Old Favourites: Neil Diamond – “The Chanukah Song”
“Harrison Ford is a quarter Jewish – not too shabby!”
Why should Christmas get all the fun? Way back when Adam Sandler was actually funny (if you were born after 1992, you may have trouble remembering this), he penned a Hannukah carol to celebrate the Jewish festivities in the only way he knew how. It’s turned into a mini-anthem of its own, and a couple of years ago Cherry Cherry himself Neil Diamond decided to have a crack at it.
This adorably cheesy video clip is the result of said cover, and although Diamond plays it straight in his cover, he still keeps the humour intact. There’s a lot to like about this – it’s family friendly, it’s cute, and for all of its dagginess it doesn’t make me want to skull-drag innocent children along dirt roads the way that many a Christmas carol tends to do. L’chaim, bitches!
Watch This If You Dare: Justin Bieber – “Mistletoe”
“Lights fill the streets, spreaing so much cheer…”
It pains me to do this. If you know me, you know how much love and respect Justin Bieber. I have both My Worlds, I loved the Never Say Never movie…whenever people would give him shit, I would be straight to his defense. This, however, is inexcusable – I’m iffy about the whole Christmas album thing to begin with, but the Biebs has delivered his most soulless and artificial release to date. There’s so much wrong with it, from a hip-hop Little Drummer Boy to a duet with Mariah Carey, but I think it can all be properly summed up with the clip for the lead single, Mistletoe.
Firstly, I’m freaked out about his voice dropping – I know it’s natural, but it just doesn’t feel right with this kind of music. Not yet, at least. What’s more, Biebs comes off as a total douchenozzle throughout this entire video, leading on one chick and acting all damn cutesy with another. The whole busting-out-verses-in-the-middle-of-the-street thing is totally fucking lame, too – I mean, he’s done some cringeworthy clips in the past, but there’s nothing redeeming here. No choreography, good direction – it doesn’t even seem like a nice location where this was filmed. Damn shame, Biebs. It’s not like you needed the money, either, bastard! Hopefully, this isn’t where JB is headed full-time, but chances are you won’t have a merry Christmas with this particular heartthrob. Guh.
Watch This Now: The Bedroom Philosopher – “The 12 Days of Christmas”
“Four appalling turds, three French hitmen, two purple thumbs…”
An old friend of the blog, Justin Heazlewood – aka The Bedroom Philosopher – recently dropped a great EP just in time for the holidays entitled A Very Beddy Christmas. In typical Beddy Philly style (nickname copyright to Robin Waters of The Boat People), Justin has taken some classic carols and given them a demented and hilarious twist. Here, Justin is not getting presents over The 12 Days of Christmas from his “true love.” Nope, it’s an ex-girlfriend. And BOY, does she have some issues.
This is a very basic visual retelling of the song, but it adds significantly to the song’s humour when you see all of the gifts being delivered day by day. It’s an evil masterplan on the ex-girlfriend’s behalf – and wait until you see what drops on the twelfth day! Great work from Justin and director Carlo Zeccola. Make sure you catch up with Beddy Philly as he opens for The Dresden Dolls nationally this January – I’ve got my ticket for the Sydney show and I cannot wait!
Oh – and look out for a cameo from Dave Callan! Love that guy!
Watch This If You Dare: Jan Terri – “Rock & Roll Santa”
“There was Santa, jammin’ on a guitar! He was really rockin’!”
Merry fucking Christmas, video fans. Did you miss me? Yeah, didn’t think so. Just before you all get pissed and eat ham, though, I thought we could have a little Christmas lunch of our own over here on Yes, We’ve Got a Video! – after all, this is the last you guys will hear from me in 2011 apart from a little end-of-year newsletter thing I’ll post next week. We should celebrate this little bit together, shouldn’t we?
Anyway, I thought I’d torture you kids with some videos that really bring out the Christmas cheer in all of us. Let’s start with a smash from Jan Terri. If you’ve ever trawled the web for the worst videos ever made – and don’t act like you haven’t – there’s a very good chance that you will have come across Jan’s VHS brilliance that is Losing You. Seriously, go watch that and come back; I’ll wait… dude! Hilar, right? Anyways, this choice cut from her second album sees her come across Santa – yep, your mate and mine, Santa – just shredding on a guitar. As you do. She then suddenly becomes an elf, and some weird shit goes down. She dances around for a bit, there’s some creepy humans-as-toys and some busting out of the chorus as some ducks swim by.
This is a masterpiece of so-bad-it’s-good music video. It’s so horrendous that you’ll probably fall in love with it. I can’t offer anything more than that, now, can I?
Yes, We've Got a Video! 
