History Main / MusicalGag

** When Neil Innes was the pianist, Humph listed his acomplishments (TheRutles, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, etc), concluding "All of which has brought him to where he is today. Standing in for Colin Sell." Neil instantly played the funeral march.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' associates most major characters with specific instruments. In Peridot's case, it's a triangle wave, a play on her [[AnimeHair triangular hair]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' used a LeaveItToBeaver style soundtrack to make [[spoiler: Cartman injecting Kyle with his own AIDS infected blood]] sound like Wacky Hijinks.

!!Type 1 Examples - A joke from somewhere other than the lyrics

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* In ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'', Schroeder whistles [[Music/{{LudwigVanBeethoven}} Beethoven's]] F minor sonata to call Snoopy in; the MusicalGag is that this would require whistling two notes at once. Later strips have Woodstock whistling similarly complex melodies.

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** In one of Richard Rodgers' later works, the ballet "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue," three cops on a raid enter to the tune of "Three Blind Mice."

!!Type 2 Examples - a joke within the item's music/soundtrack.

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* On occasion, the {{Leitmotif}} for a JokeCharacter will itself be a MusicalGag.

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!!Other Examples

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* SFDebris often uses musical bits of various lengths and styles to emphasize ridiculous elements in the works he reviews, to deliver subtle (or less-than-subtle) puns, and so forth. He also often interjects with short comedic songs (with or without music), usually to make a point absolutely clear.

* Similarly, ''Mary Shelley's Frankenstein'' features Edgar Winter's rock instrumental, "Frankenstein", as a selectable song.

* The main soundtrack for ''Pinball/TheTwilightZone '' is an instrumental version of the 1982 song "Twilight Zone", by Golden Earring.

* In the ''PinkyAndTheBrain'' episode "It's Only A Paper World," the title characters attempt to TakeOverTheWorld by building a life-sized replica of the planet Earth out of paper-mâché and luring the population onto it so they can rule the real Earth without interference. All the music in the episode is based on themes from Dvorak's New World symphony.

* In ''Theatre/OfTheeISing'', the French soldiers enter to the first few bars of "An American in Paris" (which, like the musical, was composed by George Gershwin).

* Much of the SourceMusic chosen for ''{{Lost}}'' was recorded by artists who died in plane crashes.

* In ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'', the FiveManBand calls itself the "SOS Brigade". One of the [[ImageSong image songs]]' beat is the Morse Code for "SOS".

* In ''DigitalDevilSaga,'' there's an optional boss fight with the Demi-Fiend, the protagonist of ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne''. This is the hardest fight in the game, requiring a very specific strategy, lots of grinding, and a generous helping of luck to win. The music that plays during the fight? Nocturne's regular battle theme. To him, you're just another random encounter.

* In ''GodelEscherBach'', the Crab adds a mordant to the theme from Music/JohannSebastianBach's ''The Musical Offering'', so that the notes spell "Babbage, C(harles)" backwards.

* In ''GodelEscherBach'', the Crab adds a mordant to the theme from Creator/JohannSebastianBach's ''The Musical Offering'', so that the notes spell "Babbage, C(harles)" backwards.

* In Creator/JohannSebastianBach's BattleOfTheBands cantata "The Contest Between Phoebus and Pan" (BWV 201), the violins during Midas's aria proclaiming Pan as master do donkey imitations, foreshadowing Midas's KarmicTransformation.

* In ''{{Peanuts}}'', Schroeder whistles [[{{LudwigVanBeethoven}} Beethoven's]] F minor sonata to call Snoopy in; the MusicalGag is that this would require whistling two notes at once. Later strips have Woodstock whistling similarly complex melodies.

* In ''Theatre/TheMikado'', when the Mikado's song mentions "Bach, interwoven/With Spohr and Beethoven" as a punishment for the music hall singer, woodwinds play the theme from Creator/JohannSebastianBach's Fugue in G minor (BWV 542).

* In ''GodelEscherBach'', the Crab adds a mordant to the theme from Bach's ''The Musical Offering'', so that the notes spell "Babbage, C(harles)" backwards.

* In ''Theatre/TheMikado'', when the Mikado's song mentions Bach as a punishment for the music hall singer, woodwinds play the theme from Bach's Fugue in G minor (BWV 542).

* In the musical ''OfTheeISing'', the French soldiers enter to the first few bars of "An American in Paris." (Both were composed by George Gershwin.)

* TomLehrer, a satirist most famous in the 1950's and 1960's, had a distinctive style involving writing and performing songs poking fun at various (then-)current events. Most of the jokes are in the lyrics, so they would not be Musical Gags -- but there was the occasional melodic joke. For example, at the end of "New Math", Lehrer quips: "Come back tomorrow night, we're gonna do... fractions." This is followed up by a quick melody on the piano which seems to translate as either "Oh, brother!" or "Just kidding!".

* [[FilkSong Filk Songs]], in addition to the silly lyrics, will often include [[MusicalGag Musical Gags]].

* In ''[[{{Castlevania}} Symphony of the Night]]'', Alucard would inform you that this disc only has game data. It would then play some music before going into the game data and being annoying static.
-->"Track one contains computer data, so please don't play it. But you probably won't listen to me anyway, will you?" * cue music with {{EvilLaugh}}s*

* In ''DigitalDevilSaga,'' there's an optional boss fight with the Demi-Fiend, the protagonist of ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne. This is the hardest fight in the game, requiring a very specific strategy, lots of grinding, and a generous helping of luck to win. The music that plays during the fight? Nocturne's regular battle theme. To him, you're just another random encounter.

* In ''[[GilbertAndSullivan The Mikado]]'', when the Mikado's song mentions Bach as a punishment for the music hall singer, woodwinds play the theme from Bach's Fugue in G minor (BWV 542).

!!Examples

!!!Type 1 - A joke from somewhere other than the lyrics

!!!Type 2 - a joke within the item's music/soundtrack.

!!!Other

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