Eric Wareheim makes videos

December 17, 2009 7:23 AM

The Music Videos of Eric Wareheim

• Major Lazer "Keep it Going Louder"
• IN LUST
• Depeche Mode "Hole To Feed"
• Major Lazer "Pon De Floor"
• AWESOMECON '09! July 25th in San Diego!
• Flying Lotus "Parisian Goldfish"
• Tommy Sparks "She's Got Me Dancing"
• Phantom Planet - Dropped
• Maroon 5 - If I Never See Your Face Again
• Ben Folds - You Don't Know Me
• The Bird and the Bee - Polite Dance Song
• MGMT - The Youth

posted by boo_radley (31 comments total)

For the record, this is the same Eric Wareheim as from Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job. I love his stuff. Good post.
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:26 AM on December 17, 2009

I really think that this is one of those things that people either think are great, or they think they suck.

I think they suck.
posted by cyphill at 7:36 AM on December 17, 2009

Very nice. I keep thinking I'll post one or another of his videos here, but a retrospective is definitely in order. The personal fave being She's Got Me Dancing followed closely by Polite Dance Song.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:45 AM on December 17, 2009

I fucking hate Tim and Eric Awesome Show, to be honest, but that Mazer Lazer video... oh my. oh that is so fucking awesome.

I think the difference for me is that it's funny when he's doing that to someone else's work, which is normally serious.
posted by shmegegge at 7:50 AM on December 17, 2009

Someone on Metafilter once said that they really love T&E Awesome Show but they very pointedly do not go out of their way to recommend it to others since it's such a weirdly jarring form of comedy, and it seems totally understandable that people would just hate it. I think that's a very true statement, and it applies to these without a doubt. Although I'm a big fan of Awesome Show I'm not so into these videos, or really any of the musical bits on Awesome Show in this vein. Maybe it's a case of being more into the Tim Heidecker side of the comedy than the Eric Wareheim side?
posted by pziemba at 7:54 AM on December 17, 2009 [2 favorites]

I think that Eric and Tim/Eric is about 40% brilliant/60% too gross or annoying or not funny. But I am jealous of how much fun that dude has in his life.
posted by orville sash at 7:55 AM on December 17, 2009 [2 favorites]

I've been watching that "Keep it Going Louder" video for weeks now. The part that cracks me up the most: Nina Sky (the two girls singing) are their usual sexycool selves, getting down at what seems like a pretty fun casual party, and they seem completely oblivious to logic, sanity and gravity breaking down all around them in some sort of garish LSD-fueled apocalypse. I'm guessing Wareheim just bluescreened them separately and didn't tell them the concept of the video, because they would've refused to take part in it completely if they'd known.
posted by naju at 8:17 AM on December 17, 2009

I've gone ahead and made that change. Your wife's name is now Taargus Taargus.
posted by Eideteker at 8:30 AM on December 17, 2009

IN LUST IS INCREDIBLE
posted by The Devil Tesla at 8:47 AM on December 17, 2009

I really enjoyed Awesome Show for the first couple of seasons, but I've become completely burnt out on the show and Eric's videos since. Awesome Show started as a brilliant satire of 80s and 90s low-budget TV production, awkward interactions and petty familial grievances, but after season two -- with the exception of two great episodes that played with the format of the show ("Jim and Derrick", "Tommy") -- Tim and Eric seem to be content vomiting up non-sequiturs onto a garishly psychedelic digital landscape. It's become really mannered and formulaic.
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 8:49 AM on December 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

I EAT TAPAS: "It's become really mannered and formulaic."

Ironic, in its own way.

An aside: I heard someone describing dim sum as "tapas, but chinese".
posted by boo_radley at 9:19 AM on December 17, 2009

I see the Ren & Stimpification of pop culture is coming along nicely.
posted by one_bean at 9:33 AM on December 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm really sorry I missed the casting call for the 'Hole To Feed' video, but part of me is convinced I would have gotten paired up with someone hideous.
posted by daHIFI at 9:58 AM on December 17, 2009

I really appreciate this post because it does provide a bit of insight as to who of Tim and Eric brings what to the mix. Now I wonder which of them is the synth guy...
posted by mouthnoize at 10:30 AM on December 17, 2009

Parisian Goldfish by Flying Lotus (NSFW) is mindblowing.
posted by the biscuit man at 10:52 AM on December 17, 2009

The Pon de Floor video is so thoroughly nihilistic. Good job!
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:10 AM on December 17, 2009

Does anyone else feel like they're rubbernecking/laughing at the kids on the shortbus when they partake of Tim and Eric? Because I have this really dirty feeling when I've seen it.
posted by pxe2000 at 2:05 PM on December 17, 2009

The Flying Lotus video is only half of it. See the rest at www.dancefloordale.com, if you dare.
posted by Antidisestablishmentarianist at 2:58 PM on December 17, 2009

I can't figure out what this man's about. It seems like just plain hate wrapped in a bit of irony. It gives me the same creepy feeling that "People of Walmart" induces.

It is also possible that I am officially old.
posted by chairface at 3:08 PM on December 17, 2009 [3 favorites]

Does anyone else feel like they're rubbernecking/laughing at the kids on the shortbus when they partake of Tim and Eric? Because I have this really dirty feeling when I've seen it.

It gives me the same creepy feeling that "People of Walmart" induces.

I could be way off-base, but I think they're trying to elicit that exact uncomfortable feeling in their viewers, and then using that as a jumping off point for further questions: why does this feel so wrong to watch? Why is this ridiculous? What assumptions and connections am I making subconsciously here, and what does it say about me? Now what happens when the assumptions are subverted? It's part of the subtle brilliance of the show, in my opinion.
posted by naju at 3:24 PM on December 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

No, I really feel like I'm the one on the short bus and all the old people rocking out and people having ladder-dive-bomb-do-a-barrel-roll sex all over the house are saying "look at you, you dummy. Your sterile, empty life that you've wasted. You've infantilized every meaningful emotion you could have and now it's too late for you."
posted by boo_radley at 3:28 PM on December 17, 2009

You've infantilized every meaningful emotion you could have and now it's too late for you." -- boo_radley

Interesting use of the word "infantalized" there. One of the things that really squicks me about Tim and Eric is the extent to which they themselves engage in immature behavior and scat humor...and to what ends? I mean, there's not really much of substance behind their dog-doo/O HAI WHITE TRASH humor, is there? If rubbernecking at the auto accident is your idea of a wild, sexy time, then have at it. I'll be over here with Mr. Izzard.
posted by pxe2000 at 3:43 PM on December 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

...I guess there's too much contempt for the things they're mocking for me to see/understand the deconstructive tones naju is pointing out.
posted by pxe2000 at 3:45 PM on December 17, 2009

pxe2000, I get what you're saying and understand it. I don't really watch a whole lot of their show, so I'm at a loss there, but take a look at the Depeche Mode video, though:

The viewer is immediately hit over the head: youth. youth youth youth youth. Young girl, braces, pacifier on the belt, two giant inflatable babies. The camera pans away to 2 people in the audience inexpertly kissing -- tonguing each others faces. They don't know what they're doing, but they steal away the focus from the stage. Other members of the audience emulate blindly -- they don't know what they're doing either, but it's The Thing To Do.

And when people aren't kissing? They're entirely emotionless. So, when they're kissing like they saw those people do, do they fill up with emotions? It's all learned, emulated behavior: This is what happy people do; I want to be happy; I will do that -- and it doesn't work. They're still void inside.
posted by boo_radley at 4:04 PM on December 17, 2009

...I guess there's too much contempt for the things they're mocking for me to see/understand the deconstructive tones naju is pointing out.

I think a good litmus test for this is the Carol sketch. From one viewpoint, this is brash sizeism and sexism that goes on for an excruciatingly long time. Really, just pure and endless, juvenile hatred spewing out. From another viewpoint, we have to look at the complete absurdity of what we're watching, detach and look deeper. And yeah, to me it's both hilarious and fascinating, and there's so much going on here in 4 minutes that I could probably write a no-bullshit 20-page essay on this sketch alone. But I've been guilty of overthinking plates of beans before, so hey.
posted by naju at 5:46 PM on December 17, 2009

The Pon De Floor video works the best for me. The music just demands insane agonized unsexy humping. Marching band windup toys getting tazered.

Where I get uncomfortable is wondering what the people in the videos know about what they're getting into. If they're cool with it, I'm cool with it. If they're not, I'm not, but I'm kind of running on the assumption that they have a sense of humor about themselves and the world. I hope I'm not wrong.

Oh, yeah, Nina Sky don't look like they know what the heck is going on but in that case I don't mind because they're not the ones being possibly exploited. Except in a weird twist, they are being exploited by appearing clueless to the insanity.
posted by bobobox at 7:04 PM on December 17, 2009

Where I get uncomfortable is wondering what the people in the videos know about what they're getting into. If they're cool with it, I'm cool with it. If they're not, I'm not, but I'm kind of running on the assumption that they have a sense of humor about themselves and the world. I hope I'm not wrong.

Can't speak for most of these, but I saw some footage from the set of the Tommy Sparks video and was surprised to see him chilling with Eric watching various oddities being filmed for incorporation into the video. So him, at least, knew what he was getting into. Also, presumably these people have seen an Eric Wareheim video or two before choosing him for the job. It's not like he suddenly veered from the straight and narrow not long ago.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:17 PM on December 17, 2009

Huge Tim & Eric fan here. I guess you have to know and love what they are imitating to really "get" it. A lot of their show is formatted like Public Access TV. I worked at a Public Access station and T&E is pitch perfect most of the time. The cheesy effects, the bad acting, stupid sets-- and the 80's/90's clothes and hairstyles are also a huge Public Access thing. Anyway, T&E does a fantastic job of capturing the same spirit just with a weirder and dirtier vibe.

So, when I watch T&E I guess I can relate to it on levels most people wouldn't! I have lots of cool stories from when I worked at the station.
posted by OrangeSoda at 11:20 PM on December 17, 2009

By the way, I love these videos. Eric is very talented, and i'm glad to see Fatal Farm is working with him. PLEASE google Fatal Farm if you don't know them.
posted by OrangeSoda at 11:23 PM on December 17, 2009

Did Eric also do the "Crystal Cat" video for Dan Deacon? Because the deranged garishness of it and the freaky infectiousness of the tune seems very similar to what I've seen in a couple of these (especially Parisian Goldfish).
posted by FatherDagon at 8:25 AM on December 18, 2009

Actually, that was a director called Jimmy Joe Roche-- http://www.youtube.com/user/jimmyjoeroche
posted by OrangeSoda at 8:41 AM on December 18, 2009 [1 favorite]