Man in a Kilt

"Oh my, that British soldier is bending over! I'll just... fix my shoe, now." ^note  "Le prétexte" by Aaron Martinet. This picture was made in 1815, making this trope Older Than Radio.

A true Scotsman will never tell you what's under his kilt
But given any chance he'll be more than glad to show you.

— Fred MacAulay

Men in The Kilt (the plural of A Kilt is The Kilt, not Kilts) are often considered sexy, especially if they have "good legs". This can be a form of fanservice but it isn't always intentional; as Most Writers Are Male (and straight), they usually don't include and might even deliberately avoid fanservice aimed at women.

On occasion, it is intentional though. We'll be listing both examples of intentional and unintentional Kilt Service here. It is worth mentioning, however, there are examples of this definitely not being fanservice, when the Kilt is worn by a not traditionally attractive man… then again, different strokes for different folks and all that.

Often if a Man In A Kilt appears, someone will suggestively ask if is he "a real Scotsman", i.e. is anything worn under the kilt? If he's a "real Scotsman" he might say nothing is worn under the kilt: it's all in very good condition. (Historically, this is a case of artistic license; since the "nae trews" style of kilt-wearing originated with a single British Army regiment; we also understand that it is permissible to wear underpants with a kilt at present, since there was a lady on the Scottish throne. British Army uniform regulations require that underwear be worn with the kilt when ladies are present, or when engaged in athletic pursuits or dancing, and encourage (but do not require) the wearing of underwear with the kilt in any other circumstances,^note In one infamous instance, a British soldier was revealed to be a true Scotsman when a strong breeze blew up the back of his kilt during a ceremony in Hong Kong...on camera. Even reputable broadsheets ran the photo on their front pages above the fold. and The Other Wiki notes that participants in traditional Highland events like the Highland Games or country dance contests are generally required by the rules to wear something under their kilt.) A typical answer to "what are you wearing under it" if the man in question is feeling a little mischievous is, "Good girls don't ask, bad girls find out for themselves" and, if he just wants to be a total wiseass, "Shoes". Note also that the Scottish Tartans Authority, an organization dedicated to preservation of kilts and tartans history, calls going without "childish and unhygienic".

The kilt is also invariably the Scottish tartan Great or Wee kilt, despite the kilt being considerably Older Than They Think.

Furthermore — in Scotland, the Kilt is part of Highland dress and not universal to the entire country. Lowlanders (including historical figures like John Knox and Robert Burns) would never have worn kilts as they are the mainstay of the "Teuchter" (or Highlander). This being the subject of "Donald Where's Yer Troosers?" by comic singer Andy Stewart.

Compare Shirtless Scene. At the end of the day, kilts are skirts and various types (Scottish and otherwise) are used in women's fashion, and many examples overlap with Wholesome Crossdresser, Disguised in Drag, or even Creepy Crossdresser.

Oh, and… it's probably best not to tell a Scotsman he's wearing a skirt… because if you do, you'll get kilt.

---

Examples:

Advertising

• Bones Coffee:
  • "Highland Grog" features a Scottish skeleton dressed in a kilt playing the bagpipes on the label.
  • In "Bones Coffee CO | Stop Drinking Boring Coffee!", a stereotypical Scottish man in a kilt (and yes, his lack of underwear is apparent) appears to sample some coffee.
• Scotch Whisky purveyor William Lawson's "No Rules" ad campaign featured kilt-wearing, well-built, and typically shirtless men. Pushing the fanservice content as far as they're allowed (and occasionally farther, as one advert demonstrated), the kilts are invariably raised or lost completely.
  • In the most well-known of these ads; a shirtless (and presumably underwear-less) Nico Vandersmissen recreates Sharon Stone's famous scene from Basic Instinct by flashing (a clearly impressed)… Sharon Stone.
    • Another one portrays the pre-game of a Scotland — New Zealand rugby game. The New Zealanders perform their traditional pre-match haka (the one performed in the ad isn't the actual All Blacks haka, but it's close enough). The Scots stand around in kilts, unimpressed. Then it's their turn. They just stand there, and then they lift their kilts. Faces of New Zealand team: 0.0. Well built, indeed. (Oh, don't worry, that bit is off-screen.)
• Utilikilts runs an annual Mock-U-Mercial contest where owners can send in their fanmade commercials. Some are pretty amazingly epic. They're almost all gut-bustingly funny.
• Scott's Porage Oats pretty much sell their entire image on this from adverts like this to their basic box design.
• Clothing company 5.11 Tactical occasionally sells a Tactical Duty Kilt. One year when they sold it, they promoted it with a video of two guys trying to one-up each other doing various combat and driving drills wearing the kilt, culminating with one of them skydiving.
• An ad for Fruit of the Loom underwear informs the viewers who you should and shouldn't give underwear for the holidays. One of the "shouldn't"s is a Scotsman, who just laughs and says "Nae!"

Anime & Manga

• Candy♡Candy involved some characters with the kilt and nicely-shaped legs.
• A variation with Tien Shinhan in the Dragon Ball franchise. In later installments, he wears a long, flowing skirt reminiscent of Buddhist monks' robes.
• Similarly, Suguru Geto and his impostor/body-snatcher Kenjaku of Jujutsu Kaisen wears a pleated skirt over billowing pants as part of his Buddhist robes.
• Prince Fillmore typically wears one in The Five Star Stories, though a dark brown one as opposed to the more iconic plaid.
• Koga from Inuyasha pretty much wears a kilt.
• The Hitachiin twins and Hunny pair sailor tops with the kilt in the introductory image for volume 2 of Ouran High School Host Club, bringing them into Wholesome Crossdresser territory; Haruhi also gets in on the act in the same image.
• Tsukiuta's Iku in the 2017 idol costumes. He has pants underneath it, though, but the asymmetrical cut gives a very nice effect. Several of the male characters in the series do wear skirts, though.

Comedy

• In an early Jeff Dunham comedy special, Walter remarks, "I used to chase skirts all over the world, until I got to Scotland, and, boy, was I surprised!"
• In the first of the Great Comedy Debates held at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, politician Steve Crabb — who was born in Scotland and had a heavy Scottish accent — wore a kilt because his team captain had told him it would distract the opposing side from the topic. He then commented that his own team had been the only ones to make jokes about it.

Comic Books

• Asterix: When Asterix and Obelix go and watch a rugby game in "Asterix in Britain" the Caledonian (Scottish) musical band walks around in kilts.
• De Kiekeboes: Party subverted in "De Doedelzak van Mac Reel" ("The Bagpipes of MacRel"), where the Scottish scientist only starts wearing a kilt when he's back in Scotland and as part of a traditional festivity.
• Father Christmas buys one when vacationing in Scotland to "blend in". It doesn't work since he's still Santa Claus in a kilt.
• Jommeke: One of the recurring characters in this comic strip is Mic Mac Jampudding, a Scot who walks around in traditional Scottish clothing, including the kilt.
• Don Rosa made Scrooge wear a kilt in the ninth part of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. There is no sign in the comics of the Scottish accent he has in animated works such as DuckTales (1987), but Rosa's works seem to imply that he lost it during his cowboy years.
• Nero: In the album "Mr. Nobody" Nero and company are visited by the Scotsman Mr. Nobody, who wears a kilt.
• Suske en Wiske: In "De Knokkersburcht" Suske en Wiske visit Scotland, where everyone (including themselves) wears Scottish traditional clothing.
• Tintin: In Tintin and the Black Island Tintin crashlands in Scotland, where he is given traditional Scottish clothing, including a kilt.

Fan Works

• In a bit of Actor Allusion fun, young Obi-Wan Kenobi often wears one in the Sith Academy stories, much to the delight of Qui-Gon Jinn, Darth Maul, and the series' fanbase.
• Duncan McSmurf, the Adaptation Name Change version of Gutsy from The Smurfs film series, in Empath: The Luckiest Smurf. His Oirish bartender friend Tapper Smurf occasionally wears one at weddings. But neither of them would wear one without pants. Empath himself briefly appeared in one during his groom suit fitting in the Imaginarium in "Empath's Wedding".
• Fergus MacSmurf, the Captain Ersatz of Gutsy Smurf, in Hero: The Guardian Smurf, and so on occasion does Hero, Hawkeye, and Miner.
• Or god in a kilt, in The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World. The giant statue of Meddar Pyar has him wearing a kilt. As the four travel up the side of the White Tower in a transparent elevator (they're about to have an interview with the Pyar gods), John, out of sheer nervousness, makes a running tour guide commentary about the giant statues they're rising past. At one point he talks about what the god might have on under his kilt and whether they'll have the opportunity to take a look before they leave.
• The clansman Mercator Garten from the Alternate Tail Series wears a kilt, which is helpful when he transforms into his Merman form.

Film — Animation

• In Brave, the story takes place in Scotland and thus all male characters wear kilts. And many of them wear naught else but their weapons belts, as shown by the "rope of the kilt" scene. Pixar even held "Kilt Fridays" at the studio, requiring all male staff members to wear a kilt to work.
• In The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow, Gutsy checks underneath the kilt when he says that he doesn't have any pants on to slow him down, despite evidence to the contrary.

Film — Live-Action

• Samuel L. Jackson wore a kilt in The 51st State.
• The Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010) wears a kilt for the final battle.
• Appointment with Venus: Being a member of a Scottish regiment, Major Valentine Mooreland (David Niven) wears a kilt as part of his service dress uniform while in London.
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery: Fat Bastard wears one in his first scene. Pray for no wind.
• William Wallace (Mel Gibson) in Braveheart even though, like most of the film, this was unlikely. Wallace was not a Highlander — he was an upper-class Lowlander. The kilt in Braveheart is an anachronism; during Wallace's time, the most common battle dress was a long, heavy tunic waterproofed with bear or goose grease. The plaid wool wrap, which would evolve into the Great Kilt about a century later, was too valuable to risk damaging and would have been set aside before battle. Also worth noting that at the time, the great plaid didn't exist and wouldn't until over a century later. In dress, Wallace and his men would have looked no different from the Englishmen they were fighting.
• In Carry On Up the Khyber a war is fought over the belief that the kilted British Army wear underpants. The enemy are ultimately routed by being shown outright that they don't.
• In Doctor in Clover, Sir Lancelot wears a kilt to the nurses' party:
  Sir Lancelot: The kilt has certain considerable advantages. Especially if a chap's got sexy knees.
• Robert Donat dons a kilt for the film The Ghost Goes West. Swoon.
• Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) in Highlander. Along with many others in the Clan McLeod.
• In Holiday on the Buses, one passes by Olive who has lost her glasses. Olive mistakes him for a lady and ends up following him into the gents' toilets!
• Since in the Scottish Hebrides and a navy man at that, Torquil MacNeil wears his kilt constantly in the film I Know Where I'm Going!.
• James Bond
  • James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. A bit ironic considering it was the Australian George Lazenby, not the Scotsman Sean Connery. But on the other hand, it was the adaptation of the novel that established that James Bond was actually Scottish (because Fleming was so impressed with Connery).
  • Artist Mike Grell put the comic book James Bond (visually based on Sean Connery) in a kilt in the Permission to Die mini-series.
  • In Casino Royale (1967), David Niven as James Bond goes up against a bunch of Scotsmen; Peter Sellers as James Bond is hallucinated into a hostile Highlander marching band.
• Alan Bates in King of Hearts wears a kilt as the uniform of his regiment — the ladies in the village brothel find it appealing.
• Peter Capaldi wears a kilt, Arran jumper and is seen frequently with bagpipes in Ken Russell's horror film The Lair of the White Worm.
• Discussed in Lionheart when a couple of characters mock a Scot for his "skirt" and wonder if he's a true Scotsman.
• The first film to pair Laurel and Hardy, Putting Pants on Philip, has Stan as the kilted title character and Ollie as his embarrassed uncle.
• Gutsy Smurf in The Smurfs has full regalia plus an accent to match. However, he does wear Smurf pants underneath his kilt.
• The Three Stooges get kilted up for a silly mystery in The Hot Scots. Although, to be honest, they're not that hot, but they do look good.
• In Ten Inch Hero, Priestly wears one with a black t-shirt saying "Surf naked".
• Colonel von Gutz from Up the Front wears a kilt as part of his Scottish Officer disguise inside British Headquarters.
• Wonder Woman (2017): The Scotsman Charlie wears a kilt, even on the front.

Jokes

• How can you if a Scotsman is a Drag Queen? He's wearing pants.

Literature

• Cullen Moorland in A Brother's Price is introduced in a green kilt, but he definitely has things underneath.
• The Cat Who... Series: Probably inevitable, given the Scottish history that was built for Qwilleran's character. Despite this, he resists for a long time, but eventually buys one in a moment of weakness after getting a scare regarding Polly Duncan's health in book 17 (The Cat Who Blew the Whistle) and formally debuts it in book 19 (The Cat Who Tailed a Thief).
• The Nac Mac Feegle, in Discworld. When you're six inches high, but have enough muscle to lift a cow, your legs are not going to be attractive, and artwork of them reflects this. Asked in Wintersmith if anything was worn underneath...
  Rob Anybody: ...not necessarily.
• Kilts are everyday as well as ceremonial wear for the Clan Mackenzie of the Emberverse, an After the End society which has modeled itself after Scottish clans. Fortunately, the climate of the Willamette Valley is mild enough to make the garb practical.
• In The Old Kingdom trilogy, Touchstone wears kilts while traveling as Sabriel's guard, in part because he's an extensively trained swordsman and couldn't find breeches that fit his legs. In Goldenhand as the King it's mentioned that he's single-handedly trying to bring it back into fashion, with limited success.
• Jamie Fraser in Outlander, much to Claire's delight — at one point she mentions that the kilt makes her want to "ravish" him. As an aside, the sporran actually proves quite handy.
• Probably not intended as fanservice (though of course some people will see it that way) but a fair number of the male characters in the Redwall series wear kilts, Rakkety Tam MacBurl and Wild Doogy Plumm probably being the most obvious. They're not necessarily of the traditional Scottish design — Ferahgo wears a fur one.
• Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein: Lazarus Long wears a kilt. He started wearing them when they came into fashion, but kept them past the trend as a practical choice — gives him better weapons concealment and access.

Live-Action TV

• Our Miss Brooks: Mr. Conklin dresses as a Scotsman in "The Festival", complete with kilt and carrying about bagpipes for good measure.
• Are You Being Served?:
  • Menswear was once asked by a Scotsman for assistance… right on the day when Miss Brahms was temporarily allowed to work there^note in order to avoid proximity to Mrs. Slocombe's cold, given that she'd just been vaccinated. Fortunately for her fear of "the unknown", they were informed that their inside legs are taken from the outside.
  • Another episode features Mr. Lucas taking care of a Scottish customer in a kilt and trying to figure out how to take the man's inside leg measurement (the man had never worn pants in his life and didn't know his measurement).
  • Another episode has Mr. Humphries assisting a man in a kilt who wanted to buy a raincoat — one that wasn't too noisy. It turned out the man was a tabloid photographer and had his camera hidden in the sporran.
• The Avengers once visited Scotland. To make sure the audience knew they were in Scotland, everyone — John Steed included, of course — wore the kilt throughout. Ironically, the only person wearing trousers was Emma Peel.
• El Chapulín Colorado: A guest at a costume party was wearing a kilt as part of his costume.
• Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report wears a kilt to show solidarity for Scotland in his segment on the Scottish independence referendum.
• Parodied in an episode of The Detectives where they were called in to an attempted murder during a battle re-enactment. The only clue the almost murder victim could give was that his attacker was wearing purple Y-fronts (briefs). Cue the detectives walking round with a rearview mirror on a stick to check what everyone was wearing under their kilt.
• Doctor Who:
  • Jamie McCrimmon, as Captain Jack points out in this piece of Fan Art. (Fun fact: Lead weights were sewn into the hem of the kilt to prevent viewers from learning if he was a real Scotsman.)
  • Both the Fourth Doctor and the Brigadier wear kilts in "Terror of the Zygons".
  • The Fifteenth Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa who was raised in Scotland, sports a kilt briefly in "The Church on Ruby Road".
  • Also, in Real Life: the Tenth Doctor himself, David Tennant.◊
• On ER, there was an episode where Dr. Morganstern was brought into the ER wearing one. At first, the nurses thought he was wearing a schoolgirl outfit until he informed them he was Highland Scot on his mother's side.
• Fast Forward. In a parody of Braveheart, the Evil Brits have stolen the trousers of the Scots, forcing them to wear skirts. This is why all their faces are blue: from the cold!
• Glee's Kurt Hummel wears a very traditional (but home-made) formal kilt and jacket to his prom in "Prom Queen" — though with a pair of skinny jeans underneath, and knee-high boots (justified in that Kurt is canonically rather averse to showing skin).
• The Goodies:
  • The Goodies wore kilts in a totally failed attempt to blend in while in Scotland in "Scotland".
  • In "Alternative Roots", the kilt is worn by the clan of Graeme's ancestor Keltic Kilty. The clan's initiation rite includes the joke "What's worn under a Scotsman's kilt? Nothing, it's all in perfect working order!".
• Duncan MacLeod in the Highlander series, along with others in the flashback scenes.
• In an episode of Home Improvement, Tim and Al participate in the local Scottish Highland Games to promote a charity, and they both wear kilts. Tim attempts the caber toss. Hilarity Ensues.
  Tim: They should wear underwear with these things.
  Al: You're supposed to, Tim.
  (Beat)
  Tim: Well, that would explain the itching, then...
• The Legend of William Tell Will consistently wears two strips of tartan hanging from his belt, one at the back, one at the front, along with a sporran. Sadly, though, he's wearing trousers underneath.
• On an episode of McMillan & Wife, Rock Hudson wore a kilt and his wife (Susan Saint James) had to give him some pointers sotto voce on sitting while wearing a skirt-like garment in public ("keep your knees together, dear").
• Monty Python's Flying Circus: In the "Ideal Loon Exhibition" John Cleese is the 'Scotsman with Nae Troos' exhibit. Housewives peer under his kilt and walk off nodding thoughtfully.
• The Muppet Show gives us One-Scene Wonder Angus McGonagle, the Argyle Gargoyle who garrrrrrrgles Gerrrrrrrrshwin. GORRRRRRRGEOUSLY! Gonzo also wears a kilt for one sketch while playing the bagpipes.
• Andy comes to work wearing a kilt, without a sporran, in one episode of The Office (US). He admits that it's actually just the skirt from his sister's old school uniform.
• Much like the book series it is based on, Outlander is built on this trope. Becomes a major source of drama in Season 3 when the British government forbids the wearing of kilts and clan tartans following Scottish defeat at Culloden.
• Flynn, the Blue Ranger from Power Rangers RPM, for formal occasions as well as part of his childhood school uniform. When he was fighting off Wedding Smashers, there were even some "lifting the kilt" visual gags.
• Rizzoli & Isles: In "A Shot in the Dark", Kent arrives at Korsak and Kiki's wedding in Scottish formal wear, including a kilt. When his kilt twirls up while he is dancing, Jane discovers he is a 'true Scotsman'.
• Mr. Pool wears one in an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, he's of Scottish ancestry. It isn't played for Fanservice, as it just confuses Sabrina, and the principal yells at Mr. Pool for doing so.
• Sex and the City. Charlotte's husband Trey and his groomsmen wore these at their wedding. Samantha of course, was all too eager to tell the other girls, "They do wear something underneath. But it's very easy to get off". Trey and his friends/relatives are seen wearing them again at a family event celebrating a Scottish holiday.
• Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in Star Trek: The Original Series wears a kilt onscreen twice, in the Scott black & white tartan, both in the third season. He also wears a different Scott tartan in The Wrath of Khan.
• In Tin Man, several of the Oz resistance fighters are wearing kilts. These were made by the Seattle-based Utilikilts company (see Real Life)
• Played with in a late episode of Welcome Back, Kotter. New Sweathog Beau DeLabar read his file and found out Mr. Woodman pretty much considered him a Boy Scout, which did not endear him to the rest of the Sweathogs. To try and change his image with them, he "accidentally" spilled coffee on Woodman's pants, and asked him to take them off so he could get them cleaned. Beau then pulled the fire alarm and raised the pants up the flag pole. Fortunately for Woodman, Julie Kotter just happened to have a kilt she was hemming with her for him to wear.
• Malcolm Webster wears a kilt for his wedding to Claire Morris at the start of The Widower.

Magazine

• Analog: The July 1941 cover focuses on a man wearing a green tartan.

Music

• Kilts are often worn by Folk Metal/Medieval Metal musicians and fans.
• Axl Rose wore a kilt many times in the early 1990s, most notably at the Concert For Life and in the video for "Estranged".
• Finnish folk metalers Finntroll often adopt black kilts, in tune with their paganised aesthetic, much to the apparent delight of their female fans.
• Scottish singer Kenneth McKellar sported a kilt when he represented the United Kingdom in the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest.
• Despite being recorded in a pre-music video era, Andy Stewart's Donald, Whur's Yer Troosers which is about the humourous misadventures of a Scottish man wearing a Kilt in England contains an example of this trope when women drop money on the ground on at his feet just so they can bend down to pick it up...
  Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low,
  Through the streets in my kilt I go,
  And all the lassies shout "Hello,
  Donald, where's your troosers?"
• Steampunk band Abney Park's guitarist/violinist often wears a tartan kilt as part of his stage look. Rumor has it that some female fans do indeed try to get a peek from the front row at concerts.
• Bryan Bowers' song The Scotsman: A drunk Scotsman passes out alongside the road and two girls decide to take a peek under his kilt. It turns out that he isn't wearing anything underneath, so the girls tie a blue ribbon around his… little friend. When he wakes up and goes to pee, he sees the ribbon and says "Lad, I don't know where you've been, but I see you've won first prize".
• Rapper Kanye West wore a kilt◊ on his and Jay-Z's Watch the Throne tour in the US during late 2011.
• The Irish (with one Scotsman) group Celtic Thunder will don kilts for their finale "Ireland's Call". The male members of their band will usually wear them throughout, and at least once they mentioned, if the venue was too warm, they might wear them through the whole gig as well.
• The Dutch folk band Rapalje performs Scottish, Irish, and Dutch folk songs, as well as folk-inspired versions of more modern songs dressed up in great kilt. Member Dieb even wears the tartan of his own "clan", 'McTreashcaighn'.
• The Kilties Drum & Bugle Corps of Racine, Wisconsin — Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• Any band that plays Scottish bag pipes of course, regardless if the band members are actually Scots or not.
• "Under the Kilt" by Jonny Jakobsen (as Dr. MacDoo).
• Jonathan Davis of Korn, most notably in the "Freak on a Leash" video.

Pinball

• Fat Bastard from Austin Powers. Fortunately, only his upper half is visible, so there's no chance of seeing what he has underneath.

Pro Wrestling

• "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. They didn't call him "Hot Rod" because he was quick, and he famously wore a kilt. Then, with several years and several pounds added, most of the charm is sadly gone. Also, he's thankfully not a True Scotsman, and wears standard-issue wrestling trunks underneath his kilt.
• ECW\TNA star Raven, in his later years.
• Drew McIntyre, real name Drew Galloway, of The UK circuit and WWE, real Scotsman and sex on legs, though he doesn't wear a kilt that often.
• WWC Tag Team Champions Doom Patrol wear what appear to be armored kilts, and they like to shove their opponents' heads underneath them...

Puppet Shows

• The Back Story of Fergie the Ferret in Roland Rat: The Series was that, being a ferret, he loved running up trouser legs, and his native Glasgow sadly lacked them, so he made his way to London. He himself also wears a kilt (on the rare occasions we see the characters from the waist down).

Radio

• In the Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation episode "How To Be A Woman In The 21st Century", Jeremy asks Gordon Kennedy if it's true what they say about the kilt. Gordon's reply is "Personally, I don't risk it. A kilt only comes down to the knees, after all. Could be embarrassing".
• One exchange between Hamish and Dougal on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue:
  Dougal: I see you're up a ladder.
  Hamish: Oh, it's a lovely view from up here.
  Dougal: I wish I could say the same.

Tabletop Games

• In BattleTech, the mercenary unit the Northwind Highlanders are made up mostly of Scottish-descended colonists of the planet Northwind and wear kilts as their dress uniforms.
• In the Infinity miniatures game, the Ariadna faction can field troops from the 45th Glaswegian regiment, which are stereotypically Brave Scots with kilts and giant claymores. Unstereotypically, they also pack heavy autocannons.
• In Ironclaw wolves, being the setting's Scottish/Celtic couterpart, often wear the kilt. In fact, the only wolf in the illustrations wearing pants is a woman.
• Mutant Chronicles: The early editions had Imperial renegade Nick Michaels, who wore a kilt and an open leather jacket and nothing else.

Theatre

• Brigadoon, being set in Scotland, naturally does this with a lot of the male characters.
• In La Sylphide, this may be done to remind the patrons that they're watching a ballet set in Scotland.
• One production of The Nutcracker put the Silberhaus patriarch in a kilt.

Video Games

• Battlefield Heroes: Depicted a number of British soldiers running around in kilts.
• Haggis MacMutton, "of the clan MacMutton", in The Curse of Monkey Island, complete with exaggerated Scottish accent. At one point he tells an impatient Guybrush "keep yer skirt on, laddie", and during a storm at sea is shown holding down not the rigging, but his tartan. Delightful tidbit of trivia: Haggis MacMutton is voiced by Alan Young, the iconic Scotsman to a lot of people.
• Believe it or not, Duke Nukem himself wears a kilt in the Medieval levels of the spin-off game Duke Nukem: Time to Kill (an Easter Egg even has him lifting it to moon the camera, Braveheart-style), and a tunic in the Ancient Roman levels. He's actually only wearing pants for about half of the game.
• Armies in Europa Universalis are represented on the map by soldiers in attire reflecting their general tech level and with some regional/national variation. Pre-gunpowder Scottish units wear the kilt, making them immediately recognizable from other European powers.
• In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, the Man In Black real name Theodor Harvey but better known as Golbez is so called for his choice of attire: black cowl/cape, black kilt, nothing else.
• The player's avatar from Fire Emblem: Awakening wears a black skirt over their pants, regardless of gender.
• One of the (in)famous characters in the Atari Jaguar game Kasumi Ninja is Angus, a Scotsman wearing a large red kilt. One of his regular moves is to lift his kilt and shoot a fireball from beneath it...
• Craftable in Kingdom of Loathing. Requires you to be a male character, as they are the Spear Counterpart to the skirts that girls make.
• Link of The Legend of Zelda is sometimes mistaken for this trope; he actually wears a full tunic, which is quite different from a dress, skirt, or kilt. However, in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask when Link transforms into his Deku, Zora and Goron forms, the top of his tunic rips off leaving him with just the "skirt" of the tunic.
• In Love & Pies, Sven's husband Angus wears a kilt.
• One of the random bits of starting encouragement dialogue in London in Midtown Madness 2 is a Scotsman saying "If you can't feel the wind under yer kilt ye aren't going fast enough! Whaddaya mean yer not wearin' a kilt?!"
• Violent Glaswegian Magnus Armstrong from No One Lives Forever.
• In Team Fortress 2 the Demoman has a kilt (the Cool Breeze) as a cosmetic item. Even before that, the other team's Soldier had a domination line where he shouts "Scotland is not a real country, you are an Englishman in a dress!" and in a tie-in comic, Demoman wears a kilt in a family photo, as do as his parents.
  Cool Breeze description: Forget coffee, lad. THIS'll wake ye up on a cold winter morning.
• In the Total War games, many Scottish units wear kilts. If it's a unit with the word "Highlander" anywhere in it, expect to see full-body kilts. Highland Noble units actually wear chainmail kilts with plate armor if they've been upgraded.
• Shamans and Druids in World of Warcraft often get kilt-like pants as part of their raid set or as single equips. They are not gender- nor race-specific either. One of the funniest (and in some cases, the most awesome) things to see in this game is an 8ft, musclebound orc guy pummeling enemies with his axes and/or fists while wearing a kilt. It's even more hilarious to see Tauren (a Minotaur-like race) walking around in the kilt. Video from the song above. Kil'jaeden is sometimes depicted with a gladiator-style kilt. Lampshaded by one of the female dwarf /flirt lines: "I'd like to see you in a kilt". Ironically, until recently, male dwarves were unlikely to wear kilts in-game.

Webcomics

• In Bram & Vlad, Bram is seen wearing a kilt when the weather is "too hot for pants". Vlad points out that he shouldn't be wearing one since he doesn't have any Scottish ancestry. Bram simply shrugs.
• Cursed Princess Club: When Prince Jamie and his sisters from the Pastel Kingdom go to an event in the Plaid Kingdom, they all get plaid-themed makeovers, with Jamie in particular getting a red plaid kilt. Or at least, he claims it's a kilt, but it's much longer, wavier, and more lace-trimmed than usual, making it look more like a dress. This once again leads to many people at the party thinking he's the third Pastel Princess rather than his sister Gwendolyn. He wears dress pants underneath it, though, meaning he can quickly rip off the "kilt" when he needs to.
• Comes up a lot in webcomic The Devil's Panties. The author went on to think about getting a leaf-blower for more fun. Then did it, and now regularly uses it at comics conventions, and sells a calendar of the pictures.
• In Kimchi Cuddles, Dean wears a kilt without comment.
• Lampshaded in a page of Manly Guys Doing Manly Things here. And indeed, he does look good in it.
• Ozy and Millie: the artist has drawn a picture of Ozy as an adult wearing a Utilikilt (see Real Life below). Presumably because of his dislike for pants, and he once mentioned he preferred a dress.
• Jeremy in Platinum Grit sometimes wears pants, but spends a lot of time in a kilt because he rarely has the chance to change clothes. And he wears it traditionally, as Kate inadvertently discovers.
• In SwordCat Princess, the Leader of the Avalonian Guard, Ribwort, wears a kilt with nothing under it as observed by James Barrington — who later reveals that his own '90s superhero costume (with a moniker of Fangus Bitus) included a crotch-panel-free semi-kilt.
• Scipio in Templar Arizona. Reagan certainly appreciates it. "He works that kilt".

Web Original

• Dream Machine: The hero of the time travel romance show they’re producing, Duncan Taggart. His arch rival Samuel Braeburn too, for that matter.
• The Guild Fawkes wears one in every single episode. Even when he's wearing a suit jacket.
  Clara: Um, who says you're number one? And be honest, are you naked under there?
  Fawkes: Server stats. Axis of Anarchy rules. And yes, I am.
• In Noob, Ardacos, the non-player "You ALL Look Familiar handwaved as constantly changing jobs" shopkeeper, wears pants for most of his jobs. The webseries shows him wearing a kilt for one of his functions: weaponmaster in the training grounds. A player named Görth only seen in the second novel is also mentioned to wear a kilt.
• Ryan Haywood's avatar in Let's Play Minecraft wears a kilt. He also wears one in Ten Little Roosters and so does his X-Ray & Vav character, the Mad King. When he catches Miles wearing Lindsay's Ruby Rose cosplay outfit and asks why he's wearing a dress, he fires back to Miles's "It's a combat skirt" reply with "You gotta be kidding me, I'm in a kilt. That's the original combat skirt".

Western Animation

• Biclops from ChalkZone wore a kilt. Justified because he was originally drawn by a Scottish child.
• The Scots-Canadian hermit in Chilly Beach decides to give the curling ice one final polish before a crucial game... so he lifts up his kilt and pees on it. When someone reminds him that it's traditional to wear something under the kilt when there's a woman on the throne, he sheepishly admits that it was laundry day.
• Mung Daal in Chowder. Thankfully, it's a Magic Kilt.
• DuckTales (1987):
  • The show's version of Flintheart Glomgold (who in the comics was South African) is a Scotsman who wears a kilt.
  • Scrooge McDuck, despite not being human and therefore having duck-legs, does quite well in tailcoat and kilt. When Scrooge took Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby to visit his family's chalet in Scotland, Webby saw a photograph of Scrooge as a kid wearing a kilt. Webby thought it was a girl. Scrooge once told that, during one of his earlier days in America when he still was poor, a police officer once arrested him for wearing a "skirt" in public. Fortunately for Scrooge, the judge was also Scottish (or at least Scottish-American) and felt so insulted he sentenced the cop to thirty days wearing real skirts.
• In DuckTales (2017), Glomgold is South African, like he is in the comics, but since he's trying to be "more Scrooge than Scrooge", he's trying to outdo him in both the money and Scotland departments. He thinks the kilt helps with the latter.
  Flintheart Glomgold: He thinks he's so rich and so Scottish. But ah'm wearin' a kilt, McDuck! A KIIIIIILT!
• Ed from Ed, Edd n Eddy wears a kilt once when pretending to be a Scotsman.
  Jimmy: Look, look! A man wearing a dress!
  
  Ed: Can I wear a dress again?
• Cosmo, Timmy and Timmy's dad in Fairly OddParents wear kilts in several episodes. All these instances are played for laughs and the kilts have been nicknamed in the series as "man-skirts".
• The Foot 2 Rue Scottish team's boys wore the kilt. The team's girl wore pants.
• Roddy MacStew, The Mentor of Freakazoid!. Sure enough, Freakazoid asks him why he's wearing a dress.
• Averted in Hey Arnold!: Many people in and out of universe think that Arnold is wearing a skirt/kilt below his sweater. It's actually a long, untucked plaid shirt, as noted by the plaid collar. He even pulls off his sweater in some episodes to confirm this to Rhonda, who thinks he's wearing a skirt.
• Home Movies: Coach McGuirk reignites his passion for Scottish Highland Dancing in full regalia… he gets a cramp and lands sprawled out, horrifying his team with the view.
• In the Loch Ness episode of Inspector Gadget, Brain wears a kilt most of the episode, and you can see up the kilt many, many times. He's not wearing anything, but he is a dog.
• Duff Killigan in Kim Possible, who wears a kilt, isn't traditionally sexy.
• Looney Tunes:
  • Bugs Bunny wears a kilt during the "Slobovian Rock and Roll" number in "Rabbit Romeo"
  • In "My Bunny Lies Over the Sea", upon reaching Scotland as a result of another Wrong Turn at Albuquerque, Bugs mistook a local man for a woman. Once learning it's a man, Bugs provided a barrel. Once learning he's in Scotland, Bugs adapted his catchphrase by asking "What's up, MacDoc?"
• Jelly's Uncle Betty from the Oh Yeah! Cartoons short "Jelly's Day: Uncle Betty's Rash" wore a kilt.
• Haggis McHaggis of The Ren & Stimpy Show is never seen without his kilt and tam o'shanter. In his debut short, Hard Times for Haggis, he pulls himself together after losing his TV show, mansion, and butler, by telling himself, "Are ye not a man? Are ye not wearing a dress?"
• The Rotten Ralph episode "Percy in Love" has Percy wear a kilt when he attempts to court Lulu's cousin Lola.
• The Scotsman in Samurai Jack (and most male members of his clan, naturally). The sporran on it functions as a Bag of Holding.
• Groundskeeper Willie in The Simpsons, when not wearing overalls at work, will sport a kilt, and being a true Scotsman, has nothing underneath.
  • When he recreates the leg-crossing scene from Basic Instinct in "Who Shot Mr. Burns, Part 2," it causes the opposite reaction that Sharon Stone got.
  • In "Bart's Girlfriend", Bart pulls a gag by lifting his kilt in front of a crowd during "Scotchtoberfest," people weep and faint, with Willie dismissively saying "'tis naugh' bu' wha' Go' gae meh ya Puritan pukes!"
  • When he played basketball in "Children of a Lesser Clod", the other players couldn't bring themselves to get close to him. Oddly though, he's gotten several Shirtless Scenes (Willie's level of attractiveness is subject to Negative Continuity).
  • Also note that despite being Scottish Groundskeeper, Willie is not wearing a kilt all the time, only during important festivities. This is at least more Truth in Television with real Scots.
  • In "Monty Can't Buy Me Love", Homer wears a kilt while hunting for the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland.
• Cortes in Skyland used to have a kilt in his early character design, but it got replaced by pants, but seems to have survived on in the form of a strip of tartan around his waist. Needless to say, the fandom has taken on the task of drawing him in a kilt. Shirtless, too.
• The male Smurfs in The Smurfs (1981) Season 9 episodes that take place in Scotland are all seen wearing kilts, as their clothes would change depending on what time period and/or geographical location they would wind up in.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Multiple clone trooper officers, and all of the ARC troopers, wear an armour accessory called "kama" that looks a lot like a kilt. Also, any clone who wears kama will also be prone to Guns Akimbo.
  • Star Wars Legends identified that the Kama was a holdover from the Clone’s Mandalorian heritage, fitting for a race that uses No True Scotsman as a key trait. This has yet to be confirmed true in canon, as the clones are shown to be much less connected to the Mandalorians this time around.
• In the special Toot & Puddle: I'll Be Home for Christmas, upon waking up for his first morning in Scotland, Toot finds some clothing laid out that he finds rather odd. His Uncle Bertie says that it's for him, but Toot isn't so sure about wearing a "skirt". Uncle Bertie presents his own kilt and asks if it looks like a skirt to him. "A little," admits Toot. But after being shown a book of Scottish heroes wearing their kilts, he takes to it.
• "The Monster O'McDonaldland Loch", the last of the six The Wacky Adventures Of Ronald Mc Donald videos, had Hamburglar wear a kilt after tearing his pants. Ronald is also shown wearing a kilt in the first half of the live-action wraparound segment.

Real Life

• Despite popular belief, it's actually very odd to see kilts worn as casual/everyday wear — traditionally, kilts are only worn for special occasions (like for a wedding or some kind of festival). However, many Scots gleefully don one at the first hint of a trip abroad, particularly if they are to represent their country in some way. A Scottish international rugby or football game will typically see more than a few of the fans kilted up. This may, however, simply be The Coconut Effect. The Scottish man knows the first thing he's going to be asked is (even if it's in jest) "Where's your kilt?" simply because he's Scottish.
  • For an event like a wedding, the groom and groomsmen might wear kilts if there's any Scottish (or Irish) ancestry: Truth in Television, as well as fictional examples Sex and the City (Kyle McLachlan), Four Weddings and a Funeral and Made of Honor (Patrick Dempsey, he tried to be like a "real Scotsman" but his bits were attacked by midges — Kevin McKidd toughed it out).
  • Another thing: while it's not unheard of for women and girls to wear kilts, they are traditionally more of a guy thing.
• John Barrowman can be seen in a kilt on occasion (at his civil ceremony, one picture involves him flashing Eve Myles — we don't see anything though — just her enjoying the view).
  • He also mentioned wearing them for major holidays, such as New Year's Eve. Apparently, when he and his partner Scott are kilted up and drunk, hilarity ensues.
  • John Barrowman also likes to perform “kilt checks” for fans at conventions. He lies down on the ground and men in kilts walk over him. Barrowman then declares which ones are “true Scotsmen” under their kilts.
• Yoshiki Hayashi once modeled a kilt in a fashion show.
• Cam Gigandet wearing a kilt. Yay!
• Some people who come out as transgender women wear kilts during their transitional phase, due to their commonly accepted status as "male skirts", and may continue wearing them into womanhood. They are often used in alternative fashion for all genders, with feminine/deliberately androgynous looks for men frequently using kilts and skirts of various types.
• By sheer technicality, this trope applies to most male cosplayers who dress as characters (of any gender) who wear schoolgirl uniforms.
• Patrick Norton, co-host of "The Screen Savers" pre-G4 takeover, occasionally sported a Utili-kilt. It never became as iconic as his sledgehammer.
• Sean Connery, being of Shcottish deshent, showed up in full regalia for hish knighting sheremony.
• The dress uniform for several regiments of the British army (the ones that were originally "Highland" regiments) includes wearing the kilt.
• Simon Pegg sported a kilt at the premier of the Star Trek reboot on the basis that he plays Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, the USS Enterprise's Scottish engineer.
• You don't have to look hard to find men in the kilt at a Renaissance Faire.
  • Or at Metal/Gothic Festivals
• Seattle has a company called Utilikilts, and it's not uncommon to see Seattle-area men wearing them in summer.
• There's also the California-based Sport Kilt.
• Marc Jacobs makes it look pretty good.
• Alan Cumming often◊ likes◊ to wear them on the red carpet◊. Or on special occasions◊.
• Craig Ferguson sports a stars and stripes-themed kilt on the cover of his memoir◊, American on Purpose.
• This video is a pretty odd example — boys (well, girls too, but it's not important) from Russian dance studio performing Irish (mostly) dance while wearing the Scottish kilt accompanied by Finnish music. Adding some sexy moves for more Fanservice.
• Although the kilt is specifically a Scottish/Gaelic garment, a very similar article of clothing, the shendyt, was the preferred male garment in ancient Egypt. Period fiction sometimes refers to this garb as a "kilt" as a Translation Convention.
• Mike Myers appeared at the 2006 AFI Life Achievement ceremony for Sean Connery wearing a kilt.
  Mike: A lot of people ask me: "Is anything worn under your kilt?". I say, "No, nothing's worn. Everything's in fine, working order."
• Men who like wearing these on a regular basis have shared shocking stories of women becoming incredibly aggressive with them—lifting it without permission, shrieking in delight upon finding out that they're wearing nothing underneath, then outright grabbing at whatever they find—behavior that would outright be called sexual assault if the genders were reversed.
• King Charles III wore one during the Edinburgh vigil for his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, though his brothers opted not to.
• The King's Tall, Dark, and Handsome "hot equerry", Lt. Col Jonathan "Jonny" Thompson, wears one on duty regularly as part of his regiment, much to the delight of swooning fans.

---