Eye Candy #8: Robyn, The Go! Team, Lily Allen

Three of the most flat-out fun videos you'll see the entire year...guaranteed!


Robyn "Konichiwa Bitches"
dir. by Johan Sandberg, Fredrik Skogkvist, Henrik Timonen
Not much needs to be said about the non-stop creativity of this video, but there are a few important things worth mentioning. First off the Dave Chappelle reference is clever without being self-conscious, but some of the moments actually mocking Japanese culture are a bit hard to swallow. But most of the set pieces are brilliantly realized (some of them are laugh-out-loud hilarious) and finally I sort of read the entire affair as an enormously effective critique of Fergie, her gaudy music and her offensively bad videos. So even if it perpetuates your typical sumo-wrestler and geisha stereotypes, anything aimed (intentionally or not) at taking the "dutchess" of shit music down a notch is a-OK in my book.


Lily Allen "Alfie"
dir. by Sarah Chatfield
Starting where the Robyn video ends, with the Looney Tunes intro, the latest from the MySpace diva references another Comedy Central hit show - Crank Yankers - with it's dirty puppet character. Lily Allen is a bona fide star with oodles of wit, but did anyone else read that horrible review of Alright, Still in Rollingstone? How could anyone listen to "LDN" all the way through and actually think it was about how sunny the sky in London is? Not only is Rollingstone sinking further into irrelevance, but they aren't even good journalists anymore! Anyway, fun video.


The Go! Team "Junior Kickstart"
dir. by Doug Schachtel
The video for this A-Team inspired track from 2005's Thunder, Lightning, Strike begins exceedingly well and is shot in a style perfectly in tune with the references of the song. Yet it ultimately looses steam once we realize they aren't going to incorporate more elements of the actual Mrs. Pacman game. Still, the opening and the split-screen scene are classic.