Man in a Kilt

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"Oh my, that British soldier is bending over! I'll just... fix my shoe, now." [1]

A true Scotsman will never tell you what under his kilt

But given any chance he'll be more than glad to show you.
—Fred MacAulay

Men in The Kilt (the plural of A Kilt is The Kilt, not Kilts) are often considered sexy, especially if they have "good legs." This a form of Fan Service but it isn't always intentional; as Most Writers Are Male (and straight), they usually don't include and might even deliberately avoid Fan Service aimed at women.

On occasion it is intentional though. We'll be listing both examples of intentional and unintentional Kilt Service here. It is worth mentioning, however, there are examples of this definitely not being Fan Service, when the Kilt is worn by a not traditionally attractive man... then again, different strokes for different folks and all that.

Often if a Man in a Kilt appears, someone will suggestively ask if is he "a real Scotsman", i.e. is anything worn under the kilt? If he's a "real Scotsman" he might say nothing is worn under the kilt: it's all in very good condition (historically, this is a case of Did Not Do the Research; since the "nae trews" style of kilt-wearing originated with a single British Army regiment; we also understand that it is permissible to wear underpants with a kilt at present, since there is a lady on the Scottish throne). The kilt is also invariable the Scottish tartan Great or Wee kilt, despite the kilt being considerably Older Than They Think.

Furthermore - in Scotland, the kilt is part of Highland dress and not universal to the entire country. Lowlanders (including historical figures like John Knox and Robert Burns) would never have worn kilts as they are the mainstay of the 'Teuchter' (or Highlander). This being the subject of "Donald Where's Yer Troosers?" by comic singer Andy Stewart.

Compare Shirtless Scene.

Oh, and... it's probably best not to tell a Scotsman he's wearing a skirt.... because if you do, you'll get kilt.

Examples of Man in a Kilt include:

Fanservice

Advertising

  • Scotch Whisky purveyor William Lawson's "No Rules" ad campaign featured kilt-wearing, well-built, and typically shirtless men. Pushing the Fan Service content as far as they're allowed (and occasionally farther, as one advert demonstrated), the kilts are invariably raised or lost completely.
  • Utilikilts runs an annual Mock-U-Mercial contest where owners can send in their fanmade commercials. Some are pretty amazingly epic. They're almost all gutbustingly funny.
  • There's also one about two teams in a sport event. One side: Badass looking dudes doing a fear-instilling dance/shout thing to impress their opponents. Other side: Well built men in kilts, unimpressed. Then it's their turn. They just stand there, and then they lift their kilts. Faces of first team: 0.0. Cue Crowning Moment of Funny. Well built, indeed. (Oh, don't worry, that bit is off-screen.)
    • It was for a Scottish whisky, so it makes sense. The tagline was "Always you, Always true". I THINK it was Dewar's...
  • Scott's Porage Oats pretty much sell their entire image on this from adverts like this to their basic box design.

Anime and Manga

  • Candy Candy involved some characters with kilts and nicely-shaped legs.
  • Koga from Inuyasha pretty much wears a kilt.
  • Prince Fillmore typically wears one in The Five Star Stories, though a dark brown one as opposed to the more iconic plaid.

Comedy

Film

  • William Wallace (Mel Gibson) in Braveheart even though, like most of the film, this was unlikely. Wallace was not a Highlander - he was an upper-class Lowlander.
    • The kilt in Braveheart was an anachronism. During Wallace's time, the most common battle dress was a long, heavy tunic waterproofed with bear or goose grease. The plaid wool wrap, which would evolve into the Great Kilt about a century later, was too valuable to risk damaging, and would have been set aside before battle.
    • Also worth noting that at the time, the great plaid didn't exist and wouldn't until over a century later. In dress, Wallace and his men would have looked no different from the Englishmen they were fighting.
  • Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) in Highlander. Along with many others in the Clan McLeod.
  • Samuel L. Jackson wore a kilt in Formula 51/The 51st State.
  • James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (a bit ironic considering it was Lazenby, not Connery).
  • Peter Capaldi wears a kilt, arran jumper and is seen frequently with bagpipes in Ken Russell's terrible horror film The Lair of the White Worm.
  • In Ten Inch Hero, Priestly wears one with a black t-shirt saying "Surf naked".
  • In Carry On Up The Khyber a war is fought over the belief that the kilted regiment wear underpants. The enemy are ultimately routed by being shown outright that they don't.
  • The Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland wears a kilt for the final battle.
  • Gutsy Smurf in The Smurfs has full regalia plus an accent to match. However, he does wear Smurf pants underneath his kilt.
  • Alan Bates in King Of Hearts wears a kilt as the uniform of his regiment - the ladies in the village brothel find it appealing.
  • In Brave, the story takes place in Scotland and thus all male characters wear kilts. Pixar even held "Kilt Fridays" at the studio, requiring all male staff members to wear a kilt to work.

Literature

Rob Anybody: ...Not necessarily.

  • Lazarus Long wears a kilt.
    • In his case, it's a practical choice - gives him better weapons concealment and access.
  • Jamie Fraser in Outlander, much to Claire's delight - at one point she mentions that the kilt makes her want to "ravish" him. As an aside, the sporran actually proves quite handy.
  • There is an entire romance novel niche dedicated to this trope, with stories set in both the present and past - sometimes in the same book!

Live-Action TV

  • Jamie McCrimmon from Doctor Who. As Captain Jack points out in this piece of Fan Art.
    • Both the Fourth Doctor and the Brigadier wear kilts in "Terror of the Zygons".
    • Also, in Real Life: [1]
  • Mr. Pool wears one in an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, he's of Scottish ancestry. It isn't played for Fan Service, as it just confuses Sabrina, and the principal yells at Mr. Pool for doing so.
  • "I'm examining this man."
  • Flynn, the Blue Ranger from Power Rangers RPM, for formal occasions as well as part of his childhood school uniform. When he was fighting off Wedding Smashers, there were even some "lifting the kilt" visual gags.
  • Parodied in an episode of The Detectives where they were called in to an attempted murder during a battle reenactment. The only clue the almost murder victim could give was that his attacker was wearing purple Y-fronts. Cue the detectives walking round with a rear view mirror on a stick to check what EVERYone was wearing under their kilt.
  • The Avengers once visited Scotland. To make sure the audience knew they were in Scotland, everyone—John Steed included, of course—wore the kilt throughout. Ironically, the only person wearing trousers was Emma Peel.
  • Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in Star Trek: The Original Series wears a kilt onscreen twice, in the Scott black & white tartan, both in the third season. He also wears a different Scott tartan in The Wrath of Khan.
  • On an episode of McMillan and Wife, Rock Hudson wore a kilt and his wife (Susan Saint James) had to give him some pointers sotto voce on sitting while wearing a skirt-like garment in public ("keep your knees together, dear").
  • In Tin Man, several of the Oz resistance fighters are wearing kilts. These were made by the Seattle-based Utilikilts company (see Real Life)
  • Glee's Kurt Hummel wears a very traditional (but home-made) formal kilt and jacket to his prom in "Prom Queen" - though with a pair of skinny jeans underneath, and knee-high boots (justified in that Kurt is canonically rather averse to showing skin).
  • Duncan MacLeod in the Highlander series, along with others in the flashback scenes.
  • The Muppet Show gives us One-Scene Wonder Angus McGonagle, the Argyle Gargoyle who garrrrrrrgles Gerrrrrrrrshwin. GORRRRRRRGEOUSLY! Gonzo also wears a kilt for one sketch while playing the bagpipes.
  • El Chapulin Colorado: A guest at a costume party was wearing a kilt as part of his costume.

Music

  • Finnish folk metalers Finntroll often adopt black kilts, in tune with their paganised aesthetic, much to the apparent delight of their female fans.
  • Scottish singer Kenneth McKellar sported a kilt when he represented the United Kingdom in the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest.
  • Despite being recorded in a pre-music video era, Andy Stewart's Donald, Whur's Yer Troosers which is about the humourous misadventures of a Scottish man wearing a Kilt in England contains an example of this trope when women drop money on the ground on at his feet just so they can bend down to pick it up...
  • Steampunk band Abney Park's guitarist/violinist often wears a tartan kilt as part of his stage look. Rumor has it that some female fans do indeed try to get a peek from the front row at concerts.
  • "The Scotsman" by Bryan Bowers is basically a long joke set to music. Basically, a drunk Scotsman passes out in a ditch and two girls decide to take a peek under his kilt. It turns out that he isn't wearing anything underneath; impressed by what they see, the girls take one of their blue hair ribbons and tie it around his... little friend. When he wakes up and goes to pee, he sees the ribbon and says "Lad, I don't know where you've been, but I see you've won first prize."
  • Rapper Kanye West wore a kilt on his and Jay Z's Watch the Throne tour in the US during late 2011.

Video Games

  • Shamans and Druids in World of Warcraft often get kilt-like pants as part of their raid set or as single equips. They are not gender nor race specific either. One of the funniest (And in some cases, the most awesome) things to see in this game is a 8 ft, musclebound orc guy pummeling enemies with his axes and/or fists while wearing a kilt. It's even more hilarious to see Tauren (a Minotaur like race) walking around in the kilt.
    • Video from the song above.
    • Kil'jaeden is sometimes depicted with a gladiator-style kilt.
    • Lampshaded by one of the female dwarf /flirt lines: "I'd like to see you in a kilt." Ironically, until recently, male dwarves were unlikely to wear kilts in-game.
  • One of the random bits of starting encouragement dialogue in London in Midtown Madness 2 is a Scotsman saying "If you can't feel the wind under yer kilt ye aren't going fast enough! Whaddaya mean yer not wearin' a kilt?!"
  • Not directly present in-game, but Soldier from Team Fortress 2 sometimes taunts Demoman by shouting things like "Scotland is not a real country, you are an Englishman with a dress." In a tie-in comic, Demoman also wears a kilt in a family photo, as do as his parents.
  • In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, the Man In Black real name Theodor Harvey but better known as Golbez is so called for his choice of attire: black cowl/cape, black kilt, nothing else.
  • Craftable in Kingdom of Loathing. Requires you to be a male character, as they are the Spear Counterpart to the skirts that girls make.

Professional Wrestling

  • Drew McIntyre, real name Drew Galloway, of WWE and the UK independent circuits, real Scotsman and sex on legs.

Web Comics

Western Animation

  • Cortes in Skyland used to have a kilt in his early character design, but it got replaced by pants, but seems to have survived on in the form of a strip of tartan around his waist. Needless to say, the fandom has taken on the task of drawing him in a kilt. Shirtless, too.
  • Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons has been seen wearing one on a few occasions, including once when Bart tied balloons to the kilt as a prank.
  • In the Loch Ness episode of Inspector Gadget, Brain wears a kilt most of the episode, and you can see up the kilt many, many times. He's not wearing anything, but he is a dog.
  • The male Smurfs in The Smurfs Season 9 episodes that take place in Scotland are all seen wearing kilts, as their clothes would change depending on what time period and/or geographical location they would wind up in.
  • Bugs Bunny wears a kilt during the "Slobovian Rock and Roll" number in one of the later Merrie Melodies.
    • When he once went to Scotland as a result of another Wrong Turn At Albuquerque, Bugs mistook a local man for a woman. Once learning it's a man, Bugs provided a barrel. Once learning he's in Scotland, Bugs adapted his Catch Phrase by asking "What's up, Mac?"
  • DuckTales (1987): Flintheart Glomgold wears a kilt to show he's not an African like his comic book counterpart. Scrooge also occasionally wears a kilt. During his first day in Duckburg, he was arrested for wearing a 'skirt' in public. The judge, who was wearing a kilt under his robe, felt so insulted by the cop who dared call it a skirt he sentenced the officer to 30 days in skirts.
    • When Scrooge took Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby to visit his family's chalet in Scotland, Webby saw a photograph of Scrooge as a kid wearing a kilt. Webby thought it was a girl.
  • The Foot 2 Rue Scottish team's boys wore the kilt. The team's girl wore pants.

Web Original

  • Fawkes wears one in his first episode in the third season of The Guild.

Clara: Um, who says you're number one? And be honest, are you naked under there?
Fawkes: Server stats. Axis of Anarchy rules. And yes, I am.

    • Actually, Fawkes wears one in every single episode. Even when he's wearing a suit jacket.

Real Life

  • A lot of weddings will have the groom and groomsmen in the kilt, if there's Scottish or Irish ancestry: Truth in Television, as well as fictional examples Sex and the City (Kyle McLachlan), Four Weddings and a Funeral and Made Of Honor (Patrick Dempsey, he tried to be like a "real Scotsman" but his bits were attacked by midges).
  • John Barrowman in a kilt (at his civil ceremony, one picture involves him flashing Eve Myles - we don't see anything though - just her enjoying the view).
  • David Tennant in a kilt, apparently DT once said he wanted the Tenth Doctor to wear one. I think he was joking though.
  • Yoshiki Hayashi once modeled a kilt in a fashion show.
  • In the realm of fanart- putting a character of Scottish ancestry- or not- in a kilt is apparently the next best thing to an all out shirtless scene for sheer squee factor. A certain artist on Deviant ART has at least two sketches of Carcer Dun- Psychopathic Knife Nut Carcer Dun- in the appropriate Dunn tartan. He looks very nice. Very nice.
  • Cam Gigandet wearing a kilt. Yay!
  • A great many men in Scotland wear the kilt for special occasions, though seeing them used for casual wear is a bit odd.
    • However, many Scots gleefully don one at the first hint of a trip abroad, particularly if they are to represent their country in some way. A Scottish international rugby or football game will typically see more than a few of the fans kilted up.
  • Patrick Norton, co-host of "The Screen Savers" pre-G4 takeover, occasionally sported a Utili-kilt. It never became as iconic as his sledgehammer.
  • Sean Connery, being of Scottish descent, showed up in full regalia for his knighting ceremony.
  • The dress uniform for several regiments of the British army (the ones that were originally "Highland" regiments) includes wearing the kilt.
  • Simon Pegg sported a kilt to the premier of the Star Trek reboot on the basis that he plays Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, the USS Enterprise's Scottish engineer.
  • You don't have to look hard to find men in the kilt at a Renaissance Faire.
  • Seattle has a company called Utilikilts, and it's not uncommon to see Seattle-area men wearing them in summer.
  • There's also the California-based Sport Kilt.
  • Marc Jacobs makes it look pretty good.

Fan Disservice

Film

  • Fat Bastard wears one in his first scene. Pray for no wind.
  • Lord Dingwall from Brave : "Feast your eyes!"

Literature

  • The Nac Mac Feegle, in Discworld. When you're six inches high, but have enough muscle to lift a cow, your legs are not going to be attractive, and artwork of them reflects this. They dislike being asked if anything's worn under the kilt, but eventually say "Not necessarily."
  • Probably not intended as fanservice (though of course some people will see it that way) but a fair number of the male characters in the Redwall series wear kilts, Rakkety Tam MacBurl and Wild Doogy Plumm probably being the most obvious. They're not necessarily of the traditional Scottish design - Ferahgo wears a fur one.

Live Action TV

  • On Are You Being Served, menswear was once asked by a Scotsman for assistance... right on the day when Miss Brahms was temporarily allowed to work there.[2] Fortunately for her fear of "the unknown", they were informed that their inside legs are taken from the outside.

Professional Wrestling

  • "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Even in his prime, one would be hard-pressed to call him "sexy"; these days, with several years and several pounds added... Also, he's thankfully not a True Scotsman, and wears standard issue wrestling trunks underneath his kilt.
    • "Hard-pressed"? YMMV. In this troper's opinion, there was a reason he was called "Hot Rod" back in the day, and it doesn't involve cars or tempers.
    • Since he's actually from Saskatoon, he's at best an Honorary Scotsman.
      • Remember The Highlanders? Yeah, me neither. They were, at least, from Scotland.
        • He could have been a descendant of the Selkirk settlers who were the first white people to settle the prairies and were brought to Canada from Ireland and Scotland.

Tabletop Games

  • In the Infinity miniatures game, the Ariadna faction can field troops from the 45th Glaswegian regiment, which are stereotypically Brave Scots with kilts and giant claymores. Unstereotypically, they also pack heavy autocannons.

Video Games

  • Haggis Macmutton, "of the clan Mac Mutton", in The Curse of Monkey Island, complete with exaggerated Scottish accent. At one point he tells an impatient Guybrush "keep yer skirt on, laddie", and during a storm at sea is shown holding down not the rigging, but his tartan.
  • In the Total War games, many Scottish units wear kilts. If it's a unit with the word "Highlander" anywhere in it, expect to see full-body kilts. Highland Noble units actually wear chainmail kilts with plate armor if they've been upgraded.
  • Armies in Europa Universalis are represented on the map by soldiers in attire reflecting their general tech level and with some regional/national variation. Pre-gunpowder Scottish units wear the kilt, making them immediately recognizable from other European powers.
  • Violent Glaswegian Magnus Armstrong from No One Lives Forever.

Western Animation

  • Duff Killigan in Kim Possible, wears a kilt, isn't traditionally sexy.
  • Groundskeeper Willie in The Simpsons, when not wearing overalls at work, will sport a kilt, and being a true Scotsman, has nothing underneath. When he recreates the leg crossing scene from Basic Instinct in "Who Shot Mr. Burns, Part 2," it causes the opposite reaction that Sharon Stone got. When Bart pulls a gag by lifting his kilt in front of a crowd during "Scotchtoberfest," people weep and faint, with Willie dismissively saying "'tis naugh' bu' wha' Go' gae meh ya Puritan pukes!" When he played basketball in one, the other players couldn't bring themselves to get close to him. Oddly though, he's gotten several Shirtless Scenes.
    • The shirtless scenes are because Willie's level of attractiveness is subject to Negative Continuity.
    • He's ugly above the neck and nobody wants to look beneath the kilt. In between is all right.
  • Home Movies - Coach Mc Guirk reignites his passion for Scottish Highland Dancing in full regalia...he gets a cramp and lands sprawled out, horrifying his team with the view.
  • The Scotsman in Samurai Jack.
  • Scrooge McDuck, despite not being human and therefore having duck-legs, does quite well in tailcoat and kilt. He also has a nice accent.
    • Only in DuckTales (1987), though. There is no sign of the accent in the comics, but Don Rosa's works seem to imply that he lost it during his cowboy years. Actually, Don Rosa made Scrooge wear a kilt in the ninth part of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.
    • Scrooge once told that, during one of his earlier days in America when he still was poor, a police officer once arrested him for wearing a 'skirt' in public. Fortunately, for Scrooge, the judge was also Scottish (or at least Scottish-American) and felt so insulted he sentenced the cop to thirty days wearing real skirts.
    • In order to avoid the Unfortunate Implications of featuring a South African in a cartoon made during the Apartheid era, DuckTales (1987) retconned Flintheart Glomgold as a Scotsman and gave him a kilt.
  • Mung Daal in Chowder. Thankfully, it's a Magic Kilt.
  • The Scots-Canadian hermit in Chilly Beach decides to give the curling ice one final polish before a crucial game... so he lift up his kilt and pees on it. When someone reminds him that it's traditional to wear something under the kilt when there's a woman on the throne he sheepishly admits that it was laundry day.
  1. ↑ This picture was made in 1815. This trope is Older Than Radio.
  2. ↑ in order to avoid proximity to Mrs. Slocombe's cold, given that she'd just been vaccinated
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