History Main / HollywoodToneDeaf

* Haruka in ''Manga/KotouraSan'' does this with [[ThemeTuneCameo the anime's OP and ED]].

* In the seventh episode of the original ''Manga/SailorMoon'' anime, Usagi and Naru [[ThemeTuneCameo sing the title theme]], but are badly off-key. Usagi's Japanese voice actress, Creator/KotonoMitsuishi, is an accomplished singer who recorded multiple [=CDs=] both related to the show and not. Also, Naru's voice actress in the Creator/VizMedia redub, Creator/DanielleJudovits, has sung in theatrical musicals.

-->'''Mana:''' ''[completely off-key]'' [[ThemeTuneCameo THE WORLD IS LIKE A MERRY GO-ROUND!]]\\

* Rio in ''Anime/SoundOfTheSky'' -- played by the aforementioned Creator/YuuKobayashi -- sings a god-awful [[ThemeTuneCameo snippet of the opening theme song]] in one of the DVD-only extra episodes. Then again, the character is a trumpeter, not a singer, and is completely drunk at the time.

* Tori's sister Trina from ''Series/{{Victorious}}'', is a terrible singer compared to her sister and her real singing voice is closely resembling to that of a person shrieking. In fact the main reason that Trina was enrolled into Hollywood Arts was because the teacher that let her in, Sikowitz, was having visions due to a rotten coconut.

* Lily in ''Series/HannahMontana'', London on ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'', a subplot on ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'', Paolo was exposed by Gordo, Isabella, and Lizzie to put a stop to his lip-synching in ''The Series/LizzieMcGuire Movie''....is there a Creator/DisneyChannel show that hasn't featured this?
* Not likely. Echo in another Disney series, ''Series/MrYoung'', is a very off-key singer. Naturally, she believes otherwise, and the episode we find out is, of course the one where her friends try to stop her from embarressing herself at the school talent show. Though unlike others, Echo doesn't learn she can't sing by the end, even attacking Brendan for admitting she can't sing seconds after telling him he could tell her honestly.

* Averted in ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' with Tori's sister Trina. Trina is clearly a bad singer, but her tone-deafness isn't over-the-top and she usually sounds realistically bad.

** In the episode "The Gil in My Life", is is revealed that Dawn has an absolutely horrendous singing voice which only improves when she is looking at a reflection of herself, especially with toilet water. When she tries to audition to have her voice used in a commercial, the judges instead decided to use the toilet instead of her.

* Played straight in ''Series/{{Glee}}'', when Rachel gets sick and loses her voice. Kind of subverted earlier in the series when Kurt blows the high F. His voice doesn't slide so much as break, ''very'' realistically, even though Chris Colfer really can hit the note.
** Mike Chang doesn't think he can sing, so when he has to do a duet with Tina, they play this trope for laughs with a rendition of "Sing!" from Theatre/AChorusLine.

When a character is supposed to be a bad singer, they will often use a ridiculous fake voice to simulate a supposedly "strangling a bag of cats" sound. Sliding the notes up and down randomly and screeching at the top of one's lungs, often complemented by [[PainfulRhyme bad lyrics]], is a popular portrayal of bad singing, even though it is blatantly fake to anyone who has ever heard the real thing. If you listen to genuine bad singing (for example, certain ''Series/AmericanIdol'' contestants, or Jeremy Hardy on ''[[Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue]]'', or any unskilled person trying to karaoke at a party), it typically sounds nothing like this.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** Averted in the musical episode "Once More With Feeling". Actress Alyson Hannigan was a self-admitted poor singer and requested that she be given minimal singing lines in the episode to the point where her character's song was sung by her girlfriend. Michelle Trachtenberg also requested that Dawn's singing be minimized, and was given a ballet number to perform instead.

** "There's three things I don't do: tan, date, and sing in public." When forced to do the last at Lorne's karaoke club in the second-season opener "Judgement", Angel's completely monotone, and badly off-tempo. (Then the outtakes of David Boreanaz that close the episode turn into one huge [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] of this trope.) This was later lampshaded as being because of shyness and being self-conscious about picking love ballads every time.
*** However, when David Boreanaz sings on ''Series/{{Bones}}'', (which he does in a couple of episodes) he has a perfectly respectable voice.
** Harmony murdering "The Way We Were" onstage at Caritas.

** Averted by Jared Padalecki, who plays Sam and genuinely can't sing.

* Katey Sagal is a good singer (she got her career start as one of Music/BetteMidler's Harlettes), but her character of Peg Bundy from ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' isn't.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_RAXP7geF4 Agent Carolina]], who is still complimented by her bandmates, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial "and we're definitely not just saying that because she could kill us."]]

* In episode 16 of ''Anime/MaiHime'' Natsuki attempts to sing and does a horrible job of sounding like she can't. As a bonus for viewers, the song she's pretending she can't sing was sung by Saeko Chiba, who voiced... Natsuki.
* An obscure show called ''Anime/KoiKoi7'' features [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-91xDq42C-Y singing]] (go to about 1:50) by a character named Miya that is truly indescribably horrible and you can understand how it [[BrownNote knocked everyone out]].

* A recurring gag in ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'' is that Gian/Big G is a terrible singer. One time he was on TV, his singing voice was so bad that it actually ''hospitalized'' several people.

* Maya Natsume in ''Anime/TenjouTenge''; she loses her karaoke "battle" with [[FriendlyEnemies Friendly Enemy]] Mitsuomi because she's a terrible singer. Since her voice actress in the anime was Creator/AyaHisakawa, they telegraphed this by making her this trope - in the karaoke scene, she basically just groans into the mic.

* In the KaraokeBox episode of ''Anime/{{Kannagi}}'', some of the characters sing their songs pretty badly. The singing is made better for the ImageSong release.

* Giroro from ''Anime/KeroroGunso'' has ''no'' singing talent at all. Made painfully clear when he's ordered to [[ItMakesSenseInContext lullaby the temporarily age reverted Kururu]]. His screeching singing is so horrible, it drives Kururu to hit the self destruct button on his human suit to make it stop.

* In ''LightNovel/SasamiSanAtGanbaranai'', the titular character sings the ending ''very'' half-heartedly. The fifth episode, she duets with Kagami -- the former sings normally and the latter sings half-heartedly and doesn't know the words.

* In ''Manga/SaikinImoutoNoYousuGaChottoOkashiindaGa'', Yuuya cannot sing, at all. He even butchers something as simple as the "Happy Birthday" song. Even Hiyori, who practically worships the ground he walks on, cannot stand his singing.

Even if not familiar with proper vocal techniques, the majority of people are capable of hitting the approximate notes and even harmonizing within a group. In addition, most anyone when listening to music can recognize when a note is off-key. Because this includes the audience as well, the extreme is usually needed in order to properly convey someone who cannot sing at all. Another consideration is that it's OK to laugh at fake bad singing, but most audience members are hesitant to laugh at bad singing that seems too real, just in case it is.

** Regarding the ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'' reboot, in what's probably a predictable move, Donald's nigh [[TheUnintelligible unintelligible]] voice isn't any better when he sings...which is ''exactly'' what they needed to kill a [[ManEatingPlant duck-eating plant]]. Still, that doesn't stop [[WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros Jose and Panchito]] from side-eyeing Donald while he sings.

When a character is supposed to be a bad singer, they will often use a ridiculous fake voice to simulate a supposedly "tone deaf" sound. Sliding the notes up and down randomly and screeching at the top of one's lungs, often complemented by [[PainfulRhyme bad lyrics]], is a popular portrayal of bad singing, even though it is blatantly fake to anyone who has ever heard the real thing. If you listen to genuine bad singing (for example, certain ''Series/AmericanIdol'' contestants, or Jeremy Hardy on ''[[Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue]]'', or any unskilled person trying to karaoke at a party), it typically sounds nothing like this.

** Played straight in the first season episode "The Loobenfeld Decay" with Penny's painfully awful performance as Mimi in ''Theatre/{{Rent}}''.

A close cousin of StylisticSuck. Related to VocalRangeExceeded, where the notes are too high or too low for the singer's voice. See BadBadActing for this trope applied to acting. Compare CuteButCacophonic. DugInDeeper is this trope masquerading as a plot. See also IronyAsSheIsCast. Also compare DreadfulMusician, when this is exaggerated beyond the bounds of impossibility. Contrast BeautifulSingingVoice.

* Played straight in ''Moesha''. Professional R&B singer Brandy has a terrible voice in the show, to make way for the talents of her co-stars.

* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_3ieuItPC0 his brilliant parody]] of Metallica's ''St. Anger'', Matt Smith, singer of Christian PowerMetal band Theocracy, sings horrendously off-key in order to emulate Hetfield's performance on the album. The lyrics even include the line "and boy it sounds raw to intentionally sing out of key."

* The first girl auditioned to sing "Who Wants To Live In New York?" in the "Opening Doors" sequence of the musical ''Theatre/MerrilyWeRollAlong''. "Sopranos with voices like bees" indeed.

* [[WesternAnimation/TheHuckleberryHoundShow Huckleberry Hound]] ("Oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling Clementine...") and WesternAnimation/QuickDrawMcGraw are both examples, since they were voiced by Creator/DawsButler, who could sing rather well.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'': a sequence in which Fiona's singing kills a bird actually had a ''talented'' singer come in and replicate the sound of an incredibly off-key note. This was noted on the DVD, in which they explained that a true bad note required either a truly tone-deaf person or a professional singer that knew the difference and Cameron Diaz nailed it down pat.