Line #103 Main/HollywoodToneDeaf


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5	[[caption-width-right:325:''"Actually, a '''tone-deaf''' dying rodent!"'']]
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7	->'''Kate:''' You won't ever have to see me again. Until, that is, I'm on ''Series/TheVoice'', and you'll see me ''[singing]'' [=EEeevErywhere=]! Oh, you don't like my singing? Well, good, because that is the last time you get it, ''[singing]'' for frEEeeeEEee!\
8	'''Jake:''' ''[to himself]'' She's gonna do bad on ''The Voice''.
9	-->-- ''Series/BrooklynNineNine''
10
11	When a character is supposed to be a bad singer, they will often use a ridiculous fake voice to simulate a supposedly "strangling a bag of cats" sound. Sliding the notes up and down randomly and screeching at the top of one's lungs, often complemented by [[PainfulRhyme bad lyrics]], is a popular portrayal of bad singing, even though it is blatantly fake to anyone who has ever heard the real thing. If you listen to genuine bad singing (for example, certain ''Series/AmericanIdol'' contestants, or Jeremy Hardy on ''[[Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue]]'', or any unskilled person trying to karaoke at a party), it typically sounds nothing like the kind of bad singing you hear in mass media.
12
13	There's a very good reason for trained (or even just "decent") singers to do this: they have to ignore everything they've learned about singing, which is naturally hard for people who've trained for years. Even after just a year or two of singing the proper way, the physical mechanics of singing mean that it's genuinely hard for someone to return to their untrained or "bad" singing because trained singers habitually try to ''correct'' being off-key or off-tempo as soon as they realize it or someone points it out. Hence, the best way for them to consistently sing poorly is to make their singing so horrendously godawful that they cannot possibly correct themselves in any way. It's like a self-inflicted InformedFlaw. (Also, trained singers are quite sensitive to the stress on their vocal tract that most styles of bad singing cause--they shy away, voluntarily or otherwise, from what feels like it's doing damage.)
14
15	Even if not familiar with proper vocal techniques, the majority of people are capable of hitting the approximate notes and even harmonizing within a group. In addition, almost anyone when listening to music can recognize when a note is off-key. Because this includes the audience as well, the extreme is usually needed in order to properly convey someone who cannot sing at all. Another consideration is that it's OK to laugh at fake bad singing, but most audience members are hesitant to laugh at bad singing that seems too real, just in case it is.
16
17	Expect "tone deaf" to be misused as a blanket term to describe anyone who sings poorly. A truly tone deaf person lacks "relative pitch," the ability to hear the difference between musical notes.[[note]]President Ulysses S. Grant once said, "I only know two tunes. One is 'Yankee Doodle', and the other isn’t.”[[/note]] A great deal of self-proclaimed "tone deaf" people can't sing because they're untrained, not because they have any sort of impairment.
18
19	The "cause" of true tone deafness, if it can be called that, is the fact that people's own voices sound very different in their heads from how they do to other people, due to the fact that people hear their own voices through bone conduction, rather than just air conduction. As a result, there are some people whose voices in their heads are pitched several notes higher or lower than the way they sound to other people (leading to DoIReallySoundLikeThat as soon as the phonograph was invented). If this is the case for someone, it takes a great deal more work and training for that person to learn to match pitch in a way that sounds good to other people.
20
21	This trope is something of a TruthInTelevision, since singing poorly on cue is actually quite difficult for someone who hasn't had vocal training or genuinely ''is'' tone deaf. Therefore an actor needs to be a good singer in reality in order to have the vocal discipline required to play a bad singer in character (don't think about that too much). Of course, [[CuttingTheKnot another solution]] would be to just cast someone who really is a bad singer, but that would be kind of mean, and anyway most actors do have at least a bit of training in diction and vocal production.
22
23	For extra comedy, the bad vocals may become a GlassShatteringSound.
24
25	A close cousin of StylisticSuck. Related to VocalRangeExceeded, where the notes are too high or too low for the singer's voice, and InopportuneVoiceCracking, where someone who can normally sing quite well suddenly drops an octave or loses tone due to their young age and growing vocal cords. See BadBadActing for this trope applied to acting. Compare CuteButCacophonic. See also IronyAsSheIsCast. Also compare DreadfulMusician, when this is exaggerated beyond the bounds of impossibility. Contrast BeautifulSingingVoice.
26
27	Not to be confused with the [[CondescendingCompassion figurative kind of tone-deafness]].
28
29	----
30	!!Example subpages:
31
32	[[index]]
33	* HollywoodToneDeaf/AnimeAndManga
34	* [[HollywoodToneDeaf/LiveActionFilms Films — Live-Action]]
35	* HollywoodToneDeaf/LiveActionTV
36	* HollywoodToneDeaf/VideoGames
37	* HollywoodToneDeaf/WesternAnimation
38	[[/index]]
39
40	!!Other examples:
41	[[foldercontrol]]
42
43	[[folder:Advertising]]
44	* The 1986 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXL8Zd2hkiA National Arbor Day Foundation PSA]] with Carly Cardinal and kids singing how "Trees are Terrific" has Carly sing this way, obviously as a bit of comic relief to the important message about trees presented here.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
48	* In the ''Animation/NoonboryAndTheSuper7'' episode "[[Recap/NoonboryAndTheSuper7S1E1WanguryWantsToFly Wangury Wants to Fly]]", Wangury sings an offkey song in his goofy voice, which gets even worse when his cronies join in.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Fan Works]]
52	* ''Fanfic/ShadowOfTheDragon'': Both Meiling and Toya describe Syaoran's singing in chapter 14 as sounding like a strangled cat.
53	* In ''FanFic/QueenOfShadows'', Jade's kitsune slave handmaiden Koeri is eventually shown to be both absolutely awful at singing, and completely oblivious to this fact, much to the aggravation of Jade and all the other Shadowkhan.
54	* In ''Fanfic/StarOfWonderStarOfNight'', Mana is tempted to sing Feliz Navidad but Hinata covers her mouth because of how awful her singing is.
55	* The ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' GameMod, ''VideoGame/BeyondSkyrim: Bruma'', has the hilariously inept Nord bard, Renod Even-Toned of Bruma, who also suffers from a serious case of SmallNameBigEgo to boot.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
59	* ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'': A sequence in which Fiona's singing kills a bird actually had a ''talented'' singer come in and replicate the sound of an incredibly off-key note. This was noted on the DVD, in which they explained that a true bad note required either a truly tone-deaf person or a professional singer that knew the difference.
60	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}'': Eva, Rafael's wife, is shown to be a rather terrible singer, though Rafael seems to think otherwise, which Jewel acknowledges by snarkily saying "I guess love is deaf too". Ironically, Eva's voice actress, Bebel Gilberto, is actually a very talented singer in real life.
61	* ''WesternAnimation/HomeOnTheRange'': Grace has extremely putrid off-key singing. Turns out it's actually important because [[spoiler: it was the one thing [[ImmuneToMindControl keeping her from being brainwashed]] by Slim's [[MindControlMusic hypnotic yodeling]], unlike all the other cows.]]
62	* Garth from ''WesternAnimation/AlphaAndOmega''. He is such a bad howler that birds drop from the sky every time he sings. However, it actually portrays this trope rather realistically, as he just hasn't learned how to properly howl; [[spoiler:once Lilly gave him some lessons, he sings very well.]]
63	* Peewit in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfsAndTheMagicFlute'', particularly in "The Ballad of Friendship". His singing is so bad that it brings on the rain. He also gets constantly kicked off the stage when he tries to join in with the minstrels playing "Life Is A Voyage" in the United States English version and "Gentle Lady" in the United Kingdom English version.
64	* Mumble from ''WesternAnimation/HappyFeet'' was born tone deaf as a result of being dropped when he was an egg. Ramon compares it to the sound of a dying animal.
65	* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie1986'', Baby Lickety Split[[note]]Who was voiced by Alice Playten, who had previously appeared in [[IronyAsSheIsCast Broadway]] productions.[[/note]] is commonly perceived to be this during the "I'll Go it Alone" number, especially during the end.
66	* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks'', [[spoiler:the Dazzlings are given incredible singing abilities by magical pendants, and are revealed to be horrific singers once they're destroyed. This is aided by two of them being played by non-singers, with separate actresses being used for their singing until this scene.]]
67	* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', this is downplayed and enforced. While it doesn't come off as outright terrible, Ava Morse was told to have Miriam "sing bad" when she's trying to cheer up Mei and starts singing "Nobody Like U."
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Literature]]
71
72	* ''Literature/DungeonCrawlerCarl'': On the sixth floor, Donut is overjoyed to get a class that allows her to cast spells by singing. No one else is happy about it.
73	-->'''Carl:''' She has to sing? Have you heard her sing yet?\
74	'''Mordecai:''' Everyone has heard her singing.\
75	'''Carl:''' Oh god.
76	* ''Literature/TheElenium'': When a character asks TheArchmage Sephrenia why she only taught them the LanguageOfMagic and didn't mention the existence of MagicMusic, she sings something completely unrecognizable, then admits that that was her best rendition of one simple, well-known tune. They then collectively remember what {{Magic Misfire}}s can do...
77	* ''Literature/JaineAustenMysteries'': Taylor Van Sant from ''Death by Tiara''. She's a sweet and smart kid, but man, she cannot sing to save her life.
78	* ''Literature/TheRippleSystem'': Nina, Darling's sister, loves karaoke. Everyone else in the guild hates that she loves karaoke.
79	* ''Literature/StickCat'': Edith's singing has been described as screeching, and sounding worse than nails on a chalkboard by a girl who's screaming at the top of her lungs, and three dozen donkeys braying in the hallway while stomping on harmonicas.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Music]]
83	* Darlene Edwards would often sing in a high grating voice, change keys without warning, and make weird sounds for no reason. Her husband Jonathan Edwards would do equivalent on the piano, playing an untuned piano, switching meters as the winds changed. (See ''Film/TheKentuckyFriedMovie'' for their rendition of "The Carioca".) They were actually a comedy duo played by respectable musicians Jo Stafford and Paul Weston, who enthusiastically claimed the two were [[AlterEgoActing a lounge act they had discovered]].
84	* The fake 80s heavy metal band Bad News consists of 4 comedians (3 of them from ''Series/TheYoungOnes'') gleefully massacring "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Pretty Woman". Okay, Adrian Edmondson has a good voice, which he tones down for the songs. The other three, however...
85	* [[http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000570.php This]] version of "O Holy Night" is the closest to a true, unironic example of this trope you'll ever hear.
86	** Producer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiAuyM3gB5U Steve Mauldin]] offers some pretty good evidence that he was the original singer on the track, which would make it a straight-up example as he (claims he) did it as a spoof.
87	* [[Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart Mozart]] has fun with this trope in ''Ein Musikalischer Spaß'' ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Musical_Joke A Musical Joke]]).
88	* The CountryMusic version of Jonathan & Darlene Edwards: Music/TheStatlerBrothers recorded an entire album in the persona of a hilariously untalented group called Lester "Roadhog" Moran and His Cadillac Cowboys.
89	* Biz Markie deliberately sang "Just a Friend" off-key, thus becoming a one-hit wonder.
90	* Music/RedHotChiliPeppers singer Anthony Kiedis had not been a talented singer before 1998; he would approximate the keys for certain songs and would need hundreds of takes to record even the simplest of tracks. Starting from the Chilis' seventh album ''Music/{{Californication}}'', he began to hire a singing coach, and his voice has improved quite a bit. However, he usually saves his voice for popular televised performances, and decides to sing slightly off-key during less popular live shows.
91	* Grand Puba sings off-key in 'I Like It' and a few other songs. It adds to the humorous tone of the music and also makes his rapping sound even better.
92	* The song "A Word on My Ear" is from the POV of a tone-deaf singer and requires a ''very'' good ear for music, since you have to sing at odds with the pianist. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SENifLwYmT8 Word on My Ear example 1]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbmaDetZsO4 Word on My Ear example 2]].
93	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins Florence Foster Jenkins]], who ironically used to command large audiences because people would flock to [[BileFascination hear how genuinely awful she was]], ultimately [[SoBadItsGood appearing at Carnegie Hall]] a month before her death. Despite lacking a developed sense of pitch or rhythm Florence herself remained [[GiftedlyBad fixedly assured of her own greatness]]; due to early recording technology [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h4f77T-LoM we can decide for ourselves]].
94	** A {{Biopic}} about Florence, starring Creator/MerylStreep (who is not a bad singer, as Theater/MammaMia would indicate) as Florence, was released in 2016 to great reviews.
95	* Music/LacunaCoil once held a contest to promote their upcoming DVD, where fans could send in footage of themselves hanging out at concerts, rocking out to the band's music, or doing other band-related stuff, with the chance of having the footage appear as bonus material on the DVD. Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro made a Youtube video demonstrating the kind of thing that fans could send in, where Cristina hilariously sang a deliberately off-key "karaoke" version of the song "Closer".
96	* The [[Series/AmericanIdol William Hung]] might count, depending on whether or not his bad singing is intentional. If it isn't, it's SoBadItsGood instead.
97	* In "I Just Wanna Love You (Give It 2 Me)," Music/JayZ raps "In the club, high, singing off-key/'And I wish I never met her at all...'." His delivery of the second line is, as promised, sung off-key.
98	** After [[Music/{{Oasis}} Noel Gallagher]] criticised rappers, specifically getting one (Jay-Z himself) to headline Glastonbury, Jay-Z decided to open his performance at the festival by coming on stage strumming random notes on a guitar singing "Wonderwall" off-key, before jumping into a performance of [[SignatureSong 99 Problems]].
99	* Harry Chapin's "Six String Orchestra" is sung from the POV of a terrible guitarist, and includes several instances where Chapin deliberately stumbles over the notes.
100	* Another rare non-ironic RealLife example: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeP7iF03wRM This poor guy]], made somewhat famous in a [[SoBadItsGood viral video,]] has been described as the "Worst Church Singer Ever." He appears to be Southern Gospel's answer to Florence Foster Jenkins: he's completely sincere and even appears a bit [[GiftedlyBad smug about his singing,]] but there's ''not one note on-key'' in the entire song. That takes...talent?
101	* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_3ieuItPC0 his brilliant parody]] of Music/{{Metallica}}'s ''St. Anger'', Matt Smith, singer of Christian PowerMetal band Theocracy, sings horrendously off-key in order to emulate Hetfield's performance on the album. The lyrics even include the line "and boy it sounds raw to intentionally sing out of key."
102	* Music/{{NOFX}}'s CoverVersion of "Go Your Own Way" by Music/FleetwoodMac, performed as a duet between Fat Mike and guest vocalist [[Music/BadReligion Greg Graffin]]: Greg Graffin sings in his normal style and plays things relatively straight, while Fat Mike deliberately sings off-key and off beat the entire time.
103	* An instrumental example: ''The George Garabedian Players And The Awful Trumpet Of Harry Arms'' parodied Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass by playing standards like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg6pq1nPgFI Spanish Flea]] just a little... off.
104	* Legendary British music producer Joe Meek would record demos of his compositions by singing the melody, which he had to do since he couldn't write music or play an instrument. Problem was, he couldn't sing to save his life, which gave a really hard time to the poor souls who had to transcribe it into proper musical notation.
105	** In an interesting misuse of the "tone-deaf" term, those demos led to the fake rumor that Meek was ''literally tone-deaf'', which doesn't make sense because someone without relative pitch would never had been able to come up with "Telstar" or any other of the more than 200 compositions to his name.
106	* Music/TheBonzoDogBand were in the direct line of descent from people like Music/SpikeJones twenty years previously - extremely competent musicians who realized they could have more of a comedy impact by playing seemingly badly. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbbyPFJvtVw&list=PLEDEB170885169EDD&index=6 Their take on trad jazz]] has to be heard to be believed.
107	* Christian Weston Chandler of Webcomic/Sonichu infamy is ''actually'' tone-deaf in the proper sense, but this hasn't deterred them from making many videos of themself "singing"; they may be one of the few actual examples of unironically singing this way. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tCrBvkTVZA here]].
108	* While Music/{{Eminem}} eventually became a pretty capable rock vocalist in his middle age, during his early career his singing voice is weak, even more nasal than his rapping voice ([[NerdyNasalness which is saying something]]), and usually out of tune. He exploits this, using it to play up the mocking, deranged cruelty of Slim on the wheedling, flat hook for "Kim", but also to play up his sincere, unironic joy in "Hailie's Song":
109	-->Yo, I can't sing, but I feel like singing... I wanna fuckin' sing. 'Cause I'm happy. Yeah, I'm happy.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
113	%%* This is part of Wrestling/{{WWE}} diva Wrestling/JillianHall's entire character. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vt3o7EGcbY Have a listen. Or better yet, don't.]]
114	%%** This gimmick is what reportedly drove Hulk Hogan to TNA, as he told everyone who would listen it was done to insult his daughter Brook, whose career WWE was reluctant to promote. In reality it turns out it was just something Jillian does (she thankfully has a more bearable voice in real life) that she decided to do onscreen to get more boos (it worked), which is also why it kept up long after Jillian had left the WWE (and also likely why Wrestling/HulkHogan was willing to come back).
115	%%** Incidentally she's not ''that'' bad of a singer when she ''really'' tries. Her in character album may still be off tone but is nowhere near as grating as her live WWE "performances". She did...[[SoBadItsGood decent enough]]... that crowds at Pro Wrestling Xtreme shows actually chanted "let her sing" though it so far seems to be the ''only'' promotion where the crowds have embraced her "music".
116	* When Wrestling/BretHart signed with Wrestling/{{WCW}} and was supposedly going to join the [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder nWo]], the [=nWo=] celebrated his signing with an extraordinarily horrible rendition of the Canadian national anthem.
117	* La Resistance's Sylvan Grenier. The rendition of the French anthem combined with the fact the team was the ForeignWrestlingHeel type made for some pretty intense heat.
118	* Used straight with Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin, who has admitted more than once that he can't sing worth a damn--yet still attempted a duet with Lillian Garcia in 2003.
119	** This was played with immensely during the Invasion angle in which he sang a revised Queen song into "I am the Champion" and "Kumbaya" for a despondent Vince and singing an a capella duet of "Margaritaville" with The Rock towards the end of the story.
120	** And lampshaded on the ''WWE Originals'' CD. In between the real songs (most of which featured actual bad singing) were spoken tracks of Austin getting ready to record his song for the album. Of course, the song doesn't actually exist.
121	** Austin recalled a story from his upbringing where he was looking to be a rock star until one day his brother slapped the headphones off his head while he was practicing and declared, "You suck!"
122	* Following Austin's lead, Wrestling/KurtAngle played with this trope as well, singing "Jimmy Crack Corn" to Vince and later a revised "Heartbreak Hotel" at the prompting of the Rock. He also did the famous "Sexy Kurt" bit but that involved more non-singing than bad singing.
123	* Tan Drake and [[Wrestling/DeanAmbrose Jon Moxley]] at Wrestling/{{CZW}}'s Cage Of Death, singing about the pay per view while Rich Swann played (surprisingly well) on his guitar.
124	* Wrestling/HeathSlater, who calls himself the "One-Man Southern Rock Band". In June 2012, he interrupts a guest-starring Music/CyndiLauper and declares himself a better singer... and proceeds to sing horribly until Lauper and Wrestling/RoddyPiper beat him up.
125	* Music/JonLajoie's MC Vagina persona is a prime example; he doesn't so much sing as he does mumble in a monotone while music plays. And that's not even getting into the lyrics...
126	* An independent extension of Salina de la Renta's Wrestling/{{MLW}} feud with Alicia Atout involved a literal example; a singing contest which Atout was to win handily, except de la Renta wasn't vocally capable of singing as badly as she was supposed to. The solution was to have it decided by judges rather than fans, with Wrestling/{{Francine}} exaggerating how badly Salina did.
127	[[/folder]]
128
129	[[folder:Podcasts]]
130	* Disembaudio in ''Podcast/RiffTrax'' often performs painfully off-key renditions of [[AwardBaitSong award bait songs]] (such as "My Heart Will Go On" from ''Film/{{Titanic\|1997}}'' and "I See You" from ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' over the end credits, singing over the actual singer.
131	* Rod and Karen of ''Podcast/TheBlackGuyWhoTips'' belt out intentionally off-key [[WithLyrics lyrics]] to the segment themes to "Fucking With Black People" and "Guess The Race". Their real voices tend to come through when they sing along to "Do You Wanna Funk" before "Gay People News".
132	[[/folder]]
133
134	[[folder:Radio]]
135	* Harry Secombe's ''[[Radio/TheGoonShow Goon Show]]'' alter-ego was an enthusiastic but Hollywood-terrible singer, in deliberate contrast to Secombe's accomplished singing in real life.
136	* [[Radio/TheJackBennyProgram Jack Benny's]] violin playing. In reality, he was a very talented violinist, and counted virtuoso Isaac Stern among his friends. Jascha Heifitz, another virtuoso violinist and friend of Benny, once remarked of him "It takes a ''lot'' of practice to play as badly as he does." (i.e. that a genuinely bad violinist would play in a way that was unlistenable rather than laugh-out-loud funny)
137	[[/folder]]
138
139	[[folder:Theatre]]
140	* The musical ''Souvenir'' is about the notoriously bad singer Florence Foster Jenkins. Actresses playing Jenkins have had to study bad singing in an effort to sound genuinely awful.
141	* In the "Opening Doors" sequence of the musical ''Theatre/MerrilyWeRollAlong'', the first girl Frank auditions for his revue sings a few bars of "Who Wants To Live In New York?" about an octave too high and generally out of tune. In some productions, she ad-libs, "I can sing it higher!" before being dismissed with the customary "thank you." "Sopranos with voices like bees" indeed.
142	* Played straight in all versions ([[Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera2004 film]], [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera theater]], [[Series/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1990 TV movie]]) of ''Franchise/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', where we are led to believe that Carlotta is a terrible singer, when in reality, she sounds almost exactly like any opera singer would. This also is the case for her partner Piangi, who is treated as incompetent even though he’s a powerful singer in nearly every scene, save when rehearsing for ''Don Juan Triumphant'' in which all of a sudden he’s extremely off-key.
143	** In the film, Margaret Preece--who sings for Carlotta--obviously has a lot of training and talent, but one can also tell she's doing all she can to sound really annoying. She turns her high notes squeaky as they end, pushes way too hard in her lower range ("from our saviors, from our saaaaaaAAAAAAEEHHHVIAAAAAHS") and, particularly in her rendition of "Think of Me", uses way too much glottal emphasis at the beginnings of the higher notes.
144	* Kristine in ''Theatre/AChorusLine'', who has a song about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uFwUjAiPN8 how she can't sing.]]
145	* In the comic {{opera}} [[Theatre/LaFilleDuRegiment La Fille du Régiment,]] Marie (''coloratura soprano'') has been [[TagalongKid raised by soldiers]] to sing rousing [[NationalAnthem patriotic songs]] and camp ballads, but apparently needs to be retrained to sing "refined" music. Meanwhile, her mother clucks and squawks like an old hen. The ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contralto contralto]]'' has to be [[IronyAsSheIsCast genuinely horrible]] throughout, which only makes Marie's already beautiful voice sound even better.
146	* On the reverse, or flip-side of the trope, Peter Schickele's "Music/PDQBach" operas are performed with legitimate opera singers, and orchestras, who perform them straight.
147	* In ''Theatre/UtopiaLimited'', the number "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQOIaiDh0F0 A Tenor, All Singers Above]]" calls for the singer to purposely botch the high notes, on the grounds that he has let himself go from being too madly in love.
148	* ''Theatre/{{Gypsy}}'': The strippers' singing in "You Gotta Get A Gimmick" is deliberately harsh, too loud and off-key as the whole point of the song is that they have "no talent" and are relying on [[TheGimmick their gimmicks]] to get by in {{Burlesque}}.
149	[[/folder]]
150
151	[[folder:Web Animation]]
152	* The Tramp of ''WebAnimation/TheBackwaterGospel'' isn't very good at singing. His voice actor, Zebulon Whately, is however a member of the [[GothicCountryMusic gothic country]] band Sons of Perdition.
153	* ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_RAXP7geF4 Agent Carolina]], who is still complimented by her bandmates, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial "and we're definitely not just saying that because she could kill us."]] [[spoiler: She's well aware of it. She just feigns ignorance because [[ForTheLulz she thinks it's funny to watch them squirm.]]]]
154	* ''WebAnimation/TheMostEpicStoryEverToldInAllOfHumanHistory'': The trailer features each cast member singing a tune. Some do okay, others not so much. [[BumblingSidekick Epic Fail]], [[CoolOldGuy Captain Epic]], [[KillerRobot Epic Robot Guy]], and [[HarmlessVillain Ridiculously Epic Fail]] can be easily identified as the worst singers.
155	[[/folder]]
156
157	[[folder:Web Original]]
158	* In ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', Merry has a rather unique version of this. When drunk on electricity, she sings ''exactly'' off-key, enough that they're pretty sure that's it's part of her abilities. Unfortunately, she's a prankster, so she's probably doing it on purpose.
159	[[/folder]]
160
161	[[folder:Web Videos]]
162	* Sarah in ''WebVideo/Lonelygirl15'' sings a tuneless, croaky rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" in "Mission Gamma". Actress Alexandra Dreyfus is a classically trained singer.
163	* A central feature of ''WebVideo/MirandaSings''. It would be better if she ''actually knew the notes'', but she doesn't.
164	* [=Megami33=] is actually a really good singer, but when she voices Serena in WebVideo/SailorMoonAbridged, she has to make her sound bad.
165	* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'':
166	** The review of ''WesternAnimation/TheKingAndI'' features a sketch of Creator/RussellCrowe (played by Creator/DougWalker) and Music/{{Shakira}} (played by Rachel Tietz) both performing off-key renditions of the songs from said musical. In reality, both Walker and Tietz are very accomplished singers (Walker has sung in previous episodes of ''The Nostalgia Critic'', and Tietz's [=YouTube=] channel features her performing a mixture of original songs and cover versions).
167	** Similarly, in Critic's review of ''Film/{{Les Miserables\|2012}}'', {{Music/Brentalfloss}} performs his singing in a monotone with the AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle as a parody of (once again) Creator/RussellCrowe's singing style in the film. They also point out that the original is actually on-key; it's just that he's falling back on his rock/folk background instead of the usual musical theater style, which clashes noticeably with the other performances.
168	* In ''Series/WarpZoneProject'', Léa, Téo's LoveInterest, is a dreadful singer to the extent of her singing teacher collapsing at the end of her lesson. Unfortunately, one of the super-villains living in their city is such a music fanatic that he considers that any "offense to music" must be destroyed.
169	[[/folder]]

Context Main / HollywoodToneDeaf