History Main / LabcoatOfScienceAndMedicine

* {{Averted|Trope}} by Dr. Series/{{House}}, who regularly refused to wear his lab coat. In Princeton-Plainsboro, labcoats are the biggest visual indicator that any given character with whom you're unfamiliar is a doctor and not a nurse or an orderly, as their policy is that doctors need to wear labcoats.

* All the professors from the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series save for [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Professor Rowan]]. Averted with [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY Clemont]], an inventor who wears a blue-and-yellow jumpsuit.

* Lawrence Gordon, an oncologist, wears one in a flashback at his workplace in ''Film/{{Saw}}''.

* Dr. Doofenshmirtz of ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' claims to be an evil scientist, yet his doctorate was [[PhonyDegree purchased online]]. PlayedForLaughs as everyone who's not familiar with him [[GenreBlind thinks he's a pharmacist]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', this is Doctor Princess's usual garb. PB often wears one when she's doing something science-y.

* ''Series/{{ER}}'': Most of the doctoral staff that works directly with patients wear a white labcoat unless in surgery. This is in contrast to the nursing staff, who wear only scrub, and administration, who wear suits. The ''length'' of the labcoat becomes a minor plot point in a season 13 episode, when Pratt, the ER attending, buys a one for Tony Gates, a parademic-turned-medical student who is a bit full of himself. His confidence had led to many patients assuming he was more qualified than he was, and Pratt makes it a point to buy him a ''short'' labcoat, as this denotes his status as a medical student who is still learning. As opposed to a longer one that would indicate he was a resident or a full-fledged physician. This was, at one point, TruthInTelevision, though labcoats at all are becoming outdated.

* ''Series/{{ER}}'': Most of the doctoral staff that works directly with patients wears a white labcoat unless in surgery. This is in contrast to the nursing staff, who wear only scrub, and administration, who wear suits. The ''length'' of the labcoat becomes a minor plot point in a season 13 episode, when Pratt, the ER attending, buys a one for Tony Gates, a parademic-turned-medical student who is a bit full of himself. His confidence had led to many patients assuming he was more qualified than he was, and Pratt makes it a point to buy him a ''short'' labcoat, as this denotes his status as a medical student who is still learning. As opposed to a longer one that would indicate he was a resident or a full-fledged physician. This was, at one point, TruthInTelevision, though labcoats at all are becoming outdated.

* ''Fanfic/TheNightmareHouse'', a fanfiction of ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'', has Lana having a bad dream featuring a MadDoctor in a lab coat.

* ''Fanfic/NeitherABirdNorAPlaneItsDeku'': Jor-El wears a green version of this while working in his personal laboratory.

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal sees a budding romance between wizard Ponder Stibbons and Assassin Johanna Smith-Rhodes. Johanna's scientific interests lie in zoology and animal management; she runs the Animal Management Unit, a purpose-built facility where young Assassin students learn that Nature is a thing of wonder and majesty to which the appropriate respect must be shown. Knowing Johanna hasn't had ''that'' much experience with men, and making a shrewd guess as to what a scientifically-minded nerdy Wizard might appreciate in a love interest, more worldly friends get her into a white lab-coat and give her a clipboard to hold. Ponder Stibbons, visiting the A.M.U., is suitably entranced.

* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick introduced us to Doctors C. Block and C. Tease. They have had a few recurring appearances, and even crossed over to other Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses review videos. Though their doctorates are [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate morally ambiguous]] at best; ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'' reveals that at least one of them got their degree from a cereal box.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'': Doctor Emmett "Doc" Brown wears this until he returns from the future.

* In ''Fanfic/NeitherABirdNorAPlaneItsDeku'', Jor-El wears a green version of this while working in his personal laboratory.

* In ''Fanfic/NeitherABirdNorAPlaneItsDeku'', Jor-El wears a green version of this while working in his personal laboratory.

* As Nathan Shumate (of the now-defunct ''Cold Fusion Video'') noted in his review of ''Film/TheInvisibleManiac'', the scientists at the supposedly big and important symposium where protagonist Kevin Dornwinkle fumbles his demonstration of an {{Invisibility}} serum "must be the best of the best of the best in the scientific community, because this entire international symposium is comprised of maybe a dozen people (who didn't even bother to take off their labcoats)." Dornwinkle himself proves to be much more relaxed about this himself later on when he's shown perfecting his invisibility serum at home in his apartment in his civilian clothes.
* In ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'', the scientists working on a particle accelerator all wear lab coats. In real life, particle accelerator operators dress less like movie scientists and more like [[https://cdn.facilityexecutive.com/wp-content/uploads/0809002_42-a5-at-72-dpi.jpg this.]]

* The MadScientist Dr. Heiter in the ''Film/TheHumanCentipede'' dons a lab coat despite being long-retired and even when not doing anything of a medical nature.
* The Tooth Fairy from ''Film/TheSantaClause'' wears a dental lab coat.

* Shinra from ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'', who is noted even by the other characters for not taking that coat off, ever.

Supertrope to DressedToHeal which also requires a stethoscope and a head mirror. Compare EinsteinHair, another classic visual cue that screams "Science person!" Also see GroupIdentifyingFeature.

* This is nearly universal in advertising, really. Any product with any sort of purported health benefit will have a someone straight out of Central Casting giving it the stamp of approval, and almost invariably decked out in a white labcoat. Since a labcoat [[TheCoconutEffect is visual shorthand for "medical expert"]] to the layperson, expect to see one worn even when said expert's field doesn't require such protective gear, like a behavioral therapist or a dietitian.

* Viceroy from Randy cunningham 9th grade ninja wears one, though his is lavender instead of the traditional white.