Gratuitous Disco Sequence

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Revision as of 01:26, 13 January 2014 by Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (Fixed image/caption markup, removed TVT control freakery)
Get down, get funky, yeah!
"Disco is not Deader Than Disco! Disco is LIFE!"
—Tony P, Mystery Men

A disco-inspired sequence in an otherwise unrelated work. Sometimes even featuring the full Standard Disco Equipment!

May be the doing of a Disco Dan, but such a character isn't even necessary to bring some Disco interlude out of nowhere.

Of course, this doesn't count if the show is set in The Seventies, or has Disco renewal as its main subject (like the 2008 French movie titled, guess what, Disco). This trope is for gratuitous Disco moments with little justification (in-story)... besides the Rule of Cool.

Most extreme cases can be Big Lipped Alligator Moments.

Examples of Gratuitous Disco Sequence include:


Anime & Manga

  • Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu
    • The anime features a scene in an early episode where Haré comes home to see Guu and Weda have set up a Disco in the house and are getting down with their bad selves. Guu's even sporting an afro, which Haré realizes is the village elder's lost chest hair. Weda actually greets him with "Welcome to the hippest trip!" à la Soul Train.
    • And then, the second ending credits are Disco-themed.
  • One Piece
    • Zombie Night! Nuff said.
    • There's also a character in a later arc whose name is Disco. He dresses accordingly.
  • The second ending of Yakitate!! Japan.
  • The first ending of Keroro Gunsou.


Fan Works


Films -- Animation


Films -- Live-Action

  • In The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, there is a flashback of the characters during the '70s in an appropriately Disco setting. Part of the gag is that the actors weren't made up to look any younger -- they are just dressed in Disco-era fashion and with longer hair (including Nordberg [O.J. Simpson] with a Funny Afro so big he can't get through a door). Even more absurd, the Anna Nicole Smith character appears as a grown woman in the disco scene, even though the actress herself had barely reached puberty when the '70s ended.
  • Airplane!
    • In a Flash Back scene, two girl scouts end up in a bar room brawl. One of them smashes her head against a jukebox causing it to play The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" whereupon everybody in the bar starts dancing. Arguably the earliest example in Western media, as Airplane! was filmed in 1979-1980, just as the anti-Disco backlash was beginning.
    • Parodied in a later scene where a DJ announces "This is WZAZ, where Disco lives forever!" shortly before the title airplane destroys the WZAZ radio tower.
  • In Mystery Men, Casanova Frankenstein employs the Disco Boys as henchmen, and there is a full Disco Room in his castle.
  • Disco is a Running Gag in You Don't Mess With the Zohan. This has more to do with Disco surviving outside the States for some time after it "officially died". Naturally, immigrant characters assume that it's still big in the US.


Live-Action TV

  • In an episode of Robocop: The Series, Virtual Ghost Diana gets corrupted by a computer virus and turns a bit nuts. As a result, she transforms her Hacker Cave into a full Disco, complete with blaring music, stroboscopic lights and real laser fire! Once he makes the music stop, Murphy finally comments that he always hated Disco.
  • Whose Line Is It Anyway had "Disco Boy" and "The Disco Kid" in the "Superhero" games. Greatest Hits and Song Styles did Disco from time to time.


Music

  • A fairly extreme example, Pain of Salvation are a fairly dark and brooding progressive metal band, with huge spiralling concept albums about the existence of God and a fair bit of deep introspection. Track five on their album Scarsick is called "Disco Queen". It's a bizarre 7/8 grooving Disco song. With falsetto vocals. Which go "You're my DISCO QUEEN! Let's Disco! Ooh-ooh oo-ee oo-ee, AHHHHH!" Although this was, of course, ming-mong Kryptonite, it's actually pretty good. They used it as an encore for the entire tour. It was extremely entertaining to watch the big, hairy, tattooed metalheads do the John Travolta-dance from Saturday Night Fever during said song.
  • Kylie Minogue owes her entire career to this. Her career had been fairly run of the mill until the disco-themed album Light Years was released and her fame skyrocketed, with no signs of ever slowing down for a long time to come.


Pro Wrestling


Video Games

  • At least one of the Destroy All Humans games takes place in The Seventies. Pox plans to use Disco to brainwash the world's population, much to Crypto's disgust (because he loathes Disco).
  • Disco Kid's whole theme in Punch Out
  • Rogue Squadron III opens with the Star Wars characters dancing to the Disco remix (yes, there was one) of the opening theme.
  • In Earthworm Jim 3-D, there is a whole stage devoted to a Disco. Which mixes this trope with Everything's Deader With Zombies to form the stage "Boogie Nights of the Living Dead". The stage comes complete with a weapon called the "Funky Gun".
  • Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness has Miror B., a man with a Funny Afro colored like a Pokéball. In its predecessor, Colosseum, his music was salsa. Here? Disco.
  • Endless Frontier has Suzuka-hime's Limit Break: complete with Disco ball, orange box, Noblewoman's Laugh, and More Dakka than God. In the sequel, gaining an upgrade to the attack adds bright spotlights and changes the single box of oranges to a pile of 3.
  • Skullmonkeys includes The 1970's as a collectible pickup scattered around levels. Whenever the player picks up enough of them, they're transported to, you guessed it, The 1970's. Accompanied by this music.
  • Jimmy T. from the Wario Ware series is a Disco fiend, as is the rest of his family. They all wear multi-colored Funny Afroes, shades, and bell-bottom pants.
  • Dangun Feveron. Even its freaking soundtrack!
  • The dancing zombie of Plants vs. Zombies, due to the original zombie bearing resemblance to Michael Jackson at an unfortunate time, was replaced with a Disco-tastic zombie.
  • Dungeon Siege's expansion has a Secret Disco Level hosted by the Disco Krug.
  • Dungeon Keeper 2 has casinos, and when a creature wins the jackpot, everyone around it starts dancing to "Disco Inferno" by The Tramps.
  • Dance Battler maestre Eddy Gordo in the Tekken series started off with an alternate "outfit" that was treated as a (relatively obscure) alternate character, Tiger Jackson. No word yet on whether Capoeira works with a disco beat in real life..


Web Comics

  • This page of Giselle by Carlos G. Guess what the Butler does in his spare time.


Western Animation

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Gratuitous_Disco_Sequence?oldid=559543"