History Main / GratuitousMariachiBand

* One of ''LetsPlay/RTGame'''s Subnautica videos invokes the trope after RT accidentally referred to the Mariana Trench as the "Marinara Trench" and the chat started bringing up other words that sounded similar. [[https://youtu.be/BEJsE-sEcfg Animated in this video.]]

* ''Film/{{Zookeeper}}'': Griffin hired a mariachi band to impress Stephanie for his proposal, even though she rejected it.

* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'' and ''VideoGame/Mother3'' both have gratuitous mariachi slot machine men, Pincho, Pancho, and Tomas Jefferson. They are dressed up as both mariachis and slot machines. They let you play them as if they were slot machines.

->''"Just that brief moment where you're reading and you're like, 'Oh, a guitar player.'' [beat] ''Oh, another guitar player.'' [beat] ''Oh, an accordion player— Oh, nooo. '''''[mimicking mariachi music]'' This is the loudest thing in the world!''''"''

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': After watching the Lost Episode, Patchy the Pirate wants to watch it again. But since he doesn't know how to work the remote, Patchy surfs through other channels, until Potty tries to grab it and they accidentally press the mariachi button.

'''Riker:''' [[SarcasmMode Swell.]]

** After Martha breaks up with Gob, Buster decides to attempt to court her through a GrandRomanticGesture and hires a mariachi band to play as he plans to profess his crush on her. But much to his chagrin, just as he is about to pull of said gesture, he discovers that Michael and Martha has already started an relationship. Afterwards, Buster is too depressed to just dismiss the band and since he has hired them for a day, they keep following him around. This culimates in the band following him to the local courthouse, when he sits in on his father's trial, where they join him in the gallery. Upon noticing this his mother comments: "For God's sake! I leave alone for one day and he joins a gang."

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': One RunningGag is "The Sound Of Silence" playing when a character has an OhCrap moment, at one point played by a passing mariachi band.

->''"Just that brief moment where you're reading and you're like, 'Oh, a guitar player.'' [beat] ''Oh, another guitar player.'' [beat] ''Oh, an accordion player— Oh, nooo.'' [mimicking mariachi music] ''This is the loudest thing in the world!'"''

* Film/TheNakedGun: In the second film Frank, Ed, Nordberg and Meinheimer use the costumes of a mariachi band to get into the Press Club Dinner - only to unintentionally walk onto a stage and have to give an impromptu performance of Besame Mucho to maintain their cover.

* One of ''WebVideo/RTGame'''s Subnautica videos invokes the trope after RT accidentally referred to the Mariana Trench as the "Marinara Trench" and the chat started bringing up other words that sounded similar. [[https://youtu.be/BEJsE-sEcfg Animated in this video.]]

->''"Just that brief moment where you're reading and you're like, 'Oh, a guitar player.'' [beat] ''Oh, another guitar player.'' [beat] ''Oh, an accordion player— [[OhCrap Oh, nooo.]]'' [mimicking mariachi music] ''This is the loudest thing in the world!'"''

* Wrestling/BrockLesnar had demonstrated to have funny and unsettling moments. One of the most famous ones was in 2004 when he had a feud with Wrestling/EddieGuerrero and in a [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} SmackDown]] show he entered with a entire mariachi band and a giant [[CoolHat Mexican sombrero]] making a celebration, when Guerrero came later to end it.

* ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'': After a shootout with Anton Chigurh, Llewelyn Moss is woken up on a street corner by a mariachi band in one of the few humorous scenes of what is otherwise an extremely dark film.

-->I don't know what it's like in the moments just before you're killed by hitmen, but I bet it's not unlike when you're on the subway and you realize a mariachi band is about to start playing.'' (Off-key singing)'' Oh-da-la-low-de-por-arl! THIS IS THE LOUDEST THING IN THE WORLD!

->''"Just that brief moment where you're reading and you're like, 'Oh, a guitar player.'' (beat) ''Oh, another guitar player.'' (beat) ''Oh, an accordion player— [[OhCrap Oh, nooo.]]'' (mimicking mariachi music) ''This is the loudest thing in the world!'"''

[[folder:Advertisements]]
* The Doritos Mariachi band is used to emphasise the idea that Doritos are a fun crisp snack with a Mexican association; the Dorito mariachi band pop up to liven up parties with unlikely versions of pop classics up to and including Queen's ''Bohemian Rhapsody''. Here are [[https://youtu.be/j02LQMR8x1Y two]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd3HD5pZ9e4 examples]].

[[folder:Fanfics]]
* In ''Fanfic/SlippingBetweenWorlds'', Ankh-Morpork in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' has its version of the mass panic engendered by ''Radio/TheWarOfTheWorlds''. As thousands pack the streets and panicked people flee into the surrounding countryside, strange things are indeed seen in the skies which acts, to the people, as bias confirmation. Meanwhile a mariachi band plays to a captive audience....

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'': The Mariachi Owls pop up throughout the movie, singing about the events of the story. They also function as a GreekChorus.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie'': [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick are captured by a cyclops (actually a man in a diving suit) and taken to his gift shop to be dried and made into souvenir knickknacks. Among his victims are a group of fish made to look like a mariachi band. When the sprinkler system revives the fish, the mariachi band starts playing as they exact revenge on the cyclops.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Planes}}'': Dusty helps El Chu [[SerenadeYourLover serenade]] Rochelle by bringing in a mariachi band to do a low-key version of "Love Machine" by The Miracles. Doubly impressive is the fact that they were in China at the time.

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

* ''Film/{{Bratz}}'': Yasmin's family has a mariachi band that plays ''in their kitchen'', which seems to just be an ordinary occurrence for them.

* ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'': After a shootout with Anton Chigurh, Llewelyn Moss is woken up on a street corner by a mariachi band in one of the few humorous scenes of what is otherwise an extremely dark film.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': The page image is from the end of "Deja Q". After spending the episode being BroughtDownToNormal, Q has his powers restored by the Continuum, and he celebrates by bringing a mariachi band with him on the bridge of the USS Enterprise, much to Jean-Luc Picard's magisterial displeasure.
-->'''Q:''' My brothers and sisters of the Continuum have taken me back. I'M IMMORTAL AGAIN! OMNIPOTENT AGAIN!\\
'''Riker:''' [[SarcasmMode Swell.]]
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': When Frasier is dared to fight a rival, he marvels at the media circus forming outside and quips that all that's missing is a mariachi band. Niles says "They're just setting up." When Frasier steps outside to face his opponent, the band starts playing.

* ''Series/StudioC'' has a sketch where Matt is celebrating the birthday of his coworker Whitney, and one of the many awkward gifts he attempts to give her is a mariachi band that pops up and starts playing music.

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/NinjaSexParty: In "Eating Food In The Shower", Danny has hired a mariachi band to play while he and his date were having dinner in the shower. In the video, this only lead to extra chaos and limited space.

[[folder:Stand Up Comedy]]
* Creator/JohnMulaney has a bit about obnoxious mariachi bands he has encountered in the subway.
-->I don't know what it's like in the moments just before you're killed by hitmen, but I bet it's not unlike when you're on the subway and you realize a mariachi band is about to start playing.'' (Off-key singing)'' Oh-da-la-low-de-por-arl! THIS IS THE LOUDEST THING IN THE WORLD!
* In various spots of Creator/GeorgeLopez's ''America's Mexican'', Lopez turns on mariachi music to emphasize Mexico's influence on America, always ending on a loud and high-pitched ''grito''.
[[/folder]]

* ''[[VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space]]'': About OnceAnEpisode, someone will mention a birthday, causing a mariachi player to come out of nowhere and say "[[InadvertentEntranceCue Did somebody say "birthday?"]], play some music, and then leave. Later in the season, it's revealed that [[spoiler:the mariachi players are actually the same man from different points in time, who made a DealWithTheDevil to keep playing his music in exchange for working for Satan, sending damned souls to hell]].
* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'', one can find Sombrero-wearing Shy-Guys playing the guitar through World 2. Which is a very ''Egyptian'' desert. There is even a full mariachi band consisting of one Sombrero Guy, an Accordion Guy and a Maraca Guy playing on a '''sphinx'''.

* In the San Martín Bank heist in VideoGame/{{Payday 2}}, one of the available favors is to hire a very loud mariachi band to perform outside the bank and provide a distraction to make a stealth run easier.

* Wrestling/BrockLesnar had demonstrated to have funny and unsettling moments. One of the most famous ones was in 2004 when he had a feud with Wrestling/EddieGuerrero and in a [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} SmackDown]] show he entered with a entire mariachi band and a giant [[CoolHat Mexican sombrero]] making a celebration, when Guerrero came later to end it.

[[folder:Web Video]]

* One of [[WebVideo/{{RTGame}} RT's]] Subnautica videos invokes the trope after RT accidentally referred to the Mariana Trench as the "Marinara Trench" and the chat started bringing up other words that sounded similar. [[https://youtu.be/BEJsE-sEcfg Animated in this video.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': After watching the Lost Episode, Patchy the Pirate wants to watch it again. But since he doesn't know how to work the remote, Patchy surfs through other channels, until Potty tries to grab it and they accidentally press the mariachi button.
-->'''Patchy''': '''''I HATE TECHNOLOGYYYYY!!!'''''

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic:'' [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E23InspirationManifestation "Inspiration Manifestation"]] has an inversion. While Rarity is [[SanitySlippage going mad]] due to the power of a new RealityWarper spell, she decides to bring a child's birthday party up to her own standards of beauty--which includes transforming the hired mariachi band into a classical music ensemble. In other words ''not-gratuitous'' mariachi getting replaced by ''gratuitous classical music''.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'', the titular duo are forced to fight a bull. They naturally try to escape the night before but each of their attempts are interrupted by a mariachi band.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' episode "Save The Date", semi-justified by the fact that part of the episode takes place at a Mexican/French restaurant. It plays up the "obnoxious" aspect as Lincoln keeps bumping into the band, who get out only a few notes before Lincoln either scolds them or walks away. They serve as TheTag to the episode when Clyde cues them up at school the following day.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': Naturally they show up in "Three Days Of The Kahndo", when the cast vacations in Mexico as Hank and Khan stop at a bar, trying to get Hank to throw some money their way to get them to stop. Hank directs them to Khan who fights back by singing, managing to scare them off when he sings "She Blinded Me With Science".
* ''WesternAnimation/JellyJamm'': A recurring joke in the series is an inexplicable cutout of a Mariachi that plays some notes of the Mexican Hat Dance whenever it appears.

* ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'': Llewelyn wakes up in Mexico after an encounter with Chigurh to a Mariachi band playing [[BilingualBonus a rather appropriate song about his situation]].

* In the music video for Music/{{Train}}'s "50 Ways to Say Goodbye," as the lead singer Pat Monahan begins to make excuses to Creator/DavidHasselhoff why his girlfriend isn't around. As Pat breaks into song listing excuses, a mariachi band suddenly appears in the supermarket to back vocals.