This Music Monday, Alex Casey rediscovers the music video for ‘This is Outrageous’, the ridiculous debut single from Jez of the British comedy Peep Show. //
The first ever episode of Peep Show still stands as an example of pure heart-attack-inducing hilarity. Part of it’s tremendous success, for me anyway, is the way it perfectly introduces our imperfect main characters – Mark and Jez. For those of you who haven’t seen it, Peep Show‘s genius comes in the way the story is told – literally through the eyeballs of the pair.
Because the camera placed effectively inside their heads, it’s sort of essential that we first meet the characters in a mirror (also is in keeping with their ongoing self-aggrandizing (Jez) and self-aware neuroticism (Mark)). Mark is introduced internally crowning himself as Lord of The Bus in the rear view mirror, after an all-too-familiar marathon run to the bus stop. Jez is introduced gyrating shirtless in front of his bedroom mirror to his very own Sick Beat™. It’s a fitting introduction to each – one is fretting endlessly to the point of apoplexy about boarding public transport and the other is basking indulgently in his own terrible, terrible music.
Jez’s song ‘This Is Outrageous’ sounds like someone stapled The Prodigy to Spinal Tap and shoved them in an empty Nesquik tin to battle it out. “I am almost definitely a musical genius,” Jez thinks to himself, arbitrarily twisting knobs and bashing random keys. Repeating the lyrics “this is outrageous, this is contagious” to a cacophony of sonic lasers, and rounding it out with a extraordinarily long “soooo fuuuuutile” – you won’t find more meaningless lyrics this side of Eiffel 65. With that said, it’s highly enjoyable and alarmingly catchy (I dare you to not mutter “this is ouutraaaaaageous” the next time you are shocked by something).
But, even more delightful than the song itself is the accompanying homemade music video. Shots of Jez dancing manically around his living room are paired with brilliant graveyard sequences. The eerily profound lyrics “in the mists of graveyards…things come to life…it’s dangerous…keep away from it,” are demonstrated by Jez (alternating between an alien mask and a George Bush mask) jumping out slowly from behind tombstones. The political commentary doesn’t stop there. We see Tony Blair being led on a leash by George Bush, George Bush getting some dental work done by Osama Bin Laden and the Queen knighting an Alien. It’s hard hitting stuff, with all the well-meaning-yet-empty confusion of when Jez joined a book group. Enjoy it for yourself:
Pretty much the music video equivalent of a sheep trying to use an iPod.
Lightbox customers, click here to get inside the brain of Peep Show. It’s outrageous.
Everyone else, click here to start your free 30 day trial. It’s contagious.