With his typicaly bizarre new version of Kanye West's "Can't Tell Me Nothing," Zach Galifianakis is becoming one of today's most distinctive music video directors. Though he's a comedian, his videos aren't funny ha-ha, but funny peculiar -- if you wait for a punch line, you'll be disappointed.
Instead, Galifianakis simply revels in incongruity. Bearded, burly and sloppy, he likes to blunder into genres where he doesn't belong. His slacker rendition of Anita Baker's "You Bring Me Joy," in which he simply lip-synchs the tune in different poignant settings -- a crummy bar, an urban sidewalk, a nighttime carnival -- is actually a fairly effective mood-piece.
Anita Baker, "You Bring Me Joy"
And his version of Fiona Apple's "Not About Love" isn't any sillier than most melodramatic, relationship-themed videos. In that one, he and Apple lie in bed, pout at each other and stomp down a street bickering.
Fiona Apple, "Not About Love"
In the new West video, Galifianakis and alt-country singer Will Oldham don't do much besides mess around on the comedian's farm in North Carolina. (At one point, Galifianakis uses a tractor to dump Oldham into a lake). It's weird enough to see a morose type like Oldham acting the fool, but they both keep remarkably straight faces. After a while they almost seem to be making a commentary on the connection between rap music and rural whites.
Even the slow-motion video of several Heidi-esque girls doing clog-dances seems more creepy than funny. At a time when most music videos are unintentionally funny anyway -- see West's original version of "Can't Tell Me Nothing" -- Galifianakis's efforts seem less like jokes and more like art.
Anita Baker, "You Bring Me Joy"
And his version of Fiona Apple's "Not About Love" isn't any sillier than most melodramatic, relationship-themed videos. In that one, he and Apple lie in bed, pout at each other and stomp down a street bickering.
Fiona Apple, "Not About Love"
In the new West video, Galifianakis and alt-country singer Will Oldham don't do much besides mess around on the comedian's farm in North Carolina. (At one point, Galifianakis uses a tractor to dump Oldham into a lake). It's weird enough to see a morose type like Oldham acting the fool, but they both keep remarkably straight faces. After a while they almost seem to be making a commentary on the connection between rap music and rural whites.
Even the slow-motion video of several Heidi-esque girls doing clog-dances seems more creepy than funny. At a time when most music videos are unintentionally funny anyway -- see West's original version of "Can't Tell Me Nothing" -- Galifianakis's efforts seem less like jokes and more like art.