Clever White Guy Humor:
I have nothing to add to the dialogue about the world’s most overexposed music video save this: Clever White Guy Humor (CWGH)* leaves me cold. Especially when its laughs come from an endless loop of references to other funny white guys.
Odd, because I’m usually big on something that can be summed up and understood in a sentence (Alien was famously pitched as "Jaws in Space" which I think is brilliant). But this is less than a sentence. It’s a bunch of half-sentences with the bottoms falling out, like a used coffee filter.
"Internet memes! And we’re a big famous rock band so you didn’t think we’ve have time for this stuff. But we do! Get it?"
Er yes, I do. Is there more? Or is it guys dancing on treadmills? Clever yes, but self-contained clever like Rice Rice Baby. Its no more a cultural milestone than say, a very good knock knock joke.
*But that’s the essence of Clever White Guy Humor: The inflated value of a celver, soulless exercise. It humor made of seeming to take nothing seriously all while taking yourself deadly seriously. Or posing as a goofball while tacitly implying that no one in the room is as funny as you. Borne from the world view that all of life’s experiences are a version of a latenight freshman dorm conversation at an east coast liberal arts college. Offenders abound mostly in film (Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, Zach Braff) and music (Weezer, Flight of the Conchords, Tenacious D) but I’d take suggestions on their counterparts in television (David Letterman is their patron saint) and literature.
What say you?
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12 Replies to “Clever White Guy Humor:”
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I agree it ain’t deep. But not sure where you’re getting the self-importance from. Where is the “inflated value” coming from? Critics? Artists? Fans? Not sure I’ve met anyone who thinks that Weezer video or that OK Go video is anything more than “really freaking cool” which is a long way off from “cultural milestone”
I agree it ain’t deep. But not sure where you’re getting the self-importance from. Where is the “inflated value” coming from? Critics? Artists? Fans? Not sure I’ve met anyone who thinks that Weezer video or that OK Go video is anything more than “really freaking cool” which is a long way off from “cultural milestone”
This video irks me for two reasons. 1. I hate when people try to piggyback on short lived success of “trendy” things. 2. the video seems like they are lazy and just slapped together a bunch of tired clips.
This video irks me for two reasons. 1. I hate when people try to piggyback on short lived success of “trendy” things. 2. the video seems like they are lazy and just slapped together a bunch of tired clips.
Esin: I agree, I agree.
Dave: OK Go was the house band for This American Life’s national tour last year. They’ve been on NPR, referenced on the Simpsons, are buddies of They Might Be Giants and have been made honorary members of the Harvard Lampoon. I can’t speak for the critics but there is, to my mind, a general sense in the culture that what they are doing is more culturally valuable than say, what the History of Dance guy was doing. Even though to my mind they come in at exactly the same level of sophistication.
Maybe because OK Go is a band liked by some hipsters with cultural clout? A fair point. Bands don’t always get the audience they deserve. But on the face of it, OK Go isn’t any deeper than the Bare Naked Ladies but I don’t see BNL getting its videos directed by Michelle Gondry’s brother.
Esin: I agree, I agree.
Dave: OK Go was the house band for This American Life’s national tour last year. They’ve been on NPR, referenced on the Simpsons, are buddies of They Might Be Giants and have been made honorary members of the Harvard Lampoon. I can’t speak for the critics but there is, to my mind, a general sense in the culture that what they are doing is more culturally valuable than say, what the History of Dance guy was doing. Even though to my mind they come in at exactly the same level of sophistication.
Maybe because OK Go is a band liked by some hipsters with cultural clout? A fair point. Bands don’t always get the audience they deserve. But on the face of it, OK Go isn’t any deeper than the Bare Naked Ladies but I don’t see BNL getting its videos directed by Michelle Gondry’s brother.
Yeah. But then again. It’s Michel Gondry’s brother. Michel saves his kung fu for Bjork and Beck.
But I concede your point about OK Go being feted by the Hipperati. Stupid hipsters. Ruining it for the rest of us.
Yeah. But then again. It’s Michel Gondry’s brother. Michel saves his kung fu for Bjork and Beck.
But I concede your point about OK Go being feted by the Hipperati. Stupid hipsters. Ruining it for the rest of us.
Dave,
That really why everyone should be as uncool as us.
Dave,
That really why everyone should be as uncool as us.
I only get about half of the references in that video but I still think it’s fun, in the vein of Simpsons episodes where they throw lots of zany stuff at the wall, some of it sticking and some of it not. And they’re not simply rehashing the clips, they’re trying to make them their own (daft hands works, the staring gerbil (or whatever it is) doesn’t).
Maybe more internet clips need Weezer music.
Staying with the Simpsons analogy, the reason why some FWGH (as you label it) works and some doesn’t is the same reason why any genre of humor does & doesn’t work. Either it’s layered enough to hit you no matter how culturally aware you are (dudes dancing on treadmills are just fun, I have no idea what they’re referencing and I won’t hold it against OK Go that the clip was at one time played to death) or it’s “in club” humor that resonates with some small niche (Wes Anderson’s “Life Aquatic”, most of Tenacious D’s and all of Vampire Weekend’s repertoire). Letterman’s not soulless, he’s made some of the most clever digs at GW Bush and could be downright subversive in his NBC years.
And it’s not just a white thing. For the record, I consider the Wayans’ “Don’t Drink Your Juice…” in club humor and none of those guys are pigmentally challenged.
I only get about half of the references in that video but I still think it’s fun, in the vein of Simpsons episodes where they throw lots of zany stuff at the wall, some of it sticking and some of it not. And they’re not simply rehashing the clips, they’re trying to make them their own (daft hands works, the staring gerbil (or whatever it is) doesn’t).
Maybe more internet clips need Weezer music.
Staying with the Simpsons analogy, the reason why some FWGH (as you label it) works and some doesn’t is the same reason why any genre of humor does & doesn’t work. Either it’s layered enough to hit you no matter how culturally aware you are (dudes dancing on treadmills are just fun, I have no idea what they’re referencing and I won’t hold it against OK Go that the clip was at one time played to death) or it’s “in club” humor that resonates with some small niche (Wes Anderson’s “Life Aquatic”, most of Tenacious D’s and all of Vampire Weekend’s repertoire). Letterman’s not soulless, he’s made some of the most clever digs at GW Bush and could be downright subversive in his NBC years.
And it’s not just a white thing. For the record, I consider the Wayans’ “Don’t Drink Your Juice…” in club humor and none of those guys are pigmentally challenged.