If you’re having a moan about having run out of oat milk or having too many flowers around the house and not enough vases, your friends might bring out their tiny violins. But where does the saying come from and what actually is the world’s smallest violin?
What is the origin of the phrase ‘the world’s smallest violin’?
It’s not hugely clear where the saying ‘the world’s smallest violin’ comes from, but there are a few references in pop culture that may or may not have been the first to mention it.
Many point to the violin piece ‘Hearts and Flowers’, composed by Theodore Moses Tobani in 1899 with lyrics by Mary D Brine. It was a piece of music used as the soundtrack for a range of silent films, often used to purvey mock sympathy. This then became linked to the expression ‘break out the violins’, which is closely tied to sarcastic expressions of sympathy. Violins and fiddles are often used in melancholic or sad pieces of music, so this reference has persisted throughout pop culture history.
In hit 70s American TV show M*A*S*H, a character rubs her thumb and finger together, saying, ‘It’s the world’s smallest violin, and it’s playing just for you.’
It also appears in Quentin Tarantino’s film Reservoir Dogs and has now become used in instances in which one person is exaggerating their own misfortune to gain sympathy from others, and another will mimic playing a tiny violin. It is a deeply sarcastic gesture, and one that usually will garner laughs from the crowd – a double whammy of disappointment for the person wanting commiseration for their troubles. It is most likely this reference that took the saying into the wider public consciousness.
It’s become well loved on social media, where gifs and memes reign supreme. A particularly popular reference is one from SpongeBob Squarepants. You might be familiar…
In the rise of TikTok, the phenomenon of the world’s smallest violin has simply grown and grown.
What actually is the world’s smallest violin?
The Guinness World Record for the world’s smallest violin is currently an unfilled position – so, violin makers, go!
The smallest available violins on the market are 1/64 violins, which clock in at under 80cm long, and are perfect for the tiniest of performers. They were brought to the market in the 1980s by Stentor Music, a British manufacturer and distributor of stringed instruments. They spotted a gap in the market for extra-small violins for the youngest learners: the 1/32 and the 1/64. These instruments are still being made and manufactured today, but are difficult to come by.
You can buy a 1/64 Stentor SR1400 violin from Thomann.
Other models by Stentor are also available in a range of sizes.
Or, if you don’t actually need to create a perfect sound on your tiny violin, here are a few other options.