Line #18 HollywoodToneDeaf/LiveActionFilms


1	!! Creators
2	* Creator/CameronDiaz has done this multiple times in her films, and to her credit usually does a good job averting the pitfalls of this trope:
3	** In ''Film/MyBestFriendsWedding'', Cameron Diaz's karaoke actually sounds realistically off.
4	** Amanda in ''Film/TheHoliday'', also portrayed by Cameron Diaz. She's singing along with the radio. Badly. And inordinately loudly [though the reason she's doing it is a plot point].
5	** In ''Film/{{Gambit}}'', Cameron Diaz, as Puznowski, again delivers a slightly off-key and off-tempo performance in karaoke.
6
7	!! Films
8	* ''Film/AmericanBeauty'': Kevin Spacey sings along to "American Woman." Terribly.
9	* Cacofonix in the live-action film ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and Obelix vs. Caesar'' (based on the popular French comic series) is portrayed by Pierre Palmade; the character is supposed to be a really awful singer, but Pierre Palmade had to ''practice singing badly''.
10	* ''Film/BridgetJones'': Bridget suspects that Daniel does not fantasise about her, after her dreadful and tuneless singing karaoke at the office Christmas party. The director points out in the commentary that Renee Zellweger really can sing like that.
11	* Earlier on, Wahlberg also did some bad singing in ''Film/BoogieNights'', mangling "The Touch" in a scene in which Dirk Diggler attempts a singing career.
12	* Cleverly averted in ''Film/CitizenKane''. In order to put across the idea that Kane's mistress, Susan Alexander, is out of her depth in the opera, they overdubbed the actress with a professional opera singer, but hired an alto and had her try seriously to sing a soprano part. As a result, her singing voice sounds realistically strained.
13	* Randy Watson (Creator/EddieMurphy) in ''Film/ComingToAmerica'', who performs Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All" with his band Sexual Chocolate. In real life, Murphy is a very talented singer and even recorded a music album titled "How Could It Be?" which included the Top 10 hit, "Party All The Time."
14	* The singing girls in ''Film/DickTracy'' were coached to sing worse than they normally would so that they could have the nasal, squeaking sound that invokes recordings from the 1930s.
15	* In ''Film/TheComedyOfTerrors'', Amaryllis has dreams of becoming an opera singer, but she has no real talent for it. While Trumbull is repulsed by it, Gillie is too smitten with her to notice.
16	* In the film version of ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' the drama teacher has auditioning students do a group sing of ''Total Eclipse of the Heart'' by Bonnie Tyler. Most of the auditioners sound pretty much like what you'd expect from a bunch of middle schoolers, but one of the kids sings extremely nasally, and so off-key that it doesn't sound like singing at all. He also has a heavy foreign accent.
17	* Averted by Denise Richards's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olA0ibvLyz0&feature=related off-key, whispered performance of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You"]] (tastelessly addressed to Jesus) in ''Film/DropDeadGorgeous''. She may be actually tone deaf, at least if the video of her singing at the 7th Inning Stretch of a Cubs game is any indication.
18	* Played straight in the film ''Film/FlorenceFosterJenkins'', a {{biopic}} of the famously GiftedlyBad opera singer mentioned below. Creator/MerylStreep (who is of course a trained and experienced singer, as seen in [[Film/MammaMia some of her other film roles]]) does a spectacularly bad job at screeching and warbling entirely out of key and tempo, reducing several characters to [[{{Corpsing}} helpless giggles]]. However, the trope is {{averted}} a bit as far as the "Hollywood" aspect goes-- although it sounds completely over the top, the real Florence [[RealityIsUnrealistic really did sing that badly]], and Streep is doing a dead-ringer imitation of her recordings.
19	* Creator/MinnieDriver's character in ''Film/GoldenEye''.
20	--> '''Film/JamesBond:''' Who's strangling the cat?\
21	'''Zukovsky:''' [shoots Bond's chair] That is Irina, my mistress!\
22	'''Bond:''' [[SarcasmMode Very talented girl.]]
23	* A number of the students auditioning for the Winter Musicale in ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'' displayed this trope (in addition to other bad singing tropes...)
24	* Hammer in ''Film/ImGonnaGitYouSucka'', who sings a very poor rendition of "Grazing in the Grass" as it plays on his car radio. It's funny to begin with, but he's played by singer Isaac Hayes, which takes it into CastingGag territory.
25	* Clarke and Rogers (Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty) in ''Film/{{Ishtar}}''.
26	** She essentially assigned each nun a part within her vocal range, and made sure the sopranos, altos, and so on were standing in clusters rather than scattered around the risers. That alone really can make a good difference.
27	* OlderThanTelevision: One of Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer's trademark shticks in ''Film/TheLittleRascals'' was his (deliberately, at least later on in life) off-key singing, which Alfalfa was oblivious to. Subverted in that Switzer was allegedly a gifted singer in real life.
28	* In the film ''Film/TheLosers'', Jensen sings a painfully screechy rendition of "Don't Stop Believing" while infiltrating the computer security company in order to convince bystanders that they don't want to join him in the elevator.
29	* Creator/AnnaFaris' character in ''Film/LostInTranslation''...who is said to be a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Cameron Diaz.
30	* Thomas Jerome Newton in ''Film/TheManWhoFellToEarth'' fumbles his off-key way through a simple church hymn. Subverted in that he was portrayed by ''[[Music/DavidBowie David freakin' Bowie]]''
31	** Bowie played a bad singer again in ''Film/MerryChristmasMrLawrence'', in which his character Jack Celliers sings noticeably off-key with the other prisoners when the group sing hymns. Celliers even lampshades this later in the film.
32	* Frank Drebin from ''Film/TheNakedGun''. Made worse by the fact that he was impersonating a famous opera singer, Enrico Pallazzo, while the said singer was [[HumiliationConga tied up and forced to watch.]]
33	* In ''Film/TheRock'', Mason is singing badly in the shower at the Fairmont Hotel, so the guards don't hear him calling Room Service to distract them.
34	* Faris does it again in the second ''Film/ScaryMovie.'' She butchers Vitamin C's "Graduation" so badly that the track on the radio stops and tells her to [[PrecisionFStrike "shut the fuck up and let me sing.'']]
35	* Summer, the band manager from ''Film/SchoolOfRock''. The DVD commentaries tell us (and prove to us) that Creator/MirandaCosgrove, her actress, actually sings really well, and she had to be taught how to sing badly.
36	* In ''Film/ShredderOrpheus'', the EBN's Fiberglass Ensemble is a four-person group who only sing in "las", with no rhythm or melody to make it bearable. Hades loves how dull they are.
37	* The nuns of ''Film/SisterAct'' are all hilariously off-key and screechy. A few pointers from Whoopi Goldberg's character, however, has them singing like a proper choir. All of the actresses playing the nuns are genuinely good singers--except for the novice, the nun who ended up with most of the solos; her voice was dubbed over for those parts.
38	* In ''Film/{{Tar}}'', we witness Creator/CateBlanchett [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhyKVC10fb8 strangling both the cat and an accordion]] to insult her neighbors (mind you, her character is a highly accomplished composerconductor, only one going through a massive SanitySlippage).
39	* In ''Film/{{Ted}}'', John tries to [[SerenadeYourLover win back]] Lori by singing "All Time High", the theme song of ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'', their favorite movie. Unfortunately, John's singing is so bad that the crowd boos and an angry man tries to assault him. In real life, Creator/MarkWahlberg is a talented singer.
40	* In the beginning of Film/TheThreeStooges' short ''Brideless Groom'', music student Dee Green is rehearsing an ear-wrenching rendition of "The Voice of Spring" in front of her teacher, Shemp. Actually, Green was a classically trained soprano who taught music after retiring from the movies.
41	* Creator/DavidSpade and Creator/ChrisFarley have a scene in ''Film/TommyBoy'' that ends with them singing along to "Superstar" by the Music/{{Carpenters}} at the top of their lungs. They're realistically bad (i.e., not great, but not terrible either).
42	* Averted in Creator/StevenSpielberg's ''Film/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' when Tom Cruise's character sings to his daughter. It toes the line between off-key and too-good-for-an-average-Joe nicely.

Context HollywoodToneDeaf / LiveActionFilms