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Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist

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"Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the Discworld. Tourist, Rincewind had decided, meant 'idiot.'"

The stereotypical dress for a tourist/someone on vacation (especially your Ugly American) is a very specific set of Impossibly Tacky Clothes: a Hawaiian aloha shirt (whether or not they're actually in Hawaii), wide-legged knee shorts, sandals (usually worn with socks), and often a Panama Hat and sunglasses as well. Note that the dress can be permanent for a character with a carefree personality, and it doesn't seem to depend upon tropical weather for a character to dress this way. Tourist characters may also have a bulky camera hung around their neck. If male, his Distaff Counterpart is likely to have a pristine white tennis outfit, or occasionally a muumuu; if she wears a hat or a pair of sunglasses, it will probably have a price tag dangling from one side, Minnie Pearl style.

See also the Asian variant, Japanese Tourist.

Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • A commercial that aired on military networks overseas about blending in your surroundings while living in another country had a Hawaiian-shirted penguin singing about himself. The other penguins don't feel comfortable and a polar bear shows up coming to consume him.

    Anime & Manga 
  • Junichiro Tokuoka from .hack//Liminality, ZERO and AI Buster always wears Hawaiian Shirt. His work ethics in developing The World's Japanese server is reflected in his "Tokuoka time;" that is, his bizarre sleeping habits. When he woke up was "morning;" when he had his first meal was "noon;" when he went out to drink was "evening." The team worked according to Tokuoka Time regardless of what the actual time was.
  • Showing how omnipresent this trope is, in Fullmetal Alchemist, when Fuhrer Bradley is on vacation, he is shown wearing a Hawaiian shirt despite living in a fantasy world where there is no Hawaii for the value of the resulting Sight Gag.
  • In Great Pretender, Laurent first appears pretending to be a tourist, wearing a bright pink shirt covered in purple flowers. It appears to be his typical "off-work" attire as well, fitting with his deceptively laid-back attitude.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers:
    • A little sketch has Germany as a tourist in Hawaii, complete with a lei and a Hawaiian shirt.
    • And don't forget Canada, who dresses in one to visit Cuba.
  • Episode 48 of Kirby: Right Back at Ya! has a bunch of these tourists come to Dream Land.
  • In the Distant Finale for The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer, Akane Taiyou ends up wearing one constantly, given as a gag gift from teammates who heard him muttering "aloha" after falling unconscious late in the final battle.
  • Howard from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing dresses like this all the time; it matches his cool, laid-back personality.
  • In the episodes of Pokémon: The Series that take place in Cinnabar Island, Shigeru/Gary Oak wears one of these.
  • Principal Kuno's official outfit in Ranma ½... although in his case, he spent an extremely long vacation in Hawaii itself and went native.

    Asian Animation 
  • Lamput: In "Lamput Checks In", the docs see a Hawaiian-shirted tourist entering a fancy hotel they've been denied entry to. This gives Fat Doc the idea to pretend to be a tourist himself — complete with Hawaiian flower short — and carry Slim Doc in his bag, which works.

    Comic Books 
  • The Joker dresses like one in The Killing Joke. He reuses the outfit in The World's Finest (1990), with the justification that he is treating his trip to Metropolis as a vacation.

    Comic Strips 

    Fan Works 
  • In The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World, when George and Paul are traveling through the jungle on their Chandallan delivery mission, Paul initially wears a Hawaiian shirt and shorts.
  • Rocketship Voyager. Despite living in the far future of 2020, Tom Paris is proudly wearing a 1954 Surf 'n' Sand Aloha when he goes on space station leave.
  • For the Glory of Irk: To try and convince the Syndicate that they're just visiting Earth on vacation, Zim and Skoodge wear Hawaiian shirts. Dib is dumbfounded that this works.
  • This Bites!: Garp is dressed as one of these when he visits Water 7, on the thin pretense of being on vacation as an excuse to visit Luffy. Cross is shocked to see this, even more so when he notes that Garp has also forced the entire Marine battalion accompanying him to dress the same.

    Films — Animation 
  • At the end of Aladdin, the Genie becomes one of these after being freed, complete with Goofy cap. This is actually a reference to a (sadly no longer shown) short film that played in the guest queue for The Magic of Disney Animation at Walt Disney World's Disney-MGM Studios called "Back To Neverland," where Robin Williams played a Hawaiian-shirted tourist (with the Goofy cap).
  • A few of these can be seen in Lilo & Stitch. Of course, given that it takes place in Hawaii and Lilo's sister works at a tourist trap, that's probably no surprise.
  • In The Sword in the Stone, Merlin returns from Bermuda (and the 20th Century) wearing a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, and, of course, Bermuda shorts.
  • We see these in the Cold Open of Despicable Me, in Egypt. The climate somewhat justifies the simple dressing, not so much the Hawaii prints.
  • There's a couple in Flushed Away, set in Britain. It should be noted that this takes place in a community of sewer rats — maybe rat tourists would be at serious risk if they visited legitimate above-ground landmarks?

    Films — Live-Action 
  • While he doesn't have the loud Hawaiian shirt, Lewis Dodgson in Jurassic Park (1993) has the hat and the sunglasses of a tourist while conducting his business with Dennis Nedry in Costa Rica. Nedry mocks him for it.
    Nedry: Nice hat. What are you supposed to be, a secret agent?
  • The last thing that was seen worn by Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs.
  • Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas both feature variations on the Hawaiian Shirted Tourist.
  • In Twins (1988), the two couriers who deliver the car to the garage try to pass themselves off as tourists by wearing Hawaiian shirts.
  • In In the Loop Malcolm Tucker encounters one. In Washington D.C. Played Straight in the sense that the "tourist" (although he may not be from D.C) clearly has no idea who is dealing with.
    Tourist: Hey buddy! Enough of the curse words, alright?
    Malcolm: [silent for a few seconds] Kiss my sweaty balls you fat fuck!
  • The Running Man. Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to sneak through an international airport disguised as a tourist. The woman he's holding hostage threatens to throw up on him as she gets airsick.
    "Go right ahead. On this shirt, no one will notice."
  • The escaped mass murderer in Sleepover Nightmare dresses like this. It's as un-intimidating as it sounds.
  • In Pearl Harbor, Rafe and Danny, sleeping off a bender at a Hawaii dive bar and wearing Hawaiian shirts from the night before, are unable to change after the attack and eventually fly against the Japanese airplanes. Later, after praising them for their combat skills, Col. Dolittle recruits them for his raid on Japan, making one demand:
    Dolittle: This time, leave the goddamn hulu shirts at home!
  • In Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the main character wears Hawaiian shirts while vacationing in Hawaii. When he asks a local out on a date, she agrees and assumes that he'll be changing his shirt beforehand. This catches him off-guard and causes him to awkwardly glance at it. On the date, he wears a more traditional dress shirt.
  • Water. Our introduction to the Governor of Cascara is Michael Caine tending his marijuana crop in a floral shirt, a clear sign he is Going Native. Subverted though in that the next scene has him insisting on getting dressed formally to handle the CLF's two-man "insurrection". However, this is suggested to be because he is a British governor.
  • The Lost Skeleton Returns Again. Amusing Alien Kro-Bar wears one in the Amazon jungle, under the assumption that it will help him blend in among humans.
  • The Man with the Golden Gun has Sheriff J. W. Pepper showing up touristing in Thailand, playing this trope to a T.
  • Back to the Future:
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Jurassic Park 3: Ben Hildebrand, Amanda's boyfriend, wears a Hawaiian shirt, knee length shorts, and sandals while they are on their vacation in Costa Rica. He also flaunts his (relative) wealth to the locals and generally has an undeserved sense of invulnerability.

    Literature 
  • The cover of at least one edition of The Tough Guide to Fantasyland pictures tourists dressed this way.
  • Comes up at least twice in Star Wars Legends, both times while dealing with covert operations.
    • Once in the Legacy of the Force series, which has a shirt that changes colors and patterns whenever the wearer wants.
    • Another time in the X-Wing Series. Wedge and a couple of other Wraiths, in order to go through another iteration of The Infiltration, have to disguise themselves as tourists from the planet whose hat is idiocy. This involved wearing a shockingly ugly selection of clothing.
      Wedge: The sooner we finish, the sooner we can get off this planet and I can get out of this hat.
      Tyria Sarkin: Not to mention the lavender short pants?
      Wedge: Not to mention them, Flight Officer Sarkin. Or else.
  • He's not a tourist but Dexter, in the novels by Jeff Lindsay (the inspiration for the television series of the same name), always wears these to work. Justified Trope, as Dexter explains that Miami is far too hot to wear suits to work and that anyone who does ends up removing the jacket anyway.
  • Twoflower of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic is a combination of this and Japanese Tourist. In The Film of the Book, he's actually wearing a shirt that looks vaguely like a Hawaiian shirt and stands out in the mass of more stereotypically Medieval European Fantasy dressed Ankh-Morporkians. The first description of his clothing in TCOM shows him wearing knee-length shorts and a hideously-multicoloured shirt, i.e. standard Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist attire.
  • In Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen, the body of one of the victims of "El Fuego" is discovered wearing a flower-print shirt, baggy Bermuda shorts, and black wraparound sunglasses and drenched in coconut-scented suntan lotion, none of which he usually wore in life.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Angel once pretended to be one. To a mob boss. While the guy was trying to flee LA. And he made small talk, acting completely ignorant.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Spike hits Rock Bottom when he's forced to dress this way after his clothes are shrunk from a leaky pipe.
    Spike: Look at me! I mean, am I even remotely scary anymore?
  • In the TV film of The Colour of Magic, Twoflower is changed from an Asian stereotype (specifically Japanese, referencing the large number of Japanese tourists who visit the UK) to a stereotypical American tourist, and dressed this way. There was always a little bit of American tourist element in the character even in the book. It is worth noting that while the shirt used in the final cut was hideous, it was in fact toned down from its literary origins because the original version interfered with the green screen.
  • In Mork & Mindy, Mork dressed like one of these at the beginning of the episode "Mork's Night Out" when he thought he and Mindy's family were going on vacation.
  • Jimmy James from NewsRadio once went on "vacation" (which was really just wandering around the office), and dressed this way to signify that he was on vacation.
  • Wash from Firefly likes to wear Hawaiian shirts, which is naturally indicative of his comparatively light and carefree personality. Technically he's either not a tourist, or a tourist everywhere he goes, depending on how you count spaceship crews.
  • Hawkeye, Trapper, BJ, et al. often dress this way on M*A*S*H as part of their general defiance of all things military.
    • Jeff Winger spent an episode of Community channeling Hawkeye. Halfway through the episode, he started wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
  • In the "L.A. at Last" episode of I Love Lucy, Fred is decked out in this manner as soon as they check into the hotel, to the degree that the other three laugh at him.
  • In Burn Notice Sam Axe's tendency to wear Hawaiian shirts and khakis makes it easier to impersonate tourists on the fly.
  • In the Taiwanese Series Drunken to Love You, Jie Xiu and Xiao Ru go to their honeymoon wearing equally-flowery Hawaiian shorts.
  • El Chapulín Colorado met one in one episode.
  • JAG: Such an outfit is worn by Harm at the beginning of "Ares", when he boards a plane from Okinawa heading back to the States, only to be recalled for more adventures to follow…
  • Dr. Ehrlich on St. Elsewhere usually wears Hawaiian shirts with neckties on the job. (Hey, he studied at Berserkeley, after all.)
  • Star Trek: Voyager. While on his way to a holodeck program with a Polynesian motif, Fan of the Past Tom Paris proudly shows off his 1962 Big Daddy-O Surf Special. He replicates another in pineapple for Harry. Even one of the Vulcan characters is wearing one!
  • On Star Trek: Enterprise, however, the resident Vulcan is not impressed.
    T'Pol: If you're wearing that to impress the women on Risa, you may as well stay on board.
    Trip: Rule Number One: You gotta be seen to get noticed, and I plan on gettin' noticed.
    Archer: [chuckling] Don't say she didn't warn you.
  • Lucifer. Lucifer sees Dan Espinoza in one before he's off to vacation in Hawaii.
    Lucifer: Daniel, where are you off to? The '80s?
  • The Twilight Zone (1985): In "The Leprechaun Artist", the Leprechaun Shawn McGool wears a Hawaiian shirt while on vacation in the US.
  • Referenced on an episode of 30 Rock, where Liz is wearing a Hawaiian shirt when she gets into a conflict with a group of alpha bitches.
    Svetlana: Hey, Liz, a middle-school gym teacher on a sex tour of Thailand called, he wants his shirt back.
  • Farscape: The second time Crichton's Not-So-Imaginary Friend Harvey appears he's wearing a gaudy-colored shirt and telling Crichton they'll get margaritas once he's killed his crewmates. Technically it's not a "Hawaiian" shirt but one by an Australian company called Mambo, but it's clear the crew were invoking this stereotype. The shirt became extremely popular with the fanbase and made a reappearance in season four.

    Music 
  • French singer Carlos (Yvan-Chrysostome Dolto) famously wore a Hawaiian shirt, having a "sunny vacation" theme.
  • Jimmy Buffett and his music all have a recurring theme of taking it easy on a beach somewhere. As such, Jimmy himself frequently exudes his motif onstage.
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic wears a Hawaiian shirt as his Iconic Outfit.

    Podcasts 
  • In his first appearance on Jemjammer, Grak is wearing a flowery tourist shirt. Keep in mind they're also a Dohwar, or a penguin-person. Later they state that it's the only article of clothing they wear or own.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • Puerto Rican Superstar Carlito Caribbean Cool dressed this way as part of his gimmick. He even used to have a tropical-themed talk show called "Carlito's Cabana."
  • Bray Wyatt wears this to throw his creepiness into stark relief.

    Tabletop Games 

    Theatre 
  • During the preshow for KOOZA, one of the performers plays an obnoxiously enthusiastic audience member who fits this trope to a tee. He's referred to as "The American Tourist" in the program — though, at least in the U.S. tour, there's a joke in which the emcee reveals the tourist is Canadian, which is perhaps an in-joke regarding the company's home country (and Canada, after all, is part of North America).

    Video Games 
  • In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, you can buy an "aloha shirt" (available in red or blue) from the island's souvenir shop in order to dress like this.
  • A similar outfit as in The Killing Joke appears for an Alternate Joker in LEGO Batman.
  • The recurring character of Duane in the Broken Sword games fits this. Though if his (probably but not undoubtedly delusional) hints that he's working for the CIA are correct, it could be part of an act.
  • Cult of the Lamb: Give your cultists a day of rest through the Holy Day Ritual, and they'll all trade their robes for Hawaiian shirts for the day to maximize the vacation vibes and let you know on-sight that they're not doing any work.
  • The Tourist role in NetHack starts with a Hawaiian shirt and an expensive camera. If a shopkeeper sees any character wearing a Hawaiian shirt (this can be avoided by wearing armor over it), they'll charge one-third more for items and pay one-third less for anything the character sells them (Tourists always get that penalty until level 15, regardless of whether they're seen wearing the shirt). The presumed reason is that the shopkeepers see them as suckers and thus change the prices. The shirt, incidentally, is one of the (lesser) reasons Tourists are considered Magikarp Power — they're enchantable for a few extra armor points, but unreasonably hard to find for the other classes, who don't start with one.
  • At any rate, while it doesn't change your actual outfits, the Nerf Arm armor in Final Fantasy IX is one of these, called Aloha T-Shirt. Similarly, the matching pieces for it are the Straw Hat, Pearl Armlet, and Sandals.
  • Far Cry:
    • Jack Carver of Far Cry wears a scarlet and white Hawaiian print shirt. The mercenaries sometimes refer to him as "You! In the shirt!". His Voice with an Internet Connection also lampshades this at the start of the game, telling him to grab some body armor since it will blend in with the environment much better than gaudy red Hawaiian printnote . Justified in that he was only supposed to drop off and pick up the journalist who paid him for a fare, not have his boat blown up on arrival and get stuck fighting the entirety of Krieger Corp's mercenary crew and bio-experiments.
    • Bambi "Buck" Hughes, the Australian Psycho for Hire from the third game, wears a Hawaiian shirt, rather appropriately, since he operates at the tropical Rook Islands. Also doubles as a rather dark version of an Intimate Open Shirt, once you learn that Buck is a Depraved Homosexual who's keeping Jason's friend Keith as a Sex Slave.
  • In We ♥ Katamari, you can roll up an "American Guy", who is about three times as wide as the average person, wears a Hawaiian shirt and a baseball cap, and has a camera hanging from his neck.
  • Tommy Vercetti's default outfit from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, sans sandals and sunglasses.
    Ken: Hey, I loved 1978 too, but, y'know, this isn't gonna be a beer and strippers do.
  • 100% Completion in Super Mario Sunshine gets you a Hawaiian-styled t-shirt for Mario to wear. Suitable, as he's currently on vacation. The shirt can also be purchased in Super Mario Odyssey.
  • In the Star Revenge series, Brodute's Author Avatar always wears a Hawaiian shirt, as well as sandals with socks and a wicker hat.
  • Dead Rising 2, taking place in Las Vegas expy Fortune City features many zombified versions of these. Chuck can also dress up as one himself.
  • Kahn, the lead Elite Beat Agent, wears one of these shirts (and a strange expression) during the intro to the "Material Girl" stage set on a tropical island... even though the other agents are the ones going to the island, not him (and, in Kahn Mode, he doesn't wear it when he's actually on the island himself).
  • Wii Sports Resort, where the Miis are wearing Hawaiian Shirts during some of the more casual sports. Fitting as they are pretty much on vacation on a Tropical Island resort.
  • The Tourists, naturally, in Evil Genius.
  • One of the victims you could save in Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Along with his accompanying wife, they become werewolves after a certain time has passed during the stage, for some reason.
  • The Hawaiian shirt Scott from Pokémon Emerald wears. Granted, he's not actually a tourist, but... Look at it!◊
  • Lots of people dress like this in Pokémon Sun and Moon. No surprise, as the Alola region is heavily based on Hawai'i.
  • The poorer tourists from Tropico.
  • In the Twisted Metal-esque Playstation game Rogue Trip, one of the passengers you pick up is a stereotypical fat, obnoxious, HST.
  • ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron featured these as enemies that used their cameras to stun you if your eyes were open.
  • Max Payne in the third game combines this with a shaved head as a disguise for his infiltration of a Brazilian favela. He notes its ridiculousness and the fact that it makes him stand out like a sore thumb amongst the locals.
  • The Tourist Outfit in Sleeping Dogs (2012) puts Wei Shen in a gaudy orange Hawaiian shirt, straw Panama hat, and very tight shorts. It also "adjusts vendor prices accordingly", which is to say, gives everything not from a vending machine a 60% markup in price, and also negates any discount bonuses you've earned, making it a useless Joke Item.
  • Rosa the Koi in Carrie's Order Up!, complete with the Panama Hat and even sandals, despite being a fish.
  • In The Feeble Files, the local zoo at Metro Prime has one as a visitor. Feeble needs to steal his camera in order to complete a puzzle.
  • In Donald Duck: Goin' Qu@ckers, you are able to unlock a costume like this for Donald to wear.
  • The protagonist of The Touryst is your typical beach-going tourist; naturally, he wears this when first arriving and can even buy a camera from the first shop he visits. That said, there's another store later on that lets him swap out shirts for something more local and respectable.
  • In Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth this is inverted in that Ichiban is a Japanese tourist visiting Hawaii wearing said shirt. While he does have a personal reason for going there (tracking down his possible biological mother) he's also taking the time to enjoy Honolulu.

    Visual Novels 
  • In Double Homework, Dennis is wearing a Hawaiian shirt when he lands on the yacht in his helicopter.

    Web Comics 

    Web Videos 
  • Hardly Working has a sketch where a character took a vacation day... and proceeded to come in and annoy his colleagues anyway. He wore a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, and shorts. Another character invited him to a strip club and was also wearing a shirt like this.
  • French retro-game reviewer Joueur du Grenier famously wears a yellow Hawaiian shirt, along with shorts and sandals-socks.

    Western Animation 
  • Grandpa Max in Ben 10 constantly wore a red tropical shirt as he and his grandkids vacation around the country seeing the sights and fighting villains. It's not just a matter of Limited Wardrobe as he's seen wearing it in an alternate future and the two sequel series. Naturally, this is lampshaded throughout the franchise. He really likes that shirt.
    Gwen: It's great to see you too, but the same shirt? Grandpa, it was twenty years out of style twenty years ago.
    Future Max: Hey, when you find a look that works...
  • Dale wears a Hawaiian shirt on Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers.
  • Bonkers did this himself for a case. A lady realized right away she was looking at a cop.
  • G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero: Chuckles is usually wearing one (a shirt that is, not a tourist). He is also the Joes' best undercover operative. A frequently mentioned point is that most people would never imagine an undercover operative to stick out like a sore thumb as he does.
  • Hurricanes: Stavros Garkos had a scene wearing one in one episode. (Noticeable because he usually dresses like a Man of Wealth and Taste) He actually wasn't on vacation but on a business trip trying to persuade a nation's regent to allow him to extract oil.
  • In Histeria!, a couple always shown on Miss Information's tours were dressed this way.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Rarity and Sweetie Belle's father is seen dressed like this plus a straw hat and everything in the episode "Sisterhooves Social". Their mother is clad in the equally stereotypical tennis outfit. The reason for the outfits is that the two are leaving on a one-week vacation. It didn't help that his FABULOUS moustache earned him a comparison to Magnum, P.I.
  • In Rocko's Modern Life, Rocko and Heffer dress like this to visit France.
  • Babs Bunny turns into one in Tiny Toon Adventures when she visits Wackyland. Babs and Buster also are dressed that way in the ending Couch Gag variant where they say "Aaaaaaaaaloooooooha!"
  • Code Lyoko has a one-shot character wearing one of these, a blue and purple shirt.
  • The Unstoppable Yellow Yeti: Surfer Dude Osmo has one as his default outfit to emphasize his status as a Fish out of Water in Winterton.
  • Hilda: Tontu dresses as one in Season 3 during the trip to Tofoten, even annoying the locals with his nonstop photographing of everything he sees.

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