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Polka Dork
- 185 statements
- 34 feature instances
- 12 referencing feature instances
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| Polka Dork | comment |
A character's coolness factor is often demonstrated by what music they prefer—whether it's the popular guy who likes popular bands, someone out of touch who still listens to disco (or older music), or a complete dork who likes polka. This trope is about that dork. He probably also plays the accordion. Since the accordion, and polka, are often associated in the US with an aged demographic, it's certainly not going to be cool for a young person there to admit to enjoying them.* Except for Mexican norteño music, which is actually what cool young people listen there. Not to be confused with an Accordion Man. Compare to Quirky Ukulele. Contrast with French Accordion and Accordion to Most Sailors. Note: In recent years, especially with the popularity of "Weird Al" Yankovic, who made this part of his comedic persona, and Mexican norteño music, as well as the advent of Steampunk as well as "nerd" culture, there has been somewhat of a reversal of this trend (even Christina Hendricks proudly plays the accordion!) and it borders somewhat on the verge of becoming a Dead Horse Trope. |
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| Polka Dork | fetched |
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| Polka Dork | isPartOf |
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| Polka Dork / int_2f1ee31e | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_2f1ee31e | comment |
In Jessie, Luke of all people turns out to be this in the episode "Panic Attack Room". He goes to the panic room in private to play an accordion set, and is quite embarrassed when others find out about it. | |
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Polka Dork / int_2f1ee31e | |
| Polka Dork / int_30464d62 | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_30464d62 | comment |
Airplane II: The Sequel: When the moonbase commander is shown shuttle-pilot Ted Striker's record, it's far worse than he feared: it's an LP of Striker's favorite polka hits, complete with a cover picture of Striker playing an accordion. | |
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| Polka Dork / int_3913e40 | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_3913e40 | comment |
In Revenge of the Nerds, Judy, one of the Omega Mu sisters, scrapes out a rendition of "So I Say I Gotta Be Me" on the accordion. It's not quite the life of the party, but it's almost the death of it. | |
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| Polka Dork / int_3a2731d8 | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_3a2731d8 | comment |
The musical Bandstand features this exchange: | |
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| Polka Dork / int_3f01e9a3 | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_3f01e9a3 | comment |
Downplayed in The Polka King: Jan Lewan is obviously called this by his domineering mother-in-law, but he's respected and even considered a celebrity by the other people in town, with a steady influx of requests to play polka at parties and selling his music. This stands out in very stark (and tragic) contrast to his attempts to live beyond his financial capacity and the stupid thing he does to fund it. | |
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| Polka Dork / int_41b0198a | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_41b0198a | comment |
The resident nerd Waldo Butters in The Dresden Files uses "Polka will never die!" as his Battle Cry. That being said, he uses his polka getup—which includes a wearable bass drum—to help Dresden pull off a magic feat that impresses the Erlking. |
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| Polka Dork / int_426a7572 | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_426a7572 | comment |
Animaniacs: Used in "Good Idea, Bad Idea" skit. Good idea: Playing the accordion at a polka festival. Bad idea: Playing the accordion anywhere else. In one episode, Slappy Squirrel's quiet meadow is colonized by the Woodstock hippies. Slappy takes the stage armed with an accordion and announces into the mike: "Hey, everybody! Let's polka!" Not even Chirping Crickets remain to listen. |
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| Polka Dork / int_43576f5 | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_43576f5 | comment |
In the episode "Hollywood Babylon" of Supernatural, a poster is shown for a movie called Hollywood Polka Party with a lot of the cast playing accordions. The poster are lampooning bad Hollywood films and include other fake movies like The Revenge of the Monster Truck. | |
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Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_44e0b783 | comment |
Garfield's owner Jon Arbuckle likes polka music and he also plays accordion. He is perennially shown to be about as unhip as someone can be. In one comic, his idea of getting "wild" was shouting "EVERYBODY POLKA!" while putting on an impossibly tacky suit. The series has taken so many pot shots at the accordion that real-life accordion enthusiasts have actually gotten pissed off. | |
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| Polka Dork / int_468bebb0 | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_468bebb0 | comment |
In Discworld, accordion playing is one of those things that will attract Lord Vetinari's displeasure, as well as attracting mockery from ordinary Anhk-Morporkians. When The Disc's first Newspaper is set up in The Truth they cover the Ankh-Morpork folk music group and note: | |
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Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_51ef8ae4 | comment |
The Garfield Show: One episode describes Jon as one. Garfield considers the accordion as the world's second worst instrument.note He considers bagpipes worse. The episode also features a garbageman saying he took that job because it brings more respect than playing an accordion. | |
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| Polka Dork / int_535c15bf | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_535c15bf | comment |
In My Favorite Year, "Anyone who plays the accordion professionally" is on Benjy's list of people who cannot be funny. When K.C. completely muffs the joke he gave her to tell, he hands her money. When she asks what's it for, he replies "Accordion lessons". | |
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| Polka Dork / int_5ce3fc86 | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_5ce3fc86 | comment |
In the original Japanese dub of the Soul Eater anime, Maka is laughed at by the others when it's revealed she's a fan of polka music (it never comes up again, since it's just meant to be idle chatter while Chrona's having a crisis of conscience). The English dub changes it to Country. | |
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| Polka Dork / int_5d354f8 | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_5d354f8 | comment |
Arnold J. Rimmer in Red Dwarf counts polka music as an art form, albeit not one on a par with his all-consuming love of the Hammond organ and easy-listening music played thereon. Rimmer's dork status is well documented. | |
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Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_627b3897 | comment |
Everybody Loves Raymond features Cousin Gerard, the epitome of this trope. He even plays accordion at Ray and Debra's vow renewal. | |
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| Polka Dork / int_7c038c18 | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_7c038c18 | comment |
In Phineas and Ferb, resident nerd Baljeet has mentioned going to polka lessons. His 2nd Dimension counterpart, Dr. Baljeet, briefly plays the accordion for a gag. | |
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| Polka Dork / int_8a323143 | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_8a323143 | comment |
Lawrence Welk. While wildly popular with the older crowd, his music was considered square and dorky by the younger generation and even by his contemporaries and has often been parodied. (Example: Stan Freberg's "Wun'erful, Wun'erful!"). Even in polka circles Welk was considered considered kind of bland, since he played the more staid German-influenced polka style, as opposed to the livelier Slovenian style favored by stars like "America's Polka King" Frankie Yankovic. | |
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| Polka Dork / int_8d840259 | type |
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| Polka Dork / int_8d840259 | comment |
SCTV parodied "champagne music" shows such as The Lawrence Welk Show with a pair of brothers named Yosh and Stan Schmenge (John Candy and Eugene Levy) from the fictional Baltic state of Lutonia who hosted a polka show (the audience consisting of immigrant senior citizens). Their segment occasionally also featured the "Lemon Twins" (there were three of them), a parody of Welk's "Lennon Sisters". | |
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Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_8dba224e | comment |
The Cleveland Show has Cleveland attempting to sabotage the popularity of Kenny West by setting him up in a polka band with his dorky son Jr and other outcast musicians. Subverted as Kenny is so cool he manages to give polka mass appeal by giving it a hip hop twist. | |
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| Polka Dork / int_9068877a | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_9068877a | comment |
The Reds' driving music in Red vs. Blue is a Mexican polka. "Polkas y Huapangos" by Los Dos Laredos. Given the Reds are the even more inept side in this series whose theme is Armed Farces, this seems oddly appropriate. | |
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| Polka Dork / int_914ddbfd | comment |
In Groundhog Day, "Pennsylvania Polka" is playing in Punxsutawney town square on the morning of Groundhog Day. All the locals love it, and Rita's getting into it. When she tells Phil that the locals have been partying like this all night long, he just replies, "They're hicks, Rita." And, after hearing said polka for the umpteenth time, even a kind-hearted viewer might be inclined to agree with Phil. | |
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| Polka Dork / int_99055407 | comment |
In the TV series Family Matters, ubernerd Steve Urkel loves to polka and plays the accordion. | |
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Not surprisingly, polka is a favorite of Poland from Hetalia: Axis Powers. Like, totally. | |
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Several early Peanuts strips have Schroeder cringing at the popularity of polka music among less sophisticated listeners. Despite being a virtuoso classical pianist before being old enough to go to kindergarten, he even lost a talent contest to a guy who "played the accordion real fast." | |
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| Polka Dork / int_b9e26f05 | comment |
In Fargo, there is a shot of a polka band poster in a teenager's room. It's not as much a comment on the teenager, as much as one on Minnesotans in general being dorky, or at least square. | |
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Another Weird Al shout out was Wreck-Gar of Transformers: Animated, where he was treated as a bit of a loser and a simpleton, and his decision to break out an accordion and play a polka for no reason was not taken very well by neighborhood Grumpy Old Man Ratchet. | |
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Polka Dork | |
| Polka Dork / int_c1a76652 | comment |
Bernard Black in an episode of Black Books once tried to serenade a woman by playing the accordion. Given his usual social awkwardness plus an exceptional heatwave giving him delirium, the end result naturally blows up in his face. | |
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Cheese Sandwich, voiced by Weird Al, is essentially him in pony form. Accordion-playing polka music pony. Pinkie Pie. She carries a huge one-man band around on her back and the Cheese Sandwich episode points out how similar she and Cheese are. |
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| Polka Dork / int_c51fbda2 | comment |
In Biker Mice from Mars, polka music is used to subdue Modo's bike Lil' Hoss. | |
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In Home Alone, Kevin's mother's desperate journey to get back home to her son—amidst more conventional transportation options being booked full for the holidays—was aided in its last leg (from Scranton, Pennsylvania to Chicago) by Gus Polinsky, "The Polka King of the Midwest" and his band, who planned to get back to Milwaukee by rental van. He asked her "You don't mind riding with a bunch of polka bums?" and she indicated she was grateful for the ride. The band played polkas the whole way back to Chicago. | |
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Doug: Vice Principal Bone has an impressive collection of yodeling trophies. He once punished a student by making him polish them all. His love for polka is played for laughs and makes him look like a total square to his students. Kind of subverted when the kids' favorite rock band The Beets works yodeling into one of their songs. | |
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Good Morning, Vietnam: Air Force DJ Adrian Cronauer's nemesis, Lt. Hauk, firmly believes US' soldiers' morale will be boosted by three hours of polka music in the mornings... when Cronauer is taken off the air, GI's are dismayed by his uber-square replacement, and morale duly plummets. | |
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Arizona Dream: Suicidal Yandere Grace, played with a smoldering pout by Lili Taylor, seems to feel it's her mission in life to play The Streets of Cairo on her accordion until she's driven everybody else in the house bonkers. It's her favorite passive-aggressive weapon, whether it's to make herself busy when somebody else wants to scold her, or appear innocent right after her latest act of sabotage. | |
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Night Court: When Dan's parents come for a visit, the reveal that in his youth he was an accordion player in a polka band. This embarrasses Dan greatly. | |
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
| Polka Dork | processingCategory2 |
Comedy Tropes | |
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Indexed and Nerdy | |
| Polka Dork | processingCategory2 |
Loser Archetype | |
| Polka Dork | processingCategory2 |
Music Tropes | |
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| My Favorite Year / int_8de78ec2 | type |
Polka Dork | |
| Weird: The Al Yankovic Story / int_8de78ec2 | type |
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| Foundation and Earth / int_8de78ec2 | type |
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| Ron's Gone Wrong / int_8de78ec2 | type |
Polka Dork |
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Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.