It is funny, isn't it

lucas W.
video post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew8hmVIGKcM

The start to the music video “Funny the Way It Is” by the Dave Matthews Band has us watch Dave begin to sing while wearing a goofy hat and glasses, sitting down at a breakfast table almost as if he were selling something. He then moves to the next scene with no help from the camera other than a simple pan left as he walks away and puts on a jacket, hat, and sunglasses, giving us an almost Sinatra star feel. Dave continues with tape on his face and magnifying glasses over his mouth and eyes, and then gets a brown liquid poured on him as he puts on an orange jump suit and a head bag. He comes out in a nice jacket with big sunglasses and starts dancing with the microphone during the guitar solo as if he were some pop star, walking over to some studio chairs he looks as if he is in an interview (the fake reality show camera man surrounding him helps with this), and finally he walks off and tears down the screen where a projector is playing old concerts of his band. (whew)
Similar to Eminem’s “We Made You”, the Dave Matthews Band made a video pointing out the ironies of life and doing so by showing the life of an American star in the process. He goes from selling a product to the high life of modeling (or partying) to plastic surgery to the inevitable asylum most stars must take from pressure (and more often than not drug or alcohol abuse) to being the big pop star to the reality star in an interview to walking away from it all. The intended audience would seem to be a mix, on one level his lyrics talk more to his fans or just to those who would listen (best exemplified with the lyric “somebody’s heart is broken and it becomes your favorite song”), but the video itself seems to send a message to the listeners as the comedy that comes in these ironies in life and also to maybe Hollywood, pointing out the ironies and crazy life that it can make for someone. He sells it best with the overall sense of sarcasm that he presents in the video singing with over an exaggerated face and silly outfits. The video also uses some bad camera angles and sometimes what appears to be a change in the speed, never making the video the most comfortable to take for face value and only driving home (in an oddly ironic way) how comfortable we can get with everything he presenting and singing about.