I Transcribed Every Pop-Up Bubble from Arcade Fire's "Creature Comfort" Music Video
“Creature Comfort”
For their 2017 album, Everything Now, Arcade Fire created an extensive faux-promotional campaign. I’m writing about the album and its promotional campaign in my book project, Sway: How Promotion Has Shaped American Music. One of the features of the campaign was the creation of a fictional, evil corporation that plugged AF’s release with all the vigor and crassness of a profit-mongering company.
The ploy led to a number of funny and caustic creations from the band, one of which was their music video for “Creature Comfort.” Here’s how it went down:
The band released their version of the video, a straight-faced, strobe-heavy, golden-suit-clad eye-catcher.
On the same day the Everything Now Corp released what they called the “official” version of the video. It was the same music video, but with pop-up bubbles in the style of that 1990s VH1 classic, Pop-Up Video. It also featured the logos of the EN Corp, and a “skip ad” icon in the bottom right corner.
The result was a clever and often funny lampooning of the band with fake biographical information and behind-the-scenes dirt on the making of the video.
While Arcade Fire retained the snarky tone of Pop-Up Video, they did not share the show’s commitment to basing their info bubbles in fact. “The poster above the piano features a scary snake, which is why multi-instrumentalist Will Butler keeps backing away from it,” claims one bubble. Another says, “Bassist Tim Kingsbury ruined so many rehearsals by wandering out of frame that the director made him put on a shock collar.”
There were other homages to the types of bubbles in the original.
Tangents based on words in lyrics: “Sleeping pills are named after the effect they have on you. The pills themselves aren’t actually asleep!”
Behind-the-scenes:
“Before every concert, the members of Arcade Fire stand in a circle and each say one thing they like about capitalism.”
Random facts:
The key tar was invented in 1453… over 200 years before the invention of the piano!
Band bios:
“Win butler was born on the same day the Titanic sank… Abraham Lincoln was shot… and the McRib was introduced.”
The Complete AF Bubbles
As a part of my research, I transcribed every bubble in the video, and share them here. The bubbles are listed in the order that they appear on screen in the video, and I did my best to retain all punctuation and formatting from the original. Which one is your favorite?
Arcade Fire “Creature Comfort” Everything Now
Brought to you by Everything Now Content Division, a subsidiary of Everything Now
Arcade Fire hails from Montreal, Canada, where this video was shot.
Pierre Gill, the cinematographer, had just completed work on Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049.
The band was inspired to use a spotlight after seeing a poster for the movie Spotlight.
The bass line that runs through this song was sampled from the Super Nintendo version of Street Fighter II.
They wore gold outfits in this video to celebrate Canadian Jean-Luc Brassard’s gold medal in moguls at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer!
To get himself psyched up for this performance, singer Win Butler had dialogue from Rocky III pumped in to his earpiece.
The lyrics to “Creature Comfort” were inspired by the movie and TV series Fame.
The metallic outfits were incredibly hot.
Drummer Jeremy Gara lost six pounds during the shoot.
The band was originally known as FunQUp (pronounced “funk you up”).
Their first gig was at a Christian music festival called “Christ This Is Fun!”
Improvised!
Arcade Fire’s first record, Funeral, was released in 2004.
Still available for purchase!
Guitarist Richard Reed Parry trained with renowned choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker for six months to learn this dance.
The poster above the piano features a scary snake, which is why multi-instrumentalist Will Butler keeps backing away from it.
Bassist Tim Kingsbury ruined so many rehearsals by wandering out of the frame that the director made him put on a shock collar.
The light-up microphone is an homage to Canada’s greatest export: viral video sensation Star Wars Kid.
Singer and key tar player Regine Chassagne went to school with the actual Star Wars kid!
The light-up microphone was white hot. After each take, Win screamed, “There must be a better way to do this!” The crew just laughed and laughed.
Sleeping pills are named after the effect they have on you.
The pills themselves aren’t actually asleep!
Before every concert, the members of Arcade Fire stand in a circle and each say one thing they like about capitalism.
The key tar was invented in 1453…
Over 200 years before the invention of the piano!
Win Butler was born on the same day the Titanic sank…
Abraham Lincoln was shot…
And the McRib was introduced.
The “God” the lyrics refer to is Cthulhu, the elder god.
The entire band worships him!
“Arcade Fire” is an anagram for “Darc Faerie”, Win’s AOL Instant Messenger username in the 1990s.
The door in the back isn’t real. It was just painted on the wall to trick the fire inspector!
Regine and Jeremy briefly considered switching hair for this shoot, to see if fans would notice.
Richard had a real seizure from the flashing lights.
He was fine.
The strobe effect was achieved by a crew member flicking the lights on and off at a rapid pace.
Although certain people have claimed otherwise, “flicker finger” is NOT a legitimate medical condition.
Very few things in life are painless.
One of them, surprisingly, is childbirth.
The couch and television in the background are inspired but he 1994 movie With Honors, which stars Joe Pesci as a homeless man who attends Harvard.
It was a huge influence on Everything Now.
Arcade Fire is releasing a series of tie-in products with Everything Now.
Peter Pan Anti-Aging Face Cream
Win is actually not a liar.
Good God Damn Scented Bath Salts Fill the bathtub up!
Richard is the last redhead in Canada. There will be no more.
This entire video is one continuous shot.
The band decided to shot it this way as an homage to an inspiring Hyundai commercial.
This is the first take of the video. There was no second take.
Creature Comfort Topical Anesthetic Make it painless!
Put Your Money on Me: Financial Investment Strategy Tutorial (FIST)
The band originally wanted Woody Harrelson to make a cameo in the video, but when they called to ask him, he pretended to be his own housekeeper and said…
“Mr. Harrelson is out of town” in a kindly lady voice.
Everything Now Shelf Systems You’ve got everything—and now room to store it!
After the shoot finished, Jeremy Gara moved onto the set and lives there to this day
Infinite Content Unlimited Cloud Storage
Signs Of Life Elder Alert System You’ve Fallen, let Arcade Fire help you up!
[Chemistry energy drink]
[Electric Blue eye drops]
Everything Now is available on CD, cassette, vinyl and fidget spinner.
[We Don’t Deserve Love label wine]
The piano bench in back is also a toilet!
Everything Now Corp encourages you to refresh this video on monetizable platforms as many times as possible.