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


Staff

  • Founder/Editor-In-Chief: Scott Lapatine
  • Executive Editor: Amrit Singh
  • Senior Writer: Brandon Stosuy

Info

Contact

Get Flash to see our mp3 player. Here are our mp3s: Cold Cave - Life Magazine (»)
Pants Yell! - Cold Hands (»)
Bill Quick - Take Me Away (»)
Fool's Gold - Surprise Hotel (Wallpaper's Mariah Mashup) (»)
Air - Sing Sang Sung (Black Moth Super Rainbow Remix) (»)
Avi Buffalo - What's In It For (»)
Vampire Weekend - Horchata (»)
Small Black - Kings Of Animals (»)
Max Tundra - Which Song (Passion Pit Remix) (»)
Cold Cave - Theme From Tomorrowland (»)
Tegan And Sara - Hell (»)
Jeff The Brotherhood - Bone Jam (»)
Mount Eerie - Wind's Dark Poem (»)
Tigercity - Fake Gold (»)
Yeasayer - Ambling Alp (»)
Drink Up Buttercup - Even Think (Andrew W.K. Remix) (»)
Florence And The Machine - You've Got The Love (The xx Remix) (»)
Cold Cave - The Laurels of Erotomania (»)
Jookabox - Phantom Don't Go (»)
Jookabox - You Cried Me (»)

Progress Report logo
Commercial Appeal logo
Premature Evaluation logo
Band to Watch logo
Quit Your Day Job logo
The Outsiders logo
The 'Gum Drop logo