A few weeks ago I came across an odd little piece of musical cinema, the video for “Jerk It” by a group called Thunderheist.  Without little more than a mention in the indie trade behemoth Pitchfork, this group popped up in my FriendFeed and the video instantly caught my attention.

Now let’s cut to the chase: cute girl + slow motion + jiggle = hot.  You really can’t beat around the bush here, this video is sexy.  But sexy is really only the beginning.

She’s shaking a chicken (if you don’t get the metaphor, my explaining it won’t do you much good).

I am obsessed by absurdity.  The frogs in Magnolia.  Tom and Jerry cartoons.  Tristan Tzara.  Dada in general.  How about David Lynch?  This is the stuff I live for.  That moment when things go from utterly plain to utterly insane.

I came across the Scott Pilgrim series of graphic novels recently, and instantly fell in love.  Scott Pilgrim actually has a narrative technique named after it (i.e. “pulling a Scott Pilgrim”).  Like all other beautifully absurd works, the idea here is that normalcy can be utterly transformed by a simple twist of reality, a detour into the realm of impossibility or of the bizarre.

And so, my friends, the delicate absurdity and uneasy sensuality of “Jerk It”:

thunderheist – jerk it from thatgo on Vimeo.