The videos I watch over and over

When I'm down or bored or any time, really

What I’m about to describe is perhaps no longer relevant, so bear with me¹. You know how when you turn on an 80s/90s sitcom and you’re so excited to see what all your little TV friends are up to…but then it turns out to be a clip show where, like, Dorothy, Sophia, Blanche, and Rose sit around eating cheesecake and reminiscing about past episodes? And you’re temporarily annoyed that you don’t get to see a new example of Dorothy creatively calling Blanche skanky²—instead, you have to make do with a recap of all the previous times Dorothy called Blanche skanky. But then you start laughing along and you realize you don’t even mind watching these clips again.

Well, this is kind of the clip show of newsletters. Not because I’m reflecting on this newsletter’s past, but because I’m reflecting on clips that play on a loop in my own head. Ideally I would be writing a paid post about the latest Alice book today, but we’ve been sick, I’m behind, and it’s a short week, so that will have to go up next week. Sorry! Instead, today I’m sharing all the videos I watch when I need a little boost, a little pep in my step. Some of them are old, some of them are new, all of them are kind of weird. Not to be all Christian Gray “my tastes are very singular,” but this involves a lot of old sitcom intros.

These are the videos I watch when I’m writing at 2 AM and I’m losing energy (I actually don’t do that anymore because it was killing me, but I used to!). These are the videos I watch when I’ve run out of ideas and I’m just staring at my computer. These are the videos YouTube frequently recommends to me because I’ve watched them so many times and it’s like, “Seems like you’re due for another watch.”

The video for Fiona Apple’s Not About Love, costarring Zach Galifianakis

I love this song and they look like they’re having so much fun.

Zach Galifianakis lip-syncing to Anita Baker’s You Bring Me Joy

I’ve been watching this, I’m not kidding you, since college. I used to watch a video with truly terrible quality but I just came across this one and it’s nice to actually see what’s happening, wow. Two videos starring Zach G. may seem like a lot to you, but real ones know I was very into him in high school in a way that may have been weird. Who can say. I love it when he’s on the car!

The “Gravity” clip from Community

So like once a year Hollis starts watching Community again and every time I’m like, “uggggggh.” Because honestly, a lot of these jokes do not hold up. However…many of them do. I watch this clip often and it always makes me laugh, although I doubt it’s funny at all if you haven’t seen the show. Maybe it helps to know that most of these clips were not actually in the show before this scene.

The Scrambler scene from Take This Waltz

Sometimes it’s fun to go through every human emotion in two minutes and thirteen seconds. Honestly, the amount of time I’ve spent trying to understand my feelings for Luke Kirby in this movie/the state of his strange pants…it’s basically become a meditation on accepting that not everything in life makes sense.

PoP! Goes My Heart

You know how people will often say they wish they could experience a song/book/movie again for the first time? That’s how I feel about the moment that Alex and I saw Music and Lyrics in the theater. The film opens with this song. Movies today could never. I said I wasn’t gonna lose my head!

The Perfect Strangers intro

Sometimes the world looks perfect—nothing to rearrange. Sometimes you just…get a feeling like you need some kind of change. Who among us hasn’t been there? Larry and Balki certainly have. I need to be honest with you and say that this intro genuinely makes me feel better. It’s my life, my dream, nothin’s gonna stop me now!

The Paul Rudd/ Adam Scott recreation of the Bosom Buddies intro

So you already know I love a sitcom intro, but it turns out I also love a meticulously recreated sitcom intro. Paul Rudd and Adam Scott did a shot-by-shot remake of the Bosom Buddies intro, like Gus Van Sant did with Psycho (and with similarly humorous results). I enjoy this side-by-side version but you can watch them separately, too. When I lived in my old Bellville apartment, I would watch DVDs of Bosom Buddies—the episodes had a different theme song because apparently they couldn’t license the Billy Joel song for DVD or syndication! A fun fact you didn’t need to know.

Father John Misty singing “I Believe I Can Fly” on a cruise ship

Kinda self-explanatory. I’m seeing him for the fourth (!) time next year and I doubt, for many reasons, that he’ll perform this particular song…but a girl can dream.

Boba Manifesto by Chris Fleming

In the summer of 2023 I had to listen to Boba Manifesto every single day by three or I felt like I might do something bad. What I’m really saying here is that I just listened to and watched this a lot.

First Penis I Saw from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

I watch many songs from CEG on repeat, but this one might be my fave. Never gets old.

The opening of Staying Alive

I probably shouldn’t include this because I’ve mentioned it here before, but I have to be honest. I love this film, I love this song, I love this opening.

Candice Bergen singing in Starting Over

I love this nutso movie and this scene in particular. The way she almost falls over. The way she says “I wrote this song for us!” The way she’s wearing an extremely sheer shirt and no bra. Every detail is perfect. I need to do a full rewatch!

Okay, that’s it! I started this thinking, “this is just a quick one because it’s a busy week” but then I took forever because I had to stop and watch each one of these videos. I should’ve seen that coming. Please feel free to share your reliable mood-boosting videos. Have a great Thanksgiving and I’ll see you next week. xo

1. The theme of this newsletter, perhaps.

2. Remember: we’re bringing skanky back.