Fun T-Shirt

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Yes, we know it's not pointing at anyone -- yet.

A T-shirt with a funny phrase or funny image. Really popular in Real Life.

In fiction, the Fun T-Shirt is not used unless there clearly is a purpose. Often it's to comment on the shirt, to use the shirt to "spice up" a character, or simple Rule of Funny.

Either that, or it's The Merch.

A Super-Trope to And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt.

Examples of Fun T-Shirt include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

  • In an early issue of Marvel Comics' Thunderbolts, the team was trying to infiltrate an evil organization's base by pretending to be new civilian recruits. Moonstone used her Unlimited Wardrobe power to make an "I'm with Stupid" T-shirt whose arrow kept pointing to different people.
  • Johnny the Homicidal Maniac has a shirt that changes every time it's in the panel.
  • Newspaper Comics example: Shelf-Life in Zippy the Pinhead has a constantly changing shirt.
  • Timmy in Associated Student Bodies wears a shirt that displays a different slogan in each frame he appears in. All of them are gay-related jokes, for example "Parking in rear" "Yes I suck" and "I'm not gay but my boyfriend is"
  • During Walt Simonson's run on Thor, Volstagg the Voluminous spent several issues wearing an "I♥NY" T-shirt, over his traditional Asgardian attire.
  • Bill Willingham likes to have some of his Deadpan Snarker characters wear a shirt that reads "EVERYONE SUCKS BUT ME".

Fan Works

  • In Cristy and Mel's Warped Mirrors story, at one point Duo needs to get knee surgery. Among the (custom printed) oversized shirts he buys before going under the knife, Duo gets one that roughly says, "Patient gown? We don't need no !@#$%*& patient gown!"
  • In Harry Potter's Do Not Meddle In The Affairs Of Wizards, Harry gets sent to Azkaban but when he kills Voldemort after V reveals he had gotten Harry framed, he is forced to go back to Hogwarts. Harry decides to wear several of these T-shirts at Hogwarts both because his clothes had been burned by his schoolmates before his imprisonment and as a way to rebel against having to go to Hogwarts. They range from "Don't piss me off, I'm running out of places to hide the bodies" to "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups", passing by the tried and true "Your town called. They want their idiot back."
  • Doug Sangnoir of Drunkard's Walk starts assembling a collection of T-shirts with a gift he receives at the end of the second installment in the series. By the time we reach the eighth installment, the collection is quite large and the T-shirts have become something of a trademark for him.

Film

  • In Clerks 2, Randall modifies his uniform to say "Porch Monkey 4 Life" after he learns "porch monkey" is a racial slur and decides to "take it back."
  • Brad Pitt's T-shirts in Fight Club.
  • Adam Brody wears a Fight Club T-shirt in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, both of which star Brad Pitt. More of a meta reference than anything else, but the implications...
  • There was that shark-eating-a-kitten shirt from Pineapple Express (which turned out to have been stolen from an independent designer without his knowledge, apropos of nothing).
  • Chad Danforth wears a lot of these in High School Musical movies.
    • Most notably "I Have My Own Background Music", which he does.
    • The audience could even vote on a shirt of his for the second film.
    • Corbin Bleu, his actor, also made the slogans for the shirts himself.
  • In the beginning of Notting Hill, the main character's sloppy flatmate tries on shirts to wear on a date. "I love blood." didn't work. Neither did "Get it here." with an arrow pointing down. "You're the most beautiful woman in the world." seemed to work ... until he turned around. "Fancy a fuck?"
  • Johnny Depp's character in Once Upon a Time In Mexico wore a couple of stupid t-shirts in the film, but the only one I remember is a souvenir CIA t-shirt (meant to be a sick joke, since he is a government-sponsored killer). Apparently at least one of these shirts (the "I'm With Stupid" shirt with the arrow pointing downwards) actually belonged to Depp.
    • Additionally, the CIA shirt actually read "Cleavage Inspection Agency" in small print beneath the large letters.
  • In One Crazy Summer, the Stork Twins (they aren't really) wear a matching set of shirts. One shows "I'm with Stupid" and an arrow to the side, the other says "Stupid" with an arrow pointing up. The idea is that the stupid one stands to the left. However, this twin is so dumb he stands on the right. The smart one tells him he's gotta be on the other side for the joke to work. Cue the dumb one moving to the other side and facing the other way.
  • Val Kilmer's Chris Knight in Real Genius is a quintessential example. Among his wardrobe are shirts with such messages as "Surf Nicaragua," "International Order of Gorillas," and "I *heart* toxic waste."
  • Owen Wilson's titular character in You, Me and Dupree (he's Dupree) wears a T-shirt with a picture of a gnome and the caption "Say Hello To My Little Friend."
  • Priestly from Ten Inch Hero is very fond of these. The ones he wears read: "Tip me or die", "Cat, the other white meat", "It's tourist season - shoot them at will", "You know what your problem is? You're stupid.", "Surf naked", "Orgasm donor - ask for your free sample", "Save a tree - eat a beaver", "I sell crack for the CIA", "No one knows I'm a lesbian", and "You can read!"
  • Bill Murray's needy character in What About Bob? travels unbidden to his psychiatrist's vacation home, and spends much of the time in a t-shirt that reads "DON'T HASSLE ME, I'M LOCAL".

Literature

  • The Doctor Who New Adventures novel The Also People, riffing off the Doctor's tendency to introduce himself with the sentence "Hello, I'm the Doctor and this is my friend [companion's name]", mentions that on a previous adventure the Doctor's then-companions bought a matched set of shirts from a custom screen-printing stall saying "Hello, I'm Ace and this is my friend the Doctor", "Hello, I'm Benny and this is my friend the Doctor" and "Hello, I'm the Doctor and this is my friend [delete where applicable]".
  • Maeve, the Winter Lady of The Dresden Files, gets one in each of her appearances; the first reads "Off with his head" and the second reads "Your boyfriend wants me". Both of them are very tight.
    • Harry Dresden himself is really fond of these: "Invest in America—Buy a Congressman", "Eat it? I wouldn't sit on in" (worn by Susan in Fool Moon, but it was Harry's), "Pre-Fectionist", "Come to the Dork Side. Do not make me destroy you.", and Molly got one too: "If you can read this, you’d better have bought me dinner" (She was "profaning breakfast") and maybe even Michael: "John 3:16"
      • "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."? That's not very funny
      • As the xkcd example below shows not all Fun T-Shirts are that funny, but considering who Michael is and what happens to him later that Bible verse is beautifully in character and is a brilliant piece of Foreshadowing.
    • In the comic version of "Storm Front" we see "Easter has been canceled / They found the body" and "Magic Man".
  • Discworld:
    • Deconstructed in Thud!! which suggests that "fun" is a horrible over-stimulated experience completely unrelated to actually enjoying oneself, and says one of the signs is a shirt reading "I Want It!"
    • Going Postal: "Ask Me About Pins!"
    • Ponder Stibbons in The Last Hero wears one that says "Actually I Am A Rocket Wizard".

Live-Action TV

  • Dexter Season 5, episode 3, "Had to borrow this from you, hope you don't mind". The apron he borrowed from a killer, to wear whilst killing him? Says Natural Born Griller
  • Entourage has an indie film director show up to a budget meeting wearing a shirt that says "SUITS SUCK" to show his attitude toward the businessmen that are present.
  • Firefly: Jayne Cobb's t-shirt collection.
    • Which, y'know, led to him being knifed that one time: by River, while wearing a Blue Sun Corp. shirt. (Blue Sun was more or less directly responsible for her brokenness.)
  • Friends, "The One with the Tiny T-Shirt": "Now I'm going to do what Frankie says and Relax."
  • Carly of iCarly wears some t-shirts that are somewhat less wholesome than one may expect on a children's show, including 'Peanut Butter Love' and 'Parole Baby.'
  • One of the many proper geek jokes in The IT Crowd was Roy's T-shirt in each episode featuring (if memory serves) such things as the Atari logo, a big number 42, and the 256th level of Pacman. Oh, and one that just said "RTFM" in big letters. In an upcoming episode preview, he wears one of Diesel Sweeties' indie rock t-shirts.
  • In an episode of Life, our heroes examine the body of a Zen master wearing an "I'm with stupid" shirt—except that the arrow is pointing up. Charlie thinks it's some sweet Zen.
  • Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis did a bit on their 1990s BBC sketch show about T-shirts that included suggesting that the 'Adolf Hitler: European Tour 1939-1945' T-shirt should be set as part of History GCSEs (as it's "tasteless but historically accurate").
  • Married... with Children had two examples of the Fun T-Shirt:
    • On the episode in which Marcy and Steve lose their house (after Peg mistook a man looking for a roadhouse for "The Rhodes' House), Steve is given one of Al's T-shirts to sleep in. The T-shirt reads, "I'm Married. Shoot Me!"
    • On the episode in which Marcy realizes that she got drunk and married a man named Jefferson, the T-shirt she has on reads, "I Went To Clyde's No-Blood-Test-Needed Wedding Chapel and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt."
  • Oh, MythBusters and your crazy T-shirts.
    • Well, mostly those worn by Adam.
      • Some of which show quotes originating from Adam himself.
        • And The Dungeonmaster.
  • Numb3rs has Charlie frequently wearing 'Nerd' shirts, (in case we weren't certain) including one with the pi symbol made up with the digits of pi.
  • Scrubs: Incredibly white J.D. once wore a shirt that said "Black By Popular Demand." He was called a "cracker" and took it as a compliment.
  • On Stargate Atlantis, an episode in the first season has McKay wearing a T-shirt reading, "I'm With Genius," with an arrow pointing upward.
  • In the New Twilight Zone Deal with the Devil episode "I of Newton", the Devil wears a T-shirt with a slogan on it, and the slogan changes whenever the camera isn't looking.
  • 30 Rock, except it's the hats.
    • Oh, then there's the "Problem Solvers" episode where Tracy and Jenna decide to solve problems together and get t-shirts with one saying "Solvers" and the other "The Problem". After switching shirts, they both end up wearing shirts saying "The Problem".
  • Ditto The Big Bang Theory, and there's even a Web site that keeps track of them (as well as the Fun Non-T-Shirt items, including a shower curtain). The "Rock-Paper-Scissors Lizard Spock" segment spawned its own Fun T-Shirt, as well.
  • H.M. Murdock from The A-Team wears sloganized T-shirts all through the series, that may or may not relate to the plot of the episode. Of note was a set of two T-shirts indicating the imminent end of the series ("Almost Fini", "Fini").
    • Sometimes they tended to be covered by his brown leather jacket, but other T-shirts Murdock wore include a tuxedo T-shirt, "I STAND FIRMLY BEHIND THIS," and "Whatever happened to the Baltimore Colts?" (which can be a Funny Aneurysm Moment if you know how the Colts ended up moving to Indianapolis).
  • Doctor Who with "Blink"? There are real shirts (As well as... ahem, other articles of clothing) with the famous motto:

The Doctor: [on video] The Angels have the phone box.
Larry: "The Angels have the phone box." That's my favourite; I've got that on a T-shirt!

  • The title character in the live-action version of Great Teacher Onizuka had several fun t-shirts, the most popular ones being the black shirt with a white star and another that said "Born to Lose."
  • Pim Diffy of Phil of the Future is quite fond of the snarky ones.
  • Naomi Campbell from Skins has one that reads, "I ♥ CRAP".
  • Debbie wears one of these in every episode of the U.S. Queer as Folk that features her. And she's in 79 of them!
  • Noah's Arc: This is a standard part of both Noah and Ricky's wardrobe, seen at least Once an Episode.
  • Mr G on Summer Heights High wears shirts from his previous musical productions, one being "Tsunamarama" - a musical about the 2005 Asian tsunami set to the music of Bananarama.

Music

  • From Gorillaz, fictional vocalist 2D has a tendency to this, drawn to him by Jamie Hewlett. Shirts with words and pics, like T-Virus (a nod to his love for zombies), Shoot To Ill, Tazar Yoot, Captain Howdie (a nod to The Exorcist), a Spider-Man shirt, Orphan, a kitten with the word Kinky under it, Killer Look, and even just the number 3. The count goes on and on.

Video Games

Web Animation

  • In the Flash animation "Geeks In Love", there's one of these that's randomized. The shirt changes every playthrough.

Web Comics

Web Original

  • In Episode 6 of the TV Tropes original show Echo Chamber, Tom wears a shirt that depicts the Hindenberg crashing into the Titanic and is captioned "This is why we can't have nice things".
  • In the Season 3 finale of The Tabletop Battlefield, a video podcast discussing, well, tabletop gaming, one of the presenters gave another a T-shirt that read, "All the Dice Hate Me," with a bunch of dice all showing 1s.
  • In Kickassia, in the scene leading up to Spoony's transformation into Dr. Insano, he's wearing a shirt that reads "When I play doctor, I play to win."

Western Animation

  • Kenny's mom in South Park has a T-shirt that reads, "← I'm with this idiot".
  • Attila the Hun in Clone High wore a shirt that read, "Tibet Sucks!"
  • SpongeBob SquarePants and his best friend, Patrick, once bought matching "best friend" t-shirts with arrows that point to each other. Hilarity Ensues when Spongebob inadvertently lets the arrow point to someone else.
  • In one episode of The Simpsons, Bart started making and selling a range of subversive or offensive slogan T-shirts, which proved incredibly successful for about 22 minutes. This may have been a reference to the fact that many schools banned Simpsons T-shirts when the show was young, but this episode came much later.
    • In another episode, Ned Flanders' house is destroyed by a hurricane, so he and his family end up in the church shelter where his sons get some clothes.

Todd: We got new clothes from the donation bin! wearing a Butthole Surfers shirt I'm a surfer!
Rod wears a T-shirt with "I'm With Stupid" on it and a pointed finger
Rod: Look, Daddy, Todd is stupid and I'm with him. walks to Maude And now Mommy's stupid! chuckles

    • In an earlier episode when Homer helped getting Flanders' Leftorium back in business, Barney wears a T-shirt that reads, "Kiss Me, I'm Left-Handed", and has two women kissing him.
    • In another one, Maggie was believed to be smarter than Lisa. Lisa won a t-shirt saying "I'm with genius" and Maggie got one saying "I'm with jealous".
  • This was the main gimmick in Hanna-Barbera's old Shirt Tales Funny Animal Who Fights Crime cartoon. Don't ask me why a giant panda is the same size as a raccoon, and living in New York.
  • Early Cuyler of Squidbillies is anatomically incapable of wearing T-shirts, but he does have a different slogan on his cap every episode.
  • In the action figure line that spawned COPS—but not in the cartoon—Berserko wore a T-shirt saying, "BAAAD is Good!"
  • The main character of Dan Vs. is always seen wearing a shirt that says JERK. You can't accuse him of false advertising.
  • In the Apocalypse episode of Family Guy Peter, after being declared mayor of New Quahog is seen wearing a shirt that says "Mayor This" with an arrow pointing to where his manhood should be.
  • In an episode of Futurama at the tourist trap on the moon they were selling shirts that said "I'm With Stupid On The Moon."
  • Never seen, but in Kids Next Door, Numbuh 1 managed to get past Tolinator, when his only disguise was a t-shirt that said "I'm Not Numbuh 1"
  • Pinky and The Brain: Brain once created a papier mache version of Earth and planned to convince everyone to move there by offering free t-shirts with "I love Chia-Earth" on them to anyone who agreed so he'd rule the original Earth. It worked. Brain soon found out how lonely it is to rule a world where he and Pinky are the only living people. Then a meteor destroyed Earth and Brain decided to spend "every night" trying to take over Chia-Earth.

Real Life

  • Bruce Vilanch has a long history of wearing these.
  • The "Choose life" shirts Wham! used to wear.
  • ThinkGeek, a nerd merchandise Web site, has a delightful collection of shirts. Everything from the "+20 Shirt of Smiting" to the interactive shirts: battery-powered shirts which allow even more hilarity to ensue.
  • The number of Web sites that offer T-shirts for sale is staggering, but woot.com stands out because the designs are made by site participants, the shirts change every day, and the designs themselves are usually pretty funny or artsy, not to mention unique.
  • Underoos now sells the T-shirts in adult sizes, complete with the logos looking like the paint cracked.
  • Film crews have occasionally used these to make barbs about directors. During the filming of Blade Runner, the (American) crew reacted to an impolitic interview comment by Ridley Scott about preferring British crews for their "Yes Guv'nor" attitude; their T-shirts read "Yes Guv'nor MY ASS", Scott and some of the production staff shot back with "Xenophobia Sucks". James Cameron (a Prima Donna Director which is a lightning rod for Troubled Productions) has been the target of several, including "You can't scare me. I work for James Cameron", "Life's Abyss and then you Dive", and "Terminator 3? Not with me!".
    • Also on set for Alien cast members wore shirts saying "Will Rogers never met Ridley Scott", playing off the famous humorist's famous line.
  • For an actor example, Christian Bale described his Batman Begins suit as "It's hot, dark and sweaty and it gives me a headache". The crew emblazoned this in shirts since it works well as a Double Entendre.
  • Before the release of her album Enchant, Emilie Autumn tried to get a mainstream contract, but the recording company man acted so condescending towards her that she snapped and wrote in the white T-shirt she was wearing "Sorry, was I thinking again?". She later made a photo session wearing that particular t-shirt, and released versions of it with her other merchandise.
  • Another making jabs at the media: Danica Patrick made a lot of news with her rookie performance in the 2005 Indianapolis500; her fourth-place finish seemed to overshadow certain other items in the race, to the point where two weeks later Buddy Rice and Vitor Meira were seen wearing shirts reading 'Danica's Teammate' and 'Danica's Other Teammate'. Dan Wheldon got in on it; his was 'Actually won the Indy 500'.
  • David Tennant was known to wear T-shirts reading, "Trust me, I'm a doctor," during his run on Doctor Who.
  • And don't forget George Lucas wearing a "Han Shot First" shirt.
    • Ben Burtt has said that the sound crew for the first movie had t-shirts with an image of a Tusken Raider holding a boom mic over his head and the phrase "It's sound people, or worse!"
  • Terry Pratchett liked his custom T-shirts. For example, after it had been announced he was one of two authors who had five novels in the Big Read Top 100 books, he arrived at the 2004 Discworld Convention in a shirt reading "Less Dead Than Dickens".
  • There are t-shirts for The Other Tropes Wiki.
  • Kevin Smith tells a story about the making of Dogma where then junkie Jason Mews fell asleep during shooting. On being woken up his retort of "They just keep saying the same shit over and over" was so lauded as a perfect summation of the filming process that it became the crew t-shirt slogan for the production.
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