Man, the guys from They Might be Giants seem to really love music video contests. And I love They Might be Giants so I’m always happy to post their winning entries. The band’s latest contest was for their new track, Am I Awake? There were three, $1,000 prizes at stake. That might not sound like much but a true TMBG nerd would be happy just to know that the band saw and liked their work. More than 150 entries were submitted and from those, the band and their staff selected 16 finalists. Then the final three winners were picked by universal expert and deranged millionaire, John Hodgman. Here are the winning submissions along with Hodgman’s reviews. All the videos are really excellent and the song happens to be great too. So if you watch all three of these in a row, you might get the song stuck in your head for a while but at least you won’t be bored.
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John Hodgman says: “Winners: Paul and Mike Swiatek, for the video I call “Sleep Study Voyeur:” Beautifully shot, hilarious, and unexpected. As a creator of list based humor, I must admire anyone who can keep the same joke so consistently engaging and surprising for three minutes.”
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John Hodgman says: “Winners: Alex Italics, for the video I call “Don’t Say ‘Grassy Knoll,’ say ‘Grassy YES.’” The amount of talent that has been poured into this–from all the actors to all the costumes to the set design and the video design, not to mention the elderly newsman tear deployment–makes it as hypnotic as the Zapruder film.”
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John Hodgman says: “Winner: Jack Fields, for the video I call “Murderous Puppet Typewriters.” Startling, original, repulsive in the most beautiful way, it engages with the lyrics without being an on-the-nose dream sequence. And the physics of puppet dismemberment are as accurate as I recall from puppet medical school.”
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