Xylophone Gag

"When he strikes this note, instead of a xylophone, he'll be playing a harp!"

—Daffy Duck, Show Biz Bugs

Wile E. Coyote, Yosemite Sam, or some other villainous cartoon character has decided to dispose of the Roadrunner, or Bugs Bunny, or whoever. Normal methods have failed... it's time for the Xylophone Gag.

The villain screws a stick of dynamite to the C above middle C on a xylophone, puts the sheet music to "Those Endearing Young Charms" (it's always that song, no exceptions) on the stand, and hides, cackling maniacally. Sure enough, the hero arrives, sees the music, and begins to play...but instead of hitting the high note which would set off the bomb, he plays a flat note. The villain winces (as does the audience; it's a very dissonant note), and yells "No, that's all wrong! Try it again!" The hero does so to the same results. Eventually, the villain rushes out in frustration, grabs the mallet from the hero, and says "Let me show you how it's done!"

He realizes what he's doing just as he hits the high note. Blam.

Often, the xylophone bars land on his head and repeat, or occasionally complete, the music line.

Sometimes executed with a piano instead of a xylophone, but the results are the same—ending with the piano's keys bouncing off the unfortunate villain's skull (or landing in his teeth).

A subtrope of Musical Trigger.

Examples of Xylophone Gag include:

Advertising

  • During the 1994 baseball players strike, Comedy Central ran a series of bumpers counting the days, showing empty stadium seats and organ playing. When the season was canceled, the last bumper had the organ playing "Those Endearing Young Charms", followed by a big explosion.


Comic Books

  • In a rare case of this trope actually working, Spy vs. Spy has White Spy rigging a piano so that when Black Spy plays two certain notes, nitroglycerin gets squirted into his mouth.


Live Action TV

  • In a rare live version of this trope, on Family Ties, Elyse plays "Those Endearing Young Charms" on guitar during a pledge break at her husband's PBS station. The guitar didn't explode during the key notes. Instead, Elyse went into labor.


Radio

  • The Goon Show had the piano version, when Moriarty and Gritpype-Thynne tried to blow up the Chinese nationalist leader General Kashmychek. Following the failure of the "fiendish Chinese pianist" to get the music right, our enterprising villains are spared the necessity of playing the keys themselves by a musical individual from earlier, who offers to sing and asks for an A. Detonation ensues.


Western Animation

  • Apparently originated as part of a Private Snafu Wartime Cartoon where the eponymous bumbling US Army soldier was humorously used to warn real-life GI's against enemy booby-traps.
  • Looney Tunes used this frequently:
    • As shown in the trope picture, "Show Biz Bugs" had Daffy rigging a xylophone.
    • The version in "Ballot Box Bunny" involved Yosemite Sam rigging a piano rather than a xylophone.

"Can ya play a pi-yanna?"
"Have ya got a pi-yanny?"

    • Wile E. Coyote also tried it on the Road Runner with a rigged piano ("Rushing Roulette").
    • A game in the DS title (based on the short of the same name) Duck Amuck uses the piano variation.
  • Subverted, and given a massive Lampshade Hanging, in Animaniacs. Doug The Dog tries to pull this on Slappy Squirrel. Slappy, seeing the xylophone, notes that it's ostensibly a hatchet-burying gesture, and decides to play "Those Endearing Young Charms." Skippy, her nephew, insists she can't play the song, because it's surely a trap, but Slappy ignores him. She reaches the critical note, plays it right...and watches as Doug is the victim of a random explosion. "Old gag," says Slappy. "New twist." The episode goes on to double-subvert it again when Doug, after a later gag, is sent flying into the Xylophone, which rolls into a tree. Nuts fall from the tree, the pattern of their falling just happens to play "Those Endearing Young Charms" as well, stopping just before the final two (explosive) notes, just in time for Slappy and Skippy to walk past. Slappy tosses two rotten nuts behind her, and...
  • Played totally straight in an episode of South Park where the B-plot is a blatant homage to classic cartoons set in a summer camp for special needs children. Jimmy Vulmer's rival, Nathan, rigs Jimmy's ukulele with explosives. Jimmy, naturally, can't get the "Those Endearing Young Charms" passage right during his solo. (Note that Jimmy is playing "That Honolulu (or 'Tardicaca') Hula Gal" - but the solo section is still "Those Endearing Young Charms".) Nathan sends his Mook Mimsy to try to correct the situation by demanding the solo. Jimmy gives him the ukulele and asks him to do it. Just before Mimsy gets to the explosive part, Nathan runs in and grabs the ukulele from him. Frustrated with Mimsy's incompetence, he yells "If I want something done, I'm going to do it myself!", and without thinking, plays it himself with predictable results.
  • Used on the Top Cat episode "The Missing Heir", only the tune used is "While Strolling Through The Park One Day".
  • A cutaway on Family Guy has Stewie teaching piano (a missed note = electric shock). He also has a woodwind-type student hanging over a shark pit.
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