History Music / LesLuthiers

* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub: {{Inverted|trope}} with Harold Mastropiero. A mafia boss, he was known for running a clandestine casino, a pub and an illegal betting center. What he was hiding, and where Harold got most of his money from, was a ''grocery store''.

* ThisIsMyNameOnForeign: All the illegitimate children of composer Johann Sebastian Mastropiero with the contessa Shortshot were translations of Shortshot in different languages: Patrick [=McKleinschuss=], Giovanni Colpocorto, Rafael Brevetiro, Mario Abraham Kortzclap, Anatole Tirecourt, Johnny Littlebang.

* AnachronismStew: Mastropiero, by design. From sketch to sketch he can be a pre-19th century composer, or can just as easily be a 20th century bolero composer.

* DiversionaryForeignPolicy: * In ''La Comisión'', two politicians from a fictional country put a composer in charge to modify their national anthem. One of the changes due to be included in the new anthem references how, in order to calm the discontent of their people, the politicians decide to invent a war with Norway, despite being no borders whatsoever between the two countries.

--> ''The young people of today make up new words. [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow It seems they are now calling it...]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology epistemology]]!''

** The lyrics of "Oi gadóñaya" (http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/~chema/luthiers/021.html) take it UpToEleven. Samples of the Russian-sounding song include the title (Which is actually "Oiga Doña Ya" - "Lady listen now") and the jewel near the end: "Long live Czar Nikolaievich! Let us all go to a Miami Beach!".

* ContinuityNod: Mastropiero, the jazz pieces with only one vowel, a Huesito Williams melody reappearing for fellow singer-songwriter Manuel Darío, Laxatón (the product, not the Cantata) referenced several years later in 1971, the glamocot being used for 'lust' scenes after its original role as 'Oso libidinoso' (e.g. 'Wildstone' [a college couple going to the bedroom] and 'Princesa Caprichosa').

* VisualPun: In "Para Elizabeth", whenever making love is mentioned, Daniel Rabinovich, who is representing the letter being read with instruments, starts using the bellows. Bellows, in Spanish, is "fuelle", and "follar" (derived from "fuelle") is Spanish slang for sex. It also makes sense because the first time sex is mentioned, it's with the phrase "the flame of our passion grew, and everything happened", making it also a literal pun.

** In the last song of "El regreso de Carlitos", the main characters sing about the city where they spent their childhood. The lyrics are written to make the listener think the city will be Buenos Aires, but at the end the last rhyme subverts that thought and at the end it's revealed they are going to Paris.

* LyricalDissonance: Several songs, like a church chorus with teen pop lyrics, or a sing-songy number about pain and misery.

* StrawmanU: The "Universidad de Wildstone" routine. A commercial of a college in the United States so lame that party and fun aren't less important than study (they are ''more'' important); and the alumni are described as "stupid, idiot and criminal students" by the dean (though the supposed Spanish dubbing calls them ''crafty and mischievous students'' instead).

* VisualPun: In "Para Elizabeth", whenever making love is mentioned, Daniel Rabinovich, who is representing the letter being read with instruments, starts using the bellows. Bellows, in Spanish, is "fuelle", and "follar" (derived from "fuelle") is Spanish slang for sex.

* AffectionateParody: More than half of they work are parodies of musical genres and tropes, especially classical music.

* BilingualBackfire: The "Nuits De Paris" routine. Whereas the whole group tries to comunicate with a famous French singer...'s brother-in-law in French and happens to be that he could speak Spanish all along.
* BilingualBonus: Some of the background songs that are on another languages are actual songs in English, German, Italian, etc.

* BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine: Particularly between Mundstock as the "tsukkomi" and Rabinovich as the "boke". Rabinovich often goes in tangents based on misconceptions and malapropisms, while Mundstock tries to correct him as best he can with sophisticated language that always goes over Rabinovich's head. As intelectual and academic Mundstock portrays himself, he never quite can get Rabinovich to even begin following the conversation they're having.

* CulturePolice: Hinted on the "Acto en Banania" routine. Since the most popular children's tales on Banania is "Once upon a time they lived happily ever after".

** Daniel Rabinovich in particular portrays a bufoonish man that always manages to get the wording wrong, or completely misunderstands the flow of the conversation. The longer the troupe lasted, the more bufoonish his character became.

* ImplausibleDeniability: in "Radio Tertulia", Murena (Marcos Mundstock) states several times that he does not watch television, but when speaking about a television soap opera, Murena demonstrates very intrincate and deep knowledge of the soap opera and its characters.

** For instance, on one sketch he acted as therapist and there were some noises from the mics, he incorporated them to his counselling ("I know you feel disturbed, as if there were strange noises in the background"), receiving a well-deserved ovation from the public.

* LimitedWardrobe: The only thing they wear on they shows are tuxedos, as any classical musician will do in a concert. They do sometimes wear hats, glasses and even wear some of their musical instruments, but the tuxedos are always present.

* MouthingTheProfanity: Sometimes, if you look closely (and other times not that closely), you can see them mouthing bad words to express their dissatifaction with whatever's happened.

* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: In "Truthful Lulu Pulls Thru Zulus", Marcos Mundstock describes the early years of Victor Timothy Curtis, the composer. Said early years were a HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood, until Victor decided to enroll in the army, where he felt he was treated with love for the first time in his entire life. This last fact causes the audience to laugh, so Mundstock shows his sheet of paper and points at the part of he's reading to show that's exactly what the text mentions.
* NonSequitur: In the introduction of "A la playa con Mariana", when trying to explain the circumnstances in which Mastropiero started writing the song (Mastropiero saw some kind of animal doing a strange dance on the window, and he calls a waiter to check what it was) he derails on several topics that have less and less relation to the song (starting with the waiter's previous occupation, getting past a recipe on how to make a souffle and ending with a commentary on the names of the cities in Bulgaria), only for then catch up with the topic yet again. [[HereWeGoAgain And then he almost starts to derail the topic the same way again]].

* RunningGag: Many times, the humor comes from this. It also trascends sketches, as gags are brought up again at unlikely moments.

* StrawmanU: The "Universidad de Wildstone" routine. A commercial of a college on the United States so lame that party and fun isn't less important than study (they are ''more'' important); and the alumni are described as "stupid, idiot and criminal students" by the dean (though the supposed Spanish dubbing calls them ''crafty and mischievous students'' instead).

** "Theresa & el Oso", a subverted children's song on the same vein of ''Music/PeterAndTheWolf''.

-->'''Marcos Mundstock:''' No dije Esther.
-->'''Daniel Rabinovich:''' ¿Cómo que no dijo…?
-->'''Marcos Mundstock:''' Dije “Es-Terpsícore”.
-->'''Daniel Rabinovich:''' ¡Ahhh! ¡Ah, claro! ''Es''ther Píscore, ''Es''ther Píscore. Esa es la pronunciación griega, claro. Nosotros a las ''Es''ther de ustedes las llamamos Es''ther'', directamente.

* DelusionsOfEloquence: Usually either Rabinovich, Mundstock or both.

* DisguisedInDrag: In "Las majas del bergantín", one of the sailors (Carlos Núñez) gives the idea of dressing as women and approach Pirate Raúl's ship, and then make a surprise attack. The captain (Ernesto Acher/Carlos López Puccio) dismisses the idea, telling him to imagine what would happen once they found out they were men. Meanwhile, another sailor (Daniel Rabinovich) [[CompletelyMissingThePoint says it would be worse if they did]] ''[[CompletelyMissingThePoint not]]'' [[CompletelyMissingThePoint find out they were men]].
* TheDitz: It's usually Daniel Rabinovich but sometimes this is also the role of Carlos López Puccio.

* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: Johann Sebastian Mastropiero happened to have an identical twin called Harold, who lived in New York. Naturally PlayedForLaughs when, given the fact they are identical twins, Harold's bodyguards didn't know who to protect, his butler didn't know who to serve and his wife...'s name was Margaret.

* {{Mondegreen}}: A specialty of Daniel, who can go on long monologues off of one wrong word.
-->'''Marcos Mundstock:''' Mastropiero, viviendo en París, había trabajado como pianista acompañante de cine mudo en el célebre “Vieux Royal”, donde acostumbraba a reunirse la “Avant Garde” intelectual.
-->'''Daniel Rabinovich:''' Sí, Ava Gardner, ¡qué hembra!
-->'''Carlos López Puccio:''' No, no, no, es en francés.
-->'''Jorge Maronna:''' La Avant Garde.
-->'''Daniel:''' ¿Lava el balde?

* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: In "Truthful Lulu Pulls Thru Zulus", Marcos Mundstock describes the early years of Victor Timothy Curtis, the composer. Said early years were a HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood, until Victor decided to enroll in the army, where he felt he was treated with sweetness for the first time in his entire life. This last fact causes the audience to laugh, so Mundstock points at the part of the sheet he's reading to show it's actually true.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: The introduction of "El romance del joven príncipe, la sirena y el pájaro cucú. Y la oveja." falls into this with Mastropiero's description of the different ways sheep bleat. He also tries to describe the way a cuckoo bird sang in the same introduction, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint not even realizing it was a cuckoo clock]]:

** Mundstock seems to be fond of Poland and Norway: the 1972 piece "Si No Fuera Santiagueño" mentions the fictional Polish naturalist Vladislav Atamiski; then there's "Añoralgias" in 1981, which was discovered by Norwegian researcher Sven Kundsen; the black pianist on "Quién Mató a Tom McCoffee" (1989) thought she was of Polish ancestry; the conflict resolution on "San Ictícola" stems from their realisation of Norwegian tourists visiting the place; last but not least, the corrupt politicians in "La Comisión" decide to make Norway the country's enemy in order to reinforce the country's patriotism and have someone to blame for problems, while at the same time keeping a close relationship with Spain and the USA.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: Many of their sketches are like that.

** And it gets worse.

An Argentinian comedy-musical group that's internationally popular in Spanish-speaking countries. In Argentina it's equivalent to Creator/MontyPython for its absurd humor and quotability. [[JustForFun/IReadThatAs No relation to]] [[ComicBook/LexLuthor Superman's arch-nemesis]].

* LyricalDissonance

* RunningGag: Many times, the humor comes from this.