History Main / BankruptcyBarrel

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'': A debt collector once took all the furniture from Gargamel's house and left him nothing but a barrel to wear. When Gargamel protested about being left like that, he said he'd come back later to take the barrel.

[[folder: Web Original]]
* TheComicsCurmudgeon references the trope and its usage in [[http://joshreads.com/?p=1796 this installment]] of ''SixChix''.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

To show that a character is in such dire financial straits that he's literally "lost his shirt" (though there are times where a character has to wear a barrel because he or she lost her clothes, not because he or she is poor) the otherwise naked character will resort to [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barrel.jpg wearing a large barrel]] held up with suspenders. Primarily seen in cartoons. This image probably came from a punishment for public drunkenness in Germany and England, where drunks had to wear a booze barrel. It's unclear how barrel wearing became associated with bankruptcy,[[note]]Though possibly because drunks tend to blow all their money on booze fairly quickly[[/note]] but the trope stuck.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "My Bunny Lies Over the Sea", BugsBunny meets a Scotsman [[ManInAKilt wearing a kilt]] and quickly outfits him with a barrel to cover his "indecency".

* After making one too many cross-dresser jokes in the ''Webcomic/CrossTimeCafe'', Tarin the fox wears [[http://www.whiteponyproductions.com/comicstrips/ctc/ctc0359.htm a rain-barrel after he gets skinned alive and his fur made into a David Crockett-style hat]]!

* ''Series/HorribleHistories'''s [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=kGHYNAJRAkg&NR=1 version of Diogenes]], much like the Real Life one, lives naked and penniless in a barrel.

* A non-finance-based variation comes at the end of the WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry short ''Love That Pup'', when Tom is shown donning one of these after Spike the bulldog follows through on a threat to skin him alive.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "My Bunny Lies Over The Sea", BugsBunny meets a Scotsman [[ManInAKilt wearing a kilt]] and quickly outfits him with a barrel to cover his "indecency".

Compare ImprovisedClothes. May overlap with BarefootPoverty. Contrast ConspicuousConsumption.

* In the album "De fez van Fes" of the Belgium comic book series ''DeKiekeboes'', we twice see a man in a barrel; one is walking out of a tax office and the other out of a casino.

* Though not really broke, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_Man_%28Denver_Broncos%29 Barrel Man]] (real name Tim [=McKernan=]) used to wear nothing but an orange-painted barrel to every [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball Denver Broncos]] home game for 30 years until his death in December 2009.

* In ''KevinAndKell'', when Kell's mother [[FanDisservice Elanor]] loses her life savings day-trading, she suddenly goes from wearing a coat composed of live minks to wearing a [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/1999/kk1111.html barrel]].
* In ''ThePrincessPlanet'', Princess Christi and her snowman friend [[http://www.theprincessplanet.com/?p=33 briefly wear barrels]] after losing at StripPoker, but Christi later has to cover her nudity with leaves.
* After making one too many cross-dresser jokes in the ''CrossTimeCafe'', Tarin the fox wears [[http://www.whiteponyproductions.com/comicstrips/ctc/ctc0359.htm a rain-barrel after he gets skinned alive and his fur made into a David Crockett-style hat]]!
* [[http://nobodyscores.loosenutstudio.com/index.php?id=265 This]] ''NobodyScores'' zig-zags the trope. Jane Doe arrives wearing a barrel, probably in poverty, but really happy and with a protege - also in a barrel and holding a hypodermic needle.

* Spoofed in an old [[ClassicDisneyShorts Goofy cartoon]], "Get Rich Quick": After playing dice, Goofy is seen wearing a barrel, holding it up with both hands. He then hails a taxicab and, in a brilliant subversion, empties the barrel -- full to the brim with his winnings -- into it.

* Quentin on ''WelcherAndWelcher'' expressed disapproval at the fact that this wasn't seen anymore, describing it as a very funny image.

* Ross and Moose end up wearing these during the ''YouCantDoThatOnTelevision'' episode about theft, when their clothes (and most of the set) have been stolen. Moose's has still has water, and a rubber duck, in it.

* Amneris from Broadway's {{Aida}} "would rather wear a barrel than conservative apparel".

* The main character in the freeware game ''Nonsense Madness'' wears a barrel, for no other reason than to [[RuleOfFunny amplify the nonsense]].

* The [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]] cartoon "Hollywood Steps Out" features this trope near the end when Harpo Marx uses a slingshot to pop Sally Rand's balloon. She wasn't poor; it was for decency reasons (she was performing a nude bubble dance and the Hays Office would have banned the short outright if she was shown naked after the bubble popped. Plus, [[RuleOfFunny it's just funnier this way]]).

* Both played straight and lampshaded in an episode of TheClevelandShow:

* In the Viking episode of ''Histeria'', a bit featuring vikings raiding with the element of [[SurpriseParty supprise]]. Afterward the raid targets comments "They took everything but the shirt of my back", prompting a second pass leaving said target in a bankruptcy barrel.

To show that a character is in such dire financial straits that he's literally "lost his shirt" (though there are times where a character has to wear a barrel because he or she lost her clothes, not because he or she is poor) the otherwise naked character will resort to [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barrel.jpg wearing a large barrel]] held up with suspenders. Primarily seen in cartoons. This image probably came from a punishment for public drunkenness in Germany and England, where drunks had to wear a booze barrel. It's unclear how barrel wearing became associated with bankruptcy, but the trope stuck.

* Although no one wears it, there is the barrel in the neighbourhood of ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'' where the titular Chavo seems to reside. Quico did once, because Don Ramón was [[ItMakesSenseInContext wearing Quico's clothes.

* Although no one wears it, there is the barrel in the neighbourhood of ''ElChavoDelOcho'' where the titular Chavo seems to reside.
** Quico did once, because Don Ramón was [[ItMakesSenseInContext wearing Quico's clothes]].

* Happens to Reggie van Dough in an episode of {{Hanna-Barbera}}'s ''RichieRich'' when Richie thought that his father had lost his fortune, as part of his friends helping to earn his money back, Reggie starts selling Richie's goods at absurdly low prices; when he is discovered, the mob strips off Reggie's clothing, forcing him to run off wearing only a barrel.
* A ''GarfieldAndFriends'' episode depicting Garfield's take on the Literature/ArabianNights had Jon playing the part of a young artisan with Garfield as "[[ParodyNames Alley Katta]]" in a town overrun by thieves. At the start, Jon went out to get a job with the Sultan declaring that "[[TemptingFate I have nothing left to lose]]" and, of course, ran back in the room a second later wearing a barrel. Garfield commented that "we'd better jump the story ahead before someone steals the barrel." (Jon [[SnapBack got his clothes back in the next shot]].)