I am not afraid of snakes, no, no, no!
I am not afraid of snakes, no, no, no!
I'm not the kind of miss,
Who's put off by a hiss;
I am not afraid of snakes, no... no, no!
— Madeline, Madeline, "Madeline on the Orient Express"
Something scary is going on. This could be something as minor as having to brave the dark to get a Midnight Snack, or it could be as serious as an oncoming Apocalypse How, but whatever the circumstances, a lot of characters would run and hide, but these characters face it head-on. Not only that, they sing a Bravado Song.
A Bravado Song is, in essence, a song about how either a character won't let their fear prevent them from doing something, or just plain isn't afraid of the normally-frightening situation at all.
In some cases, the singer is trying to convince themselves that they are brave, and are singing it as a kind of Survival Mantra. In these cases, they sometimes do a bad job of it, resulting in Blatant Lies or Obviously Not Fine. In other cases, however, they are fully convinced of their own bravery (sometimes to the point of stupidity) and are singing it as an "I Am Great!" Song. Sometimes they could even start out as trying to reassure themselves but end up being genuinely confident, in which case it overlaps with "Gaining Confidence" Song.
Sometimes (particularly if a villain or Anti-Hero), the singer of a Bravado Song gets more than they bargained for, sometimes right after the song, perhaps leading to defeat and/or a Dark Reprise. Other times, the Bravado Song is sung right before an impressive victory, proving that they had reason to brag.
May overlap with Ode to Apathy (if something that would scare a normal person simply bores them), An Aesop (if it's trying to teach the audience a moral on bravery), Self-Soothing Song, or Triumphant Reprise. Compare Pep-Talk Song. Contrast Fear Song, Melancholy Musical Number, BSoD Song, and Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die. Song of Courage, for when the situation is potentially deadly, is a subtrope.
Examples:
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Films — Animated
- Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure: As he was forced to Walk the Plank, Billy sings "I'm Not Scared Nor Very Oh" which mentions he's not scared of everything. It turns out to be as a distraction to the pirates as he and his friends make their escape.
- Finding Nemo: Dory's iconic "Just Keep Swimming" song when she and Marlin brave their way through the jellyfish forest.
- Calling back to the previous point, Finding Dory reveals that she learned it from her parents, and she utilizes it to brave the touch pool.
- Legend Of The Guardians The Owls Of Ga Hoole: When Twilight asks Digger for a battle song, he sings, "Into battle we do fly! No matter if we're going to die!".
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: Puss is reintroduced throwing a party where he sings a song about how he is everyone's "favorite, fearless hero".
- The Spongebob Squarepants Movie: After Mindy gives SpongeBob and Patrick seaweed "mustaches" to convince them that she's magically matured them, the duo (to her chagrin) bust out into a chorus of "Now That We're Men", a military march style song about how unstoppable they are now that they're (allegedly) grown, casually disregarding the natural hazards and monsters they come across in the midst of it.
Films — Live-Action
- Parodied in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot employs a quartet of minstrels to improvise songs about how brave he is. He is, of course, nothing of the sort. In the first scene, they sing a song listing all the horrible potential tortures and deaths Sir Robin's definitely not afraid of, but Robin gets so unnerved that he asks them to stop singing. Shortly after, he runs away from a three-headed giant rather than fight it—and the minstrels sing about how very brave this was.
Minstrel: [singing] Brave Sir Robin ran away...Sir Robin: No!Minstrel: [singing] ...bravely ran away away...Sir Robin: I didn't!Minstrel: [singing] When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled.Sir Robin: I never did!Minstrel: [singing] Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about, and gallantly, he chickened out.Sir Robin: Oh, you liars!Minstrel: [singing] Bravely taking to his feet, he beat a very brave retreat. Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin.Sir Robin: I never!
- The film version of The Sound of Music has "I Have Confidence", a "Gaining Confidence" Song in which Maria declares that she's up to the task of being governess to seven children, and successfully talks herself into believing it.
Literature
- Sheila Rae, the Brave: Downplayed as it's not a musical number, but it's mentioned that Sheila Rae briefly sings, "I am brave, I am fearless" when she's about to find a new route home from school.
- The Living Books did give Sheila Rae a little theme song about bravery, however.
- Treehouse: In one book, Andy and Terry are camping and have heard tales of ghosts and hobyahs around the campground. They sing a song about how nothing scares them, although it's implied that they're lying, or at the very least exaggerating.
Music
- Eminem: The song "Not Afraid" is all about how Eminem will not back down from doing what's right despite stressful circumstances that may try to hold him back and he sings that everyone should do the same.
- Flanders and Swann: Downplayed in "The Spider Song". It's mainly a Fear Song about how Spiders Are Scary, but it also has lyrics about how the singer is not scared of other bugs.
- Subverted in "Going on a Lion Hunt
". The unnamed man and woman start off cockily singing about how they're not scared of the lion they're pursuing, but then eventually the woman sings, "I'm a little scared." Then, when they see the lion, they run away.
- The Offspring's "Defy You" has the narrator (or his whole group in the chorus) claiming he's up for everything the opposition can throw at him.
- The Police: Overlapping with The Cover Changes the Meaning, the band's rendition of Grace Jones' "Demolition Man" on Ghost in the Machine refits the song to depict the titular Demolition Man bragging about the various life-threatening situations he puts himself in.
Puppet Shows
- Donkey Hodie: In "Spooky Shadow Swamp", Purple Panda and Donkey have to get Bob Dog's ball back from the titular dark swamp, though they're both rather nervous about it. Panda sings a short song about how they can think of times when they've faced their fears and that can help.
- Fraggle Rock:
- In "Catch the Tail by the Tiger", Gobo sings the song of the same name as he vows to be brave enough to venture into Outer Space to find and rescue Uncle Traveling Matt, from whom he hasn't received a postcard for nearly two weeks.
- In "The Beast of Blue Rock", Wembley sings "Brave Alone" as he prepares to face spending the night without Gobo for the first time ever.
- Sesame Street: In episode 1004, Grover and a marching band sing a song called "I Am Not Afraid", which is about how things that seem scary can turn out to be harmless. One by one, each of Grover's bandmates runs off in fear when startled by Harvey Monster, until Grover is left alone. When he sees Harvey, he screams, "Mommy!" but then manages to finish the song, with Harvey joining in. When the song is done...
Harvey: I only wanted to sing with you.
Grover: Really? Well, if I was not so brave, I would have been frightened.
Harvey: Hey, you know "Melancholy Baby"?
Theatre
- In The Abduction from the Seraglio, Pedrillo sings his aria "Frisch zum Kampfe" as he musters the courage to get Not-So-Harmless Villain Osmin drunk.
Now to battle!Now to arms!Only cowards are afraid.
- The King and I: Anna explains to her son in "I Whistle A Happy Tune" how she faces her fears by whistling as they approach their new home in the palace of the King of Siam.
- In The Pirates of Penzance the Sergeant and the chorus of police sing about singing to not be terrified by their enemies in "When The Foeman Bares His Steel".
- Songs for a New World: In "I'm Not Afraid Of Anything", the female singer compares her stated lack of fear to the fears of the people around her, saying she can't understand why they're afraid. The unfortunate consequence is that she can't see eye-to-eye with her lover David, who is afraid... of being with her. Depending on the interpretation, the singer may actually be covering up her own fears of intimacy.
- In Starmites, Space Punk sings "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" in order to psych the other Starmites up for a journey through the sinister Shriekwood Forest.
- Sweet Charity: After they get trapped in an elevator, Charity tells a claustrophobic Oscar that she pumps herself up to get through scary situations by singing "I'm the Bravest Individual".
I just say that fear hasn't licked me yet
And keep telling yourself I'm the strongest, soundest stoical
Daringest man, who's most heroical
I'm the bravest individual I have ever met!
Video Games
- Living Books: In their adaptation of Sheila Rae, the Brave, Sheila Rae sings a song about how nothing can scare her. She turns out to be wrong, however, when she becomes lost in the woods.
- Subverted in Sonic Adventure 2 with "Rhythm and Balance", the song that plays during Shadow's White Jungle stage. The line "I'm not scared at all" is repeated so often throughout the song that, combined with the other lyrics, it's obvious that Shadow is scared and is deeply in denial about it.
- Webkinz: The song "Scaredy-Cat" encourages the viewer to just press on if they're scared and not run away crying.
Web Original
- BabyBus: Zigzagged. In one cartoon, Rudolph has Nana walk with him to the bathroom in the middle of the night and sings about how nervous he is about the dark, but Nana's part of the song has her pointing out that she doesn't feel scared because she knows all the supposedly creepy things are just shadows.
- Neopets: The Hannah and the Ice Caves plot comic begins with Hannah singing about her adventures in a pub.
They call me Hannah the brave, Hannah the quick
I'll get you the gems and be out in a tick
Pirates and ghouls are no match for me
When they see Hannah coming, they all turn and flee! - PlayKids: In the "I'm Not So Scared" song, an unseen background singer and Theo go on about how things may look spooky at night, but once you look a little closer, they're just mundane objects. Theo gets over his fear of the dark this way.
Western Animation
- The Backyardigans: In "It's Great to Be a Ghost!", there's a musical number called "What's So Scary 'Bout That?" where Tasha brags about not fearing ghosts or the dark when her friends (who have become ghosts) ask her if there's anything she's scared of.
- Bob's Burgers: Subverted in "It Snakes a Village". Gene starts to sing about how he's not afraid of ghosts, sharks or cancer, but then he goes on about his hatred of snakes for the rest of the song.
- Boo to You Too! Winnie the Pooh: Piglet sings "I Am Not Afraid" as he vows to conquer his fears and celebrate Halloween with Pooh and the gang.
- Boowa And Kwala: One of the music albums has the song "I'm Not Scared" where the titular characters sing about how things like doctors and dentists scare them, but they're not afraid when they sing.
- Parodied in an episode of Drawn Together, where Wooldoor, Spanky, and Princess Clara must survive a week without food supplies after failing a challenge. After realizing that Clara's musical numbers summon animals, Spanky forces Wooldoor to convince Clara to sing a song about standing up for yourself in order to bait enough animals for Spanky to catch and cook.
- Felix the Cat: In "Bold King Cole", Felix and King Cole sing, after escaping the ghosts, "We're not afraid of anything, we're not afraid at all! We're not afraid of anything, we're not afraid at all!". They're Instantly Proven Wrong, however, when they run in fear of two mice in armour fighting.
- In Garfield's Halloween Adventure, Garfield sings a song called "Scaredy Cat", which is about how he may be a lazy slob, but he's not a coward. Various times throughout the song, he comes across trick-or-treaters who turn out to be real monsters and he and Odie run in circles before dashing away as an offscreen backup singer chimes in, "The one thing he's not is a scaredy cat!"
- Lloyd in Space: During the non-canonical Halloween special, Lloyd and his friends seem to be transported to Intrepidville ten years in the future, which had been turned into a ghost town following a devastating monster attack. They slowly sing the Intrepidville anthem as they make their way through the seemingly abandoned space station.
- Madeline:
- In "Madeline on the Orient Express", a snake escapes on the train. Most of the passengers are afraid but Madeline isn't, and sings a song about how some people are afraid of certain animals, including snakes, but she isn't.
- The theme song for the specials, doubling as a Bragging Theme Tune, is about how Madeline is courageous despite her small size.
I'm not some Shrinking Violet,
Or doormat for your feet
I'm quite the bravest, toughest
Little girl you'll ever meetnote
- Muppet Babies (2018): In "Sir Kermit the Brave", Kermit and Dot the Dragon celebrate their newfound bravery and confidence at facing their fears of nighttime with the song, "What's So Scary About the Dark?".
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Friendship is Magic, Part 2", the Mane 6 come across a dark forest. Most of them are freaked out by the creepy faces in the trees, but then Pinkie starts singing about how she got over her phobia of the dark as a kid; by simply laughing at scary things.
- In the Sesame Street animated special The Monster at the End of This Story, Grover's friends all sing the song "Have Courage" to tell him about times when they were brave in the past and to help him see that he can have the courage to face the monster at the end.
- Sheriff Callie's Wild West: In "Crystal Cave Caper", Dirty Dan and Dusty sing a song called "I'm Not A-Scared of Nothin'", which is about how they don't fear things like bees or stinky feet, when they have to go back into a cave to find treasure even though they think there's a beast in there (it's just a snoring bat).
- The Three Little Pigs: Before facing the Big Bad Wolf head-on and losing their confidence, the first two little pigs sing a song called "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?", about how they don't fear him.
- VeggieTales:
- In "Where's God When I'm S-Scared?", Junior's quite paranoid after watching a spooky movie, so Bob and Larry visit him and sing about how he should stay strong because God will be there to protect him from any old movie monster. Later, he sings a reprise of the song, claiming that he won't fear the monsters that lurk in the night anymore since God will save him from them.
- In "Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen", Esther mentions that her grandmother taught her a song about how she shouldn't feel too much fear, as God will always be with her. She sings it a few times in the episode when she's worried about what might happen if she stands up to Haman.
