[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Screen_shot_2011-04-09_at_9_44_37_PM_9563.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Paul desperately [[NeverMyFault trying to deny]] that this movie was all '''his''' idea.]]

->''"When a man buys a ticket to a [[TitleDrop magical mystery tour]], he knows what to expect."''

Music/TheBeatles's third film, and definitely the weirdest.

The film starts out as [[Music/RingoStarr Mr. Richard]] [[TheDanza Starkey]], who is constantly bickering with his aunt, purchases a ticket to the titular mystery tour. Once on the tour bus... stuff happens, [[TakeOurWordForIt allegedly]] at the whim of "four or five magicians," and in the end everyone goes to a strip club.

Basically, the Beatles and a bus full of other people drove around for two weeks, [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants wrote the script on the way, filmed things on a whim]] and hoped something magical would happen. [[SoOkayItsAverage It didn't work.]] Legend has it that many of the incidents and complications that plagued the shoot were more interesting than the film itself.

It was envisioned for theatres, but instead aired on [[Creator/TheBBC BBC 1]] on December 26, 1967. This hurt the film because that particular channel wasn't airing in colour yet. (Even if it had appeared on BBC 2, which ''was'' airing in colour, very few viewers owned colour sets.) It was especially bad for the "Flying" sequence, which was simply filmed abstract colour-shapes... So the project became their first flop, signalling all the events that would eventually lead to the band's break-up in 1970. As time went by ''Magical Mystery Tour'' has been re-appreciated as a charming time document with surreal comedy that was ahead of its time. Its CultSoundtrack has been VindicatedByHistory too, for having some of the band's greatest hits, including "The Fool on the Hill", "I Am The Walrus" and the TitleTrack. The soundtrack album has [[Music/MagicalMysteryTour its own entry]].

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!!Magical Mystery Tropes:
* Aunt Jessie's nightmare is so creepy, the gross looking spaghetti that John Lennon piles on the fat lady's plate, and everything about that scene is disturbing and hard to watch.
* AliceAllusion: The title of ''I Am The Walrus'' itself is an AliceAllusion to the ''Walrus and the Carpenter'' from ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', making it an accidental VillainSong, because John Lennon wasn't aware that the walrus was the villain in the song.
* AlliterativeName: '''B'''uster '''B'''loodvessel, '''J'''olly '''J'''immy '''J'''ohnson and '''W'''endy '''W'''inters.
* AnimalMotifs: The band members are dressed as a walrus and eggman during the performance of ''I Am The Walrus'', in reference to the album cover of ''Music/MagicalMysteryTour''.
* AsHimself: Rather an odd example. Ringo Starr plays himself, but the other three are just sort of ''there''. Then all four of them appear as magicians.
%%* ArtisticStimulation
* BiggerOnTheInside: The little tent that everyone on the bus piles into, which contains an impromptu theatre that shows Music/GeorgeHarrison performing "Blue Jay Way".
* BrickJoke: Lennon sings he is the walrus in "I Am The Walrus". Little Nicola (a character from the movie) however claims, according to the booklet of the album, ''No, you're not''. The answer was finally solved with "Glass Onion" on ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum'', where John sings: "And here's another clue for you all/ the walrus was Paul." In "God" from ''Music/JohnLennonPlasticOnoBand'' he again changed the identity, by saying: "I was the walrus. But now I'm John."
* BrokenRecord: "Blue Jay Way" ends with variations of a certain phrase being repeated 18 times. The phrase? "Don't be long."
* TheCameo: That's the Music/TheBonzoDogBand singing "Death Cab for Cutie"[[note]]Yes, that's where [[Music/DeathCabForCutie the band]] found the name[[/note]] with stripper Jan Carson.
** Not so well known today, but performance poet and songwriter Ivor Cutler as Buster Bloodvessel.
%%* CensorBox: Near the end of the striptease scene.
* CloudCuckooLander: "The Fool On The Hill" about a strange, reclusive man living on a hill, disliked by the others as being a ''fool'', yet world wise.
%%* ConceptVideo
* ContinuityNod: The score has orchestral versions of "She Loves You" (during the Marathon scene) and "All My Loving" (during one of the {{Imagine Spot}}s with Aunt Jessie and Buster).
* DancePartyEnding: After the aforementioned striptease, everyone has a dance party.
* {{Determinator}}: The film project was [[WordOfGod reportedly taken]] to get the Beatles' minds off of the loss of Brian Epstein and keep the group united. [[Film/LetItBe It would not be the last time a project was started to "keep the group united"]].
* DreamSequence: Several, including one that involves John Lennon serving a woman spaghetti with a shovel, based on an actual dream Music/JohnLennon had had.
* DrillSergeantNasty: Victor Spinetti, who played roles in the [[Film/AHardDaysNight previous]] [[Film/{{Help}} two]] Beatles films, plays a comical, [[Creator/MontyPython proto-Pythonesque]] version in one scene.
* DrunkenSong: Ringo, with "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts." He gets everybody on the bus to join in.
* {{Fanservice}}: Why else would everyone go to a strip club at the end?
* FauxSymbolism: Deliberately invoked with "I Am The Walrus," written after John received a letter from a student who attended Lennon's old primary school about an English master there who was forcing his students to analyse the band's WordSaladLyrics. Upon finishing the song, complete with his classic "first-thing-you-see" lyrics, Lennon turned to his friend and said "let the fuckers work that one out!". The completely random and nonsense line "semolina pilchard" is a reference to semolina pudding and pilchard sardine cans, according to John's childhood friend, Pete Shotton circa 1983. Another interpretation is that it is a TakeThat to MoralGuardian Detective Norman Pilcher, who was more fanatical about arresting pop stars on drugs charges than about smaller things like actually following the rule of law, and had arrested both John and George on separate occasions.
* FreezeFrameEnding: Parodied at the end of the "Your Mother Should Know" scene, when John leans forward towards Paul.
%%* LeFilmArtistique: It borders on one.
%%* TheFool: On the Hill.
%%* ForceFeeding: What Aunt Jessie was dreaming about.
* GainaxEnding: Inverted: the ending (in which The Beatles and various others [[DancePartyEnding dance]] to "Your Mother Should Know") is perhaps the only normal part of the entire movie.
* GriefSong: The fade-out of "I Am the Walrus" has lines from a radio broadcast of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/KingLear'', where Edgar murders a character named Oswald.
%%* HilarityEnsues
* HippieBus: The tour bus is a hippie bus.
%%* IAmTheNoun: "I Am the Walrus".
* {{Instrumental}}: "Flying", which only has a ''la la la la la'' chorus.
%%* IWillWaitForYou: "Blue Jay Way".
* LastNoteNightmare: The dissonant swirling effects at the end of "Blue Jay Way".
* LittlePeopleAreSurreal: Throughout the film, a little person is the tour's photographer. Several more appear during the "Marathon" sequence.
* ManOfAThousandVoices: "Talking perfectly loud", according to "The Fool on the Hill".
* MindScrew: Every frame of this movie.
%%* MommasBoy: "Your Mother Should Know".
* MysteriousMiddleInitial: Richard B. Starkey. In real life, Ringo doesn't even have a middle name!
* {{Narrator}}: John Lennon narrates, for reasons best known to himself.
* NeverAcceptedInHisHometown: The fool in "The Fool On The Hill" lives alone on a hill, while the other villagers dislike him and call him a fool.
* NoEnding: After the sequence for "Your Mother Should Know", the film just goes to credits with no proper ending.
* NostalgiaFilter: "Your Mother Should Know" is nostalgic for a song "that was a hit/ before your mother was born", and the sequence featuring it is reminiscent of a scene from a 1930s musical.
%%* OnlySaneMan: "The Fool on the Hill".
%%* PeopleInRubberSuits
%%** [[TheWalrusWasPaul The walrus was actually John.]]
%%* PerformanceVideo
* PunnyName: Buster Bloodvessel.
* RandomEventsPlot: This is a movie where things just...''happen''.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: "Blue Jay Way" was written when George was waiting in his house 'Blue Jay Way' in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles for press journalist Derek Taylor.
* RoadTripPlot: The film in a nutshell, althought there's a lot more "trip" than "plot".
* {{Sampling}}: "I Am The Walrus" samples a BBC radio production of ''Theatre/KingLear''.
* {{Scatting}}: "La la la la la la" in the otherwise wordless "Flying" and "Da da da da da da da da da" in "Your Mother Should Know".
* SceneryPorn: The visuals accompanying "The Fool on the Hill" and "Flying".
* SensationalStaircaseSequence: John, Paul, George and Ringo perform "Your Mother Should Know" while jauntily stepping in syncopated fashion down a staircase in matching white suits.
* ShoutOut:
** John singing [[Theatre/AnnieGetYourGun "There's No Business Like Show Business."]]
** The background music in the dream love sequence between Aunt Jessie and Buster Bloodvessel plays the melody to "All My Loving".
** The title of "I Am The Walrus" is an AliceAllusion to the ''Walrus and the Carpenter'' from ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', making it an accidental VillainSong, because Lennon wasn't aware that the walrus was the villain in the song. This also makes it a ContinuityNod to "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" from ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'', which was also inspired by the novel. Carroll's image appears on the album cover of "Sgt. Peppers" too. "I Am The Walrus" tells us we should have seen "them kicking Creator/EdgarAllanPoe", who was also present on the album cover of ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'', by the way. The line about "yellow matter custard" is a reference to a playground nursery rhyme that goes "Yellow matter custard, green slop pie, All mixed together with a dead dog's eye, Slap it on a butty, ten foot thick, Then wash it all down with a cup of cold sick". Near the end a radio rendition of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/KingLear'' can be heard, with the line of having a "serviceable villain," making the song even more about a villain than intended.
* SpecialGuest: The band in the strip club is the Music/TheBonzoDogBand, whom Paul had worked with as a producer.
* SpokenWordInMusic: "I Am The Walrus" famously includes snippets from a BBC radio production of "King Lear".
* StepUpToTheMicrophone: George Harrison sings lead on "Blue Jay Way", which he wrote.
%%* SurrealMusicVideo: "I Am The Walrus".
* {{Troll}}: John wrote "I am the Walrus", thrown together from abandoned song ideas and Lewis Carroll scenes, specifically to mess with people who would pore over his lyrics for hidden meanings.
* WorldOfChaos: Everywhere the Beatles drive, some surreal mayhem is taking place. "I Am The Walrus" really cuts the cake.
* WordSaladLyrics: "I Am The Walrus" was intentionally written to be this, as Lennon got fed up with crazed fans trying to find hidden and far-fetched clues in their music.
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->''"And that was a Magical Mystery Tour. I told you! [[ThatsAllFolks Goodbye.]]"''