Man in a Bikini

Bringing sexy back, oh yeah!

Bikinis are usually shown on television as Fan Service. However, men shown wearing them are likely to be done for Fan Disservice or Played for Laughs.

Very occasionally they will be shown as Wholesome Crossdresser - type characters.

However, this is also Truth in Television: some males will, and do, like wearing bikinis, despite the fact they are technically opposite-sex clothing. This does not include Drag Queens who like to do this for comedy purposes.

Examples of Man in a Bikini include:

Advertising

• This Miller Lite commercial advises against men wearing this kind of swimwear.

Anime & Manga

• Pokémon is one show that likes using this trope, mainly for Dead Baby Comedy and Rule of Funny purposes.
• In Hentai Kamen, the titular hero's mankini is his weapon.
• One of Rock Lee's signature moves in Rock Lees Springtime of Youth, as a result of him trying to copy Naruto's Sexy Jutsu.

Comics -- Books

• Deadpool has worn a bikini at least once. When informed he has visitors offering mercenary work and advised that he change, he puts on his weapons, and greets them still wearing the bikini.
• Dogbert's Clues for the Clueless shows that a mummy ought to be dressed in bandages from head to toe, a woman can wear just a skimpy thong bikini at the beach. The final panel, under the caption, "However, a mummy should never wear a bikini," shows the mummy wearing a bikini over bandages, thinking, "Looking good..."
• In a New Mutants Beach Episode, Warlock, due to his unfamiliarity with human society, shows up in a bikini. (He later changes into a speedo.)
• in a foxtrot series where peter and paige have to clean the basement during spring break, peter complains that MTV says that he should be cavorting with girls in bikinis instead of cleaning. andy retaliates by sending down jason in a bikini saying for peter to squint.

Films -- Live-Action

• Borat is quite possibly one of the more famous examples. The neon green mankini that Sacha Baron Cohen wears in the film has become popular on beaches.
• This was a plot point in Furry Vengeance.
• Not shown, but referenced in Remember the Titans: In an effort to increase team cohesion, the coaches pair up the white players and the black players and force them to learn things about their partner. One player reveals that his partner wears leopard-print bikini underwear.

Live-Action TV

• In one sketch on The Amanda Show, Drake loses a bet to Amanda and has to run down the street in a string bikini.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus was the earliest example of this; with John Cleese sometimes wearing one for Rule of Funny purposes.
• Medium also did this in the notorious episode "Will the Real Fred Rovick Stand Up?" which featured Diedrich Bader as the aforementioned Fred Rovick, wearing a bikini.
• Hollyoaks is also prone to this trope as well, and will be doing so more over 2011.
• Mankini is a recurring character on The Soup played by Nic DeLeo. He's mostly a Butt Monkey.
• iCarly: "Bikini Dog Food Fight"

Music

• Yoshiki Hayashi did this for both a filmed apology for canceling an event in the 90s and for promotional photos and the album cover of the Jealousy album. And yes, he filled out the black lace very well.

New Media

• There was plenty of discussion about this on The Other Wiki. Consensus was: it's unencyclopedic.

Pro Wrestling

• WWE: Santino Marella, anyone?

Theater

• Billis in the "Honey Bun" number from South Pacific is generally dressed in a coconut-shell bikini top and a grass skirt.

Video Games

• La-Mulana: The prize for beating Hell Temple is an all-too-revealing shot of Lemeza wearing a skimpy women's swimsuit.
• Dead Rising
  • The Wii version has a bikini as an unlockable outfit for Frank West.
  • Dead Rising 2 has a Borat-style "Mankini" for Chuck Greene.
• While you (unfortunately?) never see it, in Rune Factory 3 when you speak to Evelyn on the first day of summer she mentions that by the end of the day she'll get someone to wear a bikini that she's made of turnip. Just so there's no confusion, she adds that by 'someone' she means Gaius. Gaius is the male dwarf.

Web Animation

• In the Flash video S.M.B.3 Bloopers, Mario finds the wrong kind of Super Suit.

Web Comics

• Manly Guys Doing Manly Things teaches us the value of context with the help of Marcus Fenix.
• In Black Adventures, N tries to wear one for the Beach Episode, but Black makes him change.

Western Animation

• The Simpsons: Homer Simpson, trying to "think unsexy thoughts" while in an elevator with an attractive coworker, pictures fat drunken slob Barney Gumbel in a bikini.
• South Park: The Movie Midget in a Bikini is one of the news reporters.

Real Life

• Actor Jim Carrey wearing then-girlfriend Jenny McCarthy's suit at the beach. Pictures.
• Truth in Television: male bikini-wearing appears to be a fairly common thing. It is not predominantly associated with gay men, despite stereotypes. Youths will do this during their college/university years as a joke.
• Note that the word "bikini" refers to the bottoms as well as the top. Any pair of shorts that bares the upper thighs is technically called "bikini briefs", and until about the 1980s it was not considered shameful for American men to wear them while swimming.
• Russell Brand