Though he’s most famous for his collaborations with longtime friend and fellow beautiful disturbed person Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim of Tim & Eric fame has lent his talents behind the camera for many years, most recently as the director of the newly dropped, hopelessly catchy Charli XCX single “Famous.”
Wareheim’s aesthetic has found a happy home in the pop and electronic genres in the eight years he’s been directing music videos. This is in addition to continuing to work on Tim & Eric projects, most recently the objectively insane Adult Swim series Bedtime Stories. For Charli XCX, of summer hit “Boom Clap” fame, Wareheim tapped into the constantly plugged in angle of these darn kids – what’s more interesting, though, is what happens when Charli’s bubbly character has a dead device on her hands.
Because that’s when these terrifying monsters in monochromatic street clothes come in for reasons unknown:
Things escalate from there as other teenage girls are able to see through the ugly bizareness of it all with their iPhones (insert selfie stick one-liner here):
Charli XCX must plug her phone into the electrical outlet that is this large man’s belly button:
And (spoiler, if there is such a thing in an Eric Wareheim project) she is electrocuted and reduced to a placid smile and a pool of emojis.
Lesson learned: too much cell phone turns a good girl dead by way of belly button electrocution.
Watch Wareheim in action (suspiciously via Skype?) in this behind the scenes video:
Sure, it’s a little bit of dad humor with the “these kids and their Snapchat and miniskirts” vibes, but Wareheim’s weirdness and Charli XCX’s way around a catchy hook is more than enough to make “Famous” worth the view.
Here are a few of our favorite Wareheim music video originals – and if you’re hankering for more, check out his many, many weird and NSFW collaborations with Major Lazer.
Ben Folds & Regina Spektor: “You Don’t Know Me” (directed with Tim Heidecker, 2007)
Depeche Mode: “Hole to Feed” (2009)
Beach House: “Wishes” (2010)
[h/t Pitchfork]
