# Why doesn't Donald Duck wear pants?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 4, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041 "2009-12-04T23:19:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/1 "2009-12-04T23:19:07Z")
Mickey Mouse wears pants. Why does Donald Duck wander around with his nether regions uncovered?
I mean, I could understand if he didn’t wear clothes at all. He’s a duck and ducks don’t wear clothes. Daffy Duck doesn’t wear clothes.
But, apparently, as an anthropomorphized duck, Donald feels some necessity to cover his nakedness. But what a strange choice! Pants aren’t generally considered optional. I mean, being a guy, I can wander around barefoot and shirtless in the summer and no one cares. But if I tried going to the beach wearing only a tee-shirt I’d get arrested.
Didn’t anyone at Disney think this thing through?
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/2 "2009-12-04T23:28:16Z")
A ducks legs/feet are important to the design of a duck-based character. their legs are unique. No one gives a shit about a mouse’s legs. So putting pants on a duck character robs them oh interesting visual.
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### Author:  [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2009, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/3 "2009-12-04T23:35:37Z")
And how can Goofy, a dog, have a pet Pluto, also a dog?
It’s madness people!
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2009, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/4 "2009-12-04T23:38:17Z")
He does wear pants, you just are not looking correctly.
You see his pants and his shirt are BOTH WHITE, just like Donald’s feathers are
You think the blue garment that looks like a shirt is in fact a shirt. This gives him the illusion that he has no pants. That isn’t a shirt, that’s like a pullover sweater.
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### Author:  [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/5 "2009-12-04T23:45:10Z")
Donald also covers his nether regions when he’s naked. [pic.](http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3065/image4le5.jpg) He also wraps a towel round his waist when he gets out of the shower.
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2009, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/6 "2009-12-04T23:47:57Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#):
>
> Donald also covers his nether regions when he’s naked. [pic.](http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3065/image4le5.jpg) He also wraps a towel round his waist when he gets out of the shower.
This is even weirder. So he walks around all the time with his crotch totally exposed, but then gets modest and covers himself when he takes off his shirt?
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/7 "2009-12-04T23:48:48Z")
Porky pig doesn’t wear pants either. Nor do Petunia and Cicero.
And the only time Bugs Bunny wears clothes is when he’s crossdressing.
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### Author:  [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/8 "2009-12-04T23:53:32Z")
I always felt Porky was the most inappropriately exposed cartoon character. Put on some drawers, fool!
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### Author:  [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2009, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/9 "2009-12-05T00:07:53Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#):
>
> Mickey Mouse wears pants. Why does Donald Duck wander around with his nether regions uncovered?
Probably the same reason he speaks English, drives a car, and lives in a single-family detached house.He’s not real.
> [@](#):
>
> I mean, being a guy, I can wander around barefoot and shirtless in the summer and no one cares.
No shirt, no shoes, no service. And how much people care depends on how fit you are I suppose, but there are some places where shirtlessness would definitely be unacceptable. As for pantlessness, Donald is a duck, not a man. Duck’s genitals do not flop about exposed like yours presumably might if unpantsed.
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#):
>
> A ducks legs/feet are important to the design of a duck-based character. their legs are unique. No one gives a shit about a mouse’s legs. So putting pants on a duck character robs them oh interesting visual.
That’s a very good point.
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#):
>
> And how can Goofy, a dog, have a pet Pluto, also a dog?
Isn’t Pluto most often depicted as Mickey’s pet?
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2009, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/10 "2009-12-05T00:34:04Z")
Pluto and Goofy are not the same species. Pluto is a dog, while Goofy is a dawg. Huge difference.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/11 "2009-12-05T00:42:53Z")
This was a topic an early Mad parody by Harvey Kurtzman, back before it was Mad Magazine. (The title started out in comic book format.)
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### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/12 "2009-12-05T00:45:41Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#):
>
> Donald also covers his nether regions when he’s naked. [pic.](http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3065/image4le5.jpg) He also wraps a towel round his waist when he gets out of the shower.
Strangely enough, Disney has an official [answer](http://home.disney.go.com/guestservices/faqs#history_archives13) as to why Donald wraps a towel around his waist when he doesn’t wear pants:
> [@Disney](#):
>
> Donald puts a towel when he gets out of the shower to dry off! When he gets out of the shower he’s pretty wet and doesn’t want to drip water all over the bathroom floor. Seriously, Donald Duck was created as a human-like character. He reacts to many situations the same way that a man would. Since a man would normally wrap a towel around his waist when stepping out of the shower, so does Donald.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/13 "2009-12-05T00:56:07Z")
Ducks, like all birds, have internal naughty bits. The only time we can see them through the feathers is for a brief moment during mating. The cloaca in the male and female everts, and sperm cells are transferred.
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### Author:  [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/14 "2009-12-05T01:31:07Z")
> [@AskNott](#):
>
> Ducks, like all birds, have internal naughty bits. The only time we can see them through the feathers is for a brief moment during mating. The cloaca in the male and female everts, and sperm cells are transferred.
Thays more than I needed to know about Donald Duck.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/15 "2009-12-05T01:37:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Why doesn’t Donald Duck wear pants?
He is a perveret & a Communist, next question.
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2009, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/16 "2009-12-05T02:01:18Z")
Did anybody else have weird dreams as a kid where you were walking around completely bottomless and interacting with the cartoons as nothing was odd about it?
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2009, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/17 "2009-12-05T02:08:32Z")
> [@TWDuke](#):
>
> Duck’s genitals do not flop about exposed like yours presumably might if unpantsed.
Mine don’t, due to my two X chromosomes. I don’t have to wear pants?
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### Author:  [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/18 "2009-12-05T02:28:05Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#):
>
> And how can Goofy, a dog, have a pet Pluto, also a dog?
>
> It’s madness people!
See, Walt Disney was engaging in bizarre genetic animal anthropomorphizing experiments. His initial experiments with a mouse and a duck were successful, but when he tried it on a dog, the subject experienced a certain amount of brain damage.
Meanwhile, Pluto is an ordinary dog.
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### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/19 "2009-12-05T02:36:51Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Pluto and Goofy are not the same species. Pluto is a dog, while Goofy is a dawg. Huge difference.
On the nosey!
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### Author:  [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-donald-duck-wear-pants/520041/20 "2009-12-05T02:38:19Z")
Mickey is Disney, everybody covers their no-no’s in Disney.
Bugs, Daffy, Porky, etc. all go au naturale for Warner Brothers.
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