Line #50 Main/TalentContest


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5	[[quoteright:350:[[Series/{{Scrubs}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scrubs5.png]]]]
6	This is a plot where the characters participate in an amateur talent contest.
7
8	The plot usually begins with the character needing some money or something similar and the upcoming talent contest has a cash prize that suits their needs. So, they rehearse and usually create a professional level act, usually a musical number.
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10	The special thing with this plot that the heroes typically ''never'' win the contest, or at least not in circumstances they were expecting. When they do lose, they take the loss gracefully, but find they have earned something far better for their efforts such as a business owner wants them to be his establishment's house band or a record label agent wants to sign them on.
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12	Tropes that might appear during this plot include CrackDefeat, DarkHorseVictory, HarshTalentShowJudge, OneJudgeToRuleThemAll. See also FailedAuditionPlot.
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14	If you're looking for a television show that is all about showing off talents, see TalentShow.
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16	----
17	!!Examples:
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19	[[foldercontrol]]
20
21	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
22	* ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'': OVA 6 includes a talent show, with the teams competing for 100,000¥ worth of [[spoiler: dried sweet potatoes]]. As a twist, none of the teams are allowed to use their typical specialty (for example, the Duck Team, composed of the disbanded volleyball team, can't do anything related to volleyball), but that doesn't stop Hippo Team/the historical team from inserting period history references into their production of ''Literature/LittleWomen''.
23	* A quick talent show event was held during the banquet party in the final episode of ''Anime/OhSuddenlyEgyptianGod''. Thoth juggles some colored eggs, Anubis does his high speed mummy wrapping technique, and Horus' turn was interrupted by Set and the two end up fighting on stage before Otter whisks them off to the back.
24	[[/folder]]
25
26	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
27	%%* ''Film/BandSlam''
28	* In ''Film/TheBradyBunch [[TheMovie Movie]]'', the Bradys are in danger of losing their house because they inexplicably owe $20,000 in back taxes. By a ContrivedCoincidence, there's a talent show at the kids' high school where the prize is that exact amount.
29	* ''Film/{{Lifeology}}'': The school holds a talent contest, which is basically just an excuse for the movie to have a couple of song and dance numbers. It does however allow for an IsThisThingStillOn moment, in which the MC forgets to turn off his microphone backstage, thus broadcasting some embarrassing secrets (Chimegtoshio the principal is in love with Setseg, who is actually married to Undarmaa) to the entire audience.
30	* ''[[Film/TheLittleRascals Our Gang]]'': Spanky tries to deliberately lose a talent contest and tells his friends to boo him, but when the circumstances change and now he must win, the gang are not aware of the change and heckle him furiously. Fortunately, his efforts to keep going prove hilarious to the audience and he wins in a walk.
31	* In the ''[[Series/TheRedGreenShow Red Green]]'' [[BigDamnMovie movie]], ''Duct Tape Forever'', the lodge has ten days to pay $10,000 in fines as part of a EvilPlan by a developer to buy the land out from under them. Harold finds an ad for a duct tape sculpture contest in Minnesota, with ''[[SecondPlaceIsForWinners a third-place prize]]'' of $10,000.
32	* In ''Film/SchoolOfRock'', the band is in such a contest, and they don't win, but the audience requests an encore from them instead of the winning band, and they end up learning [[AnAesop an important lesson]].
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Literature]]
36	* ''[[Literature/{{Clementine}} The Talented Clementine]]'' focuses on Clementine being convinced that she can't enter school's talent show because she has no talent that would fit such a show. She and her friend Margaret try desperately to find her a talent throughout the book. In the end, Clementine ends up serving as director of the show along with the school's principal when the teacher who's supposed to be doing it has to leave due to an emergency. It turns out that Clementine is very talented when it comes to knowing what's needed for the various acts and how to keep the show moving along smoothly.
37	* Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid has Greg and his brother Rodrick enter on ein the last act of the second book. Greg is so uninterested in participating (he’s acting as a stand in for his best friend Rowley as the assistant to a six year-old) he is the only act to not pass auditions, while Rodrick’s attempt to launch a rock career fall through due to the show’s cameraman being more focused on their mom dancing to the music.
38	* In the {{Novelization}} of ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', it's mentioned that Abby and Mei joined Miriam and Priya for the grade seven talent show precisely one year before the events of the film.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
42	* ''Series/TheBradyBunch'': "Amateur Night", where the kids enter a contest to raise money for an anniversary gift for Mike and Carol.
43	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Buffy, Willow, and Xander participate in a talent show, but only under duress.
44	* ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'': "Opening Night at the Boar's Nest," the final episode begins with one of these. It figures heavily into the plot as Boss -- playing the role of the disappearing lady -- disappears for real when he is kidnapped and taken hostage by two revenge-seeking crooks who were sent to prison on his testimony, and magician Rosco thinks that it was because he made him disappear for real.
45	* ''Series/{{Good Luck Charlie}}'': Teddy rehearses a dance number with Spencer for the talent contest, but Spencer gets out of it by faking a broken angle when he finds out that Teddy is a bad dancer. Teddy then has Emmett be her new dancing partner...with disastrous results. [[note]] A {{Brick Joke}} in the episode where Emmett and PJ argue over which one of them will play the dummy in their suggested ventriloquism idea for the contest. After Emmett leaves PJ to dance with Teddy, PJ makes Charlie the dummy.[[/note]]
46	* ''Series/LifeWithLucy'': The final episode has Lucy participating in a talent show for grandmothers at Becky and Kevin's school.
47	* ''Series/OutOfJimmysHead'': One episode dealt with a ''[[Series/TheGongShow Gong Show]]''-like talent show, which Robin protests since she doesn't think talent shows should be competitive.
48	* ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'': The Rangers enter a talent show, but the plot's not so much about the competition as the fact that [[SecretChaser Cam's being secretive about his act and the others want to know what his talent is.]] (Incidentally, it's guitar playing, which lines up nicely with the InstrumentOfMurder weapon they receive that episode.) In the end, ''all'' the Rangers' acts wind up losing to Marah and Kapri.
49	* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': "My Life in Four Cameras," spoofs {{sitcom}} tropes. A cafeteria employee (played by Clay Aiken) is in danger of being laid off due to budget cuts, and, in J.D.'s imaginary sitcom, he wins the hospital talent contest and earns the money they need to keep him. When the episode cuts back to the real world, though, he actually does get laid off.
50	* ''Series/ShakeItUp'' has the episode "Show It Up" in which Rocky tries to get back at a rival cheerleader who beats her in everything by winning against her and the entire cheerleading squad at the talent show.
51	* Episode 2 of ''Series/WandaVision'' has Wanda and Vision participating in a neighborhood talent show to raise money for charity with a magic act. Humorously, Vision gets [[DrunkOnMilk intoxicated by chewing gum]] and uses his real super powers for the show, requiring Wanda to conjure up props that make it look fake.
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
55	* ''Series/ChickenMinute'' featured an episode about a singing contest, the aptly titled "The Singing Contest".
56	* ''Series/FraggleRock'': Wembley's favorite event is the Duet-a-thon, in which pairs of Fraggles sing duets they've written.
57	* ''Literature/EmmetOttersJugBandChristmas'' centers around Emmet entering a talent contest with his friends in hopes of winning enough money to buy his mother a piano for Christmas. While Ma enters hoping to buy him a guitar.
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Video Games]]
61	* In ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist'', you can compete against Marz and Dys in a talent contest during the Vertumnalia Festival with enough Creativity, and you can choose between up to three different talent acts to try winning in it.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Web Comics]]
65	* ''Webcomic/ItHurts'' has its main cast participate in one, even after all the violent and chaotic shit that should have postponed it. [[spoiler:It's surprisingly also the WhamEpisode, given that Aurora, the main character's love interest, destroys the world just by singing.]]
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Web Videos]]
69	* The ''WebVideo/SMPLive'' Talent Show, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the name implies]], is a talent show on the server.
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Western Animation]]
73	* The ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' episode "Battle of the Band" has Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen putting together a band for the school's talent contest using Jimmy's instruments that play songs just by thinking of the sounds. They aim to band together to outdo Cindy and Libby's river dance sequence, but things don't go exactly as planned.
74	* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'' has an episode where Jake had to try to beat his best friend Spud in a talent contest in order to secure the prize (a magical MacGuffin) despite it being Spud's lifelong dream to win the contest.
75	* Two separate episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'':
76	** In “Fiddle Me This”, when “Amphibia’s Got Talent” comes to the Valley, Sprig decides to enter, showing off his fiddle playing; Hop Pop, obsessed with trying to secure his family’s financial future, becomes an overbearing stage parent, forcing Sprig to do a flashy, elaborate performance. The flashing lights attract a giant bat, which nearly kills Sprig and destroys the competition; however, the judges assume it’s AllPartOfTheShow and award Sprig the grand prize.
77	** In “Battle of the Bands”, Mayor Toadstool hosts a musical competition. Anne, Sasha and Marcy decide to get their band back together, but tensions over Sasha’s control freak tendencies prompt her to quit and start her own band with Toadie. Eventually Toadie convinced her that backing her friends is more important than trying to control every little thing, and she joins them on stage for a spectacular performance; however, they still lose to Grime, who is [[HiddenDepths revealed to be a virtuoso harp player]].
78	* The ''WesternAnimation/AngryBirdsToons'' episode, "Pig Talent", has the King Pig host a talent show in his palace. No matter how much the audience like performances, [[ChunkySalsaRule if King Pig isn't impressed, contestants get dropped down a trap door]].
79	* The ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'' episode "Talent Show A-Go-Go", in which the Martian Queen becomes TheChanteuse and Dodgers cheats by stealing Music/TomJones's voice.
80	* ''WesternAnimation/TheGhostAndMollyMcGee'': In “Talent Show”, after Libby accidentally signs up for the talent show, Molly convinces her to go through with it, but finds out Libby [[CuteButCacophonic has a terrible singing voice]]. Afraid to tell Libby the truth, Molly takes elaborate measures to keep her off the stage, but fails. Finally, she admits the truth, but rather than backing out of the show, Libby turns her song into a spoken-word poetry performance and wins a standing ovation.
81	* ''WesternAnimation/AHollywoodHoundsChristmas'': The Mushy Chum company holds an audition every year to find pets to use for their annual Christmas commercial. Dude, Cuz, and Rosie decide to enter it so they can make sure their owners can have presents this Christmas. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, their performance is sabotaged, and the saboteurs win the contest.]]
82	* WesternAnimation/HorridHenry has Henry entering one to win tickets to a show of his choice, with the intent of winning tickets to his favourite band. To that end, he tries sabotaging the other contestants (such as tricking Brainy Brian into an EngineeredPublicConfession of cheating and having Moody Margaret and Sour Susan dropped down a trap door), but gets disqualified for [[CheatersNeverProsper lip-synching]], with his brother Peter winning the show with his cello, and getting tickets to Happy Hippos on Ice.
83	* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'':
84	** In episode "Rappin' Drakken", where Dr. Drakken went on [[Series/AmericanIdol "American Starmaker"]] to promote his [[MayContainEvil brainwashing shampoo and cranium rinse]]. Ron (filling in for Kim, who was fighting Shego backstage) did the Naked Mole Rap.
85	** In "Hidden Talent", Ron signed Kim up for a school talent show without asking her. He ended up [[HoldingTheFloor going onstage to stall]] while she escaped from Drakken's {{death trap}} and returned, after which she sang "[[ImageSong Say the Word]]"
86	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': "Erection Day" follows Jimmy trying to get rid of his erection before the school talent show is over.
87	* One is held in "Talent Show" on ''WesternAnimation/TimothyGoesToSchool''. Timothy is assigned to be the Master of Ceremonies and when Grace gets hurt, she becomes his assistant.
88	* The ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' episode, "Not Quite Famous" features a talent show as the challenge.
89	* ''WesternAnimation/WorkItOutWombats'': "Talent Turmoil" revolves around Zadie, Ellie, Gabriela, Mr. E, and the crab kids all participating in a talent show, with Malik live-streaming the show to the crab kids' parents, who are sick in bed.
90	[[/folder]]

Context Main / TalentContest