A character plays the piano energetically (or even not so energetically), and the keys bounce up off the piano, move in one direction or the other in a wave, or otherwise violating the laws of piano physics. The keys may move individually, or might move as a single, flexible unit. Regardless, they always land back where they are supposed to be at the end.
Justified by the Rule of Funny.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Comedy
- Victor Borge had a comedy bit where his piano sounds wrong... so he takes the row of keys out, flips them, and it sounds perfect.
Film — Animated
- In The Great Mouse Detective, the piano player in the run-down pub makes the keys bounce in the air in a few close-up shots.
- Disney's Tangled features a rough-looking barbarian playing the piano with a hook for a hand, causing the keys to do all sorts of gymnastics. By the end, so many have gone flying that it's hard to believe there are any left on the piano.
Toys
- Folkmanis Puppets has made a combo puppet of Mozart and a piano. While Mozart can be placed so he pops out of the lid and plays the piano from the inside, your other hand can go inside the keys to make them oscillate with your fingers.
Western Animation
- In the Classic Disney Short "Three Orphan Kittens", three kittens climb on a player piano and turn it on. The keys bounce up and down, carrying the kittens along. When the speed is turned up, the kittens are being juggled about and one is even spanked by the hammers inside.
- Merrie Melodies: The Bugs Bunny cartoon "Rhapsody Rabbit" has quite a few of these, including the piano keyboard acting like a typewriter carriage and, at one point, Bugs literally picking up the keys and letting them fall back down.
- Tom and Jerry:
- "The Cat Concerto" has Jerry under the piano keys, making the wave as he flees from Tom. Being released in the same year as "Rhapsody Rabbit", the two cartoons were so similar that Warner Brothers and MGM sued each other for plagiarism.
- There is also "Saturday Evening Puss", where Butch is playing the piano and the stand holding his score acts like a typewriter carriage.
Real Life
- Yamaha's Disklavier piano, which is similar to a player piano, creates waves at parts of Animusic's "Starship Groove"
. What's more interesting that the piano is real, rather than animated.
