Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,787
edits
That Reminds Me of a Song: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (update links) |
No edit summary |
||
| (8 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 6:
This trope most often occurs when a composer wrote a really keen song. Or if there is a big star in the movie who must have a solo. Or the director has a favorite song that he wants to put in the movie. Unfortunately, there is really no way to inject the song into the story in the traditional "burst into song" way. So, the writer often gives us the immortal line "That reminds me of a song," or something similar and the character sits down at a piano or hops up on the stage to sing a little ditty that has....'''no''' plot significance whatsoever. ("Let's rehearse the ___ number" or "Let's film our music video" or "Let's dance to ___" and then doing exactly that are also popular.)
At its most basic, this is a song sung [[
In Indian film, an upbeat song that has no relation to the plot is called an [[Item number|Item Number]].
Frequent [[Justified Trope|justifications]] include having some or all of the characters be actors or actresses, or setting one of the scenes at a nightclub or similar. A small-scale variation on the [[Show Within a Show]].
It still shows up here and there, often as the [[Breakout Pop Hit]], but is mostly a [[Discredited Trope]]. Modern musicals are specifically ''not'' supposed to do this anymore, except as a parody. For a more advanced version of this trope, one that is so out-of-nowhere that it borders on a [[Mind Screw]], yet is never treated as anything the least bit weird by the characters and never mentioned again, see [[
See also [[Silly Song]], where the characters don't even try to justify the singing.
Line 18:
== Anime ==
* In the [[Hilarious Outtakes]] of the ''[[Berserk]]'' dub, Griffith's voice actor has a tendency to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXYiFFM7WH4 burst into song]. Strangely enough they somehow fit the situation.
** "Why did you do that to him?!?" [[Oklahoma!|"Cause I'm just a girl who can't say no, can't seem to say it at allllllllll..."]]
== [[Film]] ==
Line 26:
* There is a scene in ''[[The Breakfast Club]]'' where, ''in the middle of their big emotional group therapy session,'' everyone up and starts dancing to the song "We Are Not Alone". It's a good song, lyrically, it's at least thematically appropriate to the scene in question, but [[Mood Whiplash|what the hell]]?
** In the broadcast version, that is completely random. In the uncut version, Bender shares his marijuana with the others. Cue dancing.
* ''[[Dancer in
* In an infamous scene in ''[[Beetlejuice]]'', several dinner guests are possessed, and forced to perform Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song" - which they rather enjoy.
* The dreaded "Lets Go To The Movies" song from the '80s film version of ''[[Annie]]''. It has ''[[
* There's a particularly tedious song in ''[[Newsies]]'' that seems to be included (Roger Ebert said it best) "just so that they could say there's an Ann-Margret number in the movie."
** Actually, there are ''two'' such songs ("My Lovey-Dovey Baby" and "High Times, Hard Times"). For some reason it was the catchy "High Times, Hard Times" and not the utterly pointless "My Lovey-Dovey Baby" that got the Razzie for "Worst Song".
Line 38:
** In ''[[Spamalot]]'', the musical based on the movie, King Brian is substantially less successful. In fact, several songs in ''Spamalot'' fit in this trope: the Finland song and "Diva's Lament (What Ever Happened to My Part?)" most notably.
* Used to great effect in the film ''Cabaret,'' where the only off-stage song is a young boy who just begins to sing a capella in a cafe's garden, "Tomorrow Belongs To Me."
* This one would be a borderline [[
* Even [[Alfred Hitchcock]] succumbed to this: the 1956 remake of ''[[The Man Who Knew Too Much]]'', which showcases Doris Day singing "Que Sera, Sera" ''multiple times'', ultimately using it {{spoiler|in a game of Marco Polo so our protagonists can locate their kidnapped offspring}}.
* In several ''[[Marx Brothers]]'' movies, Harpo and/or Chico would get one of these as an excuse to play their characteristic
* ''[[Singin' in the
* Parodied in ''[[Cannibal! The Musical]]'': Swan's infamous "Snowman" song, which he sings at the worst times. The second time, though, one of the group loses it and just shoots him halfway through it.
* The Floor Show in ''[[Rocky Horror Picture Show]]''.
* Richard Tauber's films were just a string of these. No
* The Mamushka scene in [[The Addams Family]] movie. It's an entertaining variation, but the entire movie does kinda ''stop'' for it.
== [[Literature]] ==
* This trope is a staple of [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s writing and it can be a bit grating for some. The intrepid heroes will wander into a distant land and suddenly break out into ubi sunt poetry. Next, they'll discover the long-lost shiny and go off on a stanza or two of ye olde [[Nursery Rhyme]]. The different styles of poetry are often matched to different cultures/contexts, and some of them don't really come out of
* Tolkien's contemporary [[Gormenghast|Mervyn Peake]] was also in the habit of doing this, using whatever literary device was most expedient in order to drop his nonsense rhymes onto the page - usually apropos of absolutely nothing.
* All over ''[[Redwall]]'', to the point where it seems each book has to have at least one song and a feast.
Line 72:
== Musical Theater ==
* In musicals written before ''[[Oklahoma!]]!'' this was ubiquitous almost to the point of every single show using this excuse to put in a song.
* In ''[[Me And My Girl]]'':
{{quote|"Hey Everybody! Lets do the Lambeth Walk!"
Line 89:
* "Wunderbar" from ''Kiss Me, Kate''.
** "Too Darn Hot" as well, but only in the film: the live show features it later, and incorporates it into the story.
* Subverted in ''Brigadoon'', where the protagonist is literally reminded of a
* In the third [[Dream Sequence]] in ''[[Lady in the Dark]]'', this little bit of dialogue is all it takes to introduce a completely irrelevant patter song:
{{quote|'''Ringmaster''': Charming, charming! Who wrote that music?
Line 97:
* "Those Magic Changes" from ''Grease'' has nothing to do with '''anything''' else that happens during the show; it's just a random "hey, let's sing a song" moment.
** They fix it in [[The Movie]], where instead of having Doody randomly play a song, a live band performs it in the background as a warm-up number for the National Dance-Off in Rydell High's gymnasium.
* "Thank You For The Music" in ''[[Mamma Mia!]]!'', though this could also be applied to the song "Super Trouper."
** Dude, "Super Trouper" is Donna's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]
* "Move, Move, Move Right Out of My Life" and the rest of the talent show from ''Dreamgirls'' does very little other than serve a nifty opener.
Line 103:
* ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'' had a short bit where everyone stops to sing a little song extolling the virtues of poetry. This is right in the middle of a rather dramatic bit where the Major-General is attempting to deceive the pirates about being an orphan, so that they won't marry all his daughters and take them away.
** G&S get away with this one, though, on the account of said little song being [[Crowning Music of Awesome|fucking awesome]].
* Parodied in ''[[Drood (theatre)|Drood]]'' with "Off To The Races". A character says something like "we can't jump to conclusions, or we'll all be [[Title Drop|off to the races]]!" The chairman steps to center and announces that no production at the Music Hall Royale would be complete without their signature song, "Off To The Races". The song is performed quite randomly, with one member of the cast passed-out drunk. After the song ends, we immediately return to the murder-mystery at hand, and it is [[
* ''[[Spamalot]]'' parodies this with "The Diva's Lament", which has the female lead singing about how she's been offstage for most of the second act. Of course this is also playing it straight since without it she would be off-stage for most of the second act.
** Though this one is not a [[
** The song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UM1W-40n4Q "Finland"], however, is a [[
* [[Bertolt Brecht]] made this into an art form, having
* The protagonist of the musical ''Seesaw'', studying obscure passages of New York State law, is advised to read it in rhythm to make it easier to remember. In short order, "Chapter 54, Number 1909" has turned into a big production number.
* Dr. Kitchell in ''[[Bells Are Ringing]]'' wants to be a songwriter, and constantly takes innocent conversational phrases as cues to burst into song.
Line 118:
* Parodied in ''[[Mitch Benn]]'s Crimes Against Music''; Robin Ince either [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] the silliness of his asking whether Mitch has a song about this week's topic, or just asks the question with so much sarcasm it amounts to the same thing.
* Parodied by [[Stan Freberg]]'s ''Omaha!'', a commercial for Butter-Nut Coffee that goes on for longer than six minutes because the characters keep preempting the pitch with irrelevant songs about their favorite Nebraska city.
* Lampshaded in an episode of [[I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again|I'm Sorry Ill Read That Again]]
{{quote|'''Bill:''' Thank you, thank you! You're my kind of people!
'''Crowd:''' What kind of people?
Line 133:
** But if you skip straight to the solution of that puzzle instead of hearing the song out, you're severely missing the point of these games.
* Replace "song" with "puzzle" and you've got ''[[Professor Layton]]'' in a nutshell.
** Especially since they use that exact
** And at the strangest times, too...
** Which gets severely lampshaded in later games.
Line 153:
* Surprisingly, [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney]] has avoided this for the most part. Though some have argued that "Trashing the Camp" from ''[[Tarzan (Disney film)|Tarzan]]'' qualifies.
** Well, there's also "Everybody Wants To Be A Cat" from ''[[The Aristocats]]''.
** And ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White]]'''s "Whistle While You Work."
** ''[[Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers]]'' had a singing turtle as a narrator, who found any excuse to introduce a musical number into the story. The hero just made the princess
** We all know someone who feels "Human Again" from ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' and "Morning Report" from ''[[The Lion King]]'' were un-needed additions to their respective films, since the movies didn't have them originally. They aren't terrible songs, nor ''completely'' irrelevant (they're both in the stage versions of the respective movies, too). Neither of them exactly advanced the plot or provided much if any character development, but both were intended to be in the original production (and are in the Special Editions). Ditto with ''[[Pocahontas]]''' "If I Never Knew You", which does almost nothing but just be the love song for the film.
* In ''[[Yellow Submarine]]'', there is at least an excuse: [[The Beatles]] need to use [[The Power of Rock]] to defeat the [[Card-Carrying Villain|Blue]] [[
* There's a strange scene in ''[[The Jetsons]]'' movie where Judy and her [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|Blue Skinned Space Hunk]] start to sing a song in a Holodeck, and the entire plot is completely derailed so that we can watch a [[Disney Acid Sequence]] set to a Tiffany song. It's [[Better Than It Sounds]].
* "Silver and Gold" from the classic ''[[Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer]]'' [[Christmas Special]] qualifies, as it has almost nothing to do with the story, or with the character (Yukon Cornelius) that inspired the narrator (Sam the snowman voiced by Burl Ives) to sing it.
Line 174:
{{quote|'''Pinkie Pie:''' And that wicked Enchantress, Zecora, lives there doing her evil... stuff! She's so evil, I even wrote a song about her...
'''Rainbow Dash:''' Here we go... }}
** It's something of a running gag that although sometimes other ponies will join in on the rare occasions that someone ''other'' than Pinkie Pie starts a
** Another lampshading in ''A Friend In Deed''. Part of Pinkie's "checklist" to making a new friend is "sing random song out of nowhere".
* ''[[Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer]]'', big time. Anything that doesn't have to do with talking about fruitcake, they're singing about it.
* The intensely weird [[Raggedy Ann and Andy A Musical Adventure]] is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|very appropriately named]]. Everything gets a song in this movie. ''The question "Who are you?" gets a song in this movie''.
* Parodied in the [[Phineas and Ferb]] episode [[The Wizard of Oz|"The Wizard of Odd"]]. Coming upon Buford the Lion-Tiger-Bear (oh my!), this exchange occurs:
{{quote|'''Buford''': Although, that does remind me of a song. '''[["I Want" Song|I WAAAAANNNNNNNNTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT]]'''....[[Averted Trope|nuthin']].
'''Candace''': Well, at least it was short. }}
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Mocked by [[The Nostalgia Critic]] in his review of ''[[Rock-a-Doodle]]'' (which in itself is guilty of this) with a brief sendup of this phenomenon: "I'm tal-king! / I'm tal-king! / I'm drin-king / my cof-fee!"
** Critic later performs one himself in his [[Judge Dredd]] review, complete with ''can-can dancers in Judge Dredd helmets'': [
** He shows disdain for the endless singing in ''[[Quest for Camelot]]''. As he said, does everyone in the movie ''have'' to sing? And why sing when you're in pain?
** Hell, in his later review for ''The Pebble and the Penguin'' , he attempted suicide after one too many pointless musical numbers.
Line 193:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Theater Tropes]]
[[Category:Discredited Trope]]
[[Category:That Reminds Me of a Song]]
| |||