Peter: I can't believe we lost the talent show! What'd we do wrong?
Chris: Well Dad, I think I can shed a little light on that. You guys were so baked, you didn't sound anywhere as good as you thought you did. I was in the audience.
[cut to Chris reacting to Lois and Peter's performance in horror; Peter and Lois are screaming, struggling to strum their musical instruments, grabbing their microphones, then falling on the floor]
Chris: Well Dad, I think I can shed a little light on that. You guys were so baked, you didn't sound anywhere as good as you thought you did. I was in the audience.
[cut to Chris reacting to Lois and Peter's performance in horror; Peter and Lois are screaming, struggling to strum their musical instruments, grabbing their microphones, then falling on the floor]
— Family Guy, "Deep Throats"
Some people are known to be exceptional singers, and then there are those that, when they sing, it sounds like there is a dying animal. And then there are characters that think they are good, and initially sound amazing, but are soon revealed to be absolutely terrible.
Usually what happens is the character in question will take the stage, perform their song and sound amazing (sometimes even accompanied with visuals to further emphasize the disconnect from reality), and then it will cut to how they actually sound, which can range from disappointing to ear-castratingly bad.
A variation of the trope involves the character performing non-singing talents, like acting or dancing.
This trope is generally Played for Laughs. Compare Dreadful Musician and other Bait-and-Switch Tropes. Contrast Beautiful Singing Voice.
Examples:
Anime & Manga
- Inverted in Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun. Seo teaches the tone-deaf Kashima to sing better, and Wakamatsu overhears, mistaking Kashima's singing for Seo's — unaware that Seo is the best singer in the Glee Club, and that he adores listening to her singing.
Film - Animation
- In Turning Red, a picture of Mei and her mother winning first place in a badminton tournament shows she's athletic so, when she grabs Tyler's basketball out of the air as he's shooting it, the expectation is that she'll make the shot but not only does she miss, it lands in the street.
Film - Live Action
- Joker (2019): Arthur performs his standup routine at a comedy club, with triumphant music on the soundtrack drowning out his words. Later, it becomes apparent that, outside of his imagination, his routine was so diabolical that his favorite late-night comedian is mocking the recording on his show.
- Singin' in the Rain: Lina is a silent-movie star who's attractive but has a horrible Brooklyn accent that could cut glass. When the studio decides to switch the current film over from silent to a "talkie", they realize that she absolutely can't use her voice. Fortunately, Cosmo figures out how to dub Kathy's voice recording over Lina's talking and singing, creating a smash hit. After the movie opens, Cosmo and Don do a public reveal that it's Kathy's singing, not Lina's, that the critics are praising.
Live-Action TV
- Hannah Montana: Inverted in "The Idol Side of Me". Miley hears what she thinks is her rival Amber singing horribly in the girls' restroom and, seizing an opportunity to humiliate her, calls her as Hannah to select her to be her partner on Singing with the Stars. However, when Amber shows off her singing after getting picked, Miley discovers she actually has a great singing voice, and that the voice she overheard was really her dumb lackey.
- How I Met Your Mother: In an episode, Ted claims he becomes very good at doing beatbox when he's drunk, as a flashback shows. However, his friends make him realize that he only thought he was good because he was drunk, and another flashback shows that he actually was very bad at it.
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: A non-singing variation: In part 2 of the season 7 finale, the gang implements "Plan B" of their plan to get back at everyone who treated them as losers in high school at their high school reunion. It is an elaborate dance sequence that they break into in the middle of the dance floor. It first seems to be going really well and the crowd seems to be loving it, only for the show to quick cut to reality, revealing that the good performance was all in their heads, and that the gang is actually drunk, barely moving, uncoordinated, and only embarrassing themselves further.
- Last of the Summer Wine: A variation occurs in "The Man Who Nearly Knew Pavarotti" when the group encounter Billy Ingleton, an unsuccessful but self-proclaimed expert musician who demonstrates it by masterfully playing the opening notes to a symphony on a piano several times. Excited Foggy decides to make him the staring act of a charity concert he's organizing. Unfortunately for them right before curtain call Billy comes clean that the opening notes are all he ever learned and has absolutely no idea how to play the rest of the piece.
- Legends of Tomorrow: In the episode "Miss Me, Kiss Me, Love Me", Ava gets incredibly drunk and starts singing in a nightclub as a diversion, and she sounds incredible, but when the scene cuts to the perspective of the audience, she's really terrible, and causes everyone to leave.
- Malcolm in the Middle: In an episode, Lois takes some dance lessons and believes she's very good at it, to the point she ends up doing an awesome choreography with her teacher. However, in the end she sees a video of what really happened and realizes her choreography was actually disastrous.
Western Animation
- Big Mouth: In "Lovebugs", Nick decides to perform a grand gesture at Walter's recommendation, performing a song for Jessi. While the audience initially sees a very heartfelt and well-performed ballad, in actuality, Nick is off-key and unable to strum the guitar, leading to a very awkward moment between the two and Jessi admitting she's not attracted to him.
- Bob's Burgers: Bob finds a banjo and starts playing it, thinking it could be a fun hobby. Soon he starts playing beautifully, and a large crowd gathers at the restaurant to hear him play. Cut back to reality, with Bob still struggling to play properly.
- Crossing Swords: In "In The Line of Squire" When Princess Blossom takes the stage with her new boyfriend Keefer to sing at Beast Feast, she sings a very high energy duet with him, one that gets the crowd very excited. Cut to her actual performance, it's just her singing, she's incredibly off key and screechy, and the crowd is silent and uncomfortable.
- Family Guy:
- In "Deep Throats", Peter and Lois form a two person band called Hand Full of Peter. Seeking inspiration, they take copious amounts of marijuana until they are ready to perform at the local talent show. They perform a song called "In God's Eyes" complete with Unicorns and rainbow visuals, but are shocked to find out they actually bombed, mainly because all they actually did was scream "Aaaaah, Aaaaaah"
- In "Mister Act", Stewie and Lois attend a Mommy and Me class where they perform in a drum circle. Already attracted to Lois's new muscular physique, Stewie makes reference to his quick refraction period. As Lois guides Stewie's hands to play the drums, he imagines a steamy slo-mo scene complete with the song "Tum Ho To Lagta Hain" playing while Lois is glistening with sweat. Stewie whispers "Now let me do you", climbing behind her and taking her hands. The music and shadows cut away to what's actually happening, Stewie is blindly attempting to hit the drum off rhythm while Lois looks confused.
Stewie: Is everyone watching? Are they impressed with how quickly I refracted?
- Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: After Kipo is stung by the Dubstep Bees, she is compelled to dance until she dies. The queen can remove the compulsion, which she'll only do if Kipo's family can impress her with their dancing skills. They put on a psychedelic performance with backing music and accompanying visual effects. Then at the end, those effects drop and we see them putting on a weak dance number that leaves the Bees underwhelmed.
- In the Regular Show episode "Return of Mordecai and the Rigbys", Mordecai and Rigby form a band with Benson, Pops, High Five Ghost, Skips, and Muscle Man so they could enter a competition and win a new air conditioner. Conflicts and infighting results in them destroying their instruments right before their performance is due. They go on stage anyway, claiming they need no instruments. At first their performance is as bad as expected, but they suddenly start improving and manage to win the air conditioner. Suddenly it turns out it was all Mordecai's fantasy, and the band never performed at all — they all got sent to the hospital for heat stroke.
