History Main / BizarreInstrument

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' version 0.42 introduced procedurally-generated instruments, many of which are bizarre-looking and some of which are logically incapable of producing sound, like a bowl or a metal block which [[MindScrew somehow works like a tambourine]]

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazooka_(instrument) Bazooka,]] invented by radio comedian Bob Burns and popularized in the 1930's, lent its name to a UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo rocket launcher. Would be the TropeNamer if it wouldn't lead to too much confusion with the anti-tank weapon, the bubble gum, or one of many euphemisms for breasts.

* Music/LaurieAnderson invented the tape bow violin, which is a violin that has a magnetic tape playback head instead of a bridge, and a violin bow that has a length of tape with pre-recorded sound on it instead of hair. By drawing the tape over the head, you can play whatever's on the tape, forwards or backwards and at whatever speed you like.

* The holophonor from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', essentially an alien clarinet which creates its own visual accompaniment. It's so difficult that only a few humans can play it, and most of them aren't that good at it, which is reflected in the holograms it produces: without the alien worm infestation that greatly enhanced his physical and mental capabilities, Fry is lucky to be able to produce kindergarden-grade stick figure scribbles with it. In a crossover episode with ''Franchise/TheSimpsons'', Lisa, being the genius that she is and thanks to her previous experience, is able to [[InstantExpert play a saxophone version]] of the holophonor just as well as she plays a regular saxophone and create realistic imagery with it which is then used to solve the current crisis.

** ''The Discworld Alamanack'' describes "hog ringing". The illustration shows four people with xylophone hammers behind eight hogs of decreasing size, presumably each sounding a different note. The text laments that this practice has largely died out.

* [[BillionsOfButtons Modular synthesizers]] can range from rather conventional keyboards, to gigantic arrays of cables and flashing lights able to play otherworldly music [[UpToEleven by themselves!]]

* Apparently, the original [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazen_bull "Brazen Bull"]] was an [[IncrediblyLamePun instrument of murder]]: a bound prisoner would be forced inside, the only supply of air linked to a horn. Then the outside would be roasted, and the prisoner's screams as he was being cooked alive would sound like the lows of a bull.

* Music/{{Animusic}} creates a wide variety of fantastic (in both senses of the word) instruments for their music videos, ranging from balls being shot out of pipes, to lasers, to odd and automated machines, to some gigantic, Frankensteinian conglomeration of string instruments.

* CountryMusic guitarist Junior Brown is known for playing the "guit-steel", a custom-made electric guitar that has a lap steel guitar attached to it.

Often, but not always, played by a DreadfulMusician. Also not unusual for a TrashCanBand.

* The Silverodeon from ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': part organ, part anything-you-can-fit-in-there. Also, the musical notation used in the series is quite otherworldly.

* InUniverse, Music/{{Fraktus}} had stuff like the Electric Bagpipe: an electric hair dryer blowing into a recorder. In reality, while it did work, they rarely used it because it would fall apart whenever played.

* The ''Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse'' novel ''Literature/ASingularDestiny'' features most of the instruments mentioned in the TV series (and the Elisar from the comics) played either by the folk group The A. C. Walden Medicine Show, or the jam sessions on the ''USS Aventine''. The book also introduces the ''jirvik'' and Saar string, sadly without defining them.

** He made a miniature version which he played on a desk. A nearby miniature model for an upcoming office building collapsed as a result.
** After he tuned a violin for a friend, it emitted a [[BrownNote shrieking sound that could paralyze people]].

* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen'' has one of the more twisted examples: prisoners are in a cage, and you press the keys to make sticks jab them in various places, with the music being their cries of pain. (You kind of have to hear it to understand how this could sound like music, but it does.)
** There are rumors of real life instruments like that, but usually with cats instead of humans.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]
* In ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'', Uncle Phil, explaining to April how a trumpet worked, demonstrated the principle by putting a mouthpiece and funnel on either end of a length of hosepipe, which he called the Hose-O-Phonium.
[[/folder]]

* The holophonor from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', essentially an alien clarinet which creates its own visual accompaniment. It's so difficult that only a few humans can play it, and most of them aren't that good at it, which is reflected in the holograms it produces: without the alien worm infestation that greatly enhanced his physical and mental capabilities, Fry is lucky to be able to produce kindergarden-grade stick figure scribbles with it. In a crossover episode with ''Franchise/TheSimpsons'', Lisa, being the genius that she is and thanks to her previous experience, is able to [[InstantExpert play a saxophone version]] of the holophonor just as well as she plays a regular saxophone and create realistic imaginery with it which is then used to solve the current crisis.

-->'''Carlos''': How about this? I wanted it to have the sound of a lion, so I gave it a mane!
-->(''He demonstrates - [[EpicFail it sounds even worse]].'')
-->'''Dorothy Ann''': [[DeadpanSnarker It's a kitten, Carlos.]]

* The [[https://youtu.be/IvUU8joBb1Q Marble Machine,]] built for 14 months by the Swedish band Wintergatan. To play it, one must turn the crank while simultaneously pulling down levers and pressing on the bass strings so that the marbles fall into place and make the desired sound effect (xylophone, bass, or drums). Also doubles as a RubeGoldbergDevice.

* The holophonor from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', which creates its own visual accompaniment. It's so difficult that only a few humans can play it, and most of them aren't that good at it.