Musical Chores - Television Tropes & Idioms

Just for Pun and Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Doing work to the tune of music. Disney musicals love this one: "Whistle While You Work" practically defines it. Could go all the way back to using drums to synchronize rowers in galleys, depending on your definition of music.

Truth in Television, though usually with lower production values. See also Mickey Mousing.

Examples:

"The Work Song" in Cinderella is actually sung by the mice and not Cinderella herself, while the make her first party dress (the one that is later destroyed). Cinderella did sing a song while she worked ("Sing Sweet Nightingale") but it wasn't about work - she was just singing along while her ugly sisters got a music lesson upstairs and did a much better job of it whilst cleaning the floor. "The Work Song" had an earlier version which was to be sung by Cinderella but it was reworked into the mouse version.
"A Spoonful of Sugar" from Mary Poppins
- Parodied on The Simpsons' "Sherry Bobbins" episode, with 'Cut Every Corner':
  If you cut every corner it is really not so bad;
  Everybody does it, even Mum and Dad
  If nobody sees it then nobody gets mad
  It's the American Way!
Sleeping Beauty: The Good Fairies do some chanting and singing while using their magic to set up for Briar Rose's birthday party. The whole sequence is set to (instrumental) music which is called "Three Good Fairies Sing a Smiling Song" on the soundtrack.
- On a different release of the soundtrack, this music is called "Magical House Cleaning - Blue or Pink."
The Sword in the Stone: Merlin sings "Higitus Figitus" while packing to move. The song is also a spell, which shrinks all his belongings so they will fit into a single suitcase. An instrumental reprise of the same tune plays when he enchants the castle dishes to wash themselves.
The first song in The Brave Little Toaster is all about cleaning the cottage. (Though it's not totally part of this trope since they're simply cleaning the cottage to Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti")
"Happy Working Song" in Enchanted is a parody of this kind of song.
"Brazzle Dazzle Day" in Pete's Dragon isn't about the chore of whitewashing the lighthouse, but that's what they're doing as they start singing, and the dance break of sorts is based around characters breathing on the windows so the other characters can clean them.
The classic Morecambe And Wise Breakfast Sketch.
"Whistle While You Work" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Early in the film, Snow White sings "I'm Wishing" while drawing water from the well—what she is wishing for is a lover to take her away from her life of drudgery.
- The Dwarfs also sing a song, "Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum" (an onomatopeic reference to blowing bubbles underwater), as they wash themselves for dinner.
  - The first half of "Heigh Ho" is sung by the dwarves as they work in the mines.
"Happy Workers", from Toys.
In Barbie & The Diamond Castle, Alexa and Liana sing as they clean up the damage done to their garden during a storm.
"The Bitch of Living" from Spring Awakening is an angry/angsty song that interrupts the students' working. "All That's Known" can also qualify.
"It's the Hard-Knock Life" from Annie is sung during the orphans' chores...and they are not happy about it.
"Scrubbing Day" from The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking.
~~"Laundry Day"~~ "Freeze Ray" from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog combines this with an "I Want" Song, as he encounters his crush, Penny at a laundromat.
Although not (yet) appearing in a musical or film, De Staat's "Sweatshop" is obviously some kind of send-up of this trope.
I'm packing that meat meat
Workin' long hours on the count of the beat beat
I'm packin' that meat meat
Goin' long hours gonna grow a lotta wheat
The Secret Of Roan Inish has chores done to a song on the soundtrack.
"The Well That Divides Life and Death" from Sound Horizon's Märchen is based on the Fairy Tale of Mother Hulda'', and thus spends a good deal of time focusing on the hard-working girl's, well, work.
In The Wiz, the Wicked Witch of the West is the owner of a sweatshop. She sings a song called "Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News" while she makes sure all her slaves are working.