History Main / SenselessViolins

* Subverted in ''Film/ThePunisher2004''. The assassin Harry Heck enters the diner where Frank Castle is eating, toting a guitar case, which he opens before an on-guard Castle to reveal... a guitar. He then [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment plays a tune]] [[TemptingFate informing Castle that he's here to kill him]]. And it is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68QmIDeWSX4 AWESOME.]]

* The above gag is also used in ''Series/TheGoodies'' when they try robbing a bank. After passing the hat around, they decide it's not enough and resort to the traditional method of robbery. In another episode, the Goodies open their guitar cases to show they're [[PieInTheFace full of custard pies]].

* ''Manhua/OldMasterQ'' have a strip where Master Q is a violinist and, due to a SatchelSwitcheroo, mixes his violin case with another belonging to a bank robber. Cue Master Q pulling out a machine-gun in the middle of a concert, much to the entire orchestra's horror, while elsewhere a bank robber is attempting a holdup using a violin.

* Cleveland Cavaliers guard Delonte West was recently arrested for speeding on a motorcycle with two pistols and a shotgun in a guitar case.

This has been done so much that nowadays when some people see a violin case, they assume it contains firearms. Ironically, though, this trope ''has'' been TruthInTelevision, as nobody raised an eyebrow when Steven P. Kazmierczak smuggled a pair of shotguns inside the Northern Illinois University with a guitar case (see below).

* ''WesternAnimation/TennesseeTuxedoAndHisTales'' had gangster Rocky Maninoff do this; often when he threatens Tennessee and Chumley, he would warn if they fail the task he's giving them he will play a tune on his "violin," followed by imitating machine gun noises. In one instance ("Phunnie Munnie") he even takes his machine gun out of his violin case and fires it at the ceiling when threatening the duo!

* Subverted in ''[[Film/KillBill Kill Bill: Vol. 1]]'' in the scene where the Bride and all other passengers on an aircraft carry full length katana in plain sight during the flight. There are even scabbards alongside the seats for this purpose.

* This happens in, of all movies, ''Film/DuckSoup'', with [[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho Marx]] doing the shooting! (During the war between Freedonia and Sylvania, Groucho and company are caught in a house between the front lines; after one particularly fierce attack, Groucho demands his "Stradivarius", intending on teaching the enemy to "[[JustForPun fiddle with him]]"...)

[[caption-width-right:320:A [[IncrediblyLamePun suave]] Stradivarius.]]

* ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'' In the first part "Hellhounds for Hire" Jin is disguised as a woman carrying a biwa (a traditional Japanese instrument similar to a guitar). When asked to play a song on it, he pulls his katana from the neck, and reveals that he is actually a samurai. He also happened to have smoke bombs hidden in the body of the instrument.

** Henrietta uses a violin case to transport her signature weapon, the FN P90. Unlike most examples, however, sometimes the violin case actually does contain her violin.

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'':
** Henrietta uses a violin case to transport her signature weapon, the FN P90. Unlike most examples, however, sometimes the violin case actually does contain her violin.
** Rico is carrying a flute case with a weapon when she meets Emilio; she gets rather flustered when he asks her to play the flute for him, and lies that she isn't very good at her instrument yet.
* In ''Manga/BlueSeed'', Kome uses a cello case to transport her rocket launcher.

* Subverted in ''Manga/DetectiveSchoolQ''. [[spoiler:A murdering musician is actually confirmed to be a serial killer after the DDS people see that his violin case is empty; he only brought the case to pose as innocent, not wanting the violin to get damaged under the rainy weather]].
* ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'' In the first part "Hellhounds for Hire" Jin is disguised as a woman carrying a biwa (a traditional Japanese instrument similar to a guitar). When asked to play a song on it, he pulls his katana from the neck, and reveals that he is actually a samurai. He also happened to have smoke bombs hidden in the body of the instrument.

* In ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', Mana brings along a guitar case for her BigDamnHeroes moment. True to form, she whips a pair of Desert Eagles out in a ShoutOut to ''Film/{{Desperado}}'', mentioned below.

* ''Literature/CatPlanetCuties'': TykeBomb [[ShrinkingViolet Aoi]] keeps her arsenal in a cello case.
* Anime/{{Madlax}} once stored a sniper rifle in a cello case.

* Creator/NeilGaiman's and Creator/DaveMcKean's ''Violent Cases''.
* ''ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}'': Elsa Bloodstone keeps two Uzis and two shotguns in her guitar case she carries around.
* Inverted in an issue of ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'' comic book. Lisa goes with Bart and his friends to the mall with her saxophone, and one of Bart's friends nonchalantly asks why she's carrying a machine gun. Bart replies that she's just weird.
* Subverted hilariously in one short story of ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'': one of Angus's friends is the only gangster who keeps a violin in the case, but plays it so badly that Angus asks him to put in a machine gun like every other criminal.
* ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} villain Torque once checked into a motel carrying his tommy gun in a violin case. When the landlord told him not to play around there, Torque said "Don't give me a reason to."
* Scarface, the dummy of Franchise/{{Batman}} foe the Ventriloquist, used to carry a miniature Tommy gun hidden inside a toy piano he carried under his arm, in a parody of the classic 'Tommy gun in a violin case'. (It is also a StealthPun on 'Chicago piano': a gangster-era slang term for a Tommy gun.)

* Parodied in ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'', where one strip shows a bunch of cavemen gangsters using violin cases to carry around their clubs.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Subverted in ''Film/ThePunisher2004''. The assassin Harry Heck enters the diner where Frank Castle is eating, toting a guitar case, which he opens before an on-guard Castle to reveal... a guitar. He then [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment plays a tune]] [[TemptingFate informing Castle that he's here to kill him]]. And it is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68QmIDeWSX4 AWESOME.]]

* In ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', Picard goes into a holodeck simulation of the 1920s specifically to borrow one character's Tommy gun. It's in a violin case, of course.
* At the beginning of ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'', the struggling musicians look for work in a club run by gangsters. Seeing the instrument cases, the gangsters draw their guns and search the musicians -- being very surprised to find out that the instrument cases contain musical instruments -- and more surprised when real hitmen turn up moments later.
* This happens in, of all movies, ''Film/DuckSoup'', with [[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho Marx]] doing the shooting! (During the war between Freedonia and Sylvania, Groucho and company are caught in a house between the front lines; after one particularly fierce attack, Groucho demands his "Stradivarius", intending on teaching the enemy to "[[JustForPun fiddle with him]]"...)

* Inverted in ''Film/Water1985'', which opens with the Cascaran Liberation Front attacking a radio station using an ImprovisedZipline onto the roof while holding camouflaged cases, which when opened turn out to contain an electric guitar and keyboard. The Singing Rebel then proceeds via song to call on the people of Cascara to rise up against their British oppressors. Everyone ignores him, largely because he's a DreadfulMusician.
* In ''Film/DeathToSmoochy'', Buggy Ding Dong carries a rifle in a trombone case to murder the title character during his ice show.

* Played with in ''Film/{{Kiler}}'', where after crafting his [[BadassInANiceSuit "Killer"]] persona, Jerzy uses a violin case to... carry his groceries.
* ''Film/JohnWickChapter2'' has a variant: An assassin goes undercover as a busker, then pulls a pistol out of the violin she was playing when her mark walks by.

* ''Literature/DocSidhe'': The first attack by the bad guys on Doc's headquarters was made by thugs dressed as musicians and carrying instrument cases.
* Played straight in ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'' in which the eponymous assassin has a sniper's rifle disguised as a war veterans' crutch.
* ''Literature/DocSavage'': In ''The Annihilist'', the sniper Frightful conceals his gun inside a trombone case.
* ''Literature/{{Parker}}'': In ''The Outfit'', two of the gang who knock over the Outfit's number-running operation are dressed as musicians and carrying burp guns hidden in trombone cases.
* In one ''Literature/{{Clue}}'' book, the guests observe a violin case, and Professor Plum likens it to the kind gangsters carry their guns in. It actually contains an antique violin that becomes the subject of the story's heist, but Mr. Boddy is such a DreadfulMusician that bullets may be less painful.

* Subverted for laughs in ''Series/TheMonkees'' episode "Monkees A La Carte" when the band decide to see some gangsters. Mike is carrying a guitar case and the mobsters instantly think he has a gun in it. They grab it and discover it's only carrying the appropriate musical instrument, "Hey Boss! There's a guitar in this guitar case!"

* A season 2 episode of ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'' had a CIA agent pose as a violinist in order to kill a terrorist by frying his brain with a laser that was hidden in her case.
* Subverted on an episode of ''Series/Batman1966'' featuring Shelley Winters as Ma Parker. Ma and her kids robbed a bank. During the getaway, Batman and Robin captured one of her sons, who was carrying a violin case which contained ... a violin. He said that Ma wanted him to take lessons.
* Subverted in the opening scene of ''Series/MobCity''. A group of bootleggers are loading liquor onto a truck at night when they see three men approach them with violin cases. The bootleggers pull out their guns and tell the men to open the cases. The cases contain violins and the three men then proceed to play them. Relieved, the bootleggers put away their guns and go back to work. At this point a woman with a baby carriage approaches the violinists and they reach into the carriage, pull out Thompson submachine guns and massacre the bootleggers. Twenty years later one of the gangsters still likes to play the violin as a hobby.
* Played with in ''Series/KamenRiderKabuto''. The guitar case Daisuke carries around everywhere he goes is filled to the brim with [[SeriousBusiness cosmetics and make-up ordinance]].
* Taken one step further in an episode of ''Series/{{Bergerac}}'', where a character actually conceals a Skorpion sub machine gun ''inside a violin''.
* Played with (in this case literally) by Creator/JamesCoburn during his appearance on ''Series/TheMuppetShow'': in a sketch lampooning TheRoaringTwenties, Coburn pulls out a violin case, frightening mob rival Gonzo when Coburn confirms that the violin case does ''not'' have a violin in it. In fact, it holds a piccolo, which Coburn uses to accompany the Muppets in a rendition of "Alexander's Ragtime Band".

* ''VideoGame/{{Stranglehold}}'': Inspector Tequila uses two guitar cases full of guns in the Mega Restaurant mission of the Creator/JohnWoo game.
* ''VideoGame/TotalOverdose'' has a [[LimitBreak Loco Move]] called "El Mariachi" where Ramiro guns down his enemies [[GunsAkimbo wielding a pair of guitar cases]] with automatic machine guns concealed inside.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' implies this in one mission, where you have to gun down a bunch of Mafia thugs who were going to carry out a hit disguised as a ''string quartet.''
* Lyude from ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos'' wields a weird musical instrument trumpet thing that -- according to the flavour text of all his brass wind instrument-related cards -- is a gun designed for use by assassins. It's odd that honourable, diplomatic Lyude would use a weapon made for such a purpose. Then again he comes from the Empire of Alfard, where the only ones without a lethal weapon are children still in their mother's womb. Probably.
* ''VideoGame/ZombieRevenge'' features a stage where you can use Quino and Campa's guitar cases from ''Film/{{Desperado}}''.
* Ricardo Gomez, the party's designated bard in ''VideoGame/ShadowHeartsFromTheNewWorld'', doesn't keep weapons in his guitar case; instead, he keeps them [[ShoePhone built into his actual guitar]], and they range from a simple rifle/shotgun arrangement built into the fretboard, all the way to an anti-personnel flamethrower and even a ''multi-barrel missile launcher'' capable of initating a MacrossMissileMassacre. And it's an acoustic, even. One wonders what he could get away with on a guitar that worked with an amplifier.

* In ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Founder]] soldiers in Battleship Bay use violin cases to conceal shotguns for their poorly-disguised ambush at the [[spoiler:ticket booth.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Awesomenauts}}'', the artwork for Vinnie and Spike's upgrade "Antique Machinegun" (which increases the range of the Spike Dive) is a guitar case going through an X-ray scanner with a Tommy gun inside of it.
* Zenia Valov from ''VideoGame/ArcanaHeart'' has an odd examples: instead of carrying a weapon in a violin case, the violin case ''transforms'' into her PileBunker gauntlet.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' subverts this with the penguin mafioso enemy. One of his attacks has him unwrap a violin case, open it, and pull out...a ''violin'', which he proceeds to beat you upside the head with. One of his "miss" messages likewise subverts this trope:
-->The mafia penguin unwraps a present, revealing a violin case. He opens the case to reveal a gun, and seems shocked and disappointed.

* Referenced in ''Webcomic/AfterlifeBlues''. In the future, those with access to [[{{Nanomachines}} nanotech]] who want to conceal their guns go so far as to [[http://project-apollo.net/ab/ab177.html transform them into violins]].

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Krusty and Homer are looking for Krusty's daughter's violin, which Krusty lost to a mobster in a game of poker. On sneaking into a mob business meeting, they find the case... amongst a giant pile of violin cases. When they eventually find her case, it turned out to have a wad of cash in it as well.
* In one episode of ''ComicBook/KaputAndZosky'', the pair incorrectly assume that some violin cases must contain guns, not violins. This comes back to bite them later when, as always, everything starts going horribly wrong.
* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/OscarsOrchestra'': the series is set in a world where all music was banned and features a cast of sentient musical instruments rebelling against the regime. In one episode one of the characters, Monty (a violin), gets on a transport by hiding in a violin case. We then cut to a baggage handler who picks the case up and says, "Hey, I think we've got something illegal here. Oh, never mind. The tag says it's a machine gun. For a second I was afraid it was a violin."
* In one episode of the original ''[[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 Transformers]]'' cartoon Megatron gets into a high-security compound this way. For those wondering, he's a size-changing character, and turns into a gun.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'', Darkwing suspects Tuskernini of concealing weapons in instrument cases. Actually, he had concealed the weapons inside the instruments.

* ''WesternAnimation/TennesseeTuxedoAndHisTales'' had gangster Rocky Maninoff do this; often when he threatens Tennessee and Chumley, he would warn if they fail the task he's giving them he will play a tune on his "violin," followed by imitating machine gun noises. In one instance ("Phunnie Munnie") he even takes his machine gun out of his violin case and fires it at the ceiling when threatening the duo!
* The cartoon adaptation of ''Literature/SoulMusic'' has two enforcers for the Musicians' Guild who carry clubs in instrument cases.

* In the 1937 Disney short ''WesternAnimation/MickeysAmateurs'', WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck's second attempt at reciting "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" involves taking to the stage in a heavy disguise and carrying a violin case... which he opens to reveal a Thompson submachine gun. When the audience laugh at his latest failed attempt to recite the poem, he [[DisproportionateRetribution opens fire on them]]. (No-one is killed or injured; this ''is'' Disney!)