Organ Grinder

A specific type of Street Performer, the Organ Grinder is a Street Musician who would make a living turning the crank on a self-performing organ (sometimes mistakenly called a hurdy-gurdy), usually with a trained monkey on a leash dancing around—alternatively, the monkey is the one turning the organ, and the human is just there to hold the leash.

More or less a Dead Horse Trope these days, but expect them to pop up in stories set in the 19th and early 20th century. (They've actually been banned in quite a few cities, both because of complaints about the excessive noise they make and because of copyright violations by some of the musicians.)

See also One-Man Band. Not related to putting someone's privates in a meatgrinder.

Examples of Organ Grinder include:

Film

• In Batman Returns the Penguin's circus gang had an evil organ grinder amongst their ranks. (actually he was apparently very high in command) His organ contained a hand cranked machine gun. (In the Super Nintendo game based on the movie, he fires bullets at Batman and then just tries to hit Batman with the organ when he gets too close.)
  • If you think about it, it was kind of a stretch, since organ grinders are usually thought of as stand-alone street entertainers rather than members of circus troupes.
• Tia Dalma uses an organ grinder as a signal to some of the Black Pearl pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
• One can be seen on the street in one scene of the Mexican film Santa Claus. He's easy to miss, unless you're watching the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version:

Crow: WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE SHUT UP THE ORGAN GRINDER?

Video Games

• In The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, Link learns the Song of Storms from such a guy.
  • In The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask, the Organ Grinder is part of a subquest to gain one of the masks.
  • The Organ Guy makes a cameo in one or both of The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games.
• The organ grinder is one of the most nefarious enemies in the old text-adventure game Beyond Zork.

Western Animation

• Looney Tunes: Bugs Bunny pretended to be the monkey working with an organ grinder in one of his cartoons, after he caught the real monkey pocketing the profits.
• An organ grinder occasionally shows up in Cow and Chicken, though the monkey has since decomposed into a skeleton and the machine is literally grinding organs into powder. (It's uncertain as to whether the machine is grinding the musical instrument or body parts.)
• Monkey from Dexters Laboratory had an enemy who was a hypnotic organ grinder.
• In Hey Arnold! Helga gets bit by an organ grinder's monkey.
• An organ grinder appears in the "Rhapsody In Blue" segment of Fantasia/2000.
• In the Droopy cartoon Dixieland Droopy, Droop practices being a jazz band conductor to a record, but after he's kicked out of his home, he looks for other places to play the record, and one of them is an organ grinder's organ.