Watch Paul Rudd & Jimmy Fallon Recreate Dead Or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round” Video
If you spent last night at the movie theater, then there is a very good chance that you are feeling a whole lot of affection for Paul Rudd right now. Rudd is one of many, many stars of the extremely ballyhooed new movie Avengers: Endgame. And without spoiling anything, Rudd is a crucial part of the movie. It’s a heavy, serious movie, and Rudd makes an impact by not being too heavy or serious at all. He’s the guy responsible for keeping everything fun, and he’s also the one who stands in for the viewer, the one who can’t believe that he’s in there with all these mega-powered entities. Rudd does amazing work with all of this. He’s so good, in fact, that you might want to hang with him further, even when he’s engaging in virality-baiting hijinks with Jimmy Fallon.
To be fair to Rudd, he has always been good at those hijinks. For the past few years, Rudd and Fallon have been doing a running bit where they stage shot-for-shot remakes of old music videos — Styx’s “Too Much Time On My Hands,” Go West’s “The King Of Wishful Thinking.” Last night, they did a good one. Dead Or Alive’s 1984 synthpop jam “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” was a classic of the early MTV days, largely because of the theatrically flirty performance from singer Pete Burns, who passed away a couple of years ago. And Rudd, who (incredibly) just turned 50, is old enough to remember how great that was. So he and Fallon have done a near-perfect shot-for-shot recreation.
Rudd admirably throws himself into the role, nailing all of Burns’ larger-than-life affectations. The Tonight Show production crew rebuilds the video’s aesthetic beautifully, right down to the color grading. And unlike the typical Fallon bit, there’s no moment where anyone breaks down in giggles or does any self-congratulatory smirking at the camera. It’s good shit! Watch the Rudd/Fallon recreation and the original Dead Or Alive video below.
Avengers: Endgame is out now. If you have any interest in seeing it, you should see it in the theater as soon as possible. There are at least four full-audience-cheering moments in the movie, and you want to be there for that.