Stereogum Home
July 26, 2007

Behind The Air Humping: Zach Galifianakis Talks Kanye

The award for the net's-best-thing this week goes to Zach and Will Oldham's tractor-ized tribute to Kanye West's "Can't Tell Me Nothing." Some of you guessed Jon Brion was the catalyst for Bonnie and Zach's yeoman-foray into the world of Kanye (fair guess: Zach and Fiona are BFFs, Fiona and Jon have their Extraordinary relationship, Jon/Kanye collab ... let the circle go unbroken) -- but MTV News got the true scoop from Zach, drizzled with potent quotables. Zach explained:

Kanye's trainer, Harley Pasternak, is a friend of mine, and he showed Kanye some of my videos. Then Kanye came to a stand-up show of mine and asked me afterwards if I would produce and perform a video for him. I was flying to my farm in North Carolina the next morning [and] I told him that if I could shoot it there, then I would do it. There was no audition. I did whatever I wanted. He told me to just do what I thought would work.
Will Oldham just happened to be visiting the farm, so he jumped in on the filming fun.
...the two then took it upon themselves to run around Galifianakis's farm, doing whatever sprang to mind (one scene, featuring the comedian sporting the words "I Love Turd" on his forehead and clutching a chainsaw, was conceived thusly: "Will and I were drunk in my basement and that is how that came about").

And though the whole thing was done off-the-cuff, Galifianakis said it was actually pretty difficult work. There was the whole issue of mastering Kanye's lyrics, piloting a tractor and, well, getting some rather complex air-humping secrets down pat.

"[The song has] lots of words that are quite fast. Plus, my horrible dancing throws off the rhythm inside my head," he explained. "Also, I cannot give up my air-humping secrets for fear that the Goo Goo Dolls will steal them."

As for Galifianakis's hope for the summum bonum from the alternate "Can't Tell Me Nothing"?

"My dream has to be getting it on BET," he said. "I don't have a career. So I will make one up for myself."

Zach ftw.

Posted at 2:04 PM
Tags:  |  |




8 Comments

drunk in the basement? a certain girlfriend of mine might have to eat her words re: drinking and comedy writing.

Posted by: sp at 07/26/07 2:49 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down



im growing tired of seeing headlines about Zach Galifianakis daily ...

Posted by: Rygun at 07/26/07 3:27 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

hey rygun - do some work!

Posted by: hey you at 07/26/07 4:06 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

They should give spank rock some credit for those Air Cock Thrust moves.

Posted by: but... at 07/26/07 4:22 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

So Kanye didn't have anything to do with it, I thought not

Posted by: Rina at 07/26/07 4:52 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

"Then Kanye came to a stand-up show of mine and asked me afterwards if I would produce and perform a video for him."
It sounds like he had everything to do with it.

Posted by: David at 07/26/07 10:15 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

actually, I imagine you mean with the concept of the video itself, rather than the hiring on Galifianakis, never mind.

Posted by: David at 07/26/07 10:18 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

Still, I'd give Kanye (somewhat of a control freak) credit for letting Zach do whatever he wanted.

Posted by: Stephen at 07/27/07 1:14 AM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

Leave a comment


 

The 'Gum Drop

Get our newsletter. MP3s and giveaways weekly.

Search




Sort by:date relevance

Information

  • Contact:
  • About
  • Press
  • Advertising
  • Stereogum RSS Stereogum RSS XML Icon
  • MP3-Only RSS Stereogum RSS XML Icon

Staff

Founder/Editor-In-Chief
Scott Lapatine
Executive Editor
Amrit Singh
Senior Writer
Brandon Stosuy
Columnist
Jon McMillan
Technology & Operations
Jim Jazwiecki
Angela Williams

The Cool Kids

All Stereogum Posts


Get Flash to see our mp3 player. Here are our mp3s: of Montreal - Instant Karma (KUT Session) (»)
of Montreal - Nowhere Man (KUT Session) (»)
Animal Collective - Brother Sport (NPR Live) (»)
of Montreal - Gallery Piece (Jon Brion Remix) (»)
Tokyo Police Club - In A Cave (»)
Chromeo - 100 (Trackademicks B-LIVE Pemberton Mix) (»)
Midlake - Roscoe (»)
We Have Band - You've Had Band (Demo) (»)
Fire On Fire - Hartford Blues (»)
Amazing Baby - Pump Your Brakes (»)
Threatmantics - Don't Care (»)
The Broken West - Auctioneer (»)
The Broken West - Perfect Games (»)
Army Navy - My Thin Sides (»)
Surf City - Dickshakers Union (»)
Surf City - Headin' Inside (»)
Ryan Adams - Times Like These (Live) (»)

Band to Watch logo

Band To Watch: Threatmantics

Threatmantics are a scruffy Welsh rock trio that throw some wrinkles into the scruffy rock formula: Instead of a lead guitarist, they have a lead John Cale viola, and their drummer does double-time with a keyboard. The two guys mixing...

MORE »

Quit Your Day Job logo

Quit Your Day Job: The Broken West

Ross Flournoy, the Memphis-born lead vocalist and guitarist for the Samuel Beckett referencing (I Can't Go On, I'll Go On) Los Angeles pop quartet the Broken West, writes and records soundtracks for DVDs when not performing songs from his band's...

MORE »

Premature Evaluation logo

Premature Evaluation: Ryan Adams - Cardinology

The prolific author, Oasis fan and Courtney Love lover Ryan Adams is rarely far from our thoughts. The fact that the man is so open and free about his goings on, it can be hard to remember the talent that...

MORE »

Video Hangover logo

Video Hangover: Marcy Playground - "Saint Joe On The Schoolbus"

Every week, we dig in the archives for videos that we find noteworthy, memorable, or just unbelievably stupid. And then, Jon McMillan breaks 'em down for you. This week: Marcy Playground blows their one chance at video immortality.

MORE »

Oldstand logo

OldStand: Rolling Stone, September 13, 1984

Take our ink-stained hands and join us at the OldStand, where Jon McMillan goes to remind everyone what an honest-to-goodness music magazine is supposed to look like. Lots of Huey Lewis (and the News) news lately, so let's go back...

MORE »

The Outsiders logo

The Outsiders: Vol. 21: Harry Pussy

Not all of Stereogum's favorite sounds conform to what folks expect us to cover. In this space, resident Bananafish fetishist Brandon Stosuy focuses on bands, albums, singles, and villages in Sweden that may otherwise pass by unnoticed. This installment's virtual...

MORE »

The 'Gum Drop logo

The Wrens - "In Turkish Waters"

In January, The Lifted Brow, a biannual "50% fiction and 50% everything else" Melbourne-based magazine, is putting out an issue that includes two CDs with exclusive music from Spiral Stairs, the Magnetic Fields' Claudia Gonson, Frightened Rabbit, and Dan Deacon,...

MORE »