Open fly

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An open fly refers to the usually unintentional leaving of the fly of one's trousers unzipped, unbuttoned, or otherwise open. Often the underwear underneath is visible.

It is often considered humorous to many if a person is caught with his or her fly down. The idea of the fly being down has been used as a humor device in films, and, as internet blogs continue to gain popularity, many blogs have spent time pointing out that notable people (e.g. President George W. Bush [1]) have their flies down. The analogous phenomenon with cars, referring to the gas cap, can use some of the same phrases and be shown in blogs as well (e.g. David Carradine [2]).

In the 1980s, Levi's Jeans ran an ad campaign for their line of 501 Jeans with the tagline "Button Your Fly." This was due to the unique design of the jeans having a button-fly as opposed to the traditional zipper, and the tagline was a play on the "fly is down" phrase.

[edit] Warnings

Because of the embarrassing nature of the open fly, a number of euphemistic ways to alert someone to it are used. The simplest is "Your fly is open" (or, in the United Kingdom, "Your flies are open"). In English-speaking countries, often a direct (but subtle) "Your fly is open" or "Your zipper is down" suffices. The abbreviation XYZ is also used to subtlely remind the wearer to "eXamine Your Zipper." A longer variant is XYZPDQ, which stands for "eXamine Your Zipper, Pretty Damn Quick." Another commonly used warning in New Zealand and Australia is "You're flying low."

In other countries, such as Myanmar, for example, different phrases indicating a cultural suitability have been created. The most commonly used in Myanmar, and also in Vietnam, is "I see the market is also open on Sundays..."^{[citation needed]}