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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"These songs have no purpose! They're like drive-by musicals! If you want to have singing, fine! But make sure they have a point, or are, you know, fucking entertaining!"''|'''[[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]]''', commenting on the musical numbers from ''[[Quest for Camelot]]''}}
 
Mainly a product of [[The Musical]].
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== [[Film]] ==
* Extremely common in movie musicals from their inception to around the time movie musicals began to be [[Serious Business]] before disappearing almost entirely. For example, in both ''[[Holiday Inn]]'' and ''White Christmas'', a full ''third'' of the songs fall into this category. The other two thirds belong firmly in either a spectacular [[Show Within a Show]], or an actual song that furthers the plot, heaven forbid.
** ''[[White Christmas (Film)|White Christmas]]'' justifies a lot of this by making most of the movie rehearsals for or performances of various stage shows and nightclub acts.
** The movie ''That's Entertainment!'' has a ''[[Montage]]'' of characters in various films declaring "I've got an idea! Let's get the [insert group of characters] together and put on a show!"
* 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 The Dark]]'' uses an elaborate excuse for squeezing song-and-dance numbers into a miserable social realist film filmed under the Dogma95 rules of hand-held camera and no artificial lighting, sets: All the song and dance numbers were inside her head. Later on in the film she really performed song and dance numbers to the bemusement of everyone else.
* In an infamous scene in ''[[Beetlejuice (Film)|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 (Theatre)|Annie]]''. It has ''[[Big Lipped Alligator Moment|absolutely no point at all]]'' aside from having a showy musical number in the film, and it is better known for being a truly hideous [[Ear Worm]].
* 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".
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* 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 instrument -- the harp for Harpo, or the piano for Chico.
* ''[[Singin' in Thethe Rain (Film)|Singin in The Rain]]'': The ''longest song in the movie'': "Broadway Melody" / "Gotta Dance!!!"
* Parodied in ''[[Cannibal! theThe 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 surprise -- he was a famous vocalist and was able to use the talkies to showcase his talent.
* The Mamushka scene in [[The Addams Family (TV)|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 [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)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 nowhere -- for example, singing is an easy way to make a long walk less boring. Bilbo's three-page poem detailing the history of Earendil in Rivendell is still sleep-inducing, though (even Frodo can't seem to stay awake for it).
* 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.
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{{quote| '''Jesse''': [[Lampshade Hanging|Just come out so we can talk. Or sing about it.]]}}
** Subverted hilariously when Rachel and Sunshine burst into a rendition of [[Lady Gaga|"Telephone"]] in the girls' bathroom. A few stanzas in, Sue comes in and tells them to shut up. By this point in the show, viewers are so used to random musical numbers being ignored by all the other characters that someone actually reacting to one is a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]].
* ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'' has a game called Show-Stopping Number where the players act out a scene as normal, but whenever the host hits the buzzer, they have to take the last line spoken and turn it into a Broadway-style song. So of course, Drew always tries to find the most awkward line possible.
* Done quite a lot, and with a lot of self-awareness in ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', as a policeman will break into a song in a courtroom, for instance. I never wanted to be a barber anyway...
* Roughly 50% of the monologues on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''.
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{{quote| '''Harold''': Oh, you'll never forget the name. Lida Rose. Same as the old song. ''(sings)'' Lida Rose, I'm home again, Rose...}}
* A subversion of this would be Stephen Sondheim's ''Follies'', in which half the songs are numbers that the women used to sing in their days in the Zeigfeld Follies, but are used to point up the melancholy of the story.
* In ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Theatretheatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'', the Beadle does this with the "Sweet Polly Plunkett" song. He remarks that Lovett has an organ, and he sits down to play, to her dismay.
** Of course, since this is a Sondheim musical, this also has a dramatic function: the Beadle insists on staying, while Mrs. Lovett is desperately trying to make him leave, as his hanging around threatens to expose the [[I'm a Humanitarian|humanitarian]] operation she's running.
* "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 song -- he hears a phrase from it used in everyday conversation, and it suddenly reprises itself in his mind. (Used mostly in [[The Movie]].)
* In the third [[Dream Sequence]] in ''[[Lady in Thethe 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?<br />
'''Chorus''': Tchaikowsky!<br />
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* ''[[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 (Theatretheatre)|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 [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment|never mentioned or thought of again]].
* ''[[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 [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment]], as she does mention how she's been away "for far too long" (quoting her last number) the next time she talks to Arthur.
** The song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UM1W-40n4Q "Finland"], however, is a [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment]], as it's not even remotely related to anything else in the play, only existing because the performers misheard the narrator.
* [[Bertolt Brecht (Creator)|Bertolt Brecht]] made this into an art form, having [[That Reminds Me of a Song]] moment at least once in every play to alienate the audience. "[[Pirate Jenny (Music)|Pirate Jenny]]" from ''[[The Threepenny Opera (Theatre)|The Threepenny Opera]]'' is probably the most famous example.
* 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.
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== [[Radio]] ==
* 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 (Creator)]]'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 (Radio)|I'm Sorry Ill Read That Again]] -- Bill has been doing a scene in his 'Grimbling voice'. After an audience cheer at one of his jokes, he starts speaking normally, and this happens:
{{quote| '''Bill:''' Thank you, thank you! You're my kind of people!<br />
'''Crowd:''' What kind of people?<br />
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''A Pirate I Was Meant To Be'', a brief musical number around halfway through ''[[The Curse of Monkey Island (Video Game)|The Curse of Monkey Island]]'', begins with this exact phrase. From then on it's up to the player to get his crew, who all [[Rhymes Onon a Dime|rhyme on a dime]], to stop singing and get back to work. {{spoiler|The solution is to feed them the phrase "We'll surely avoid scurvy if we all eat an orange", which [[Least Rhymable Word|they can't rhyme.]]}}
** 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.
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* ''[[Alvin and The Chipmunks|The Chipmunk Adventure]]'' had the three main boys as baits for a group of alligators at a volcano on a tropical island. Suddenly, the boys start singing "Wooly Bully" to entertain the natives and alligators as the [[Distaff Counterparts|Chipettes]] arrive for the rescue.
** Never mind the [[Fetish Fuel|infamous]] "Gettin' Lucky" scene...
* The very strange [[Hanna-Barbera]] adaptation of ''[[CharlottesCharlotte's Web]]'' is '''all''' over this trope.
{{quote| "I Can TALK! Just like all the other animals! Let me sing about it for three whole minutes!!!"}}
** Well, he ''was'' a baby at the time. Remember how much fun ''you'' had making noise when you suddenly realized you were capable of speech. True of many other animals, too.
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** The little-known [[Sequelitis|direct-to-video sequel]], ''[[Fern Gully]]: The Magic Rescue'' follows the tradition by including one of these musical numbers. In it, the Fairies ride a roller coaster (?!) and sing a song. The song goes, "[[That Makes Me Feel Angry|We're having fun! We're having fun!]] We're having [[Department of Redundancy Department|funner than the funnest fun!!!]]" (This should succinctly tell you ''everything'' you need to know about the ''[[Fern Gully]]'' sequel.)
* Similar to the "song in ''[[Newsies]]'' that is just there so Anne-Margret can sing a song" example cited above, is the song in ''[[Anastasia]]'' that one [[Don Bluth]] fan summed up as, "[[Shopping Montage|ZOMG we're in Paris LOLers!]]". It's basically just there so Bernadette Peters can sing a song.
* 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 (Disney film)|Snow White]]'''s "Whistle While You Work."
** ''[[Mickey, Donald, Goofy: theThe 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 laugh -- time for a song! Pete is happy -- time for a [[Villain Song]]! [[Happy Ending]] -- One more song! [[That Reminds Me of a Song]] is practically his [[Catch Phrase]].
** We all know someone who feels "Human Again" from ''[[Beauty and The Beast (Disney)|Beauty and Thethe 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 (Disney)|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]] [[Always Chaotic Evil|Meanies]].
* 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.
* ''[[Gay Purr-ee]]'' is an animated musical by UPA, and in it the two lead characters are voiced by [[Judy Garland]] and Robert Goulet. You'd better ''believe'' it suffers hard from this trope.
* In the ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' episode ''[[Musical Episode|Zanzibar]]'', whenever Rocko mentions something, the townspeople have a song.
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'''Rocko''': [[Lampshade Hanging|It's going to be a song, isn't it?]] }}
* Parodied as part of an [[Overly Long Gag]] on [[Family Guy]], when a stadium full of football players and fans sang the song "Shipoopi" ''in its entirety''. [[Subverted Trope|It actually advances the plot]] when it gets Peter kicked off the team for showboating.
* Appears in the various incarnations of ''[[My Little Pony]]''; the most recent series, ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|Friendship Is Magic]]'', actually [[Averted Trope|averts]] the previous trend of having the ponies burst into song [[Once Per Episode]]. Thus far, [[Cloudcuckoolander]] Pinkie Pie appears to be the designated song starter, and had this [[Lampshaded]] with her first cue:
{{quote| '''Pinkie Pie''': ''When I was a little filly and the sun was going do-o-o-own...''<br />
'''Twilight Sparkle''': Tell me she's not...<br />
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** 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 song -- to the point of an outright [[Crowd Song]] in "The Best Night Ever" -- no-one will ''ever'' join in on Pinkie Pie's songs, and the usual result is the other ponies watching in something between fear and bewilderment.
** 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 Byby 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 Onon 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']].<br />
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* Mocked by [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|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'': [http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/13682-jd "LAAAAAAW LAW LAW LAW LAW LAW-LAW / LAW LAW LAW LAW LAW-LAW / LAW LAW LAW LAW LAW / LAW LAW LAW LAW LAW LAW LAW!"]
** 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?
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