Earlier this month, Father John Misty released Pure Comedy, a staggering, 72-minute-long album that was either a brilliantly on-the-nose statement about the ego-driven plight of the millennial, or an overindulgent attempt at an opus, depending on who you ask.
Whatever your opinion about Indie’s most divisive singer-songwriter, you have to admit that the guy can draw a crowd with his many antics, whether he’s duetting with comedian Tim Heidecker on a Simon & Garfunkel parody entitled “I am a Cuck” or declaring in an interview that he will “ride for Nickelback.”
His latest video, for Pure Comedy’s “Total Entertainment Forever,” seems tailor-made to be written up as clickbait on indie rock blogs. Watch a Hook-Handed FJM Label Macaulay Culkin “King of the Cucks,” one might read, or George Washington Dons VR Headset in FJM’s New Video, or even Macaulay Culkin Plays Kurt Cobain, Gets Crucified Alongside Bill Clinton and Jon from “Garfield.” As is the case with all of Father John Misty’s actions in the public eye, it’s mystifying to weigh how serious you think he is versus how much you think he’s fucking with all of us.
“Total Entertainment Forever” is the Pure Comedy track now notorious for beginning with the lyrics, “Bedding Taylor Swift every night inside the Oculus Rift,” and the rest of the song follows suit in roasting youth and young adults’ obsession with quick payoffs, serotonin rewards, and shallow fulfillment. It’s unclear how any of this factors into a story of George Washington playing a VR game in which he makes a gang of Ronald McDonald-esque cops put Culkin through The Passion of the Cobain, but the sheer absurdity of the scene seems to be most, if not all, of the point.
The “Total Entertainment Forever” video was directed by Four Gods and a Baby, a collective that includes Culkin and Moldy Peaches’ Adam Green. It also features a cameo from Tei Shi.
If you’ve got 72 minutes to kill, stream Pure Comedy on Spotify.
