Black tie should be one of the sweetest phrases a man can hear. It means you won't have to think about anything when you get dressed that night. You won't have to fuss over whether you should go tie or no-tie, or bicker with anyone about whether you can get away with jeans. You'll wear a tuxedo—which, if you've graduated from a backpack to anything made out of leather, you probably own. But for some guys—most conspicuously, celebrities—the words black tie have become a cue to rouse their inner George Clinton.

"I do think men sometimes try to stand out on the red carpet," says Anna Roth, a Hollywood stylist who has dressed Morgan Freeman for events. Standing out is one thing. Wearing—as Adrien Brody did to a movie premiere this fall—a bastardization of the tuxedo so shiny it could be mistaken for a hazmat suit is another. The only person who could have looked at Brody without squinting, had he been there, is Heath Ledger, who, in addition to wearing shorts and satin-trimmed fedoras, sometimes accessorizes with bright plastic sunglasses on the red carpet.

Has the Kodak-preserved memory of how tux manipulation can go horribly awry—MC Hammer—style black pants and purple cummerbunds—been collectively suppressed? Riffing on the classic is like riffing on a gimlet or a Beatles song. The results are always lame.

"The only alternative to a tuxedo is a black suit," designer Isaac Mizrahi says. "A bolo tie? An ascot? I want to barf."

What makes this particular fashion misstep worse is that it's so public. You don't put on a tuxedo to have dinner with your wife at a local bistro. You wear one to a formal event—one where you will probably be photographed. So why choose this moment to let loose with sartorial self-expression? You're better off saving that for a show you're too old to be going to—or better yet, your own birthday party.