Go commando means to go without underwear. Liz from Indianapolis wondered about it after the phrase came up during a conversation with her husband about a near wardrobe malfunction. The slang likely plays on a movie-style image of a commando tough enough to endure serious chafing in the heat and sweat of wartime, though the logic of slang only goes so far. One printed citation goes back to 1982, and a 1996 episode of Friends, seen in part one and part two, helped make it widely familiar. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Why Does “Go Commando” Mean Going without Underwear?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, Martha. Hi, Grant. This is Liz, and I’m calling from Indianapolis.
Hiya, Liz.
Hiya, Liz. What’s going on?
Well, I have a question for you guys.
A little while ago, my husband and I were having a conversation, and he used the phrase, going commando, meaning not wearing underwear under your clothes.
Are you going to tell us what this conversation was about?
Well, we were discussing where we had an evening out for a nice evening, and without naming any names, one of us had a new wardrobe malfunction with kind of a ripped seam happening all of a sudden.
But it turned out okay. You know, the person involved was able to kind of keep it together, and, you know, it ended up pretty well.
Okay, a happy ending.
Yes.
But anyway, I was wondering that, you know, I’ve used the phrase before, and I know what it is, but I thought, you know, that is the strangest thing. And I was just wondering, how did it come to mean what it means?
I think of Commando, and I think of like a Rambo movie.
-huh. So in other words, you were saying that, oh boy, I’m sure glad that so-and-so wasn’t going Commando?
Right.
Tonight? Okay.
Right, yeah. Go Commando, just to reiterate, means to go without underpants, right?
Right, yeah.
Well, you’re kind of on the right track there with Rambo. The idea is that, how shall I put this delicately, that going without underpants can lead to a lot of chafing, and probably the only type of person who could withstand that chafing on a regular basis is your Navy SEAL type or your Special Forces kind of guy, or your Rambo type, your commando type, somebody who’s tough and the kind of guy who can eat hot peppers by the handful without flinching, or the kind of guy who bathes in gunpowder and lights his cigar with a blowtorch, that kind of guy, right?
Or gal, for that matter.
Well, I was thinking, you know, in a commando kind of situation, wouldn’t that be more of a liability than anything else?
Well, he’s tough. He can take it.
That’s, you know, this is, you know, trying to explain slang in a logical way sometimes falls down completely.
So, you know, talking about men’s underpants is not a thing I thought I would ever do on the air. But here we go.
Yeah, well, me neither.
But wouldn’t it be smart to wear underpants even if you are a commando?
Hey, look, let’s say that you’re lying in wait for the enemy for three days in camouflage, you know, maybe not wearing underpants is a good thing. Maybe they have, like, baby pants that drop down in the back so they can do their business and then snap them back up, you know?
This is something that I’m totally not familiar with. I’ve never been a commando.
You know, I’ve been wrong before. I don’t know, but I would rather do with than without.
Yeah, I’m with you.
I’m kind of talking about the movie ideal of a commando and not the actual commando, although I imagine that they are incredibly tough individuals who can do just about anything they put their minds to.
But first of all, this expression actually is about 30 years old. So that kind of surprises a lot of people.
Are you surprised to find that it’s that old?
I guess I’m not too surprised.
Well, most people heard it from an episode of Friends in 1996. There’s an episode where Joey and Chandler are having some spat. And for whatever reason, Chandler wears Joey’s underpants. And Joey is incensed about it. So Joey is forced to go commando on a rented toxin. He doesn’t want to do that and so on and so forth.
Okay.
Well, I’ve certainly heard of it before 96.
Yeah, yeah. I have one printed citation for it from 1982, but I think it’s older than that.
Okay.
So, Liz, have we helped?
Well, I guess.
Yeah, that’s the usual response. I know more now than I did before, which is always a plus.
Is it in this case?
I’m not sure. I’d imagine that if there’s somebody out there that has more knowledge of this, that they’ll be sure to let us know.
We’re going to hear about it, yeah. Our listeners are always on the ball when it comes to saying, well, you know, I remember using that in 1942 when I was in France. So you never know.
Yeah, I’m sure the tradition is much older than the expression.
Oh, well, yes. The idea, yes.
Yeah, I guess so.
Yeah.
All right.
All right, Liz. Well, thank you for your call.
All right.
Well, thanks a bunch. You all have a good one.
Okay.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
That’s a perfect slang expression, though.
Going commando?
Well, having to have a word for going without your underpants.
Yeah.
That pretty much requires slang. That meets all qualifications and classifications of what slang is.
Well, whatever you’re wearing, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673. We’ll answer your questions about clothes or whatever you have on your mind. You can also send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.
