Singing in the Shower

"I like to sing, sing in the shower
As the water falls, I let my voice ring loud and clear
I like to sing, sing in the shower
'Cause I love the way that my singing sounds in here"

— Olivia, Sesame Street

A character is shown singing or humming while bathing or said to do this — depending on amount of Censor Steam and Censor Suds the author uses.

A bathroom being usually small with hard walls, its acoustics don’t absorb sound, so when you sing, your voice bounces around the room and sounds more powerful. Add to it that during the bath time one is alone (usually) and feels secure (usually), and it makes more or less a light-hearted version of What You Are in the Dark. Though usually someone overhears the singing character anyway. As a narrative device, this usually is an opportunity to show that the character is in good mood and to demonstrate amusing quirks. It is also an effective way to show that a character is preoccupied with showering if another character is trying to sneak around them or needs to steal their clothes to pass off as them.

Mostly a Comedy Trope. Happens a great deal in Real Life, too.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Blair's introduction in Soul Eater is a Bathtub Scene of her singing.
• Baby Felix is shown humming instead of singing while using the magical invisible soap from the Baby Felix and Friends episode, Now you See Him.

Comic Books

• Aqualad is shown to sing in the shower in Teen Titans: Year One.

Comic Strips

• Wanda also had this problem in Baby Blues. One strip had Darryl, Zoe, and Hammie wondering what some noise was, and trace it to the bathroom before discovering that the noise was actually Wanda singing in the shower, when Darryl removed the shower curtain. Wanda felt insulted at the implication that she was a bad singer.
• FoxTrot
  • One strip had Roger singing "Burning Love" in the shower, and an annoyed Andy meaningfully tells one of the kids about the valve marked "cold water shutoff".
  • Roger also did so a second time, this time with "Love Machine." Jason ended up exacting revenge by using the message recorder from the phone to record as the answering machine message taker Roger singing the song while singing in the shower, which went unnoticed by Roger for at least a few weeks. It should also be noted that it was also partly Roger's fault that Jason was able to pull it off, since apparently Roger was the one who bought the model whose cord was long enough to reach the shower.
  • Another strip has Peter singing "Heartbreak Hotel", with the rest of the family gathering outside the door to complain:
    Roger: You mean "Earache Hotel".
    Andy: I'd say "Headache Hotel".
    Paige: "Shampoo-Bottle-Stuffed-Down-His-Stupid-Throat Hotel!"
    Jason: Too many syllables, Paige.
  • One Sunday strip sees Peter get annoyed by someone singing Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" in the shower, and he loudly complains that they sound like a tone-deaf, dying rodent. The punchline is that, while Peter assumes it's Paige singing, a grumpy Roger walks in wearing a towel and reveals that Paige isn't home at the moment.

Fan Works

• The one-shot fic A Changeling at the Breakfast Table reveals that Queen Chrysalis, who's been hiding out in Twilight's castle for some time, unwittingly revealed her presence with several things. While she's not seen doing it, one of those was because she likes to sing in the shower and Twilight heard her doing it.
• In Chapter 4 of OSMU: Fanfiction Friction, Owen begins to sing while in one of the showers in Precinct 13579's Shower Room. Specifically, he sings "O Solo Mio" (just those three words, not the whole song) to the tune of Santa Lucia, because according to him, "it's public domain." It's because of this singing that he doesn't notice he's been teleported to the Lab in the midst of his shower along with Oscar, Oren and Oswald, who are also taking showers.

Films — Animation

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: When Snow White has the dwarfs wash their hands and faces, they sing while doing so, except for Grumpy.
  Grumpy: Bunch of old nanny goats— you make me sick, going (gibberish like his friends were singing)"

Films — Live-Action

• Parodied in Alvin and the Chipmunks when Dave catches Alvin taking a shower in the dishwasher while singing "Don't Cha".
• Michael in Anomalisa hums the Flower Duet from the opera "Lakmé" under the shower.
• Used as a plot-point in A Clockwork Orange. After being beaten up by police, Alex takes refuge in the home of the man whom he crippled years before during a home invasion. Alex was wearing a mask at the time so the man doesn't recognise him, but he does recognise Alex's singing in the bath later on, as Alex sang "Singing in the Rain" while kicking him and raping his wife.
• Easy A: Olive slowly becomes addicted to the song "Pocketful of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield over her weekend, and is shown singing it in the shower as she grows to like it more and more.
• In Elf, Jovie sings "Baby, It's Cold Outside" in the shower. Buddy listens and tries to join in, freaking her out.
• In the beginning of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ferris starts singing "Danke Schoen" in the shower, using the showerhead as a mike. This of course foreshadows his performance when he hijacks a float in a parade later on that day.
• Uncle Frank does this in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Kevin records it on his Talkboy, which comes in handy later on...
• In Naked Gun 2½, Jane is in the shower singing when an assassin walks in to try to kill her. He is entranced by her singing and starts to hum along, then gets louder and louder until he starts belting, which causes Jane to find out he's there and run away.
• There's an old Norman Wisdom film in which somebody hides a microphone in our hero's bathroom, records him singing in the bath, and pretends it's his own work.
• Phantom of the Paradise has Beef singing in the shower. When the Phantom hears him, he threatens him.
• Pitch Perfect contains a scene where the protagonist Beca's singing talent is discovered in this way. Beca is forced to sing a duet with Chloe while they're both in the shower and naked. Beca is embarrassed but Chloe doesn't see anything wrong with this.
• Summer Stock begins with Judy Garland singing "If You Feel Like Singing" in the shower.
• In To Rome with Love, Woody Allen's character discovers his daughter's future father-in-law has an amazing voice because of this. He gets him to audition, which fails horribly, because it turns out he can only sing in the shower. Eventually, they stage an opera in which everyone is in appropriate period dress, except him, who sings from a movable shower cubicle.

Literature

• Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book: The boy and his pet "ying" like to sing in the shower.
• In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, when Harry opens up his egg to reveal the clue for the Second Task, an earsplitting wail comes out. George quips that it sounds like Percy singing and suggests that the task might be to attack him in the shower.
• The Ciaphas Cain short story "The Little Things" has Cain enter the hotel room of his Inquisitorial contact and occasional lover Amberley Vail, and hear her singing in the shower. This causes him to hearken back to his first meeting with her, when she was in an undercover role as essentially a nightclub performer.
• In Pigeon Series, the book "The Pigeon Needs a Bath" has Pigeon singing in the bathtub once he finally takes a bath.
• Janie from the Bat series likes to sing loudly in the shower. Bat doesn't understand why she thinks he's weird when she's the one who sings to nobody.
• Iris from Harmony (2016) admits to singing songs from High School Musical in the shower and pretending she's one of the characters.
• Wild Orchid: At the end of the first book, after Penny and Danny have broken up, Taylor overhears Penny singing in the bath. She notes that Penny always takes a lot of baths after a breakup.

Live-Action TV

• Blackadder: During the fourth series Captain Blackadder is trying to work out where he's going to find a new headliner for the cabaret show he's producing when he overhears Bob singing in the shower.
• Decoy: When asked if she sings, Casey answers, "Sure, but only in the bathtub."
• Doctor Who:
  • In "Spearhead from Space", the Third Doctor escapes from his hospital bed and takes a shower in an antique Duke of Wellington bath in the doctor's quarters. The doctor who was treating him enters the room along with a visiting doctor, but the Doctor is standing with his back to them and singing loudly, which annoys them so they leave. The Third Doctor would often break out into snatches of song, so it could be assumed this was a regular thing for him.
  • The Eleventh Doctor is heard singing in the shower in "The Lodger", while he's sharing a flat and trying to act like an ordinary human being.
• Doogie Howser, M.D.: Doogie has been seen on a couple of occasions belting out a few random The Rolling Stones and Righteous Brothers tunes in the shower (granted he can sing); usually ends with Vinnie subsequently barging in on him.
• The Electric Company (1971): Dracula (or Vincent the Vegetable Vampire?), played by Morgan Freeman, sings about how he loves to take a bath in a casket. No kidding.
• Glee
  • This is how Mr. Schuester learns of Finn's singing talent.
  • This scene is mirrored in season 2 with Finn hearing Sam in the locker room shower.
• The Golden Girls: In the season 4 episode "Scared Straight", Blanche's brother Clayton comes to visit and admits to Rose that he's gay. Rose later confesses the truth to Dorothy, and Sophia figures it out on her own. Her reasoning: "I heard him singing in the shower. He's the only man I ever knew who knows all the words to 'Send In the Clowns'."
• The Goodies. At the end of "The Music Lovers", our heroes are showered with gifts from a grateful music industry, including an entire backing orchestra for Bill singing in the bath.
• The Love Boat: Gopher is overheard singing in the shower and is really good, so he's talked into singing at the crew/guest Talent Contest. But it turns out he's good at singing only while in the shower; so they make a prop shower for him to sing in for the show.
• Orange Is the New Black: Taystee sings in the shower in "I Wasn't Ready", and Vee sings in the shower in Season 2. Red overhears the latter—this is how she discovers her nemesis is back.
• In an early filmed bit on Saturday Night Live, Bill Murray tests out his Lounge Singer persona in the shower, then switches into MC mode to introduce the special guests: his wife (Gilda Radner) and her lover (Buck Henry).
• In the pilot episode of Star Trek: Voyager, Neelix sings while taking his first bath in a looooong while, much to the displeasure of Tuvok's Vulcan ears. Years later, after unsuccessfully trying to teach him to hold a key, Seven of Nine advises him to confine his singing to his bathroom.
• Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger: Umeko’s favorite pastime, taking a bath, is often accompanied by singing.

Music

• There's the song "Singing in the Bathtub" by High Hatters (see on YouTube), which is about this, except in the bathtub instead of a shower.
• The music video for "Water Shortage Song" (制水歌) by Sam Hui takes place while he's bathing… as the amount of water he has to bathe with reducing by the stanza, to reflect the water shortage around the time the song was released.
• Imagine Dragons' video for "Roots" features Deliberately Monochrome scenes of Dan Reynolds singing (albeit just lip-syncing) the song while submerged in a bathtub.
• The video for the Ninja Sex Party song "Eating Food in the Shower", unsurprisingly, makes use of this trope.
• Les Rita Mitsouko & The Sparks had a song "Singing in the shower".
• Believe it or not, this is what Simon & Garfunkel's famous song "The Sound of Silence" is actually about (partly). The line "Hello, darkness my old friend / I've come to talk with you again" is often thought to be a Wangsty line, but it was in fact written by Paul Simon who used to take advantage of the acoustics in his bathroom at night with the lights off, to aid his songwriting. He is literally singing to the darkness in his bathroom.
• The Takeaways had a song called "Singing in the shower." about someone who tries singing in various places, but this turns out to be their only option.

Puppet Shows

• Sesame Street:
  • Ernie sings "Rubber Duckie" (naturally enough) in the bath.
    • He also leads several other Muppets in ""Do de Rubber Duck", also in the bathtub.
  • Olivia, Ernie, Oscar, and Big Bird do so in the song, "Sing in the Shower". Olivia sings in the shower, Ernie sings in the bath, Oscar sings while taking a mudbath, and Big Bird sings while showering in the rain.
  • Bert sings "I Gotta Be Clean" in the bathtub.
  • Baby Bear sings in the bathtub once.

Radio

• Our Miss Brooks: In "Stretch Has A Problem", Miss Brooks' "feet were ready to come off" after participating in a snake dance. The rally was held in honor of the Madison High School basketball team's departure to the state tournament. The sore and tired Miss Brooks spends the rest of the episode trying to take a bath. And singing! Alas, she's continually interrupted by somebody coming to the door before she can get into the tub:
  Miss Brooks: [singing, while filling the bathtub with water] Singing in the bathtub, nothing can go wrong. Singing in the bathtub....
  [doorbell rings]
  Miss Brooks: [singing] Oh, I should live so long!

Video Games

• In the online mode of Grand Theft Auto V, when your character is in the shower, you can use your microphone to sing to earn a few Experience Points. With the added bonus of having the entire lobby hearing your awful singing and vote kicking you.
• Living Books: A mouse on page 10 of "The Tortoise and the Hare" showers under a waterfall while singing.
• In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Mario can be heard humming and vocalising his own theme music in the shower.
• At one point in Max Payne 2, Max comes upon Mona singing Recurring Riff/Solemn Ending Theme "Late Goodbye" in the shower.
  Mona Sax: I'll tell you one thing, Mona, you're no singer.
• In The Sims 3 and 4, your Sims will sometimes sing while they're in the shower. In 4's City Living expansion, one can even improve their Singing skill this way.

Web Animation

• Homestar Runner: The toon/game "One Two, One Two" has Strong Bad doing this, and for some reason he's singing a girly pop-rock sing (with lyrics like "I'm a woman on the prowl, and I stick up for myself" and "Look out world, I'm an independent girl").

Webcomics

• Amazing Super Powers has a botched analogy case (see also Alt Text).
• Com'c: Victor is heavily implied to do this by the punchline of str'p #36. It doesn't help that he's an atrocious singer.
• El Goonish Shive: Tedd sings well in the shower. Which would be irrelevant in context of transgender party karaoke — if it wasn't about Tedd.
• Flaky Pastry: When Zintiel applies as a roommate to Nitrine and Marelle, she dumps a bag of gold on the table, then heads to their bathroom and starts using their shower, singing in Elvish. It contrasts with her appearance as a filthy hobo.
• Freefall: It's rubber duck Mozart shower time!
• Schlock Mercenary: This page not only discusses the trope, but contains a lengthy annotation in The Rant, providing a scientific explanation for why bad singers believe they sound good when they are in the shower.
• Suicide for Hire: Arcturus sings "I'm So Cute" from Frank Zappa.

Western Animation

• In the 3-2-1 Penguins! episode "I Scream, You Scream", Zidgel sings a little song in the ship's shower about how it's great being a man, er, penguin.
• American Dad!: In "Love, American Dad Style", Roger overhears Hayley singing in the shower and decides to hire her to sing in his upstairs lounge.
• Francine does this in the Arthur episode "Feeling Flush". It annoys her sister and cat.
• In the bonus short at the end of the Atomic Betty episode "No Space Like Home" X5 films Sparky singing in the shower for a hidden camera prank show.
• In an episode of Bob's Burgers, Linda decides not to have her old high-school band play at her school reunion, but she changes her mind when this trope and an ensuing Imagine Spot convince her that she is a great singer.
• At the end of one episode of Dexter's Laboratory After the Boy Band Virus is supposedly eliminated from the family, the camera cuts to Dexter's dad singing the band's infectious song in the shower.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy: Eddy does this in the beginning of "Over Your Ed", and accidentally swallows the soap.
• An entire episode of The Flintstones is based on the discovery that Barney could sing really well — but only while bathing. Cue a Zany Scheme to have him perform onstage in a bathtub.
  • Similarly, an episode of The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show had Bamm-Bamm being a good singer while only in the shower.
• Gravity Falls: In "Dipper vs. Manliness", we technically see Dipper singing "Disco Girl" just after he got out of the shower, standing in front of the mirror in a Modesty Towel. The extended edition indicates that he sings in the shower, though.
• In the Hey Arnold! episode "Mr. Hyunh Goes Country", Arnold and Gerald hear Mr. Hyunh singing surprisingly well in the shower, and convince him to record a demo and become a star.
• In the Looney Tunes series, you can always expect the characters to be singing while bathing, usually either "Singing in the Bathtub" or "April Showers."
• The Loud House:
  • Luna Loud is an aspiring rocker and thus does this frequently. This causes problems in the episode "Attention Deficit" when her sisters overhear her singing about hanging out with Clyde's dads while they give her undivided attention.
  • In "Making the Case", Lincoln briefly sings in the shower while grooming his single chest hair.
  • In "Food Courting", Leni admits that she frequently sings the Dairyland song "Dairy Binds the World Together" in the shower, and that Luna apparently finds her uncool because of this.
• Ready Jet Go!: We don't get to see it on screen, but in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Sean reveals that he sings a lot in the shower.
• An episode of Recess had the teachers discover Mikey's great singing voice (by Robert Goulet) that he only sings in while he's in the bathroom, so they train him to sing like that everywhere else (starting with dismantling the bathroom while he sings).
  • This trope is also referenced in another episode, where Gretchen mentions that she got Menlo to "sing like an old guy in the shower when nobody's home."
• Total Drama:
  • Among the humiliating footage of Chris played in "Aftermath IV: Who Wants to Pick a Millionare?" is a recording of him badly singing in the shower while pretending that his bath brush is a microphone.
  • In "The Treasure Island of Doctor McLean", Mike takes off his shirt for a shower and thus Vito takes over. He goes clubbing under the stream.
• Wakfu: In season 1 episode 22, a mirage of Evangelyne under the shower is heard humming the show's tune.

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