History Main / ThatRemindsMeOfASong

--->'''Pinkie Pie''': When I was a little filly...

** In ''{{Spamalot}}'', the film 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.

* both {{lampshaded}} and {{subverted}} in MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail, where Prince Herbert of Swamp Castle declares that he just wants to... ''sing''... There's an over-the-top song cue, and then his father King Brian explicitly squashes any further attempts in that regard.

*** A lot of ''A Hard Day's Night'' does avert this, since the whole movie is building up to their TV performance, so it made sense for them to be "rehearsing" musical numbers. This is due in part to the band not being a fan of this trope.

** The same method is used in ''A Hard Day's Night''. John lampshades this by yelling "Let's put on the show right here, yeah!" before The Beatles rehearse a musical number. He was kinda bummed that it ended up looking like he was serious.

* ''WhoseLineInItAnyway'' 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.

** They're stoned.

* In the [[FilmOfTheBook Film of the Musical]] for Kiss Me Kate, they transformed the IrrelevantActOpener "Too Darn Hot" into an audition for Ann Miller's character.

** The same method is used in ''A Hard Day's Night''.
*** John even lampshades this by yelling "Let's put on the show right here, yeah!" before The Beatles rehearse a musical number. He was kinda bummed that it ended up looking like he was serious.
* {{Lampshaded}} and {{Averted}} in MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail, where Prince Herbert of Swamp Castle declares that he just wants to... ''sing''... There's an over-the-top song cue, and then his father King Brian explicitly squashes any further attempts in that regard.
** As you can imagine, King Brian is substantially less successful in ''{{Spamalot}}'', the musical version of ''Holy Grail''.
** As well in the stage musical, "[[ShapedLikeItself The Song That Goes Like This]]".
** About half of the music in ''Spamalot'' fits in this trope actually, the Finland song and "Diva's Lament (What Ever Happened to My Part?)" most notably.
** Lampshaded earlier on in the movie, right after the "Camelot" song.

** Great ''creepy'' effect when you know [[ThoseWackyNazis the context]].

* The Mamushka scene in TheAddamsFamily movie, anyone? It's an entertaining variation, but the entire movie does kinda ''stop'' for it.
** I always thought of that scene as showing Fester beginning to be ashamed of how he's tricking Gomez, because the dance is a sacred family tradition. Just look at Fester's face during the dance if you don't agree with me.

* This trope is a staple of 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 [[MotherGoose nursery rhyme]].
** "Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow..."
** To be fair, the different styles of poetry are often matched to different cultures/contexts. Not that this makes Bilbo's 3 page poem detailing the history of Earendil in Rivendell any less sleep-inducing (even Frodo can't seem to stay awake for it).

** [[AuthorAppeal Or three.]]
* OlderThanDirt: It's in TheBible. There are lots of hymns and praises to God that the Israelites and King David sing out of the blue.
** These songs are also prayers. And since it is appropriate to pray before battle, after victory, after defeat, before and after eating, when something nice happens, when something bad happens, and when you are happy you did not drown but are rather upset to be in the stomach of a giant fish, these songs do not ''quite'' fit the trope.

* StarTrek of all places! The original series would have one of these on occasion because Nichelle Nichols was a professional singer. Every now and then she would serenade the crew.

* {{Glee}}, anyone?

* In musicals written before ''{{Oklahoma}}!'' this was ubiquitous almost to the point of '''every single show''' using this excuse to put in a song.

** Parodied as part of an OverlyLongGag on FamilyGuy, when a stadium full of football players and fans sang the song "Shipoopi" ''in its entirety'' for no reason.
*** Except it actually advances the plot when it gets Peter kicked off the team for showboating.
**** But ''{{Showboat}}'' is [[CompletelyMissingThePoint a different musical entirely]]...

** "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..."]]

** Also happens multiple times in ''A Hard Day's Night''.

*** John even lampshades this by yelling "Let's put on the show right here, yeah!" before a musical number. He was kinda bummed that it ended up looking like he was serious.

*** John even lampshades this by yelling "Let's put on the show right here, yeah!" He was kinda bummed when it looked like he actually meant it seriously.

* There's also the infamous "Land of 1,000 Dances" scene in "{{Ferngully}}".

** The little-known [[{{Sequelitis}} direct-to-video sequel]], ''Ferngully: 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, "[[ThatMakesMeFeelAngry We're having fun! We're having fun!]] We're having [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment funner than the funnest fun!!!]]" (This should succinctly tell you ''everything'' you need to know about the ''Ferngully'' 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 DonBluth fan summed up as, "[[ShoppingMontage [=ZOMG=] we're in Paris [=LOL=]ers!]]". It's basically just there so Bernadette Peters can sing a song.
* Surprisingly, [[DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney]] has avoided this for the most part. Though some have argued that "Trashing the Camp" from ''Tarzan'' qualifies.

** And SnowWhite's "Whistle While You Work."

** We all know someone who feels "[[BeautyAndTheBeast Human Again]]" and "[[TheLionKing Morning Report]]" 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 ThePowerOfRock to defeat the [[CardCarryingVillain Blue]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Meanies]].

* ''Silver and Gold'' from the classic ''{{Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer}}'' ChristmasSpecial 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.

-->--'''[[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses The Nostalgia Critic]]''', commenting on the gratuitous musical numbers from ''QuestForCamelot''

* Mocked by [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses the Nostalgia Critic]] in his review of ''RockADoodle'' (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!"

** "Why did you do that to him?!?" "[[SouthPacific 'Cause I'm just a girl who can't say no, can't seem to say it at allllllllll..."]]

* In the third DreamSequence in ''Lady In The Dark'', this little bit of dialogue is all it takes to introduce a completely irrelevant patter song: