Sidekick Song

"The secondary characters are singing a song

While the stars are snacking off-stage

It was their idea to bring us along

And now we're hijacking this page

Of the script

We're equipped

To steer the ship

'Til this trippy skit ends

And by the end of this song, we'll be best friends"

— Heidi and Susan sing "Secondary Characters" in [title of show]

In the same way that the Villain Song is the classic moment for the villain of a musical to have a chance to shine and expand upon their philosophy of life, the Sidekick Song is the chance for the hero's comedy sidekick to have their moment in the sun—have a few laughs, spread the joy, that sort of thing. The Sidekick Song typically explains why the Sidekick's abilities and/or philosophy are of service to The Hero. The Sidekick may also perform the "I Am Great!" Song for the Hero or Villain, as they may be too humble to do it for themselves, or they may need a Pep-Talk Song. Yet, the Sidekick Song may have little to do with The Hero's Journey at all, and is rather about Sidekick's own dreams and ambitions. The song doesn't have to be positive but usually is. The Sidekick Song can sometimes be combined with the Villain Song for Anti Villains or Magnificent Bastards.

Often goes hand in hand with Disney Acid Sequence.

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Examples:

Film - Animated

• Disney Animated Canon:
  • "The Silly Song" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, "Heigh-Ho" is another example.
  • "Give a Little Whistle" from Pinocchio.
  • "The Work Song" and "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo" from Cinderella
    • "At the Ball" from the second sequel
  • "The Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book (1967). "I Wanna Be Like You" provides an Anti-Villain example (if King Louis can even be called a villain).
  • "Why Should I Worry" from Oliver & Company — the Dodger isn't comic relief in the end, but it's very much a "let me astonish you, young stranger, with tales of my carefree lifestyle" song.
  • "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid (1989).
  • "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast.
    • With a bonus, "Human Again," in the Broadway show.
  • "A Friend Like Me" from Aladdin, though Genie fans might consider "One Jump Ahead" to be the true Sidekick Song.
  • "Hakuna Matata" from The Lion King (1994)...except the main character sings in it as well
    • "Circle of Life" may also count, as it is implicitly sang by Rafiki in the movie (and explicitly in the play).
    • "Upendi" from the sequel.
  • "A Guy Like You" from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
  • "One Last Hope", sung by Phil in Hercules.
    • Also "The Gospel Truth", "Zero to Hero", and "A Star is Born" for the Muses.
  • One of the Cut Songs from Mulan "Keep 'em Guessing" was supposed to be one for Mushu. Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po get a song in the form of "A Girl Worth Fighting For" which has a reprise in the sequel, along with the background soldiers, although Mulan does sing one line of it—which is immediately rejected by the three as silly.
  • Every song from The Princess and the Frog counts except "Down in New Orleans", "Almost There" and "Friends on the Other Side".
  • "I've Got A Dream" from Tangled, though the leads Rapunzel and Flynn do join in near the end of the song (Flynn very reluctantly).
  • "In Summer" from Frozen.
    • Also the rock trolls' song "Fixer-Upper".
    • "This Will All Make Sense When I'm Older" from Frozen II
  • Encanto has two.
    • "What Else Can I Do?" for Isabela.
    • "Under the Surface" for Luisa, perhaps more explicitly than the former.
  • I'm a Star from Wish sung by the animals brought to sentience by the titular star.
• "Make Your Life a Party" from the obscure Katy the Caterpillar.
• "No Girl's Toy" from Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure
• Sunny from Strange Magic has "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley and the Wailers.

Film - Live-Action

• In Chicago, Billy Flynn has three songs—"All I Care About is Love," "Press Conference Rag," and "Razzle Dazzle" —that all relate to how he serves as an older Hyper-Competent Sidekick for Roxie (and, to a lesser extent, Velma).
• Two of them from the Chuck E. Cheese Made-for-TV Movie Chuck E. Cheese in the Galaxy 5000:
  • "The Real Me" for Helen Henny, as she voices her jealousy over Chuck E.'s relationship with Astrid the night before the qualifiers.
  • "Snowball's Chance in Texas" for Jasper T. Jowels, sung at the soda shop after Chuck E. comes in last and barely manages to qualify for the final race, and when the X-Pilots mock him alongside Helen supposedly betraying him.
• "Make 'Em Laugh" from Singin' in the Rain, possibly the most obvious example of this trope. "Moses Supposes His Toeses Are Roses", a duet between the hero and comedy sidekick, also counts.
• "I've Got a Golden Ticket" in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is this for Grandpa Joe, with Charlie joining in later. (See Musical below for the equivalent song in another adaptation of the story.)

Musical

• In 13 Patrice has so many solos/songs we can't even count her. Archie has "Get Me What I Need", "Any Minute" Is a Brett/Kendra duet, "Opportunity" Is a bizzare mixture of this, the Bad Girl Song, and Villain Song. and "Bad Bad News" is this for all the boys, while "Brand New You" is this for the girls.
• From Avenue Q, "If You Were Gay", "The Internet is for Porn", "You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want", "There is Life Outside Your Apartment, and "The More You Ruv Someone" and all the Cut Songs all serve this Trope. Actually, More than 60% of the play IS this trope.
  • It helps if you just pretend the entire cast is the main character. The real main characters aren't really that much bigger parts than the rest, anyway.
• Though the song itself isn't thought of as comical by the characters, "Kids" from Bye Bye Birdie gives the parents of the teenagers in the show a chance to say just what they think about the changing postwar culture.
• "Don'cha Pinch Me Charlie" in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory becomes a Crowd Song as the Bucket family and the press celebrate Charlie's Golden Ticket find, but most of it is handled by Older Sidekick Grandpa Joe (in fact, he's the one who demands the other bedridden grandparents follow his lead and get out of bed to join in!). Charlie gets a verse and chorus to himself, but it's telling that he lets Grandpa Joe lead everyone in the final stretch!
• Being an ensemble-style show, The Drowsy Chaperone is chock-full of these. There's "As We Stumble Along" for the Drowsy Chaperone herself, "I Am Aldolpho" for Aldolpho, "Toledo Surprise" for the gangsters- ahem, pastry chefs, "Fancy Dress" and "Love is Always Lovely in the End" for Mrs. Tottendale and Underling, and "I Do, I Do in the Sky" for Trix the Aviatrix.
• "Mama Says" from the musical version of Footloose gives Ren's best friend Willard his chance to (hilariously) shine. Rusty gets her version in "Let's Hear It for the Boy".
• "Bidin' My Time" from Girl Crazy, by the Gershwin Brothers that extols the slacker's philosophy.
• In Guys and Dolls, "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat" is Nicely-Nicely Johnson's Sidekick Song.
  • He and two other sidekick characters get the opening number, "Fugue For Tinhorns" ("I got the horse right here/His name is Paul Revere...").
  • For extra funny, Ernie Sabella - the voice of Pumbaa in The Lion King (1994) - performs "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat" in the 1992 Broadway Revival of Guys and Dolls. And Nathan Lane (who voiced Timon) played Nathan in that production.
• Hairspray has "Run and Tell That" by Seaweed and Inez, and "Big, Blonde, and Beautiful," by their mother, Motormouth Maybelle.
  • Not to mention "You're Timeless To Me" for Wilber and Edna Turnblad.
• Hamilton: "Guns and Ships" is arguably one for Lafayette. Angelica gets one with "Satisfied", as well as "The Schuyler Sisters" with Eliza and Peggy.
  • Somewhat stretching the definition of "sidekick", Washington gets two notable solo songs, "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" and "One Last Time".
• The villain's sidekicks get one in Kiss Me, Kate: "Brush Up Your Shakespeare." And it's quite possibly the most well-known song in a show made of songs you've heard before but can't quite remember where (in particular, "Another Openin', Another Show," and "Too Darn Hot," which are themselves both sidekick songs).
• In Mame, "Gooch's Song" has Patrick's mousy nanny Agnes Gooch comically explain that she took Mame's advice to be more free-spirited and ended up with a Surprise Pregnancy in the process.
• Mamma Mia! gives us Tanya's "Does Your Mother Know" and Rosie and Bill's "Take A Chance On Me".
• "I Like Him" and "A Little Gossip" from Man of La Mancha neatly sum up (with a few interjections from Aldonza) Sancho Panza's personality.
• "Master of the House" from Les Misérables, despite being the musical's main Villain Song, is also the musical's main moment of light relief.
  • Also, Gavroche sums up his life philosophy in the plucky "Little People."
• The very bizarre "Shipoopi" from The Music Man.
• "Get Me to the Church on Time" from My Fair Lady, sung by Eliza Doolittle's rascally father Alfred.
  • Also "The Servants' Chorus (Poor Henry Higgins)", sung by Henry Higgins' staff.
• "Sonya Alone" is one for Sonya in Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, though it is serious and poignant, rather than a traditional comic sidekick song.
  • "Balaga" is a raucous "I Am" Song for One-Scene Wonder Balaga, a popular and infamous troika driver.
• Next to Normal has "I've Been" for The Caretaker Dan, and "Everything Else" for Deadpan Snarker Natalie.
• "Everything's Up To Date In Kansas City", "I Cain't Say No" and "All Er Nothing" from Oklahoma! provide a set of songs for the comic relief couple. Meanwhile, "It's A Scandal! It's A Outrage!" provides one for the peddler Ali Hakeem.
• In Oliver!, "You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two" serves as an Anti Villain Song for Fagin.
  • "Consider Yourself" sung by The Artful Dodger.
  • Fagin also gets arguably the most fun song in the entire show, "Reviewing the Situation." He shares the reprise with Dodger.
• An unusual example in Only You Can Save Mankind: The Musical. Bigmac is one of Johnny's sidekicks, and he gets the song "My Brother's Eyes". Only Bigmac's subplot is the most serious part of the story, and the song reflects that.
• RENT has "Today 4 You", Angel's upbeat and bouncy song... about killing a dog, "Over the Moon", where Maureen implements a nursery rhyme into a nonsensical performance art piece, and "Santa Fe", about Collins' dream of opening a restaurant out west.
• "The Creation of Man" in The Scarlet Pimpernel. And although the hero sings a lot of it, the hero is also his own comic sidekick.
• The older brothers in Shenandoah are sort of ensemble sidekicks for the father, the youngest brother, and the (only) sister, and they get one song in which each of them have either a solo or a duet: "Next to Lovin' (I Like Fightin')", in which they brag about their prowess in the manly arts. No, the second kind. It's also the only really funny song in a show made primarily of angst (being set in Virginia during the Civil War).
  • Gabriel the slave boy teams up with the youngest brother in their own Sidekick Song "Why Am I Me?"
• Spring Awakening: "My Junk". It's a rare non-angst song where the girls sing about their crushes, one guy sings about his crush on his piano teacher and another sings about his love of masturbation. Hilarity ensues.
• "Not While I'm Around" from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
• "Baby, Dream Your Dream" is a bittersweet one sung by Nickie and Helene in Sweet Charity.
  • Herman leads a high-spirited crowd number near the end of the show, "I Love to Cry At Weddings". Nickie, Helene, and Rosie pitch in at various parts.
• "Secondary Characters" from [title of show] is the most self-referential example, as well as a sidekick duet. "I Am Playing Me" and "A Way Back to Then" are about Heidi's apprehension over her career while "Die, Vampire, Die!" is about Susan's quirky outlook on being an artist. "What Kind of Girl Is She?" is about a (potential) rivalry between the two.
• Waitress has Dawn's "I Want" Song "When He Sees Me", "Never Ever Getting Rid of Me" and "I Love You Like a Table" for Ogie and Dawn, "I Didn't Plan It" for Becky, and "Take It From an Old Man/Ma'am" for Joe/Josie.
• "Dancing Through Life" from Wicked is a combination of this and a Villain Song... at least on the surface. This being Wicked, Hidden Depths abound.

Opera

• Mozart seems to have been fond of these: both Leporello in Don Giovanni and Papageno in The Magic Flute get them. So do quite a few secondary characters in The Marriageof Figaro, which also puts the officially-a-sidekick Figaro in the lead.

Web Original

• "Nobody Wants To Be Moist" from Commentary! The Musical - basically a Sidekick Song that was cut from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and put into the commentary.
• "Partners" from the cancelled Persona 4 Musical for Yosuke.
• "Get Back Up" from Starship is this for Taz, although the trope is subverted in that she is Commander Up's former sidekick/mentee, and not Bug's.
• "I'm Just a Sidekick" from A Very Potter Senior Year for Ron Weasley. Double points for being almost entirely about accepting his position as a sidekick.

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