I climbed out of the car, its windows fogged, and everyone in the street noticed that my hair was mussed and I was upset, leaving a driver who had salt-and-pepper hair and a crooked tie.
— One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed
We can tell that characters have been engaging in sexual activity from the way they are dressed. Caught in a car, answering the door, at the office, burst in on, etc. Half-undone clothes in disarray is all the explanation we (or other characters) need in order to know what's going on. Messy Hair is often in effect as well. In the classic Down on the Farm version, the girl will have clumps of hay sticking to her dress. A realistic variant is the so-called "Walk of Shame" — someone's clad in what are clearly party/nightclub/evening clothes from the night before, and quite disheveled to boot.
This is where the phrase "Caught with Your Pants Down" comes from. See also Sexy Shirt Switch and Did You Just Have Sex?. Also likely to be what we see after a Sexy Discretion Shot.
Not to be confused with Ready for Lovemaking, which is about wearing a skimpy and easily removed outfit as a sexual invitation. When the characters are having sex while dressed, that's Right Through His Pants. When there is absolutely no evidence that sex occurred, but people can still tell, that's Virgin Vision.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The second episode of Psycho-Pass has Yayoi walk out of a room while adjusting her clothes. Meanwhile, inside the room, we see Shion putting on her stockings while laying on a couch before sitting up and lighting a cigarette.
Comedy
- In Patton Oswalt's stand-up comedy album My Weakness is Strong, he talks about the time he and his wife were touring new houses when they happened to interrupt an orgy. One of the characters he encounters trying to escape the scene, who he dubs "Fucksquatch", is wearing:
Patton: ...a pair of girls' sweatpants, that he has put on backwards, so the word "Juicy" is across his groin. Juicy. Juicy! Which, I hate to say, probably factually accurate. He's also wearing a girl's tank top from The Gap, aqua, blue, or whatever it was...
Comic Books
- One B. Kliban cartoon has a couple dressed like this... while they sit side by side on a couch and vacantly watch television.
- In Lori Lovecraft: The Big Comeback, Lori and R.C. are attacked by a demon immediately after having sex. Scrambling to feet, R.C. yanks on the first piece of clothing he finds, which happens to be Lori's panties.
Films — Live-Action
- A Not What It Looks Like version in Copycat. A detective gets a bit rumpled after a long night guarding a female professor, and his partner comes to the wrong conclusion.
- In The Dark Knight, when the Joker crashes Harvey Dent's fundraiser, Bruce goes into his penthouse bedroom to retrieve his Batsuit from its hidden wall safe. In the background you see a man hurriedly stand up and buckle his pants, while the woman he was with adjusts her bra and expresses relief that there is a panic room, then utters, "Oh, you've got to be kidding me" when the safe closes behind Bruce.
- In one sequence in Futtock's End, a fuse blows just as everyone is going to bed, plunging the house into darkness. When the lights come back on, everyone is on the landing in their sleepwear; the housemaid and the Boots are wearing each other's pajama trousers.
- In Porky's, the assistant coach comes back with his shirt messed up after the howler's heard earning her namesake. Everyone knew who the woman was but aside from the head coach, no one knew who the dude was 'til they saw him w/a mussed shirt.
- Invoked awkwardly in The Room (2003). A friend interrupts Lisa and Mark as they are about to have sex and notices the obvious signs of Mark putting on his shirt and that his fly is down. Their affair only gets more blatant from there.
- A lampshading and aversion of this trope occurs in Waterdance. The heroine's family finds out about her first and only liaison; a friend refers to it as being "caught with hay in your hair and your skirts around your waist" and she replies that they did it in a bed and took their clothes off properly, thank you very much.
Literature
- In the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series, Georgia trips over while kissing a boy outdoors at a party, causing her short skirt to ride up. When her crush Robbie and rival Lindsay walk by, they then believe she was going much further with the other boy than she really did.
- In the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Vanishing Point, Fitz gets in trouble due to being seen like this. See, he just had sex with a twenty-year-old ingenue, called Vettul, who has never met a remotely able-bodied human man other than him — when she first met him, she called him "very beautiful" although he's really just average-looking, because she has no real point of reference. Looking at it that way, there's little space for the fact he's also ten years her senior to make it worse, so her mother-figure goes over all Mama Bear when they come back from the barn (yes, they had a literal Roll in the Hay) and she notices that Fitz hasn't got his trousers properly done up, so they keep falling down, and Vettul looks a little rumpled as well. He tries to talk her down by telling her that she's been sheltering Vettul far too much, which is true. There's also the fact that Vettul started feeling him up first. And then Vettul gets upset because she can tell he cares more about defending himself, and then the Doctor appears by communication screen and disapproves too...
- A PG variant occurs in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when Hermione starts a Revenge Romance with their older housemate Cormac McLaggen to make Ron jealous, and ditches Harry and Ron to be with him at the Christmas party. She comes back noticeably disheveled and embarrassed, explaining that he got a bit more handsy under the mistletoe than she bargained for, which Harry teases her about.
- In A Piece of Resistance, a novel by Clive Egleton set in a Soviet-occupied Britain, a couple working for La Résistance kill a counter-intelligence agent and throw his body off the train. Realising the ticket collector might have seen the three of them in the carriage together the couple pretend to be on the verge of stripping off for sex when the ticket collector does his rounds and 'surprises' them. Later a wanted notice in the newspaper shows an excellent identikit image of the woman, but a poor one of the man.
- In the Star Trek Novel 'Verse, T'Ryssa Chen's second appearance on the bridge ever is made with her uniform partially undone. She's a half-Vulcan raised as human, and one way she copes with her intense emotions is by falling into bed with many partners.
- Subverted in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants with Lena: she dashes into her house, jeans inside-out, sweaty and disheveled, and her family believes she's either had sex or has been raped. The truth is that a love interest has just seen her naked by accident and she ran away in embarrassment.
Live-Action TV
- Averted in one episode of Better Off Ted. Lem carefully folds his clothing before having sex with a hot lawyer on company time.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- In "Graduation Day Part 2", Willow and Oz are late for their high school graduation ceremony (and accompanying Big Badass Battle Sequence). They both hurry to their seats, pretty clearly post-coital.
- In "Seeing Red", Dawn sees ex-girlfriends Tara (wearing a bedsheet) and Willow (wearing only a large shirt) come out of Willow's room. Cue Squeeing from Dawn and the fans alike.
- Back in Season 4 when the Willow/Tara relationship had to be portrayed more subtly, Willow does the inside-out sweater version.
- Although it's made clear they didn't have sex, Buffy and Angel with rumpled clothing are shown emerging from a theatre screening an erotic foreign film in "Enemies".
- Crisis on Earth-X: Alex Danvers gets drunk and has a one-night stand with Sara Lance, then tells her stepsister the next day she was out jogging... fully dressed in the clothes she was wearing the night before.
- Game of Thrones: Ser Jorah Mormont is rendered completely speechless when he sees Daario Naharis leaving Queen Daenerys's chambers, still pulling on his clothes.
- Happens often in How I Met Your Mother.
- In Lily and Marshall's case, the simultaneous-sitting-up-from-floor-with-satiated-smiles-and-slightly-askew-clothing is a bit of a running gag.
- Once subverted when Barney and Ted's sister trick Ted.
- In an episode of Law & Order (and the Law & Order: UK episode based on it), a detective is none too pleased to notice that his partner has arrived at work in the same clothes he wore yesterday, and realizes that he's slept with the victim/witness in their case.
- Luke Cage (2016): After Willis Stryker tells Luke that they are brothers, Luke remembers seeing Dana Stryker emerge from his father's study adjusting her clothes and getting into an argument with his mother, and belatedly realises the Elephant in the Living Room that his family never discussed.
- In the mini-series A Man Called Intrepid, a female courier turns up at the house of a male spy to pass on a message. She refuses to leave immediately, however, pointing out that if his house is under surveillance, it will be obvious that an exchange of information has taken place, but if she leaves several hours later with her clothes and lipstick in disarray, the agents outside will get a different idea.
- In one episode of M*A*S*H, Frank and Margaret have their shirts buttoned together. This is kind of a Running Gag with them; Frank will have his boot tied to the table, or he'll be hiding in the closet, or Margaret will have her shirt buttoned wrong. It's a rarity for them to have their clothes on right when someone comes in.
- Monk: Asked to demonstrate his Sherlock Scan powers to a judge, Monk matter-of-factly states that he knows the judge was having sex with his secretary earlier, because the secretary is missing an earring and she's wearing a man's shirt.
- One Life to Live's Andrew and Tea are making out in his office, getting ready to have sex, when they're interrupted by a parishioner (he's the local minister). They hurriedly get dressed, but Tea's collar is noticeably askew, which the woman notices.
- In the 1986 mini-series Shaka Zulu, Lord Bathurst awaits an audience with King George IV about the Zulu problem. A courtier announces pompously: "His Majesty the King has woken, after a pleasant night's rest." Everyone applauds... until a pretty young thing in a nightie flounces out of the King's bedchamber.
- One episode of Smallville has a Wild Teen Party in Clark's barn, in the aftermath we see a half-dressed girl scurrying out of the hay, followed by a similarly disheveled guy.
- Star Trek:
- A subtle example shows up in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Wink of an Eye". We cut away from Kirk and Deela in his quarters; when we next see them, she's brushing her hair and he's putting on one of his boots.
- Averted in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Emissary". Worf and K'Ehler engage in a combat exercise program... then they engage each other. Cut to commercial break. When we return, both characters are completely dressed — without so much as a wrinkled wardrobe. K'Ehler's wistful line about some calisthenics being better than others is the only verification audience really has as to what just happened. At least in that episode.
- In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places", Worf and Jadzia Dax stumble into med bay the morning after with considerable Clothing Damage (and some body damage)... preceded by Quark and Grilka. Dr. Bashir really isn't interested in an explanation.
- Another subtle example occurs in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Darkling". Kes is shown kissing a local alien, then the next thing we see is a smiling Kes beaming up to Voyager at three in the morning, with her hair tousled and a sore back. The female transporter operator gives her a knowing smile.
- An Unsolved Mysteries segment about the murder of a couple indicates that they were ambushed while engaging in Auto Erotica, citing that the man's T-shirt was inside out while the woman was wearing his long-sleeved shirt, meaning that their killer(s) forced them to dress in a hurry.
- In one episode of Who's the Boss?, the big clue is that Mona's sweater is on inside out.
Theatre
- In The Most Happy Fella, when all of Tony's wedding guests are being sent home, the country girl who points out the hayloft of Tony's barn to her amorous boyfriend is seen with a lot of hay stuck to the back of her dress.
- At the end of Oklahoma!, Ado Annie reappears with mussed hair, a contented expression on her face and straw clinging to the back of her dress. It looks like she's resolved her quarrel with Will the Good Bad Girl way.
Video Games
- Hilariously averted in the Human Noble origin of Dragon Age: Origins. If the player chose to take either of the optional sexual encounters, they wake up in bed next to their partner, both in the game's ugly underwear. The partner will open the door and instantly be shot dead by an arrow, at which point the player character slams the door shut. In the seconds it takes the enemies outside to run up to the door, the player character will have gotten fully dressed in a suit of armor and be ready to fight.
- Well, not really the game itself, but the Wii port of Phantom Brave came packaged with a digital art disc, and included among the art was this rather suggestive piece
featuring the main protagonist and her best friend. (For those not familiar with the character, that blue thing next to her is a dress normally worn under the white one.) Yes, they are teenagers, it's just the art style that makes them look like little kids.
Webcomics
- El Goonish Shive: It has been stated by Word of God on the forum that something happened, or was about to happen, between Tedd and Grace before Sarah rang at his door, but it's a mystery how far they went and how far they planned to go. Tedd is shown adjusting his clothes on his way to answer the door.
- Gunnerkrigg Court does this with Kat's parents when she and Annie walk in on them both, and Donald hastily grabs a newspaper that's upside down. Ten minutes later and things would have been awkward indeed.
- Homestuck: Karkat catches Terezi sleeping while wearing only her scalemate-themed boxers, shirt, and dragon cape and being surrounded by copious amounts of horns and spilled Faygo, initially suggesting that she had recently filled buckets with her not-so-secret kismesis, Gamzee, although it turns out that she actually just passed out alone after drinking too much soda and that Gamzee has simply influenced her to behave like a juggalo.
- Narbonic: After Helen and Dave first have sex, Mell and Artie return to find Helen wearing Dave's flannel and Dave in a lab coat.
- The Order of the Stick: Vaarsvius assumes that this is happening when Elan's sash is backwards. In actuality, Nale has disguised himself as Elan and got part of the outfit wrong.
Web Originals
- The Japanese drawing meme "Although she hurriedly put on clothes..." features this as its main gimmick.
- Whateley Universe: On several occasions, Phase has gone to Zenith's dorm room and caught her in this fashion with Sahar. Phase doesn't mind at all, because he thinks Girl on Girl Is Hot.
Western Animation
- Discussed through the lens of Children Are Innocent in the DuckTales (2017) episode "The Golden Lagoon of White Agony Plains": 10-year-old Dewey assumes people in formal suits walk around with their bowtie hanging loose to look cool and imply they "part[ied] so hard it just flew open!" In any event, there's apparently enough of this trope going on around him for him to notice despite not knowing what it means...
- The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder: In "Bad Influence(r)", Penny comes home to find Oscar and Trudy awkwardly sitting on the couch wearing each other's clothes. She quizzically asks, "What were y'all doing?" before they realize their mistake.
- The Simpsons:
- In "22 Short Films About Springfield", Apu has a liaison with a woman in a pool changing room and comes out with his shirt on backwards and his Kwik-E-Mart smock inside out.
- In "Regarding Margie", Skinner and Edna are seen with ragged clothes on after sex inside a miniature golf castle.
