The Pirates of Penzance, or: The Slave of Duty is a famous and much-parodied (and itself redolent with parodies and lampshade-hanging) operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan, and one of the most famous works of 19th century English drama. The eponymous slave of duty is Frederic, who was accidentally apprenticed to a pirate ship when he was a boy, and felt honour-bound to be the best pirate he could be — but now he has come of age, and his period of apprenticeship is over, he feels honour-bound to round up a posse and wipe the pirates from the face of the earth, especially since he's swiftly fallen in love with Mabel, one of the daughters of the local Major-General. However, due to a quibble about his date of birth being held on a Leap Day, it turns out Frederic's apprenticeship hasn't quite run out after all. Hilarity Ensues.
Penzance was a prominent seaside resort town in Cornwall during the nineteenth century. Thus, the title sounds like "The Pirates of Malibu" would today.
One of the most widely-recognised bits of the operetta is the Patter Song "I am the very model of a Modern Major General", sung by the father of the obligatory love interest.
Two very different film versions were made in The '80s in the wake of a wildly successful New York City revival of the operetta. The Pirate Movie (1982) has a modern day teen heroine dreaming herself into the story as Mabel (Frederic's love interest); with light pop songs and pop culture parodies alongside the Gilbert and Sullivan material, it could be described as Pirates of Penzance meets Grease meets Airplane!. A film adapted from the aforementioned revival staging was released the following year with the original title, and starred Kevin Kline as the Pirate King and Linda Ronstadt as Mabel.
This work provides examples of:
- Abduction Is Love: When the pirates capture Major-General Stanley's daughters, their first thought is "to be married with impunity."
- Action Girl: Ruth, a 47 year old child's maid who joins battle between pirates and police during a full raid on Penzance, coming out without a scratch.
- Adaptation Expansion: Possibly an expansion from a work begun on a one-act follow-up to Trial by Jury which never materialized due to funding falling short.
- Affably Evil: The pirates are technically, well, pirates, but they're so endearingly dimwitted (and completely rubbish at their attempts at piracy) that you can't help but like them.
- Affectionate Parody: The entire play. Down to the music; "Poor Wand'ring One" is a parody of "Sempre libera" from Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata and "With Cat-like Tread" is a parody of the "Anvil Chorus" from Verdi's Il trovatore.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: The Pirates declare to General Stanley's wards that they "shall quickly be parsonified, conjugally matrimonfied".
- All There in the Script:
- The Pirate King's lieutenant is Samuel, and is referred to as such in the script, but his name is never spoken. The same goes for Mabel's three sisters with lines, Kate, Edith and Isabel.
- In the first American production, which debuted at an earlier date than the British one for copy-right reasons, the Pirate King and the Sergeant of Police have their names listed in the dramatis personae as Richard and Edward, respectively. This never comes up anywhere else.
- Ambiguously Gay: Perhaps he's just posh, but the Major-General seems often to be played this way. His enormous number of daughters doesn't prove anything, as they are stated to be wards in chancery, not his biological daughters. And it's not like having biological daughters would prove anything, either.
- Antiquated Linguistics: Wouldn't be a G&S play without it. The most extreme is probably "sat a gee" which relies on knowing that a "gee-gee" is a horse. Made worse by the fact that even at the time the phrase was a grammatical disaster. In the film, the Major-General flat-out replaces the phrase with "rode a horse" the last time it comes up (which of course doesn't rhyme at all).
- Played straight with Frederic's first appearance to the ladies, delivered as a recitative, which was an antiquated musical form:Frederic: I had not intended to intrude upon your notice in this effective but alarming costume, but under these peculiar circumstance, I find it is my bounden duty to inform you that these proceedings shall not be unwitness'd!
- Played straight with Frederic's first appearance to the ladies, delivered as a recitative, which was an antiquated musical form:
- At Least I Admit It: "Live And Die (The Pirate King)" has the Pirate saying that he's a criminal, and revels in it, but at least he's true to his nature and is honest about it.
- Baritone of Strength: The part of the Pirate King, easily one of the best fighters in the play, is written for a bass-baritone voice.
- Berserk Button: The Pirate King is tired of people pretending to be orphans to manipulate him. This is a rare trope played absolutely straight in the show, and the pirate songs after they learn Major-General Stanley did so are entirely serious about wanting to kill him.
- Beware the Silly Ones: The Pirates are completely ineffective at being pirates, but once Major-General Stanley enrages them, they become quite dangerous.
- Big Bad: The Pirate King, despite being possibly one of the noblest and most inoffensive pirate leaders you could come across, still drives the conflict by at first attempting to abduct Mabel and her sisters and later trying to kill the Major General, all of this while fettering Frederic to a life of piracy by playing on his sense of duty.
- Blatant Lies: Major-General Stanley claims to be an orphan, but he's not. While he initially justifies his lie by saying it's "an innocent fiction / which is not in the same category / as telling a regular terrible story," he feels remorse about it later on.
- Blue Blood: As it turns out, the pirates are (nearly) all Peers who have gone wrong.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Traditionally, the only way to portray the Pirate King has been as a loud, strong fighter... though in recent years 'Jack Sparrow' has been gaining popularity for some reason.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: If it doesn't have it at some point, it's not true Pirates. Sorry. There is even a notable sword fight with the conductor, which has occurred in several versions, and originated as a spur-of-the-moment outburst in the original production.
- Calculus Is Arcane Knowledge: The Major General cites calculus as part of his educated background in his opening song. Of course, the comedy of the song stems from the fact that pretty much everything the Major General brags about is either trivially easy or flat-out impossible.
- Close to Home / Conveniently an Orphan: The pirates have a soft spot for orphans, so anyone who claims to be an orphan will be spared. This leads Frederic to observe "The last three ships we took proved to be manned entirely by orphans, and so we had to let them go. One would think that Great Britain’s mercantile navy was recruited solely from her orphan asylums – which we know is not the case."
- Cloudcuckoolander: Everybody except Mabel and possibly General Stanley's other daughters.
- Counterpoint Duet: "How Beautifully Blue the Sky" and "When the Foeman Bares His Steel / Go Ye Heroes."
- Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: A major part of "Better far to live and die" is the Pirate King comparing just how much better liberty and self-honesty is than the petty corruption and hypocrisy of life on land.Away to the cheating world go you
Where pirates all are well-to-do,
But I'll stay true to the song I sing
And live and die a pirate king! - Damned by Faint Praise:
- Frederic worries if Ruth is not as beautiful as other women are, and the pirates struggle to say good things about her:Pirate King: Oh, Ruth is very well, very well indeed.
Samuel: Yes, there are the remains of a fine woman about Ruth. - The Major-General unknowingly does this to himself in his song. He freely brags about things that are either trivial or flat-out impossible (and completely useless in a military career).
- Frederic worries if Ruth is not as beautiful as other women are, and the pirates struggle to say good things about her:
- Deus ex Machina: The pirates finally surrender when asked to do so "in the name of the Queen". A deliberate parody of Victorianism.
- Dirty Coward: The entire police force, who are quite terrified of facing the pirates and put off actually going to do their duties for as long as they can.
- Disproportionate Retribution: "We seek a penalty fifty-fold for General Stanley's story."
- Dramatic Gun Cock: Fredrick does this to hold the Pirate King and Ruth at bay before declaring that "I do not think I ought to listen to you..."
- Drink-Based Characterization: Due to their unusual origins, these pirates prefer sherry to the more obvious rum. The opening song is called "Pour, o pour, the pirate sherry".
- Easily Forgiven: When the pirates reveal their true identities, the Major General seems to forget about their past, and even invites them to marry his daughters.
- Either/Or Title: "The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty".
- Even Evil Has Standards: A major plot point. The eponymous Pirates of Penzance are highly infamous and feared pirates, but it is also well-known that they, being orphans, would never kill an orphan. This weakness has been manipulated by many would-be victims, such as three whole ships and the Major General. The Pirate King really isn't able to tell if anyone is lying about it, since he trusts that all of his victims would be honest about it. See Close to Home above.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Played with. Although the Pirate King and Samuel are in the traditionally villainous lower registers, the pirate chorus in the first act covers the full range — and when the male ensemble divides into pirates and policemen for the second act, it's the pirates who get all the high vocal parts and the policemen (led by a Sergeant with an even deeper voice than the Pirate King) who get the low vocal parts.
- Evolving Music:
- In the original 1880 production, Gilbert had referred in the Major General Song to the French "Chassepot rifle," which had only recently been retired from service in 1874; by the time of Pirates's revival in 1888, the Chassepot was largely forgotten, so Gilbert amended the line to reference the German "Mauser rifle."
- For the 1908 revival, Gilbert had the pirates being charged to yield "in good King Edward's name." Later productions have not followed suit, as Victorian pirates are just funnier.
- It's somewhat traditional for the Major-General's song to be updated to poke fun of current topical references.
- Exact Words: Frederic's indentures specify that he is bound to his apprenticeship until his 21st birthday. This is a problem, since he was born on Leap Day.
- Expert in Underwater Basket Weaving: Major-General Stanley introduces himself with the iconic Major General Song in which he lists such useless and/or absurd talents like humming a fugue
, writing a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform or "teeming with news" about binomial theorem. At the end of the song he just admits he doesn't have much knowledge a military man should have. Not to mention that in all the three cases above, he is quite blatantly lying. - Failed a Spot Check: General Stanley fails to notice the group of about two dozen pirates and policemen hiding (poorly) in his garden. On top of that, the pirates fail to notice the policemen. This despite all of them serving as chorus to General Stanley's song.
- Flaw Exploitation:
- The Pirates themselves make a point of two things: 1. Never to attack a weaker party than themselves, and 2. Never to harm an orphan. Word gets around.
- Also, it's common knowledge that every British person loves his queen.
- Frederick's love of duty means he's bound to piracy for what amounts to a typo in his contract.
- The Golden Age of Piracy: The play and its adaptations aren't actually set in this time period (in order for 21-year-old Frederick to reach his 21. birthday in 1940, the play must be set in 1877note ; the actual Age was 1650 to 1720), but they certainly act like it is, and it's spoofed to high heaven.
- Furthermore, some adaptations have set it even later (with Frederick turning eighty-four correspondingly later).
- Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die: Trope Namer. Mabel's attempt at a rousing speech before the policemen set out to fight the pirates is all about how they'll be fondly remembered after the pirates kill them all. As the Sergeant replies,"We observe too great a stress
On the risks that on us press
And of reference a lack
To our chance of coming back." - Have a Gay Old Time: "We never molest an orphan!"
- Heartwarming Orphan: The pirates, who are themselves orphans, refuse to oppress any orphan. Word got around.
- High-Class Glass: The Major-General usually wears a monocle in most productions.
- Honor Before Reason: Frederic's defining trope, as the title character of the Either/Or Title "The Slave of Duty". Ironically, taught him by the pirates themselves, who never attack orphans or weaker enemies. Last but not least, General Stanley deeply regrets subverting this trope to help himself and his daughters escape the pirates. It's arguable that deconstructing this trope is one of the play's main themes.
- Horny Sailors: The pirates carry off a whole chorus of picnickers, intending to "marry them on the spot".
- "I Am" Song: "I am the very model of a Modern Major General" for Major-general Stanley, "Better Far to Live and Die" for the Pirate King.
- Incessant Chorus: During "Oh False One, You Have Deceived Me", the chorus of pirates ends up repeating both sides of an argument.Ruth: Oh, do not leave me!
Pirates: Oh, do not leave her!
Frederic: Away, you grieve me!
Pirates: Away, you grieve him!
Frederic: I wish you'd leave me!
Pirates: We wish you'd leave him! - Incredibly Lame Pun: "You said often frequently only once!" It makes sense in context, but it's also often the line that pushes the Pirate King to order the Major-General's death.
- In the film, it's so bad that both the Pirate King and General Stanley appear to be in physical pain.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The pirates are too soft-hearted to be much good at piracy.
- Informed Attractiveness: Each of Stanley's daughters is described as surpassingly beautiful by Frederic, shortly after confessing to having never seen a woman other than Ruth. Mabel, the last daughter revealed, is of course the most beautiful as well.
- Savagely satirized with Ruth. The pirates struggle to convince Frederic to take her with him, with such lines as, "There are the remains of a fine woman about Ruth," but it's clear neither Frederic nor the crew really find her attractive.
- Informed Flaw: In the first act, Ruth confesses she mistakenly had Frederic apprenticed to a pirate, rather than a pilot, due to being hard of hearing. Her deafness never comes up again in the rest of the play. In the final act, she knows perfectly well he's a lord.
- The Ingenue: Mabel: a young soprano winning the affection of the lead tenor, whose role calls for some terribly soprano-y cadenza runs (which are hilarious).
- Insane Troll Logic: Major-General Stanley claims the tombs in the ruined chapel on his estate are the tombs of his ancestors, even though he only bought the estate a year ago. He is their "descendant by purchase," you see. (It is a satire of newly wealthy middle class family buying their way to respectability, something which happened reasonably often in Victorian England but was nevertheless looked down upon.)
- They're his ancestors. He bought them, they're his now.
- Insult Backfire: At the time, people thought Major General Stanley was a satirical Take That! of Sir Garnet Wolseley. Wolseley took no offense on the idea, and even had the "Major-General's Song" played at private parties.
- Irony: The pirates sing "With Catlike Tread" at the top of their lungs. Often while performing a kick line. With an orchestral accompaniment featuring heavily accented chords and cymbal crashes. And frequently rhythmic stomping by the pirates."With cat-like tread, upon our prey we steal
In silence dread, our cautious way we feel
No sound at all, we never speak a word
A fly's footfall would be distinctly heard!" - It's Probably Nothing: After the loud, loud "With Catlike Tread", Major General Stanley comes out to see what the noise was, but concludes that it "must have been the sighing of the breeze."
- I Was Quite a Looker: Ruth, or so she claims. Samuel backs her up, kind of, saying that "There are the remains of a fine woman about Ruth."
- I Will Wait for You: On learning Frederic is still bound as a pirate apprentice, Mabel promises to wait for him until 1940, when he finally celebrates his 21st birthday and his indenture will be up.
- Job Song:
- "The Major General's Song" is about a major general boasting about his job.
- "The Pirate King" is about how good it is to be the Pirate King.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: The entire point of the Major General Song. Stanley is Cliff Clavin's predecessor.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Drives the Pirate King to order the Major-General's death at the end of the Major General's song."You said often frequently only once!"
- Lampshade Hanging: The pirates explain why they are The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. The real reason being that Gilbert and Sullivan were aiming for good, clean, family-friendly fun (an under-served market in 1870s British theatre).
- Large Ham: The Pirate King, the Major-General, and pretty much the rest of the cast too.
- Lawful Stupid:
- Frederic, the eponymous "Slave of Duty".
- The eponymous buccaneers are so bound by their pirate rules that they fail utterly at piracy.
- Stanley's inconsolable with guilt for telling a white lie to prevent his daughters' kidnapping and forced marriage.
- Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Mabel's sisters decide to do this and express a desire to Talk About the Weather as a thin excuse for doing so.
- List Song: The Major-General's song consists largely of a list of his accomplishments.
- Lyrical Dissonance: The dynamic notation for the song "With Catlike Tread...", which covers (and talks about) the Pirates quietly sneaking into Major General Stanley's manor and into his house to gain revenge, is Fortissimo. For those unfamiliar with musical notation, for singers Fortissimo means "sing it at the top of your lungs, as loudly as you can". The number is accompanied by heavy use of cymbals and brass in the accompaniment, and brother, it's a show-stopper.
- Mathematician's Answer: When the Major-General wants to find out more about the men in piratical outfits who propose to marry his daughters:Major General: May I ask – this is a picturesque uniform, but I’m not familiar with it. What are you?
Pirate King: We are all... single gentlemen.
Major General: Yes, I gathered that. - Miles Gloriosus: According to his song, the major-general is absurdly qualified in every way, except that he has no military knowledge whatever and can't even "tell a Mauser rifle from a javelin."
- Modern Major General: The Trope Namer is Major General Stanley, who introduces himself with a long-winded song listing all of the things he knows, eventually summing up with a long verse about his complete and utter lack of military knowledge.
- Mood Whiplash: "Oh False One, You Have Deceived Me" begins loud and dramatic as Frederic accuses Ruth of lying to him, before slowing to a soft song as she pleads with him not to abandon her. It's not until she accidentally reminds him how much older than him she is that he erupts into decrying her once again.Ruth: (sweetly) My love unabating...
Frederic: (also sweetly) If, as you are stating...
Ruth: Has been accumulating...
Frederic: Has been accumulating...
Ruth: Forty-seven year-
Frederic: (horrified) Forty-seven year?!- The pirates, previously described as tender-hearted and unwilling to harm either an orphan or a weaker foe, find out that Stanley lied to them about being an orphan. The pirates begin an immediate crusade to straight up murder the liar.
- Motor Mouth: Major General Stanley is this, as it is a requirement for singing the Major General Song. If there's an encore, expect to have to sing it even faster.
- Since the 1970s, this is also true of "My Eyes Are Fully Open," adapted from Ruddigore.
- Not So Above It All: Early on Fredric points out how the pirates' Honor Before Reason has made them really bad at their profession, making him seem more reasonable, however later the pirates end up turning his own Honor Before Reason against him to force him back into piracy until he turns 84.
- Opening Chorus: "Pour, O Pour the Pirate Sherry."
- Overly Long Gag:
- The infamous "often/orphan" misunderstanding.
- Some of Mabel's ridiculously high notes are held for absurdly long times in some productions.
- Painful Rhyme: In the Major General's song, the word "general" is rendered as "gineral" so it will rhyme with "mineral." In many renditions of the song, the singer will pause at the end of each verse and mutter a bit, as if trying to think his way through increasingly awkward rhymes.
- Patter Song: The Major General's Song is a shining example of the craft.
- Pirate: Spoofed to high heaven. Many of the characters are pirates... who are still active in the 1880s, and operating out of a seaside resort in Cornwall...
- Pirate Girl: Subverted. Ruth is a woman on a pirate ship, but was brought on as a maid-of-all-work, and is about 30 years too old to classify as a 'girl'.
- Pirate King: The Pirate King seems to be the kind who commands only a single ship and just uses the title.
- Pirate Song: The Pirate King sings a self-titled song about how great it is to be a pirate.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Subverted, sort of—they attempt piratical activities, they're just useless at them, combining being very soft-hearted with being rather dim-witted. (They try to rob ships, but the Navy has figured out that they refuse to harm an orphan, and since then, they have yet to find a ship that isn't entirely crewed by orphans.) It doesn't help that the pirates make a point never to attacking a weaker party than themselves, which is generally the entire modus operandi of nautical piracy. Played straight in that they speak oft and loud about how they are rough men (rough!) and lead a rough life (rough, rough!), and how they live by strife, and so on... but every time they do, it's to point out that they'll make an exception just this time. It is eventually revealed that the pirates are members of the peerage gone to the bad—which means that they weren't doing anything related to that position either.
- Police Are Useless
- Prepare to Die:Pirate King: With base deceit you played upon our feelings!
Revenge is sweet and flavours all our dealings!
With courage rare, and resolution manly
For death prepare, our Major-General Stanley! - Punch-Clock Villain: The focus of the song "When a Felon's Not Engaged in His Employment."
- Rags to Royalty: When it's revealed that the pirates are all noblemen who have gone wrong, they immediately resume their ranks and legislative duties.
- Recycled Soundtrack: The chorus "Climbing Over Rocky Mountain" was reused from Gilbert and Sullivan's 1871 operetta Thespis, of which it is one of the few surviving pieces of music.
- Rules Lawyer: The Pirate King holds Frederick to the Exact Words of his apprenticeship contract, which releases him on his twenty-first birthday, not when he's twenty-one years old. Since he was born on Leap Day, that makes things a bit complicated.
- Foreshadowing how Ruth also gets the pirates exonerated — as lords, they're expected to act out, and are effectively above the law.
- Scare Chord: The opening bars of "O False One, You Have Deceived Me" are typically played loudly and suddenly as Frederic turns on Ruth.
- Scoundrel Code: Parodied. The pirates' code entails that they will never hurt an orphan, so all anyone has to do to foil their attacks is claim to be one. Similarly, they never attack anybody weaker than themselves, and when they attack a stronger party, they invariably get thrashed.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: The chorus of policemen sing the trumpet parts: "Tarantara, tarantara..."
- Selective Slaughter: The pirates will never hurt an orphan, which leads to the Flaw Exploitation mentioned above.
- Self-Deprecation: From Gilbert and Sullivan themselves - in his song, the Major-General refers to "That infernal nonsense Pinafore"
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Major-General Stanley is fond of this, especially when it comes to his renowned "I am The Very Model of a Modern Major General" musical number.
- The Pirate King demonstrates a touch of this, too:
Pirate King: Am I to understand that, to save his contemptible life, he dared to practice on our credulous simplicity? - Skeleton Key: In the song, "With Cat-Like Tread", one of the pirates' tools mentioned is their "skeletonic keys."
- Speak in Unison: When talking with Mabel, the police chant all their responses in unison on a single tone, for some reason.
- Suddenly Suitable Suitor: In the final scene, Ruth reveals that all the pirates are "Noblemen who have gone wrong." The Major General is suddenly eager for the buccaneers to marry his daughters, as are the girls themselves. "With all our faults, we love our House of Peers!" Gilbert and Sullivan used this trope regularly.
- Super Gullible: The pirates believe anyone who claims that they're an orphan, no matter how much the other person is clearly lying about it.
- Swiper, No Swiping!: The pirates turn themselves in when requested to surrender in the name of Queen Victoria.
- Take That!: "Major-General's Song" was a Take That! by Gilbert on "educated" British naval leadership who had little in the way of actual Naval tactical knowledge, with Major General Stanley an Expy of Glibert's uncle-in-law General Henry Turner.
- Talk About the Weather: The chorus indulges in this to give Frederic and Mabel some privacy.
- Tenor Boy: Frederic is a prime example, being a golden-haired ingenue, noble, trusting and, yes, a tenor.
- Title Drop:
- "Don't believe them papa! They are pirates. The famous Pirates of Penzance!"
- "For I am the Slave of Duty!"
- That Reminds Me of a Song: Though G&S used this less often than most musicals do, "Hail, Poetry" and "Sighing Softly to the River" may qualify.
- "Hail Poetry" comes out of nowhere, extols the virtues of poetry in an A cappella anthem, and is never mentioned again. The piece gets away with it by being a simply awesome choral number.
- "Sighing Softly To The River" is a gag in which the major-general Failed a Spot Check ("It must have been the sighing of the breeze…") and proceeds to sing a random ballad about flowers and trees, accompanied by a chorus of the pirates and the policemen, none of whom have noticed each other. Still, it's sometimes cut for pacing, especially since the Major-General already has a perfectly good solo elsewhere.
- Two Words: I Can't Count: "I'll explain in two words: We propose to marry your daughters."
- Villain Song:
- The pirates aren't exactly villains, but they do get a show-stopping Villain Song in "With Cat-Like Tread".
- The Pirate King gets his number "Oh Better Far To Live And Die" which is all about how awesome it is to be a Pirate King. Naturally he's something of an Anti-Villain.
- There's also a short one with Ruth about how they're going to kill the Major-General and his daughters, called "Away! Away! My Heart's on Fire!".
- Villains Out Shopping: Lampshaded in one of the songs as the reason why "A policeman's lot is not a happy one."
- Weddings for Everyone: As is common in a G&S production, Everyone Must Be Paired.
- Weird Trade Union: Apparently, one can be apprenticed to a pirate, just like one could be apprenticed to a plumber or stonemason.
- Who's on First?: The orphan / often routine (which only works delivered in the right accent):Major General: I ask you, have you ever known what it is to be an orphan?
Pirate King: Often!
Major General: Yes, orphan. Have you ever known what it is to be one?
Pirate King: I say, often.
Pirates: Often, often, often.
Major General: I don't think we quite understand one another. I ask you, have you ever known what it is to be an orphan, and you say "orphan". As I understand you, you are merely repeating the word "orphan" to show that you understand me.
Pirate King: I didn't repeat the word often.
Major General: Pardon me, you did indeed.
Pirate King: I only repeated it once.
Major General: True, but you repeated it.
Pirate King: But not often.
Major General: Stop! I think I see where we are getting confused. When you said "orphan", did you mean "orphan", a person who has lost his parents, or "often", frequently?
Pirate King: Ah! I beg pardon, I see what you mean. Frequently.
Major General: Ah! You said "often", frequently.
Pirate King: No, only once.
Major General: Exactly! You said "often", frequently, only once.
[cue musical number, as the Major General explains which one he meant] - With Catlike Tread: In the trope-naming song, the Pirates sneak up on the General while singing, in chorus, fortississimo, with cymbals and drums, about how stealthy they're being. However, because the General never actually sees them, this is a subversion.
- World of Ham: Oh yeah. Especially during the "With Catlike Tread" number.
Specific productions or adaptations provide examples of:
- The Pirate Movie has its own trope page.
- Adaptation Name Change: The Pirate King is regularly renamed Roderick because so many directors like to have Frederic, Ruth and the Pirate King perform some variation on "My Eyes Are Fully Opened" from Ruddigore.
- Antiquated Linguistics: The 1983 film version (of the Broadway production, with Kevin Kline as the Pirate King and Angela Lansbury as Ruth) lampshades it:Mabel: Oh, Frederic, cannot you, in the calm excellence of your wisdom, reconcile it with your conscience to say something that will relieve my father's sorrow?
(Beat)
Frederic: What?
Mabel: Can't you cheer him up?- At one point, the Pirate King's speech is so thick with this that he himself has to stop and ponder what he just said.
- Ash Face: The 2003 revival performance by Essgee Entertainment sees this happening to the Pirate King, in lieu of a previous joke where he fell off the stage.
- Badass Bystander: In some productions, the pirate king picks a fight with the conductor, and the conductor manages to fight back for a while.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The 1994 Australian production (the one with Jon English and Toni Lamond) is filled to the brim with this, amongst Actor Allusions and Shout Outs aplenty. The revival production a decade later even referenced this — Jon English stops to make sure that a number of gags from the original aren't repeated, with the explanation "they've all seen the DVD anyway".
- A 1990s production by amateur company The Young Savoyards had the policemen hiding in the front row of the audience.
- Calling Me a Logarithm: Depending on the production, this can be the pirates' reaction to Major-General Stanley asking "You're not thespians, are you?". The non-verbal reaction of Jon English, playing the Pirate King in Australian productions, is a comic masterpiece.
- Everyone Must Be Paired:
- Productions often pair off the female chorus (Mabel's sisters) with the male chorus (the pirates) — and sometimes the policemen as well, if there are enough sisters to go around.
- It can also depend on the director's sense of humor. One production had enough daughters for every pirate and every constable, but the Sergeant remained alone because the Pirate King grabbed two girls!
- In the 2013 production by Seattle's 5th Avenue Theater, one of the couples that steps up to be married consists of a pirate and a constable. The Doctor of Divinity pauses for a brief double-take, then cheerfully marries them without further ado. Considering recent events in Seattle at the time, this brief bit invariably got one of the biggest cheers of the night from the audience.
- Evolving Music: It's quite common for renditions of the Major General's song to incorporate new lyrics poking fun of current topical references; in fact it even warrants its own trope.
- Last Chorus Slow-Down:
- In some productions, if they follow the famous 1982 Joseph Papp revival, "With Catlike Tread". Possibly followed by several encores, each slowing it down even further, and raising the volume even more.
- Most productions will do this with the last verse of "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General"...before returning to the original tempo for the final few lines. And then speeding up again for the encore.
- Mondegreen Gag: In certain productions, when the Major-General's daughters mishear Frederic's "I, sore at heart" as "I saw a tart".
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: In the 1983 film, The Pirate King and Frederick take positions like this on each side of the door when the Major General comes out.
- Overly Long Gag: The 1994 Australian production had the conductor force the pirates to perform four encores of "With Catlike Tread", each more dramatic than the one before.
- Pair the Spares: Different productions come up with different solutions to Ruth being left alone after her hopes of snaring Frederick come to nothing.
- General Stanley and Ruth are often paired off at the conclusion.
- The 1983 film version has Ruth paired with the Sergeant at the end.
- Averted in the 2015 ENO production directed by Mike Leigh: nobody wants a deaf middle-aged pirate maid any more at the end than at the beginning, and the show ends with Ruth sitting sad and alone off to one side of the general celebration.
- Patter Song: Several productions interpolate "My Eyes Are Fully Open" (originally from Ruddigore).
- Porky Pig Pronunciation: In the 1983 film, the second time the phrase comes up during his song, the Major-General gives up on trying to make a rhyme with "strategy" and just says "rode a horse."
- He does say sat a-gee in the original verse, explaining the archaic term in the reprise.
- Precision F-Strike: Or D-Strike, to be more precise. Although not in the original libretto, many productions, including the 1968 D'oyly Carte recording, have General Stanley exclaim, "Damme, you don't go!" at the end of "When the Foeman Bares His Steel".
- Recitation Handclasp: In the 1983 film version (and in the Delacorte theatrical version from which it sprang), the womens' chorus assume this pose, though they only press the hands flatly against each other and fail to actually perform the clasp.
- Recursive Canon: In the 1983 film, the pirates crash a performance of "that infernal nonsense" Pinafore during the chase scene with the police and the Pirate King has a brief duel with the conductor.
- Speaking Simlish: In the 1983 film, in the pre-credit sequence showing the villagers, they babble in Simlish.
- Two Words: I Can't Count: Directors love to have fun with this bit. In some productions, the 'two words' ("We propose to marry your daughters.") are delivered as two words each by three different pirates. Another production has it rendered as "We propose-to-marry-your-daughters" (with the pirate counting the words on his fingers, and being surprised when he reaches six (or seven, with "daugh" and "ters" as separate words)). Others have a pirate deliver the first two, "We propose," and have the Major-General be confused or offended that he's being proposed to before the sentence continues.
