Funny T-shirts started out in quite an interesting manner. T-shirts that read "Dew it for Dewey", with reference to Thomas E. Dewey, who was running for president, became widely popular in 1948. Only four years later, people like Marlon Brando, James Dean and John Wayne began wearing similar T-shirts with reference to future president Dwight Eisenhower that read "I like Ike", during his campaign, on national TV. These funny T-shirts succeeded in getting rid of the association that people had between T-shirts and the US army, and in this manner, they managed to gain a civilian look.

However, the history of funny T-shirts literally exploded in the 2000s. Humorous, ironic messages became more and more popular as imprinted on these shirts. Some knew increased popularity when worn by celebrities such as Kate Moss or Lindsay Lohan, whereas some, ironically designed, were concerning exactly such characters. The concept of the so-called "personal branding" has a strict connection to the phenomenon - it is a direct indicator of the wearer's political views, religious views, sense of humor. In addition, it manages to point at those whom he or she admires.

In any case, such slogans are generally more catchy (some even rhyme) than necessarily true. In addition, an extremely popular species comes in the form of the political slogan funny T-shirts, mostly coinciding with presidential elections, but often part of anti-Bush / anti-war campaigns. However, their influence runs deeper than meets the eye. In certain cases, such T-shirts are solely responsible for the infiltration of certain ideologies among the lower layers of society, or among isolated groups. Although offensive to some and shocking to others, they have become extremely popular among organizations as well, which have adopted them as instruments of statement making and of idea perpetuation.

Years later, music T-shirts brought a new addition to T-shirt design: ringer T-shirts. The T-shirt with rings around the collar and sleeves of a completely contrasting color grew particularly popular among the rock'n'roll subculture of the '60s in America. These music T-shirts are still somewhat popular today, although few are aware of their origin. Another trend can also enter the category of music T-shirts: the habit of wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt with a slightly larger short-sleeved one over it. These should generally be of a contrasting color, both black, or of contrasting patterns, for example a striped long-sleeved shirt with a plain black one over it.

Generally, this associates to rock music, sometimes to punk and in some circles to emo. All of this reached a new level in the mid '70s, when the black concert T-shirt became immensely popular, a trend that lives on today, quite successfully. Although not all pictures on music T-shirts focus necessarily on contrasts, the idea of having a black T-shirt depicting a favorite band or artist is as popular as ever, particularly among rock lovers, although the practice has recently spread to some parts of hip-hop music as well.

Later on, several versions of the original designs came into use, including the v-neck, polo T-shirt or tank top. The whole industry experienced something more or less similar to a revolution when several Internet-based companies began offering services that enabled users to create and customize their own T-shirts. With such an evolution, we enter a new era of development of the T-shirt industry.