Sting (music): Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

Either a brief crescendo stab of music used to enhance the drama of the current situation just before an [[Act Break]] (called a "dramatic sting" when used this way), or a brief comical stab on music to enhance a punchline at the end of a scene (most famously, the so-called "[[Rimshot]]" -- ''ba-dum-bum-ching''). About 95% of TV shows use them.

 

A common version of [[Lampshade Hanging]] is when a character is shown to have [[Sorry I Left the BGM On|''heard'']] the sound effect, it often crops up in the form of something like "Who keeps ''doing'' that?" or "Ok, seriously. Knock it off." An even better lampshade, or perhaps an outright subversion, is when the characters themselves provide the sound effects -- "Dun dun DAH!".

 

 

{{examples}}

{{quote|"What was that, Nagisa-chan? Instead of Okazaki..." DUDUDAAAAAA! "YOU LIKE ME MORE?!"}}

 

* Before his ''[[Seven Soldiers]]'' reboot, Klarion the Witch-Boy demanded that people refer to him as "Klarion... bum bum BUM... the Witch-Boy". He even refused to help characters who did not insert the dramatic sting. (You should not be surprised that [[Peter David]] came up with this.)

 

* At one point in ''[[Young Frankenstein]]'', Igor supplies his own [http://www.instantrimshot.com rimshot] after making a "hunch" joke.

** In another scene in the same movie, Dr. Frankenstein stumbles upon the Awful Truth ("You don't mean?" "Yes!" "It couldn't be!" "Yes!"). Every time Frau Blucher (*WHINNY*) says "Yes!", she plays a dramatic chord on a violin she's holding.

* Do you know where we could find... ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail|a shrubbery]]?''

 

 

* ''[[CSI]]'' loves using this one, with a crescendo of ominous music at the end of an act being chopped off dramatically by a [[Hard Cut]] to black.

** Cue [[The Who]] (if it's an [[Cold Open|opening setpiece]].) '''''[[CSI: Miami|YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!]]'''''

* Similar to the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' example above, both ''[[Eastenders]]'' and ''[[The Bill]]'' have had very distinctive "drumbeat" stings, which would punctuate the final scene of an episode at the point of a cliffhanger, and lead into the credits.

* ''The Saturday Night Armistice'': The ''[[Eastenders]]'' sting was parodied in a segment suggesting that there was a drummer constantly following the characters around waiting for an appropriately dramatic moment.

* ''[[Roseanne]]'': Lampshaded and parodied: the family has to deal with taxes, and every time someone says the word "audit"—Dun dun daaaah! The characters then look around to see where the sound came from.

* ''[[The Muppet Show]]'': Lampshaded when Gonzo asks for a "dramatic sting" when he announces an outbreak of "cluckitis"... and gets it. Later, when Scooter mentions the disease, the sting happens again... and he and Kermit react to it.

* ''[[Prison Break]]'' pulls a very distinctive version of this at ''every single commercial break''. This made sense in the first and possibly second seasons, when something dramatic would usually happen right before the ads. It became slightly jarring in later seasons when the audience is used to it, and nothing particularly important would happen before the cut.

 

 

* ''Extremely'' common in old-time radio shows, particularly of the mystery, horror and drama/suspense varieties.

* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' had a few, including one that was noted in the script as "DRAMATIC CHORD ([[Monty Python and the Holy Grail|SHRUBBERY]])".

'''Dougal''': Count Cardula, the accordian player? }}

 

* The Victory Fanfare after a battle in ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games.

** [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]: Advent Children'', when it starts playing after Tifa has fended off a henchman. (It turns out to be [[Source Music|the ringtone of that henchman's cellphone]].)

* The "Doo doo doo ''dooooo''!" whenever you [[Item Get|find an important item]] in '"[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' games.

*** Neither, think of the phrase "You got the ''thiiiing!''"

*** You got the [[Item Get]] sound! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk8x-8UadnE DadadaDAAA!]

* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' has several, and the most notorious in terms of gameplay are the domination and revenge kill stings, based off of motifs from the [[Crowning Music of Awesome|game's main theme tune]].

* Whenever you select the adventure mode in [[Plants vs. Zombies]].

 

* In ''[[8-Bit Theater]]'', one of Red Mage's greatest (and most annoying) obsessions is to sing out a Sting for dramatic effect any time something major occurs.

* Elan from ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' also did this a couple of times.

* Susan of ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' does it [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-08-05 here].

 

* ''[[Potter Puppet Pals]]'': At the end of "Ron's Disease", {{spoiler|after Hagrid smacks Dumbledore with a cudgel with a [[Robotic Reveal|resounding clang]] and otherwise no apparent effect on Dumbledore, Harry exclaims (to a sting), "OHMYGOD, [[Ridiculously-Human Robots|he's an android]]!" Hagrid looks around in confusion, saying, "Wha-?" (to another sting). Dumbledore finally replies, "Yes, it's true, I am an android - a [[Word of Gay|gay]] android." What follows is a rather original [[Lampshade Hanging]] of your typical Dun Dun DAAAH! sting, with the DAAH! lasting about five or six seconds.}}

* ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'': Parodied in the review of ''22 Brides''. As the comic pulls the "We have you surrounded!" twist no less than three times in succession, the soundtrack plays a dramatic sting that gets higher pitched with each [[Reveal]].

 

* Parodied in an episode of ''[[Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law]]''.

{{quote|'''Vulturo:''' More decent than ''baseball''? DUN DUN DAH!}}

* Animated sitcoms like ''[[Family Guy]]'', ''[[The Simpsons]]'' and ''[[South Park]] love'' parodying this trope; the normal absence of musical chords will be made up for by the characters themselves providing the sound effects.

** In the Simpson's episode ''Rosebud'', the Simpsons come into possession of Mr. Burns long lost bear [[Bo Bo]]. When they first get it, the camera ominously closes in on a tag with the [[Scare Chord]] that says - "100% cotton". The chord cuts off and the camera frantically searches the bear until it find a tag saying "Property Of Montgomery Burns". Cue Sting.

* ''[[Birdz]]'' had a dissonant four-note synth riff that basically served as the equivalent of "Wah wah wah" horns.

 

* Older [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]] computers sometimes play a Sting (the "Chimes of Death") when they fail a crucial hardware check on boot, with the notes of the ditty telling a savvy tech what's wrong even when video doesn't work.

** PCs are more boring, and use [[wikipedia:Power-on self-test|POST beep codes]]. In this case, if you hear anything other than a single beep, something ''very bad'' has happened.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Title Sequence]]

[[Category:Score and Music Tropes]]