History Main / RedShirt

* The sad fate of the 90's-DC-space-police-Green-Lantern-wannabes the Darkstars. During the time when DC decided to get rid of the whole ComicBook/GreenLantern Corps and just have one guy being the Lantern, they introduced the Darkstars who would try to take the then-extinct Corps' place. But with the comic not catching on, despite having characters like [[Comicbook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]] and John Stewart drafted into it, the group slowly dwindled; each time they showed up in a comic, at least one of them dies for the sake of showing how dangerous the threat is. Finally in the Comicbook/AdamStrange ''Planet Heist'' miniseries, the remaining few Darkstars show up ONLY in the climactic battle... just to die to the last man. And yes, they wore red jumpsuits.

'''Lt. Barf:''' {{With all due respect}}, Captain, that man was dead from the moment he put on that ensign's uniform.

** ''Film/AlienVsPredator'': Several notable members of the expedition into the ancient pyramid become this once they get locked inside the sacrificial chamber with Facehugger eggs and are impregnated with {{Chest Burster}}s, dying to remind the audience of how the Xenomorphs reproduce and the threat they pose. It's even somewhat {{lampshaded}} by Adele, one of the named Red Shirts, having a ''red'' shirt which the Chestburster explodes out of.

** The most notable example in ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'' is the guard at The Pit who first witnesses the mole tunnelers arrive. He is not only visibly surprised but doesn't sound the alarm, just nervously levels his gun at them. Yep, G.I. Joe, only recruiting the A-list commandos.

** ''Film/RogueOne'' is basically told [[PerspectiveFlip from the perspective of]] the Red Shirts who, in any other movie, would've been dead in the first ten minutes, if they appeared at all. Perhaps fittingly, [[spoiler:it ends with [[AnyoneCanDie the whole team dying]]. It's driven home that the protagonists were, ultimately, nothing more than glorified couriers whose narrative purpose was providing the MacGuffin for [[Film/ANewHope more important characters]].]] All of this is [[{{Deconstruction}} very much]] PlayedForDrama.

* There's a common joke among both the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and ''Franchise/StarWars'' fandoms about this trope:

* [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]] used the fire dancers who performed in Wrestling/SamoaJoe's entrances whenever they were unfortunate enough to or brave enough to try and help him during wrestling matches or when fights broke out. None of them died, though, just got anticlimactically beaten up and thrown aside.

* Creator/EddieIzzard has a routine poking fun at this, in which Steve from the accounts department beams down alongside Captain Kirk.

* ''TabletopGame/BrikWars'' gives Hero units the explicit ability to make other units [[HeroicSacrifice Redshirt]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''

* The ''Website/CollegeHumor'' short ''Jurassic Park Character's Awful Realization'' is explicitly about this, wherein the main cast are arguing over who should distract the ''T. rex'' with a flare. Gennaro (played by the original actor) is elected for this, and accuses the others, "I'm only here to die, aren't I?" The other characters fail to reassure him ("[[BlatantLies You're a very important character!]]") and an argument ensues wherein GenreSavvy Gennaro insists it's unfair to ask the most obviously doomed character to go out there, saying Grant and Ellie are both needed experts, Malcolm is the tension-relieving comic relief, and Tim and Lex [[ImprobableInfantSurvival are kids]], and he's simply "the lawyer." The others try and convince him maybe he's a MauveShirt instead. [[spoiler:Malcolm ultimately [[KickTheDog tosses him out of the Explorer]] and after a failed attempt to persuade the ''T. rex'' he's plot relevant by saying [[BlatantLies he's Tim and Lex's real father]], he gets nommed.]]

* [[https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/652553 This meme]].
-->A [[Franchise/StarTrek redshirt]] and a [[Franchise/StarWars Stormtrooper]] get into a fight. [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy The Stormtrooper misses every shot]]. The redshirt dies anyway.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': The titular character of "James," who wears a red radiation suit, is {{sacrific|ialLamb}}ed by Bubblegum to the zombies of the crater, and then {{subvert|edTrope}}s the trope because he's an ExpendableClone like most of the candy people. [[spoiler:And then further subverts the trope when his original body becomes undead and leads the zombies out of the crater]].

** Acolytes in the 3rd edition Inquisition codexes were essentially extra Wounds for your Inquisitor. Similarly Shield Drones for the Tau Commander is purely to give him an extra body to take excessive wounds (it only has 1 wound, but it can have any number allocated to it, and any extras that it suffer will simply be discarded).

* In honor of the 2009 ''[[Film/StarTrek2009 Star Trek]]'' movie, a company released a [[http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Red-Shirt-Cologne/dp/B002E1EAU4 Red Shirt cologne]]. The slogan? "Because Tomorrow May Never Come." The packaging features a red-shirted officer in a set of crosshairs, and a Starfleet security badge with a bullet hole next to it.

-->'''Pilot''': "We're not gonna make it!"
-->'''Weiss''': "Uh, there's a main character on this ship and that's ''my'' character song playing, so I think I'm fine. But as for you..."

'''Ensign Ricky:''' Aw, crap.