So where has this delightful video been all my life? Smoothy were an Auckland three-piece rock band and “Stoners” is a nice guitar-pop tune about, well, stoners. But the video takes things to a whole nother level.
It’s set at a Christmas party at a cool Auckland flat and things are humming along nicely. Fairy lights are aglow, couples are snogging and people are smoking pot. A young man sits next to the Christmas tree, alienated by all the pashing. He seeks comfort in a spliff and is soon visited by a fairy who notices he has his eye on a girl in a crimson jacket.
Buoyed by the power of beer, marijuana and a magical fairy, the dude has an energetic dance around the house, laughing at a guy in a Santa costume flirting with a girl in an elf costume.
He stumbles into a smoky room where some partygoers are watching Smoothy perform on TV. But the paranoia sets in and his melancholy returns as he stumbles around the backyard, seeing everyone but him enjoying funtimes and/or sex.
The fairy reappears and tells him to make his move on the girl in the crimson jacket, but his fresh dance moves don’t work on her. To his dismay, the girl in the crimson jacket instead pashes a Santa. Oh no!
Annoyed at the fairy, the dude takes his anger out on the Christmas tree, leading to him getting a tooth knocked out and running from the police. Worst party ever. Alone with his loose tooth, the fairy reappears and magics his tooth into a shiny new 50 cent coin (which is an old one, so it looks huge). Yay!
There’s a lot packed into this video, but it works. It looks like a low-budget labour of love shoot but it’s made with talent and skill.
Best bit: The “Topless Women Talk About Their Lives” poster.
Next… all fired up.