All Your Base Are Belong to Weezer

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Remember that viral video that revolved around a Japanese videogame phrase that was mistranslated into English as “All your base are belong to us”? That mistranslation and the Flash animation that went with it ended up spreading around the world in 2001 and 2002, eventually being scrawled on billboards, inserted into movies and songs, printed on clothing and popping up on TV shows. One music video version includes the original animation and a slideshow featuring a slew of photos (many Photoshopped) of random appearances of the phrase set to a song built around the audio version of the mistranslation.

With nearly 1.4 million hits on You Tube, “All your base are belong to us” is obviously a very successful viral video, but it’s small potatoes compared to tranny sensation Chris Crocker’s “Leave Britney Alone” video, Tay Zonday’s wildly succesful (and much-parodied) “Chocolate Rain,” the exuberant “Numa Numa” guy Gary Brolsma’s video and Judson Laipply’s astonishingly popular (and impressive) “Evolution of Dance” video (with nearly 95 million hits). If you haven’t kept up with all the top viral video hits of the past few years or want to refresh your memory while listening to a quirky, insanely catchy tune, check out Weezer’s video for their latest (and I think greatest) hit, “Pork and Beans,” which features cameos by most of the biggest stars in the You Tube galaxy.

“Pork and Beans” is an anthem for every nerdy introvert who will not be bullied into trying to be something he or she is not. At first, the Weezer video’s cavalcade of viral video stars simply looks like a goofy gimmick, and it works as one, but more than that, it’s a love song to the dork within who rises to the surface and delights others when given a chance. And how better to illustrate the concept than by giving cameo roles in the video to people like Tay Zonday or Gary Brolsma or Chris Crocker. These guys have been derided for doing what most of us wouldn’t be caught dead doing in our bathroom mirrors let alone in front of millions of people, but they’ve also become celebrities who have based whole careers on their antics. The world mocks them for what it sees as goofy behavior, but it also admires them for having the guts to be different, and for the unsettling but very real charisma that lies at the center of these performances.

In embracing and showcasing the 2007 Miss USA pageant’s Miss South Carolina, who managed a long, garbled and ignorant commentary on education last year, or a martial artist who nearly knocked himself out during a botched audition, or K-Fed, who made an ass of himself sitting at a studio console and bouncing along to an ill-fated, overproduced faux-Brazilian hip-hop effort a few years back, Weezer gives each of them a chance to show a better side of themselves to the world and display grace and humor in the face of worldwide rebuke.

Liam Kyle Sullivan, the bewigged star of the huge video hit “Shoes,” has a cameo, the dramatic chipmunk (who was actually a prairie dog) is honored (sort of), the dancing banana of “It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time” sneaks in, and there’s even an hommage to the guy who achieved the world record for wearing the greatest number of T-shirts at one time (155—they weighed 100 pounds). There are nods to the white-guy version of “Crank Dat Soulja Boy,” Daft Hands, Daft Bodies, sex-ed video blogger Kicesie, the Free Hugs Campaign, the Sneezing Baby Panda, Haitian UFOs, the Potter Puppet Pals, the Urban Ninja, the Ryan vs. Dorkman light saber battle, the Blendtec “Will it Blend” viral marketing campaign, even the incredibly lame Charlie the Unicorn videos. Most spectacularly, there’s a sophisticated series of timed Diet-Coke-and-Mentos fountains as a backdrop to the band that reminds one of the remarkable original video (which is as dramatic and well-choreographed as a pyrotechnic display). To see three entertaining minutes on the making of the video, click here; to watch an annotated version, click here.

“Pork and Beans” is the first single from their new album, titled “Weezer” but known to fans as “The Red Album.” This is Weezer’s sixth studio album, and they have earned praise for working once again with a music industry god, producer Rick Rubin, who produced their last album as well. Rubin is famous for producing the pared-down and perfect “American Recordings” series with Johnny Cash in his last years and for making magic with Justin Timberlake, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, Run-D.M.C. and the Beastie Boys, among others. He’s justly revered, but in this case, the producer who helped make “Pork and Beans” such an odd, charming and delightful hit is actually Jacknife Lee.

Irish musican and producer Lee has worked with R.E.M, the Hives and U2, and he produced several of the songs on the album early this year after Geffen Records executives complained to Weezer’s frontman Rivers Cuomo that the album didn’t have enough commercial tunes on it. Cuomo wrote “Pork and Beans” in frustration over the Geffen big shots’ pressure to make Weezer conform and, Cuomo feared, lose the alternative rock indie oddness that the band is known for. Cuomo’s chorus goes:

I’mma do the things that I wanna do
I ain’t got a thing to prove to you
I’ll eat my candy with the pork and beans
Excuse my manners if I make a scene
I ain’t gonna wear the clothes that you like
I’m fine and dandy with the me inside
One look in the mirror and I’m tickled pink
I don’t give a hoot about what you think

The song could have had a snarly edge to it, but it doesn’t; the result is actually good-natured, with its theme of refusing to conform illustrated and illuminated by a wildly entertaining music video. In just two months, the video has had over 11 million You Tube hits. The old fashioned phrases in the chorus underline the group’s support for the assertively unhip among us (sometimes including themselves), but the touch of a whine and the chunky guitars give the lie to the lyrics: by advocating for geek rights and nerd acceptance with such a strong and catchy song, they’ve created a big, hip, mass hit, a work of geek chic that transcends their niche better than any of their previous hits.

The song starts with a relaxed, simple guitar riff overlaid by the plaintive voice of a near-loser describing how he’s been told to change his look to be more cool. All well and good. But then a surprisingly bold power pop riff stomps in and the chorus marches right over us. The chorus is backed by an assertive wall of sound that delivers Cuomo’s ode to self-acceptance in a big way. And while the sound is bold and confident, it still has a funky, indie feel. It’s still dressed in mismatched, secondhand clothes.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave the album high marks and described it as “a cheerfully restless record, one where all the parts don’t fit and it’s better because of it, as it has a wild, willing personality, suggesting that Weezer is comfortable as a band in a way they never quite have been before.” I can dig it.