History Main / OneManBand

* In the earlier Pixar short ''Tin Toy'', the eponymous toy is a one-man band. This turns out to be a disadvantage when he encounters a scary baby and tries to hide, because he can't move without playing a tune.

Say you need some cheerful music to draw attention to yourself, but can't find anyone to help you. Then do it yourself!

** Variation: In the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes ''Back Alley Oproar'', Sylvester has been keeping Elmer up all night with his loud singing. At one point he lulls Elmer to sleep with a lullabye...and just as Elmer happily drops off, Sylvester jolts him up with a raucous one-man-band routine.

* BugsBunny did this several times in various LooneyTunes shorts, often using his prehensile ears to play additional instruments.

** Variation: In the LooneyTunes ''Back Alley Oproar'', Sylvester has been keeping Elmer up all night with his loud singing. At one point he lulls Elmer to sleep with a lullabye...and just as Elmer happily drops off, Sylvester jolts him up with a raucous one-man-band routine.

[[AC:{{Real Life}}]]

* RobertJohnson could play melody, rhythm, and bass line on his guitar, stomp his to give a drum part, and sing, all simultaneously, acting as a one-man five-piece band.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/WDCC-GOOFY-ONE-MAN-BAND-I_7745.jpg
[[caption-width:340:{{Goofy}} is his own melody, accompaniment, and drummer.]]

* At the beginning of ''MaryPoppins'', Bert is seen operating a one-man band (consisting of an accordion, a bass drum, a bicycle horn and several cymbals, just to name a few instruments).

* The TwoRonnies claimed to be the only 'Two Man One Band' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m30BwhWhWPs]]

* While not quite "one man", several '''TheThreeStooges''' shorts feature two of the Stooges practicing performing as a "Two Man Quartet", each playing multiple instruments at once in this manner.

[[caption-width:340:Goofy is his own melody, accompaniment, and drummer.]]

* The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXMuWi0dUBc Cigo Man Band][ from Croatia. He plays the guitar, tambourine, kazoo, drum, harmonica ''as well as singing''!

* Done by [[CloudCuckooLander Pinkie Pie]] in the MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic episode "Swarm of the Century". Apparently, it's the only way to get rid of [[ExplosiveBreeder parasprites.]]

Some definitions of OneManBand define it as "being able to play '''two''' or more instruments at once." Others say "'''three''' or more instruments at once," and some purists even define it as "three or more instruments at once while able to remain mobile while cranking out the jams." "At once" is ''definitely'' the real key phrase needing to be emphasized here; while it's true that musicians like {{Prince}}, [[NineInchNails Trent Reznor]], and [[FooFighters Dave Grohl]] have played ''all'' the instruments on some of their albums, we wouldn't refer to any of them as {{One Man Band}}s. (In fact, we have [[IAmTheBand another trope entirely about them]].) Of course RuleOfFunny says the more instruments the funnier--and of course they're all badly tuned and played with no sense of melody or rhythm, prone to causing the person stuck in such an arrangement to tumble and get tangled in the resulting mess. Pretty much a DeadHorseTrope these days (except for the very occasional street performer), but a PeriodPiece or HistoricalFiction may still have them as background characters.

* In a Pixar short called "One Man Band", there are two of these competing with each other.

* Done by [[CloudCuckooLander Pinky Pie]] in the MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic episode "Swarm of the Century". Apparently, it's the only way to get rid of [[ExplosiveBreeder parasprites.]]

* Done by [[CloudCuckooLander Pinky Pie]] in FriendshipIsMagic. Apparently it's the only way to get rid of [[ExplosiveBreeder parasprites.]]

* In ''Dead Beat'', Butters of ''TheDresdenFiles'' constructs a suit to make himself into a One Man Polka Band. [[spoiler: He then proceeds to use it to control ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesomea zombie Tyrannosaurus rex]]''.]]

* In ''Dead Beat'', Butters of ''TheDresdenFiles'' constructs a suit to make himself into a One Man Polka Band. [[spoiler:[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome He then proceeds to use it to control ''a zombie Tyrannosaurus rex''.]]]]

* In ''Dead Beat'', Butters of ''TheDresdenFiles'' constructs a suit to make himself into a One Man Polka Band that is used to control a zombie ''Tyrannosaurus rex''.

** Basically the whole point of theatre pipe organs (properly called '[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin unit orchestras]]').

** Basically the whole point of theatre pipe organs (properly called 'unit orchestras').

* ''TheSimpsons'' once saw Homer have a flashback to his teenage years where he played in a one-man band. He had a base drum on his back, a guitar in his hands and a bicycle horn at his feet, and would sing.

Compare with IAmTheBand, where one musician plays each instrument separately and combines the tracks to sound like a full band.