The local Musical Instrument Museum's latest email noted that their octobasse was one of the instruments used for the soundtrack to the forthcoming HUNGER GAMES movie. The octobasse is a bowed lute. If a regular lute is considered normal, then something like a bass cello would be a bowed lute on steroids. Which would make the octobasse the Incredible Hulk of lutes, because it's TWELVE FRIGGIN' FEET TALL!!! Here's a picture to show the scale:
The performer has to stand on a stool to play the octobasse, frets are done by a series of levers on the side of the instrument, and its lowest notes can be outside the normal range of human hearing.
What it most reminds me of, though, is something in comic books. Not the Incredible Hulk, though that's a pretty apt simile, but Batman.
Yes, Batman. Back in the late 1950's and early 1960's, one of the comics memes that appeared frequently was Batman chasing and fighting crooks and villains in and around oversized, giant objects.
For an extra thrill, you could always add in one of the semi-lame supporting characters from that same era, like Bat-Hound or Bat-Mite or that early version of Batwoman who clearly suffered from some form of color-blindness:
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| "Surrender, criminals, before I make you rip your own eyeballs out from an overload of garishness." |
YouTube videos of the octobasse in action available here.
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