Wearing It All Wrong

Making a boob of yourself.

Random Girl: My scarf goes on my nose to weather the storm.
Bert: On your nose?

— Sesame Street, "All Dressed Up"

We've all seen people wearing the wrong clothes — like Adults Dressed as Children, or wearing a swimsuit to work — but wearing the right clothes, but on the wrong body parts, is even more hilarious, and that's where this trope comes in!

Quite often it's a little kid doing it to highlight how goofy little kids can be, and a common move for fictional toddlers is putting their pants, undies, or diaper on their head.

Maybe the joke is that a character is so dumb or naive they don't know which garment goes where (e.g. a character tries putting their socks over their shoes).

They might also be doing something goofy to make a small child laugh/stop crying/fall asleep.

Another variant is seen in Edutainment Shows, meant to teach kids to get dressed. (e.g. "Does this go on your hand? No! Does it go on your foot? No!")

Sometimes seen in parodies of Underwear of Power with characters playing superhero by actually wearing underwear over their pants. Improvised Diaper can overlap with this if the baby is wearing another piece of clothing as a diaper. Compare Dressed in Layers for clothes worn under other clothes.

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Examples:

Advertising

• The Pull-Ups website has an article on how to introduce the eponymous training pants to your kid and suggests saying, "Do we put them on our heads? Noo! Do we put them on our elbows? Noo!"
• Another ad (for laundry detergent or another product) has a woman giving her baby a play-by-play on how to fold laundry at a laundromat, then asks the child if pants go on their heads to teach them.

Anime & Manga

• Panpaka Pants: One of the one-minute shorts that made up the series' earlier years consisted of the four piglets being given underpants and wearing it on their heads before being shown the proper way to wear them.
• Yotsuba&!: Yotsuba's father will occasionally entertain her by throwing a pair of shorts on his head and declaring himself "Boxerman".
  "Which way is up? Which way is down? I do not know!"

Comic Strips

• In one Calvin and Hobbes strip, Calvin attempts to head out for school with his shirt and pants swapped, so he's wearing his shirt as pants and has his pants on his arms. His mom is not amused and makes him go change.
• Crabgrass: After spending all his time preparing for a school test, Miles unintentionally, and without realizing it himself, wears his underwear over his shorts, and only puts on 1 shoe.
• Dilbert: One early strip (back during the George H.W. Bush administration) has Dogbert comment that the Vice President is still a normal guy: "He puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us." The final panel shows the President not just wearing his pants on his head, but trying to shove his upper body into one leg. His wife facepalms and thinks, Not again...
• In a Peanuts strip from September 1985, Lucy tells Linus that she intends to try out for the girls' basketball team. She tells him one thing she's learned: "You don't put the kneepads on over your head."

Fan Works

• In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction Pound and Pumpkin Cake's Adventures (and Misadventures) in Potty Training, when Sweetie Belle babysits the Cake twins, they put a pull-up on her head.

Films — Animation

• Exploited in Bee Movie when Ken puts winter boots on his hands to try and kill Barry with.
• In Fantastic Mr. Fox, Ash wants a bandit hat like Mr. Fox, Kylie, and Kristofferson, so he cuts eye holes in a tube sock and wears that on his face.
• How to Catch a Cold: When the man is worried that he may have a serious disease, he is seen wearing a tiny jacket on his tongue.
• In Inside Out, Riley's "Goofball Island" was established when she was running around after a bath as a toddler wearing only a pair of underwear, which was on her head.
• In Pinocchio, when an angrily flustered Jiminy puts his clothes on after arguing with Lampwick, he flattens his hat and puts his coat on backward.

Films — Live Action

• Weird Science has Gary and Wyatt decide to create a person on Wyatt's computer, in an homage to Frankenstein, even hooking a doll up to electrodes. While doing so they wear brassieres on their heads. Wyatt asks why they are doing this, and Gary claims it's ceremonial. Later on, when they repeat the process with Max and Ian, they have the two of them wear bras on their heads as well.

Literature

• The Absentminded Fellow by Samuel Marshak has the Establishing Character Moment for the titular character being him putting his arms through the sleeves of the shirt - before realizing these are actually pants.
• Animorphs: In book #4, as Ax morphs into a human for the first time, the others realize he'll soon be naked and turn around, pointing him toward some clothes. When they turn back to him, he's pulled the T-shirt on like pants and the boxers are on his head.
• In "Babysitting Mode", a book based on Incredibles 2, Edna Mode is tasked with babysitting Jack-Jack. At one point in the book, Jack-Jack fashions a superhero costume from bits and pieces of the supersuits Edna designed, which includes wearing a sweater as a cape. Edna disapproves of this, which in turn, angers Jack-Jack, turning him into a monster that Edna now has to calm down.
• In the children's book Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton the turkey repeatedly wears articles of clothing in the wrong place and says, "Oops" after the other three animals wear them correctly.
• Day 9, Story 2 of The Decameron is about an abbess who was woken up at night with a report that one of her nuns harbors a lover. She catches the girl red-handed, assembles everyone, starts lecturing her about what a terrible and unforgivable sin this is... until the nun politely points out that upon being woken up, the abbess put on her head not the required headdress, but her own night guest's pants. The abbess hurries to change the tone of her lecture to one of forgiveness and the difficulties of resisting temptation.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid:
  • In Hard Luck, Fregley has a hard time putting on a shirt and ends up with his head sticking out of an armhole.
  • Old School has Greg put his socks on over his shoes because he can't remember which order they go in.
• On the cover of the Dirty Bertie book "Pants!", Bertie is seen wearing his underwear on his head. In the story proper, he puts his dad's underwear on his head.
• Discworld:
  • In Guards! Guards!, Mr Varneshi gives Carrot "a strange, vaguely hemispherical device surrounded by straps", which he explains Carrot should wear for protection:
    Carrot: It's a bit small, Mr Varneshi.
    Varneshi: That's because you don't wear it on your head, you see.
  • According to The Discworld Companion, King Ludwig of Ankh-Morpork was known for wearing his underpants on his head. Since the idea the king was completely detached from reality was unthinkable, this became a fashion at court.
  • Wearing underpants on your head is also a metaphor for insanity in Maskerade. "Five exclamation points in a row is a clear sign of someone who wears their underpants on their head."
• In Don't Wear Your Pants on Your Head, Fred, a boy named Fred is learning to get dressed but has many issues, including wearing his underpants on his head.
• In the Little Princess book "I Want My Potty", the Princess wears her crown on her butt as part of a trick.
• Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson: Having just got off the ferry from France and failed to find a room for the night, young backpacker Bryson ends up sleeping on a bench and piling on multiple layers of clothing... including a pair of boxer shorts as an improvised headwarmer. The dog-walker he meets the next morning and asks for directions to somewhere he can get some breakfast is kind enough to advise him to remove them before he ventures into a nearby Greasy Spoon.

Live-Action TV

• The Big Comfy Couch: In "Rude-I-Culous", Molly decides to be rude for the episode, at one point wearing her underwear on her head. Although Loonette can't help but laugh at her, she tells her that she doesn't want to hang around her if she's going to be like this.
• Blackadder:
  • In the Blackadder the Third episode "Nob and Nobility", Edmund has wangled a week's holiday, leaving the Prince Regent to put on his own trousers. By the end of the week, the Prince has managed to get his head inside them.
  • In the finale of Blackadder Goes Forth, Blackadder's ploy to get out of the Big Push is to wear his underpants on his head, stick two pencils up his nose, and say "Wibble". Unfortunately, the top brass are familiar with that one.
• Dead Gorgeous: In "150 Years Later", Rebecca—a Fish out of Temporal Water ghost—has never encountered 21st-century clothing before, and assumes a bra is a bonnet. She is soundly humiliated when she goes to lunch in the dining hall with the bra on her head.
• In the Glee episode "Comeback", Rachel recruits Brittany to help her become more popular. Since Brittany is a trendsetter at their high school, Rachel tells her to wear legwarmers the next day and tell everyone who asks that she was inspired by Rachel. Come the next day, Brittany forgot who she was supposed to credit and also what the legwarmers were for, so she wore them on her arms instead. Sure enough, throughout the episode all the other girls start wearing legwarmers on their arms and continue to criticize Rachel's fashion choices.
• One episode of Father Ted opens with a Self-Parody joke about Ted and Dougal watching an episode of Father Ben, in which Ben's companion Brendan is wearing a pair of shorts on his head.
• The pilot episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has Will, an urban kid from Philadelphia, wearing a suit with the cummerbund around his chest at a dinner party thrown by his wealthy Aunt Vivian and Uncle Phil.
• Full House: In "Joey's Funny Valentine", Uncle Jesse gives his hair a hot oil treatment which requires him to wear tinfoil on his head, and this inspires his twin sons, Nicky and Alex, to wear underwear on their heads.
• In Mork & Mindy, Amusing Alien Mork wears his watch on his ankle and thinks it's weird that earthlings wear watches on their wrists. It may have something to do with the fact that orkans evolved from birds, who'd want their arms free to fly with.

Music

• The kids' song "Don't Put Your Trousers on Your Head" features Fred, who puts his pants on his head, and Pete, who wears his gloves on his feet (which slows him down and he loses a race).

Poetry

• In the poem "Don't Think About a Zebra," it says that you shouldn't think about zebras because then you might think about zebras doing crazy things, up to and including wearing diapers on their heads.

Puppet Shows

• During the Sesame Street song "All Dressed Up", some children arrive wearing their winter clothes in the wrong places: One girl has a galosh on her head and a scarf on her nose, another has gloves on her ears and a coat on her face, and a boy has earmuffs around his waist and a hat on his hands. Bert bluntly tells them to go away and put their clothes in the right places.

Video Games

• Chrono Trigger has a certain helmet called "Ozzie Pants" which is among the best helmets in the game, but causes confusion. While it isn't directly stated, it is implied they are underpants.

Web Comics

• In VG Cats, one comic illustrates the Arbitrary Equipment Restriction of Final Fantasy XII. Aeris tries to wear a hat, but hasn't enough license points for that, and ends up wearing it over her face.

Web Original

• This website about ridiculous warning labels includes a label that reminds people to wear hats on their heads, not their feet or butts.
• This article about kids and humour says that putting a diaper on your head is an example of the absurdist humour babies find funny.

Western Animation

• Amphibia: Upon introduction, Captain Grime finds one of his soldiers to be wearing a breastplate as pants.
• The Fairly OddParents!: In "Return of The L.O.S.E.R.S.", Chloe tries to teach Timmy to dress himself. The result is Timmy wearing his shoes on his hands, his shirt around his hips, and his pants on his head.
• There's an episode of Futurama where a monkey forgets where to put his intelligence-enhancing hat, at one point putting it on his butt.
• Kaeloo has a running gag where Stumpy wears a pair of underpants on his head.
• In the Little Princess episode "But They're Mine", Princess is looking for uses for her old clothes, so she puts undies on the heads of two dolls, and socks on the heads of two plushies.
• Looney Tunes: In the Charlie Dog cartoon "A Hound for Trouble", Charlie is running an Italian restaurant while his new "master" is away, and serves a customer some freshly made wine that he just stomped the grapes for in front of him. The customer is so distraught and disgusted that when he leaves, he puts his coat on his head and puts his arms through his hat.
• The Loud House:
  • In the episode "Stall Monitor", Lincoln is stalling so his parents will be late for the parent-teacher conference. First he comes out of his room with no pants, then with no shirt, then he puts his pants on his head.
  • In "Driving Miss Hazy", Lincoln, who is tasked with doing Lori's laundry so Lori will take him to the comic book store, bumps into Leni, who is on her way to Lori's bedroom to make Lori's bed.^note Leni believes that making a bed involves actually building one, rather than neatening it. When the two pick themselves up and talk to each other, Leni is seen wearing a pair of Lori's pants on her head.
  • In "Crimes of Fashion", when Lincoln is considering giving up playing superhero and discards his cape, Leni tells him he can wear it as a scarf and does so herself. Then, it's revealed that a little boy is using the missing scarves as superhero capes.
• Muppet Babies (2018): In "The Best, Best Friend", Fozzie worries that Rowlf is going to replace him as Kermit's best friend. After losing to Rowlf in a game of Tri-soccer Flying Baseball, Fozzie tries to imitate Rowlf (even going as far as wearing the latter's clothes). Gonzo then asks Fozzie why he's acting so strange, then says that he's an expert on strange, as he wears his underwear on his head. When Gonzo puts a pair of boxer shorts on his head, Rowlf says it sounds like fun. Kermit manages to talk Rowlf out of doing it by asking him to play another song on the piano.
• In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Baby Cakes", Pinkie Pie tries to change the twins' diapers, but one of them puts a diaper on her head.
• In the Rocko's Modern Life episode, "Who's For Dinner?", Heffer, a steer, invites Rocko to his house to meet his family. Due to neglecting to tell Rocko that his family are a pack of wolves, Rocko brings them an udder warmer as a present. When Virginia, Heffer's surrogate mother opens the box, she wears the udder warmer on her head.
• Rugrats (1991):
  • The intro for seasons 7 to 9 shows a diaper falling from the sky and landing on Dil's head.
  • One episode has Betty wondering if babies actually copy their parents and noting, "Last week, Philly wore his diaper as a hat. He certainly didn't learn that from me! 'Course I can't keep an eye on Howie 24/7."
  • In "Dil Saver", Grandma Lulu puts new clothes on Dil, including socks on his hands.
  • In "Mirrorland", Tommy believes the mirror that Didi bought from an antique store to be a portal to a dimension called Mirrorland. When he and Chuckie go to Stu and Didi's bedroom, Chuckie sees it looks the same as before, so Tommy tries to prove that Mirrorland is real by wearing his diaper on his head since that's what a mirror baby would do.
  • In "Naked Tommy", Tommy decides to take off his clothes after seeing how much fun his dog Spike has not wearing clothes. At one point when Stu tries to put Tommy's diaper back onto his bottom, Tommy takes it off again and tosses it onto Stu's head. When Didi sees this, she tells Stu, "Get that thing off your head, you're going to give Tommy ideas!"
  • In "Chuckie's Bachelor Pad", the babies believe the garden shed to be Chuckie's new home when their dads move all of Chuckie's furniture out of his bedroom to repaint it. After the babies have a party in the shed, Tommy is seen wearing his diaper on his head. When Lil sees him doing this, she giggles. Tommy then gasps, hides his diaper behind his back, and blushes.
  • In "Doctor Susie", Susie decides to become a doctor for toys after Lucy teaches her how to be a doctor. When Dil breaks Angelica's Cynthia doll, Susie decides that she'll need the babies' help to fix her. When she dresses the babies as surgeons, she has them wear diapers on their heads, which act as surgical caps.
• Seven Little Monsters: In "I'm Telling", One gets on her brothers and sister's nerves when she tattles on them during a backyard campout. Near the end of the episode, One catches Four wearing a pair of boxer shorts on his head, which makes the other monsters laugh. One thinks about telling Mom but decides against it. To get back on her brothers and sister's good sides, One puts a pair of panties on her head.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In "Pickles", a supposed error on a Krabby Patty order causes SpongeBob to not remember how to do anything. At one point, we see that he put his underwear over his head.
  • In "Squeaky Boots", Mr. Krabs gives SpongeBob a pair of $2.00 fishing boots that he tried to give Pearl as a birthday present. When SpongeBob wears the boots, he annoys Squidward and Mr. Krabs with the boots' constant squeaking. At one point, Mr. Krabs sneaks into SpongeBob's house in the middle of the night, steals the boots, and hides them, which causes SpongeBob to get upset that he lost them. Mr. Krabs tries to cheer him up by giving him a pair of magic oven mitts. SpongeBob puts the oven mitts on his feet, says, "They're not the same!", and kicks them off.
  • At the beginning of "Your Shoe's Untied", Patrick gets a new pair of shoes, and decides to wear them on his hands instead of his feet. SpongeBob likes this idea and suggests also wearing gloves on their feet and hats on their "captain's quarters". In a later scene, Patrick is still wearing his shoes on his hands as he eats a Krabby Patty at the Krusty Krab.
  • In "Grandma's Kisses", SpongeBob's grandmother gives Patrick a sweater as a present. When Patrick opens it, he thinks it's a hat and wears it on his head until SpongeBob's grandmother tells him it's a sweater.
  • In "Missing Identity", when SpongeBob puts on his pants, they first end up on his hand, then on his head. He eventually gets it right but fails to notice that his shirt is backward.
• Thomas & Friends: A variant in "A Scarf For Percy"; Percy, a tank engine, wishes he could wear a scarf around his funnel to keep it warm during the cold winter season (it also doesn't help that everywhere he goes, he sees people wearing scarves). At one point, Percy accidentally crashes into a baggage trolley while trying to sneak up on his coaches, resulting in a pair of Sir Topham Hatt's trousers getting tangled around his funnel, making it look like he's wearing a scarf. When James sees this, he tells Percy that legs go in trousers, not funnels.

Real Life

• In the late 1930s, a trend created by Italian surrealist couturier Elsa Schiaparelli, with the help of artist Salvador Dalí was to wear shoes as hats◊.
• One old online prank by online users towards gullible women (particularly those who don't speak fluent English) was to put their shoes atop their heads.

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