While I’m about ready to set off another full R <3’s MVs column, I couldn’t let sit this hot-out-of-the-editing-software new video from They Might Be Giants that stars Rip Torn as a street-brawling 80-year-old thug.
Debuted at NYMag, the piece is the band’s official music video for “Cant’ Keep Johnny Down” the first single off of their new (excellent) album Join Us. One of the two Johns (Flans) told them about how it came together…
“In this video, we were trying to figure out how to complement the idea of the song without illustrating the idea of the song. The Johnny character is this very uncivilized dude. There were a lot of different scenarios about how to make him a badass guy, but once it was clear that the character was going to be played by Rip Torn, it seemed like it was easy to connect the dots for the rest of it. You don’t need a lot of other ideas when you’ve got Rip Torn street-fighting at the age of 80.”
This video is perfectly timed for me, as They Might Be Giants is pretty much my favorite band (like, ever you guys, seriously) and I’ve been exploring The Larry Sanders Show for the past few weeks now, and that classic HBO comedy is a veritable buffet of Rip Torn greatness. Here’s to Rip kicking ass until he’s 90.
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