"I left Cleveland to get away from His and Her towels, people who call cocktail parties 'pours' and the guy who always breaks it up by wearing a lampshade on his head." A person getting drunk enough at a party to wear a lampshade as a hat.
It's hard to pin down the origin of this trope. One theory is that the guys get drunk enough to mistake lamps for hat racks; other theories are collected onthis web page
. The idea of a drunk wearing a lampshade goes back to at least 1945 in the U.S.—and probably even earlier (another article
dates it to 1928). If that's true, this trope could beOlder Than Television. It has also been suggested that this originated as a piece of "dirty" physical comedy: the man puts on the lamp-shade, exposes himself, and asks for someone to "turn him on" using his "switch".
Regardless, the overused nature of it has turned it into aDead Horse Trope. It's uncommon to find examples nowadays that aren't parodies of this.
Sometimes the lampshade wearer will say thatthey're feeling light-headed.
The same effect is sometimes achieved with a traffic cone, though in reality they tend to be too wide and heavy to be practical as headwear. Add to that the fact that they have to be drunk enough to consider stealing the cone in the first place, so cone wearers tend to be drunker than lampshade wearers.
Note, there is another reason you may see someone with a lampshade on their head: theRule of Funny use as aPaper-Thin Disguise, in order to pretend to be a lamp. This has nothing to do with being drunk.
A third reason is as legitimateImprovised Clothes, when someone really needs to hide their hair or face (often becauseOur Nudity Is Different) and their hat was stolen. This also usually has nothing to do with being drunk, although it may have something to do withswimming.
ASister Trope toNecktie Headband (what a JapaneseSalaryman will do instead).
Not to Be Confused withLampshade Hangingnote though it is still possible to hang a lampshade when this trope happens.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The Person Formerly Known as Taro Sekiutsu inSayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei sold his name to an immigrant, and now lives in a cardboard box in the streets, wearing a lampshade as a mask.Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei also does its fair share oflampshadehanging.
- Millie does this inTrigun.
Comedy
- On one ofGeorge Carlin's stand-up albums, he claims that doing impressions ofEd Sullivan is replacing wearing the lampshade at parties.
Comic Books
Comic Strips
- InDoonesbury, Mark Slackmeyer is bartending a college reunion, and an attendee comes up to the bar wearing a lampshade... before the party has even begun.
- AThe Far Side cartoon with three teenagers on a couch, surveying a living room which they have obviously carefully tidied, moments before the parents come home... "Play it cool," says one, "they'll never know we've been partying." The deception would be perfect if they were not all three wearing lampshades.
- OneFoxTrot strip had Jason admonishing his parents for napping on New Year's Eve, telling them to live it up. In the last panel, they've donned lampshades...and are still sleeping. Jason gives up on them.
- Garfield:
- It's definitely appeared in a few different strips, such as the December 31, 1989 strip (which got made into a Garfield Quickie onGarfield and Friends) and the December 29, 2006 strip. Garfield being a cat though, he isn't drunk — he's just a party animal.
- It's a prominent recurring feature inThe Garfield How to Party Book by Jim Davis.
- Leroy fromThe Lockhorns has been shown letting loose at a cocktail party via this trope.
- InPeanuts, Snoopy and Spike have worn lampshades on a couple of occasions.
- OneRetail strip has Marla dealing with a customer who complains about paying sales tax on a lampshade because "there's no tax on clothing". When she questions this, he puts it on his head and shouts "I'M THE LIFE OF THE PARTY!"
Fan Works
- InJ'adore
byBikerPon3, under the disguise category:Throwing himself down on the couch, he rested one leg on the coffee table, his eyes glazing over. His gaze eventually ended up settling on a life-sized alicorn lamp, complete with multi-hued flowing mane and tail, and a long spiralling white horn poking out from the top of the shade.
Wait… He didn’t have an alicorn lamp. Anything related to alicorns was often expensive.
Striding over to the corner, he plucked the dusty old lampshade from Celestia’s head. “For God’s sake, what are you doing here?”
- Sora, Donald, and Goofyinvoke this inSora and the Princess of Power
by bringing lampshades to the Princess Prom.
Film — Animation
Film — Live-Action
- Father Goose - a movie about a commander having to take care of a school teacher and her students had a scene in which the teacher accidentally got drunk because of a mistaken belief she was bitten by a snake(long story). He led the rather prim woman to believe she did dance naked with a lampshade on her head.
- InHot Fuzz one of the teens Sergeant Angel arrests for being drunk and disorderly is wearing a traffic cone on his head.
- 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III:
- No alcohol involved, but Master Splinter does this to cheer up Michelangelo.
- Michelangelo himself had done the same thing earlier.
- Visual Comedy: Kevin puts a lampshade on his head to demonstrate that a comedian can become funny by behaving like an object. An added bonus is that when he switches the lamp on, and the light comes from the shade on his head.
Literature
- Lords and Ladies puts it in an interesting context:
"There are no delusions for the dead. Dying is like waking up after a really good party, when you have one or two seconds of innocent freedom before you recollect all the things you did last night which seemed so logical and hilarious at the time, and then you remember the reallyamazing thing you did with a lampshade and two balloons, which had them institches, and now realize you're going to have to look a lot of people in the eye today and you're sober now and so are they butyou can both remember."
- Played for Laughs inThe Trials of Apollo, where the hat-lovingtroglodytes makeWill Solace wear one due to his ability toglow inthe dark.
- One of the students inWayside School is Falling Down raises a theory that Mrs. Jewls lets Myron do whatever he wants because Myron has a picture of Mrs. Jewls wearing a lampshade, and threatened to show it to the principal unless she allowed him to break the rules. One of the other students then asks how the principal would recognize Mrs. Jewls if a lampshade covered her face.
- In theUsborne Puzzle Adventures bookThe Curse of the Lost Idol, a lampshade is used as aPaper-Thin Disguise for a valuable object(the idol), in a room full of junk.
- Roy Blount Jr's 1984 comic essay "What to Do on New Year's Eve - II" discusses this:
"Try it, and you'll see why. A lampshade has prongs that don't fit the human head (might fit a cat's, but a cat would hate it), and there are dead moths in there. Stuck to the sides. But not stuck very securely. You could breathe one into your nose."
- InS. J. Perelman'sWestward Ha!, the humorist documents his travelling around the world on various ships. At one point in midocean, one of his fellow passengers produces a lampshade to wear, leading Perelman to speculate the woman lugged the thing all the way along in her luggage solely so she could do so.
Live-Action TV
Music
- The Bob and Tom Band's song, "It's Christmas and I Wonder Where I Am
", set to the tune of "Winter Wonderland", is told in the perspective of a man who gets drunk on Christmas; this is one of his many antics: "A lampshade! Isn't that the best?"
- The Irish Rovers' song "Wasn't That a Party?" has a variant of this trope.
"Someone took a grapefruit and wore it like a hat."
- Jellyfish mentions someone as wearing a "lampshade crown of thorns" in the lyrics of "Joining A Fan Club".
- Motörhead's"I'm So Bad (Baby I Don't Care)":
"Overkill, walk the line
Kill the lights, it's lampshade time"
- Brad Paisley's "Alcohol", sung from the POV of alcohol itself, contains the line "And I'll bet you a drink or two / That I can make you / Put that lampshade on your head." Deconstructed in the music video, where "Little" Jimmy Dickens walks onscreen and dons a lampshade in the most deliberate fashion.
- The Replacements' "Swingin' Party":
"Bring your own lampshade
Somewhere there's a party"
- Invoked inJoni Mitchell's "People's Parties"
Photo beauty gets attention
Then her eye paint's running down
She's got a rose in her teeth
And a lampshade crown
Pinball
Theatre
Video Games
- Magical Fox fromCard City Nights is depicted this way.
- FromFull Throttle, while Ben is looking at a photo:
Ben: Are you the guy with the lampshade on his head, or the guy chugging out of the punch bowl?
Quohog: Lampshade.
- The Pißwasser TV commercial inGrand Theft Auto IV shows, among the images of several drunk consumers, a man walking around Liberty City with a street cone in his head.
- Kingdom of Loathing: Traffic cones were available as hats for the first few celebrations of Sneaky St. Pete's Day, after adventuring while drunk enough:
This is a big cone of bright orange plastic. You have no recollection of how or where you got it, but it's like I always say — it's not a good night unless you end up with a traffic cone!
- Living Books: InThe Cat in the Hat, if you click on what appears to be a lamp on Page 11, the Cat removes the lampshade to reveal the Purple Bird wearing it.
Purple Bird: Guess it wasn't too bright to try being the light!
- Roblox has several lampshade-themed hats in a variety of colors and styles.
- Saints Row 2 has a lampshade wearable as a hat. Drunkenness is optional.
- InThe Sims 2, a Sim with the Pleasure aspiration will put on a lampshade and start dancing (wasting your time and theirs) if their aspiration level gets too low.
- InSylvester and Tweety in Cagey Capers, Sylvester can hide under a lampshade so he can pose as a lamp to avoid being spotted by Granny. If he does this for too long, though, he will get electrocuted.
Visual Novels
- Pizza Game features non-alcoholic example. Warped Lamp’s signature lampshade headwear (or possibly lampshade-shaped hairstyle) signifies weirdness, and fits the name.
Webcomics
Websites
- TheTV Tropes logo wears one, although whether it's drunk or not is up to opinion.
Web Video
Western Animation
- Non-alcohol example with Bashful inThe 7D. When Goldilocks steals his hat, Bashful goes into a panic looking for something to cover his exposed face with and finds a lampshade.
- Codename: Kids Next Door:
- In "Operation: P.A.R.T.Y.", one of the many teenagers at a party at the Delightful Children's mansion does this.
Teenager: Hey, I'm a lamp! Get it?
- InDanny Phantom this happen at the party in "Bitter Reunions" with one guy who was bouncing around with a lampshade on his head.
- In theDetentionaire episode "Friday Night Bites", when the partygoers become mind-controlled and Lee Ping commands them to "go crazy", one guy puts a lampshade on his head.
- Spanky Ham fromDrawn Together, in the first episode.
- The Flintstones: Fred does this whenever drunk.
- In oneFreakazoid! episode, the villains are at a party for Freakazoid's imminent doom.Invisibo wears a lampshade so you can tell where he is.
- InFuturama a scientist is shown wearing a lampshade on his head while partying in "Anthology of Interest II".
- Looney Tunes:
- In the short "Norman Normal" (1968) there's a character who wears a lampshade whiledroningly saying "Approval" over and over.
- One of the drunken cats in "Trap Happy Porky" (1945), belting out "On Moonlight Bay" (natch) also wears a lampshade.
- In one of Chuck Jones' 'Three Bears' cartoons, Junyer inadvertently electrocutes his Paw, then gets the idea to plug two lightbulbs in the dazed Paw's ears (and they light up!) then places a lampshade over his head. Mama anxiously says "Henry - what will the neighbors think?"
- The Loud House:
- In "Party Down", Lynn Sr. invokes the trope by including a lampshade in a box of props for Lori's party and donning it himself, telling her that "nothing brightens up a party like a lampshade on the head". Lori points out that she's seventeen and she instead wants a "sophisticated party". In the end, Lori's party turns into a (very mild)Wild Teen Party, complete with a boy wearing the lampshade prop. Lori's parents end up proud of her as they think teens are meant to have energetic parties.
- Sully dons a lampshade in "Child's Play" while badly disguising himself as the lamp in the living room.
- In the episode "Madeline and the Big Cheese" of theMadeline animated series, Danielle and Madeline has to come up with an impromptu way to lull Lord Cucuface to sleep so... well, see theTV.com summary
.Madeline: Psst, Danielle, you be the queen.
Danielle: Me? Queen who?
Madeline: (thinks)AHA! (Puts lampshade over Danielle's head)QueenLampshade!
Danielle: Fine, and you be Princess Drapery!
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- In the first episode, Spike is wearing a lampshade when he comes to invite Twilight back to a party she ran out of. He's a child, though, so no alcohol was implied.
- In "Ponyville Confidential", Pinkie Pie is photographed wearing a lampshade while dancing in a punch bowl, as part of a newspaper story about how she is an out-of-control party animal.
- The Patrick Star Show: In "Bummer Jobs", Cecil is hiding from Squidward so he doesn't have to pay for his newspaper subscription. When Squidward sees him through the window, Cecil puts a lampshade over his head todisguise himself. It doesn't work.
- The Simpsons: Homer often wears one when drunk.
- In"Homer and Apu"Barney is seen atMonster Mart purchasing oil drum sized keg of beer and Pepto-Bismol and asks a lady (actually a human sized Miss Maple syrup dispenser) where the lamp shades are at, implying he plans on wearing them in the near future.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- Patrick comes home in one ("Rock-A-Bye Bivalve") when he arrives home at midnight saying, "That was some party!" when he was supposed to come home earlier and helpSpongeBob with the baby scallop/clam (long story).
- Oddly enough, in "SpongeBob Meets the Strangler",SQUIDWARD wore one of these... TWICE. Judging by his expression, evenLarry was impressed by this particular move... TWICE.
- Gary also does it in another episode ("Party Pooper Pants", a.k.a. "SpongeBob's House Party"), andSpongeBob is still able to pull the chain attached to the shade and turn off the light.
- A non-alcohol (and by extension, non-party) example occurs in theTiny Toon Adventures episode, "Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow". When Buster tries to get the keys to unlock the cages and rescue Elmyra's captive petswithout waking Elmyra up, he accidentally breaks Elmyra's lamp. When she wakes up, he puts the lampshade on his head to pose as her lamp. Cue Elmyra turning Buster on and his skull being exposed.
- One episode ofXiaolin Showdown involves the Ring of Nine Dragons, which spits a person into up to nine copies of themself, unfortunately also dividing intelligence among them. When Jack Spicer gets his hands on it, we see one of his clones with a lampshade on his head.
Real Life
- Kinda played with inthis
◊Threadless
t-shirt design involving various major figures in communism having a party. - Seen on a Japan Airlines animated pre-flight safety message detailing the impact of altitude on the effects of alcohol. Where the guy got the lampshade from at 30,000 feet is anyone's guess.