I’m one of those people who hates singing in the middle of a perfectly good show or movie. Disney movies send me running for cover, musicals make me cringe - and if characters start singing in the middle of a television show, I change the channel with lightning-fast speed. Even that Simpsons all-singing episode, my husband knows now to simply skip if we’re watching it on DVD. I hate it.
Hate it.
HATE IT.
Except…
There are extremely rare exceptions where I will tolerate it - Christmas episodes, for example, maybe, if I’m in the mood. But there is one time and one time only that, not only do I tolerate it, I smile and bop along to it. Unheard of! Unspeakable! Unbelievable!
I speak, of course, of the Futurama episode Hell is Other Robots. While Bender’s sentiments in that episode echo my own normally (“Aw, crap, singing. Mind if I smoke?”), I just love that Robot Devil! What a great tune! What an awesome song! Damn that devil and his catchy little ditty! I must turning all hippy or something. Ugh.
So, what’s your exception to the “oh good god they’re going to sing” rule? If you feel the same way about it as I do, that is…
Hmm. I tend to feel that a peppy song and dance number is just what is needed to spice up a show or movie. Maybe I got your dose of musical lovin’ as well as my own?
I’ve got to agree with you on the “Futurama” one. That was a truly great moment.
I’ve also always disliked the Simpson songs. Though “Who Needs the Kwik E Mart” does have a tendency to jump into my head at inopportune moments. And the Maison Derriere song wasn’t half bad either.
Most of the songs in the South Park movie, and… well… that’s it.
I loved South Park and was annoyed as hell when I found out the movie would be a musical. Nothing takes me out of the mood of an otherwise perfectly good movie or TV show more effectively than all of the characters spontaneously bursting into a perfectly choreographed song and dance number, but somehow Matt & Trey can pull it off.
Come to think of it, there were a couple of songs from SP episodes that worked for me, too (Cartman’s song reminiscing about life in the third grade comes to mind).
I don’t mind singing but your post reminded me of a movie trailer I saw recently. I forget the name of it but basically characters from an animated Disney movie, probably Cinderella, fall through to our world and become “real”. On a couple of occasions they start to sing and are promptly stopped by someone. Those parts of the trailer caused more laughing in the theater than any of the other stuff. Many other people must share your anti-singing sentiments.
Mine would be A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, because it’s basically Roman comedy, and Roman comedy DID involve people spontaneously breaking into song, so it doesn’t feel out of place, somehow. (There are other musicals I like, most notably 1776, but it’s in spite of the songs rather than because of them.)
I feel this way about The Mighty Boosh. Every episode features a song, and although they’re somewhat entertaining and at the very least, unique and inventive, those parts of the show are just not as good. Except for the episode with Old Gregg – for some reason I love that episode’s strangely catchy, weirdly awesome song!
I share your sentiments, Stase…I think I’d rather clean toilets for 2 hours than watch The Sound of Music. But I thought the musical episode of Scrubs was great (My Musical). I also like the little interludes with Ted’s acapella group The Worthless Peons (The Blanks) … hieelarious!
I just saw that Futurama episode for the first time, and I found it to be awesome too. I am not a huge fan of singing BUT…I think when a song is utterly witty in each verse (examples like Python movies and the Southpark movie) it makes the singing completely tolerable.
I just saw Hairspray and for some reason I didn’t realize it was going to be a musical. The first few songs were pretty good, really funny with a lot of very clever lines. Then some songs went on too long. I really dug the Christopher Walken and John Travolta duet, but who doesn’t like a Walken/Travolta duet?
I’m glad to see this - I’m obviously not the only person around who can’t stand musicals. I don’t hate it with a burning passion, but I can really live quite comfortably without singing in my movies. My big complaint with “Dreamgirls” was, “Oh, lord, they’re singing again.” I don’t really have any exceptions that I can think of for that; I just don’t like singing in movies. Maybe “The Life of Brian,” but just because it’s Monty Python and pretty much canon at this point.
I don’t like live theatre, either. I’m just a philistine, I guess.
I suppose it might be worth noting that the second time (I’ve seen) the Robot Devil appears and sings, in The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings - I don’t like it much. I was watching it on DVD last night, and while I like the episode enough as a whole, unfortunately I wasn’t nearly as amused by the opera as the Hedonism-bot. I skipped past most of the singing bits.
I’m watching Hell is Other Robots right now, and as an aside, I must note, when the Robot Devil gets clunked by that violin, he has the best scream ever in the entire universe.
