History Main / OneManBand

** Homer has a flashback to his teenage years where he played in a one-man band. He had a bass drum on his back, a guitar in his hands and a bicycle horn at his feet, and would sing.
** During a WholePlotReference to ''Mary Poppins'', Groundskeeper Willie played a one-man band in the park, followed by a ShoutOut to the water scene in ''Film/{{Flashdance}}'' as he dumps water on himself while lying back on a chair, still wielding his one-man band paraphernalia.
* Characters attempting to wake up a HeavySleeper are often seen employing a one-man band (after trying BangingPotsAndPans or other loud noises), to no success. Variation: In the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes "WesternAnimation/BackAlleyOproar", 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. Carl Stalling's score then goes hilariously berserk as Sylvester-- still carrying all his instruments-- has to run from a shotgun-wielding Elmer.

* In ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', the Genie briefly turns himself into a one-man band to celebrate Aladdin's engagement to Jasmine.

* Big Band from ''VideoGame/SkullGirls'' is a fighting version of this; he keeps most of his instruments underneath his detective longcoat.

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

Compare with IAmTheBand, where one musician plays each instrument separately and combines the tracks to sound like a full band. Subtrope of StreetPerformer. Contrasts FiveManBand abd FiveBadBand. For a lethal variant see OneManArmy.

* Jazz musician Roland Kirk would often play three saxophones at once.

[[folder:Comedy]]
* Rich Hall did a bit about these, talking about how "playing the guitar and harmonica at the same time is the sign of a [[Music/BobDylan genius]], but as soon as you put some cymbals between your knees for accompaniment..."
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/PixarShorts'':

* Characters attempting to wake up a HeavySleeper are often seen employing a one-man band (after trying BangingPotsAndPans or other loud noises), to no success. 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. Carl Stalling's score then goes hilariously berserk as Sylvester-- still carrying all his instruments-- has to run from a shotgun-wielding Elmer.

** During a WholePlotReference to ''Mary Poppins'', Groundskeeper Willie played a one-man band in the park, followed by a ShoutOut to the water scene in ''{{Flashdance}}'' as he dumps water on himself while lying back on a chair, still wielding his one-man band paraphernalia.

* Christopher Lillicrap as the title character in the 1980s {{CBBC}} series ''Busker'' had the full one-man band kit including the bass drum on his back, as he told stories outside a railway station.

** Done by [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Pinkie Pie]] in the episode "Swarm of the Century". Apparently, it's the only way to get rid of [[ExplosiveBreeder parasprites.]]
** She does it again later on to help Twilight fake a high-level spell in a magical duel. Even weirder, she doesn't have a mouth at this point, so how could she play all of those instruments? [[WeirdnessCoupon Because she's Pinkie Pie.]]

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, through the magic of overdubbing, such musicians as Music/ToddRundgren, Music/{{Prince}}, [[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor]], and [[Music/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.

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[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

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

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[[AC: WebOriginal]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* In a WesternAnimation/PixarShort called "[[WesternAnimation/OneManBand2005 One Man Band]]", there are two of these competing with each other.
* In the earlier Pixar short ''WesternAnimation/TinToy'', 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.
* In ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', the Genie briefly turns himself into a one-man band to celebrate Aladdin's engagement to Jasmine.

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

* Characters attempting to wake up a HeavySleeper are often seen employing a one-man band (after trying BangingPotsAndPans or other loud noises), to no success.
** 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. Carl Stalling's score then goes hilariously berserk as Sylvester-- still carrying all his instruments-- has to run from a shotgun-wielding Elmer.

* In a PixarShort called "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin One Man Band]]", there are two of these competing with each other.

* In the earlier Pixar short ''TinToy'', 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.

!Examples:

* ''UruseiYatsura'': A disappearing, faceless ghost one-man band is one of the many weird things Ataru witnesses in the NonSerialMovie ''Beautiful Dreamer''.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjQrA0usWMk Scratchmen Apoo]] in {{One Piece}}. Doubles with {{Musical Assassin}}.

* Rich Hall did a bit about these, talking about how "playing the guitar and harmonica at the same time is the sign of a [[BobDylan genius]], but as soon as you put some cymbals between your knees for accompaniment..."

* A one-man band once visited ''ShiningTimeStation'' and played music with a bass drum on his back, smashing cymbals, a harmonica strapped at his neck, and more.

Compare with IAmTheBand, where one musician plays each instrument separately and combines the tracks to sound like a full band. Subtrope of StreetPerformer. Contrasts FiveManBand abd FiveBadBand.

Compare with IAmTheBand, where one musician plays each instrument separately and combines the tracks to sound like a full band. Subtrope of StreetPerformer. Not related to FiveManBand abd FiveBadBand.

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

* BugsBunny did this several times in various WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes shorts, often using his prehensile ears to play additional instruments.
* ''TheSimpsons'' once saw Homer have a flashback to his teenage years where he played in a one-man band. He had a bass drum on his back, a guitar in his hands and a bicycle horn at his feet, and would sing.

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

* Done by [[CloudCuckooLander Pinkie Pie]] in the ''WesternAnimation/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 [[Music/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.

* Music/ToddRundgren has made a number of recordings on which he plays all the instruments. The first three sides of ''Music/SomethingAnything'' are probably the best-known example.

* Ray Davies plays one in the video for the Kinks song "Do It Again".

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