Line #5 Main/MinskyPickup


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mininski_pickup_in_c.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Dada, da-da ''da'' '''DA'''!]]
3
4	This is the six note Intro Fanfare to a Song and Dance number. (Actually, it's a somewhat shortened version of an older 16-note intro, the shorter version being the more common these days.) Three notes of the same pitch, then up a full, up a half, up a half. "Dadum dadum dum dum!" It's rather ubiquitous, and originates from {{vaudeville}} or perhaps even earlier. In vaudeville it was known as the "Minsky Pickup" (undoubtedly named after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsky%27s_Burlesque Minsky's Burlesque]] and perhaps originating there), but it has also been called the "[[Music/BillBailey Cockney Intro]]" (possibly due to the similarities between vaudeville and British {{Pantomime}} and the inevitable bleedover of routines and musical numbers).
5
6	For those who probably don't understand [[BuffySpeak this cryptic music crap]] we're babbling on about, the Minsky Pickup [[https://youtu.be/ZTg9QsGakWw?t=15 is what people hear in ther heads when they think of "old-timey song from the age of steam, silent films, and top hats."]]
7
8	The Minsky Pickup can also be used as an ending, with the final two notes sharpened.
9
10	Related to StockSoundEffects, StandardSnippet. See ShaveAndAHaircut for an equally ubiquitous ending.
11
12	Not to be confused with ''this'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq1GmnrwxW4 Minsky Pickup.]]
13	----
14	!!Examples:
15	[[foldercontrol]]
16
17	[[folder:Advertisement]]
18	* Back in the TheSeventies, there was a TV spot for Chef Boy-ar-dee's Beefaroni and Beef-o-getti that had kids singing about which was their favorite, with a Minsky Pickup leading into the last lines of the song.
19	* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvQ5wQfWWI0 theme]] for the Japanese retailer Sofmap.
20
21	[[/folder]]
22
23	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
24	* In ''Manga/DrSlump'', the opening theme "Wai Wai World" has a variation on the Minsky pickup at the beginning of the song. This time, there's three note of the same pitch, then up three half-steps, down a half and down a full.
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder:Comedy]]
28	* Music/BillBailey calls it "the Cockney intro" in his [[http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=1364660853 Cockney Music]] sketch (40s in), and as such it also opens the theme he composed for East London-set sitcom ''World of Pub''.
29	** And then there's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n2XJWLRzPM this.]] One of the few to actually use "OI!"
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
33	* In the first ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' movie, Robin Hood's song starts off like this, as does the "Welcome to Duloc" information booth.
34	* "Prince Ali" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' features this in the last line of the introductory verse: "Are you gonna love this guy!"
35	** "One Jump Ahead" also uses this twice: "You're my only friend Abu" and "Otherwise we'd get along".
36	* The opening credits of ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc1'' begin with a [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong slight variation]].
37	* "I've Got No Strings" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'' also has a [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong slight variation]] that plays before Pinocchio starts singing.
38	* The bear dance in ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'' has a similar variant.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
42	* In the movie ''Film/{{Clue}}'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX0sGo8RFck the singing telegram lady sings it]] just before she sings, "I am your singing telegram!"
43	* In ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'', the Camelot song: "(Dadum dah dump dump dump) We're knights of the Round Table/We dance whene'er we're able..."
44	* In ''Film/AShotInTheDark'', there's a Minsky Pickup just before the crow poops on Clouseau's head.
45	* In the biopic ''Joplin'', two pianists in a bar each perform this riff, alternating five times in rapid succession, in order to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOi9K7yZ6QA begin the piano duel.]]
46	* The production of ''[[Film/WilliamShakespearesRomeoAndJuliet Romeo and Juliet]]'' in ''Film/HotFuzz'' ends with a rendition of "[[Music/TheCardigans Lovefool]]" that opens and closes with the riff.
47	* During a pep talk/demo from one burlesque dancer to another in ''Film/IndestructibleMan'', appropriately.
48	* Used several times with an alternate lead-in in ''Film/TheInformant2009''.
49	* A very similar variant in the "Get-Together Weather" number from ''Film/The5000FingersOfDrT''.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
53	* In the ''Series/TheHoneymooners'' episode called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_$99,000_Answer "The $99,000 Answer"]] (after the fictional TV show Ralph is going on), when Ralph is cramming for an appearance on a game show where he has to identify songs, Norton is helping him by playing songs on the piano. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF6ITeJ7EM0#t=16m45s EACH song is preceded by Norton "Warming Up"]] which consists of the notes of "Way Down Upon the Swanee River" followed by "dadum, dadum dum dum!"
54	** (FWIW that particular episode used to have its own page on Website/TheOtherWiki.[[labelnote:*]]That page has since been deleted, with its contents moved into the table of summaries on the show's main page, making that episode's entry much longer than the couple of sentences most of the others have.[[/labelnote]])
55	** Incidentally, there's an inside joke in that clip: The third song Ed plays for Ralph, that Ralph has trouble getting, is "Melancholy Serenade"--the theme song from The Jackie Gleason Show, which Jackie himself wrote.
56	* Whenever Fred, Ethel or Lucy would do a song on the ''Series/ILoveLucy'' show they almost always started by singing a Minsky Pickup.
57	** Considering Fred and Ethel were supposedly retired vaudevillians, this was entirely reasonable.
58	* In ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' (US version), each of the Show-Stopping Numbers start off with the six note version.
59	* From the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode "[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S08E19InvasionOfTheNeptuneMen Invasion of the Neptune Men]]":
60	-->'''Crow:''' So, uh, do either of you guys know any songs about StockFootage that could get us through this?\
61	'''Tom:''' Oh, I know a song about stock footage! It goes like this! Didit, da dit dit dit--EAT IT, MOVIE! TAKE THIS STUPID LITTLE COCKROACH OF A FILM, ROLL IT UP SOOOOOO TIGHT, AND THEN RAM IT RIGHT UP YOUR-- ''[breaks down sobbing]''
62	* It was in the intro to ''Series/TheGongShow'' theme.
63	* Played on the piano at the start of the solicitor's song ("a __ I would be") in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus''; the same snippet was used in the "Pythonizer" on their ''Complete Waste of Time'' CD-ROM as a customization sound effect and keystroke noise.
64	* Something resembling it can be heard in "Uki Uki Watching", the theme song to the Japanese variety show "Waratte Iitomo" ("It's Okay to Laugh").
65	* A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4PQ9Da1kDo variant of the pickup]] was in the theme song of ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn''.
66	** Also often used as a stinger in-between skits.
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Music]]
70	* It's within the intro of Music/DoctorSteel's song, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBSiPkexsKw "The Dr. Steel Show."]]
71	* Music/WeirdAlYankovic uses it in at least three of his polka medleys--"The Alternative Polka"[[note]]Long form, between "You Oughta Know" and "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"[[/note]], "Polka Your Eyes Out"[[note]]Short form, in the beginning during "Cradle of Love"[[/note]], and "Polkrama!"[[note]]Between the verse and chorus of "Gold Digger"[[/note]]
72	* At the beginning of Buzz Clifford's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybfS7eYQuhY "Baby Sittin' Boogie"]] the baby sings the short form of the pickup, though the gurgles that precede it kinda sound like the first part of the long form.
73	* Paul Hindemith uses it in his "Foxtrot" for piano.
74	* Music/IanDuryAndTheBlockheads' "There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards" ends with a Minksy pickup.
75	* The "12th Street Rag" starts off with the long version of the pickup.
76	** In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWVFEVWJMz8 this version]] of the rag, it comes right before the finale (at the 50 second mark).
77	* A [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong variation]] of the long form appears near the end of Spike Jones' "The Black And Blue Danube Waltz."
78	** "Jones Polka" makes something of an OverlyLongGag out of the pickup, starting about a half-minute in.
79	** Several other songs done by Spike Jones have a spot in the middle where the song suddenly shifts into a fast gear and uses the pickup preceded by a bar of squeeze horns.
80	* "Nothing From Nothing" by Billy Preston begins with the long version of the pickup.
81	* {{Music/Vulfpeck}} features the long Minsky Pickup at the start of their tune, “Lonely Town”.
82	* {{Music/Ween}} features it in "Hey There Fancypants," appropriately for a vaudeville-esque song.
83	* In Music/PDQBach's Capriccio "La Pucelle de New Orleans," the 4-bar version of the pickup is one of the Dixieland band's intrusions.
84	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soy3PHV3RiM I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag]]" by Country Joe and the Fish starts off using the longer version of the pickup.
85	* The long form of the pickup can be heard at the beginning of Jacques Brel's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRCBpMmhrgg&feature=related "Madeleine."]]
86	* Occurs towards the end of Music/TheBeachBoys' "Look (Song For Children)".
87	* Music/EmilieAutumn's "Girls! Girls! Girls!", a 19th-century style showtune based on the practice of opening mental asylums to the public as a freakshow, ends with this.
88	* When the MoogCookbook cover of "Are You Gonna Go My Way?" gets silly near the end, there is a partial example.
89	* ''Mister Piano Man'', written by Music/TheShermanBrothers and performed by Creator/AnnetteFunnicello in ''The Golden Horseshoe Revue'', opens with a variant of the four-bar version.
90	[[/folder]]
91
92	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
93	* A very close variant is used at the start of the "Dancing Rabbit Act" in ''Film.EmmetOttersJugBandChristmas''.
94	* Starting with the second season, the theme song of ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' uses this just before the full-bodied Muppets enter through the archway.
95	* On ''Series/SesameStreet'', the "Honker Duckie Dinger Jamboree" uses this.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Radio]]
99	* In ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978'' original radio series ("Fit the Ninth"), the "Share and Enjoy" song starts with an out-of-tune variation--and then gets worse.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Theater]]
103	* ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'' has this in the "Shipoopi" dance music, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jj622vbrrU#t=3m29s just before Hill and Marian start dancing together.]]
104	* Also begins the show ''Theatre/AChorusLine''. "Again!"
105	* "Wrong Note Rag" from ''Theatre/WonderfulTown'' uses a modulating version as a recurring break.
106	* ''Theatre/{{Gypsy}}'', being a show about vaudeville, inevitably uses the Minsky pickup once, at the start of the Farmboys' number (but not in the Minsky's striptease sequence).
107	* ''Theatre/OneTouchOfVenus'' uses an off-key variation on the long version as a turnaround in "Way Out West In Jersey."
108	* The ''extremely'' Cockney 1937 musical ''Me and My Girl'' (filmed in 1939 as ''The Lambeth Walk''), uses it at the end of each verse of "The Lambeth Walk", as "Doin' the Lambeth Walk, oi!"
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Video Games]]
112	* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
113	** The classic ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' theme starts with [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong a variation on the Minsky Pickup]].
114	** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lhbYWbPmkE Athletic theme]] of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'' uses a sped-up version of the short version of this snippet right in the beginning.
115	** The beginning of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16LDAEkfWkA Race theme]] from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' begins with this.
116	** ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'''s music for Moo Moo Farm and Yoshi Valley starts with a fairly standard example.
117	** Baby Park in ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash'' features this introduction.
118	** ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' has Minsky pickups for N64 Yoshi Valley, GCN Baby Park, as well as Sweet Sweet Canyon.
119	** ''VideoGame/MarioParty2'': Appears at the start of the "Western Land" theme, to tie into the cowboy theming.
120	** ''[[VideoGame/WarioLand Wario Land 2]]'': The second bar of the main theme of the game, note for note.
121	* Used in a number of ''VideoGame/{{Parodius}}'' characters' themes, such as Koitsu's. Many of them [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong slight alterations]].
122	* Elmyra's theme in the first ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' NES game starts off with the long version of this.
123	* This kicks off the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRO9Osqq6fM title theme]] of ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'' (and ''[[VideoGameRemake Nightmare in Dream Land]]''). The pickup is also used as the menu music for ''VideoGame/KirbysBlowoutBlast''.
124	* One of the default shop themes in UsefulNotes/RPGMaker 2000 has this intro.
125	* The song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-M3Bq71tyA Candy Floss]] from the ''VideoGame/ThemeHospital'' soundtrack uses this intro.
126	* In ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'', the music for the BossBattle with Rusty the Snowman begins with this.
127	* ''VideoGame/{{Coryoon}}'' uses the short version at the beginning of its Stage 1 theme.
128	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2U1x18vs3g K.K. Ragtime,]] from ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' features it. Appropriate, since it's themed after old vaudeville music.
129	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeW4pf36UUI Mr. Vile's minigame]] from ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'' uses a slight variant.
130	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWPk3O01sNE The Old Chap]] from ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' features it 50 seconds into the track.
131	* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfscoc6lfwQ Buzzy Bee theme]] from ''VideoGame/ThemePark'' begins with one.
132	* The ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'' theme has this at the end of the B-section.
133	* The title theme of ''Creative Contraptions'' uses the full 16-note fanfare.
134	* The sound when a second player joins in mid-fight in the original ''Franchise/{{Tekken}}'' and ''Tekken 2''.
135	* Occurs both near the beginning and the very end of the credits theme of ''Civic Doodle'' from ''VideoGame/TheJackboxPartyPack 4''.
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder:Web Original]]
139	* ''WebAnimation/TheDementedCartoonMovie'': Just as the Zeeky Boogy Doog song starts.
140	* In the ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'' episode "The Penny and Clyde Show", Rarity provides one to kick off Discord's song.
141	* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': Strong Bad starts off his song in "[[https://homestarrunner.com/toons/some-stupid-turkey Some Stupid Turkey]]" with a "Dun dun dadun dun DUN!"
142	[[/folder]]
143
144	[[folder:Western Animation]]
145	* A ''WesternAnimation/BettyBoop'' cartoon has a bunch of hillbillies holding her at gunpoint mouth this before they make her start BulletDancing.
146	* ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyKongCountry'': Used in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I75IVj6QCNo I'm Gonna Be A Star]]."
147	* ''WesternAnimation/JellyJamm'': These six notes (well, with one note slightly off compared to usual) appear near the beginning of the background music accompanying Bello's magician act in "Radio Goomo".
148	* The intro to the ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' theme contains these notes.
149	* Used in ''WesternAnimation/PontoffelPockWhereAreYou'' as the musical password to Pock's piano.
150	* The Grinch's VillainSong in ''WesternAnimation/HalloweenIsGrinchNight'' has this as its lead-in.
151	* Used in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipisMagic'' when Pinkie Pie sings her ''Twilight is my Bestest Friend'' song in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E3TheTicketMaster The Ticket Master]].
152	* The 1985 ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears'' cartoon's theme song has one right before the bears start singing the lyrics.
153	[[/folder]]
154

Context Main / MinskyPickup