Invisible Streaker

Not all Invisibility methods are created equal. While most works Hand Wave away the problems with invisibility — being able to see being the main one — one specific problem frequently comes up. Namely: You may be able to become invisible, but that doesn't mean things you interact with (such as clothes) can.

This can be explained in multiple ways. Invisibility as a drug or innate ability may only affect the natural body, leaving clothing and other external objects out of luck. A person's original clothing may have turned invisible as well, but that's no guarantee that they will remain intact. A Literal Genie may make the person invisible, and just the person.

Ultimately, if this trope is in play, expect the Mundane Solution to come up — since no one (by definition) can see the invisible person, going around naked is an acceptable solution to being unable to make other things invisible. This can make using the power downright difficult, especially in less hospitable climates, or for more nefarious purposes — it's not easy to steal things when you can't interact with them.

This can also be downright hilarious, as the insinuation of nudity as well as the reactions to such is classic comedy. It can also be played equally dramatically — a person trapped in this state would be unable to interact with the outside world directly, outside of wearing a burqa or similar clothing all the time. There's also an inherent sexiness to the concept — many aversions of this trope are specifically used due the producers wanting to avoid risque situations.

In short: The Mundane Solution applied to specific types of Invisible Main Characters: those who, due to Rule of Funny, Drama, or Sexy, don't have invisible Magic Pants and consequently have to strip to make use of their power. A specific type of nudity as humor. Of course, expect the whole thing to wear off just a little bit too early. Depending on the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism, expect Exposed to the Elements (and other side effects of being naked and unseen outside) to come into play, or be outright ignored. This may also serve as a way of averting Right Through His Pants without showing anything the target audience may dislike.

It can be difficult to say what manner of invisibility is most "correct", because the question arises: what things count as part of an invisible person's body? At any given time you've got bacterial colonies whose members come and go, viral invaders being fought by your immune system, food being digested or excreted, dirt and dust falling on your skin, cells falling off your body, etc — there's no hard line in either direction. Whatever the source of the character's invisibility, the Required Secondary Powers that avert this particular trope may not be so "secondary" after all (especially if the invisibility takes a "psychic" form). It's an open question until science produces "real" invisibility (whatever that even means).

Examples

The Incredibles: Violet Parr (pictured above) has this problem. Unless she's in her special costume, she and only she turns invisible. As Violet's 15 and this is a Disney-Pixar film, she doesn't actually strip all the way down to get invisible. No mention is made as to whether or not her special suit came with matching underwear.

In Courage the Cowardly Dog, Eustace is forced to strip when he has to turn invisible to save Muriel from the government. He keeps wearing his hat and glasses though and the guards don't think anything is strange. Oddly enough, when Eustace gets turned into a gold statue, he's wearing boxers.

Totally Spies!: The villain in "Evil Boyfriend" does this after consuming the invisibility potion. However, for some reason, he has clohes when turns visible again.

In Tenshi Ni Narumon, Noelle's older sister Sara is invisible, and uses clothes and bandages to simulate visibility when needed. The trope in question was established in a later episode when, after everyone but protagonist Yuusuke started taking her for granted, she managed to regain visibility through sheer emotion... and flashed everyone in the area with her nudity. Fortunately, only her family were present, but her brother managed to comment how she'd grown a lot since he saw her last, before he passed out from nosebleed.

Fantastic Four: In the first movie, Susan Storm has this.

In Ichiban Ushiro No Daimaou, Kena Soga can turn invisible, (not that anyone knows that she can). However, since it's just her that turns invisible, it requires a lot of stripping or being caught naked after she materializes.

Done in Alabaster by the father of manga, Osamu Tezuka. The normally lethal invisibility ray hit Ami Ozawa while she was still in the womb, leaving her permanently invisible. Alabaster, the main villain, kidnaps her and breaks her will, and she helps him perform several jewelry heists by simply doing them naked. What finally causes her to do a full blown Face-Heel Turn, however, is the FBI agent raping her, then covering her in hideously colored paint stripes that she can't remove.

Lucy has to do this in a filler episode of Fairy Tail. The show being what it is, a group of children run into her on accident and proceed to prod her naked butt out of fascination. When she finally gets to the guild to ask for help Natsu, who finds her more intentionally, finds a much more standard area to grab her.