgowns/lingerie/etc. when appropriate.
Web Comics
- Mr. Mighty in Everyday Heroes tends to hang around the house in full costume for no clear reason except Rule of Funny or something similar.
- Batman and Sons has every superhero and supervillain doing this, even when it would compromise their Secret Identity. BAS runs on Rule of Fun so it really doesn't matter.
Web Original (and YouTube)
- Parodied in this YouTube video
Western Animation
- On The Tick (animation), superheroes wear their costumes all the time.
- In the Teen Titans animated series, the creators didn't want the characters to have secret identities or alter egos, so the heroes were in full costume all the time. Robin was also never seen without a mask or dark sunglasses to cover his eyes, even when he was in disguise.
- The ¡Mucha Lucha! kids—and their parents—were in luchador regalia all the time. One episode had Rikochet lose his mask and act as if he were naked without it.
- In Batman the Brave And The Bold, Batman (as well as most of the other heroes) is in costume almost all the time, but it's justified because he's on the job all the time and the show simply doesn't deal with his secret identity. However, when he underwent a Literal Split Personality, even "Slacker Batman" elected to keep the Batman persona, and lounged around the Batcave in full costume eating nachos.
- Nachos? BATMAN DOES NOT EAT NACHOS!
- "...Unless something better's on TV, Freakazoid! Freakazoid!"
- Mini-example: In a Superman Theatrical Cartoons, a baddie was going around pretending to be Superman while committing robberies and such. We see him at one point slouching in a chair in his hideout, smoking a cigarette, in full Superman costume.