Singing in the Shower

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A character is shown while singing while bathing or said to do this—depending on amount of Censor Steam and Censor Suds the author uses.

That being a small room with hard walls, its acoustics should be bad enough to resign all worries about voice and quality. Add to it that during the bath time one is alone (usually) and feels secure (usually), and it makes more or less a light-hearted version of What You Are in the Dark. Though usually someone overhears the singing character anyway. As a narrative device, this usually is an opportunity to show that the character is in good mood and to demonstrate amusing quirks (beyond this habit as such).

Mostly a Comedy Trope.

Examples of Singing in the Shower include:

Films -- Live-Action

  • There's an old Norman Wisdom film in which somebody hides a microphone in our hero's bathroom, records him singing in the bath, and pretends it's his own work.
  • Summer Stock begins with Judy Garland singing "If You Feel Like Singing" in the shower.
  • In one of The Naked Gun movies, Jane is in the shower singing when an assassin walks in to try to kill her. He is entranced by her singing and starts to hum along, then gets louder and louder until he starts belting, which causes Jane to find out he's there and run away.


Live-Action TV

  • The Love Boat: Gopher is overheard singing in the shower and is really good, so he's talked into singing at the crew/guest Talent Contest. But it turns out he's good at singing only while in the shower; so they make a prop shower for him to sing in for the show.
  • Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger: Umeko’s favorite pastime, taking a bath, is often accompanied by singing.
  • Doogie Howser, M.D.: Doogie has been seen on a couple of occasions belting out a few random Rolling Stones and Righteous Brothers tunes in the shower (granted he can sing); usually ends with Vinnie subsequently barging in on him.
  • Doctor Who
    • The Doctor is heard singing in the shower in episode "The Lodger", while he's sharing a flat and trying to act like an ordinary human being.
    • And the third Doctor sings the shower in the hospital his first appearance in "Spearhead from Space".
  • Glee
    • This is how Mr. schuester learns of Finn's singing talent.
    • This scene is mirrored in season 2 with Finn hearing Sam in the locker room shower.


Music


Newspaper Comics

  • FoxTrot
    • One strip had Roger singing "Burning Love" in the shower, and an annoyed Andy meaningfully tells one of the kids about the valve marked "cold water shutoff".
    • Roger also did so a second time, this time with "Love Machine." Jason ended up exacting revenge by using the message recorder from the phone to record as the answering machine message taker Roger singing the song while singing in the shower, which went unnoticed by Roger for at least a few weeks. It should also be noted that it was also partly Roger's fault that Jason was able to pull it off, since apparently Roger was the one who bought the model whose cord was long enough to reach the shower.
    • Another strip has Peter singing "Heartbreak Hotel", with the rest of the family gathering outside the door to complain:

Roger: You mean "Earache Hotel".
Andy: I'd say "Headache Hotel".
Paige: "Shampoo-Bottle-Stuffed-Down-His-Stupid-Throat Hotel!"
Jason: Too many syllables, Paige.

  • Wanda also had this problem in Baby Blues. One strip had Darryl, Zoe, and Hammie wondering what some noise was, and trace it to the bathroom before discovering that the noise was actually Wanda singing in the shower, when Darryl removed the shower curtain, while also feeling insulted at the implication that she was a bad singer.


Puppet Shows

  • Sesame Street: Ernie sings "Rubber Duckie" (naturally enough) in the bath.


Video Games

  • At one point in Max Payne 2, Max comes upon Mona singing Late Goodbye[1] in the shower.

Mona Sax: I'll tell you one thing, Mona, you're no singer.


Web Comics

Western Animation

  1. Several other people in the game are heard singing it as well. It's the song that plays during the credits.