Line #49 Main/EverythingHasRhythm


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13	[[quoteright:250:[[Film/LetMeCallYouSweetheart https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gene_kelly_broom_9.png]]]]
14
15	->''The warden said, "Hey, buddy, don't you be no square\
16	If you can't find a partner use a wooden chair."''
17	-->-- Music/ElvisPresley, "Jailhouse Rock"
18
19	Just because something is nonliving doesn't mean it can't be part of a song. This trope happens mostly in musicals and operas, when a character interacts with an inanimate object during a musical number. It exists partially to make a scene look more realistic. For instance, which would be more effective: a character who is carrying a broom and instantly stops using it just to sing a song, or a character who is carrying a broom, starts singing and incorporates the broom into the song? Most musicals would choose the latter.
20
21	This trope exists in two forms:
22	* The character uses, say, a broom for its intended purpose, but doing it to the beat or rhythm of the music.
23	* The character dances with or plays with the broom during the song.
24
25	Note: This trope incorporates inanimate objects as part of the choreography of a musical number. If a number uses such objects as musical instruments or use them for percussive reasons, it is not this trope, it is an example of EverythingIsAnInstrument. Compare DancingWithMyself.
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27	----
28	!!Examples:
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30	[[foldercontrol]]
31
32	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
33	* ''Animation/{{Lamput}}'': In "Skinny's Dance Night", Slim Doc practices for a dance with his girlfriend by grooving to some music with a surrogate partner, a hat hanging pole with a picture of his crush placed on top.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
37	* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast''. Of ''course'' the household objects all have rhythm. They're all ''alive''.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
41	* The Hollywood interpretation of "The Telephone Hour" in ''Theatre/ByeByeBirdie'' is particularly fond of having the teenagers dance with their telephones. ItMakesSenseInContext.
42	* This trope is basically the premise of "Happy Working Song" from ''Film/{{Enchanted}}''. Think about it.
43	* ''Film/TheGreatestShowman'': Shot glasses, bottles, chairs, and even a broom all become part of the elaborately choreographed dance routine between Barnum, Philip and the silent bartender during "The Other Side".
44	* In ''Film/HailCaesar'', Burt Gurney's musical number does this with '''everything''' in a dockside bar.
45	* ''Film/{{Hairspray\|2007}}'' does this a ''lot''.
46	** "Yay! Teenage council members spraying showers of hairspray!"
47	--->'''Amber:''' You sprayed my eye! I told you not to do that!\
48	'''Link:''' ''(sprays in her face)''
49	** The first part of "Good Morning Baltimore", when Tracy gets ready for school to a drum rhythm that she's apparently hearing in her head.
50	* In the opening HappyDance scene of ''Film/LastNightInsoho'', Eloise is partner-dancing with a dress form in her room.
51	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOtMizMQ6oM The dentist song]] from ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors''. You figure it out.
52	* At least in the movie, ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'' has "Marian the Librarian", which features people reading books and dancing at the same time.
53	* In TheMovie of ''Theatre/OnTheTown'', when Gabey (Creator/GeneKelly) loses Ivy in the DreamBallet, he uses her "Miss Turnstiles" poster as a substitute dance partner.
54	* Creator/FredAstaire [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pjlrrMvdtw dancing with a hatrack]] in ''Film/RoyalWedding'', and with a Dirt Devil [[TheDeadRiseToAdvertise after he died]].
55	* ''Film/SinginInTheRain'':
56	** In "Good Morning", Don, Kathy, and Cosmo dance with their raincoats and hats.
57	** In "Make 'Em Laugh", Cosmo dances with a wall and a dummy.
58	* Gene Kelly dancing with a newspaper in ''Film/SummerStock''.
59	* Creator/GeneKelly's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNOSj0gQ1PU dance with a mop and a broom]] in ''Film/ThousandsCheer''.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
63	* ''Series/FraggleRock'': In "[[Recap/FraggleRockS1E22MokeysFuneral Mokey's Funeral]]", after creating Rags, Mokey dances with her while singing "Ragtime Queen."
64	* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'':
65	** The show pulls this in the intro to the second episode. As JD finds his feet, everything "clicks" in time with his music. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arPNf6aXAYI And yes, there is a broom]].
66	** One episode has JD being put on the spot to do something "special" for Dr Cox, who is sure JD has something planned and refuses to leave until JD reveals it. As JD taps his pen on the counter trying to think of something, the sounds of activity around happen to sync up perfectly into a little tune, which Dr Cox takes as JD's doing and leaves, satisfied. JD [[LampshadeHanging notes the implausibility]] of what just happened.
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Theater]]
70	* "One Boy" in ''Theatre/ByeByeBirdie'' has Rosie dancing with Albert's baggage.
71	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVsLMxam21I This video]] of Creator/KristinChenoweth's "Glitter and Be Gay" in ''Theatre/{{Candide}}'' shows you that you can never do too much with your jewelry.
72	** There's also a number where [=Patti LuPone=] and three men toss a money bag to each other to the rhythm of the song.
73	* In the musical ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD2BIxAv4U0 Velma Kelly apparently loves to dance with chairs.]]
74	* Subverted in the revival of ''[[Theatre/CompanySondheim Company]]''. When the actors aren't engaging in musical number, they make other uses of the orchestral instruments they carry around. Including the piano. ''Especially'' the piano.
75	** Well, any Encores production of a show will do something similar, given that they have to carry those black binders around everywhere.
76	* In ''Theatre/DeathNoteTheMusical'', Light and L both use their tennis rackets for this purpose in "Playing His Game".
77	* The Crapshooters' Dance from ''Theatre/GuysAndDolls'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: a bunch of gamblers shooting dice, set to music.
78	* ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods'' does this twice in the prologue. Once when some cookies get passed from Red Riding Hood to the Baker to his wife to the basket and back to Red, or something along those lines, all to the tempo of the music (and then Red makes real use of the cookies in the middle of a line). The second time happens when Cinderella is twisting her stepsister's hair to the beat. She keeps following the beat, thus making the hair too tight. Her stepsister, needless to say, is less than pleased.
79	* ''Theatre/KissMeKate'''s "I Hate Men" involves Kate smashing something at the end of almost every line. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmekN39mnFY Observe.]]
80	* ''Theatre/LoveInHateNation'': In "Solitary," the inmates, with the exception of Susannah and [[spoiler:Sheila]], are banging various things and body parts against the walls and pipes of Nation out of boredom, but because "Love in Hate Nation" is a musical, this banging is rhythmic.
81	* During the "Consider Yourself" number in ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}'', most prominently in the film, everyone does this with whatever it is they happen to be doing. Except maybe Dodger and Oliver.
82	* In ''Theatre/SouthPacific'', Nellie Forbush dances with a hat at one point.
83	* In ''Theatre/SundayInTheParkWithGeorge'', George paints to the rhythm of "Color and Light". Dot puts on makeup to the rhythm of same.
84	* In some productions of ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'', the final note of the show is punctuated by the slamming of a door. Probably one of the most epic moments in the whole play.
85	** "The Worst Pies in London" is punctuated by the sounds of Mrs. Lovett kneading dough, stamping on cockroaches, and bustling noisily (but rhythmically) around her dingy shop.
86	* Linus and his blanket from TheMusical version of ''Theatre/YoureAGoodManCharlieBrown''.
87	[[/folder]]
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89	[[folder:Video Games]]
90	* In ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'', you can tap buttons on the controller in time with the music to score combos just after your attack. This grows more difficult, however, as [[UncommonTime odd time signatures]] are introduced.
91	* Many of the minigames in ''VideoGame/RhythmHeaven'' use rhythm to fulfill a certain task, provided that the minigame isn't an outright performance. Such tasks include playing sports, assembling robots, and translating alien speech.
92	* ''VideoGame/TheSims2'': A Romance Sim who goes into [[SanitySlippage Aspiration Desperation]] will pull out a mop with a crude mask on it and try to ballroom dance with it.
93	[[/folder]]
94
95	[[folder:Web Original]]
96	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DhKV5HzqKa68 This video]] has a man dancing with a metal hoop. It somehow manages to be one of the most [[CargoShip bizarrely romantic]] modern dances in the history of modern dance.
97	[[/folder]]
98
99	[[folder:Western Animation]]
100	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': In "Hop Pop and Lock", Hopediah Plantar tries to brush up on his dance moves by dancing around with a mop. Unfortunately, he dips it too far and it breaks, sending him careening into a bookshelf.
101	* On the WesternAnimation/{{Classic Disney Short\|s}} "How To Dance", Goofy uses a dresser's mannequin to practice dancing. Being Goofy, the mannequin proves less than cooperative.
102	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' try this while cleaning the bathroom with their toothbrushes after getting sent to reform school in "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted". They're interrupted mid-jam by the drill-sergeant, who bellows "NO FUNKY RHYTHMS!" An even bigger example would be in "Dude, We're Getting the Band Back Together", while they were recruiting the drummer of their parent's favorite band. He insisted he'd lost his sense of rhythm after falling asleep in a metronome factory, but Phineas and Ferb broke out into song to show him he still had it.
103	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In the episode "Bart After Dark", the musical number 'We Keep The Spring in Springfield' includes such effects as Moe banging bin lids together, someone 'boing'ing Bumblebee Man's antenna and Lenny smacking someone in the head (accidentally) with a sledgehammer.
104	* In the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' short "Mouse in Manhatten", Jerry dances with a placecard holder shaped like a doll. When their dancing carries them to another one, he tosses the first one aside and starts dancing with the next, then does the exact same thing again upon [[RuleOfThree encountering a third]].
105	[[/folder]]

Context Main / EverythingHasRhythm