Experimental Film
From This Might Be A Wiki
| song name | Experimental Film |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | Selections From The Spine, The Spine, Experimental Film (Promo), TMBG Clock Radio, Venue Songs, Them Ain't Big Eye Ants, Idlewild, 50,000,000 They Might Be Giants Songs Can't Be Wrong |
| year | 2004 |
| first played | January 25, 2004 (164 known performances) |
| run time | 2:56 |
| sung by | John Linnell |
Trivia/Info
- John Linnell on the song's subject matter in a 2025 interview with the A.V. Club:
"Experimental Film" is another entirely different kind of narrative for us — it's a pop song, but it's about that kind of wide-open love for something that's purely artistic. And not necessarily something everyone can relate to, but that's the thing it was kind of expressing: "I love 8mm weird film that's non-narrative and of something really minimal." Like an Andy Warhol-ish project or something. It just felt like there should be a song about that.
- The music video for this song is the third collaboration between They Might Be Giants and The Brothers Chaps, creators of the Homestar Runner web cartoon. At the time of the video's release, the band had previously collaborated with the Brothers Chaps on sbemail #99 "different town" and the Puppet Jam sessions. When asked about the origins of their collaboration in a 2004 interview, John Flansburgh said[1]:
It was very circuitous... A photograph was taken of me wearing a Homsar shirt, which is one of the more obscure characters in Homestar, and somebody made them aware of it — "Hey look, they're wearing your shirt, you guys," and so [the Brothers Chaps] knew that we were fans. And I guess Linnell kind of reached out to them and said, "You know, if there's anything you want us to do, if you have any musical needs for your site or whatever, we'd be certainly happy to help you guys out," and they took us up on that offer.
- Flansburgh added more context to the story in a 2013 Tumblr ask[2]: "I guess they saw me wearing a Homsar shirt (that my wife Robin had given me) and reached out to us. JL and his son are super-big fans too so it was easy to collaborate!"
- The music video's direction is credited to Strong Sad and The Cheat, two characters from the Homestar Runner series. Alongside of Strong Sad and The Cheat's main role in the music video, other H*R characters such as Strong Bad, Strong Mad and Homestar Runner make appearances throughout the video. John Linnell discussed the music video in a 2004 interview with SubModern Report:
[The video] stars Strong Sad. He's the main character in the video. It's kinda like he's the guy making the film and then The Cheat comes in and he's making his film. It's a little bit abstract but that's the basic idea. We have the Flash version which we can put up online, and we also have a video of it which, I suppose, we're going to be using to promote the album. The Flash version in some ways is cooler because it's got their usual Easter eggs inside. The visual part of the video is done. I'm not sure if they've finished the other parts, the Easter eggy stuff. That may be why that's not done. They've already sent us the DV of the video which we're sending to promote the thing in Britain.
- The music video was uploaded to the Homestar Runner website on July 13, 2004[3]. As the music video was animated in Flash, the website version has interactive Flash elements. Scattered throughout the music video are various different references to They Might Be Giants and Easter eggs animated by the Brothers' Chaps:
- There are two different video commentaries of "Experimental Film" featuring characters from the H*R cast. The first can be accessed by clicking on the "Directed By Strong Sad & The Cheat" opening credits of the website upload, while the second is only available on the H*R DVD Everything Else, Volume 1.
- Skulls and presidents make frequent appearances throughout the video as references to these recurring themes in TMBG's music. The Tentacle Skull seen in the video is a H*R character exclusive to "Experimental Film", and has not appeared in any other H*R media. The H*R wiki theorizes that the Tentacle Skull could have been an animated portrayal of the "Skullivan", although this has never been confirmed[4].
- Both Johns briefly appear in animated "Powered by The Cheat" form in the music video. Throughout both commentaries, the Johns are referred to as "Super Giants" and "Supreme Giants", while Flansburgh is referred to as "That one right there with the glasses" and "The glasses guy".
- A crude drawing of a lion with the phrase "It's a lion!" appears in the music video on a monitor screen[5]. This drawing would also be referenced in the "Figure Eight" music video, also animated by the Brothers Chaps, in an instruction book[6].
- After the release of the music video, They Might Be Giants would continue to collaborate with the Brothers Chaps on H*R related work, recording the songs "200 sbemails" and "Crystal Fortress". Flansburgh said of collaborating with the brothers[7]: "Homestar is the best, and working with them in any capacity has always been an honor."
- According to John Flansburgh in a 2004 Wired interview, the band was planning another music video for the song in addition to the Homestar Runner video, joking that "if MTV and Homestar collided, the world might explode." Despite these plans, the second music video never materialized, while the H*R music video was confirmed by Flansburgh to have aired on MTV in England[8].
- When this song is played live, Flansburgh has a tendency to yell "Guitar!" in a falsetto voice before the solo, reminiscent of Justin Hawkins of The Darkness in "I Believe in a Thing Called Love".
Song Themes
Animals, Bodily Mutilation, Body Parts, Coffee, Colors, Creative Drought, Criminal Activities, Death, Denial, Drinks, Egoism And Pretentiousness, Eyes, Food, Games, Heads, Insects, Money, Movies, Oxymorons, Paradoxes, And Contradictory Statements, Presidents, Questions, Recycled Material, Rhymes, Skulls, Sports, Time, Transportation, TV And Movie Themes
Video Themes
Animals, Bodily Mutilation, Criminal Activities, Coffee, Death, Drinks, Food, Games, Insects, Money, Presidents, Recycled Material, Skulls, Sports, Time, Transportation
Videos
- Watch it on
- Watch it on Homestar Runner - Interactive music video with commentary
- Watch it on - Homestar Runner DVD exclusive commentary
- Watch it on - Recorded live in a studio for ugo.com
- Homestar Runner Wiki entry for "Experimental Film"
Current Rating You must be logged in to rate this. You can either login (if you have a userid) or create an account with us today. Experimental Film is currently ranked #38 out of 1085. (327 wikians have given it an average rating of 9.11) |
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