Evaluating Weezer

What happened

Alternative rockers Weezer released a video for their new single “Pork and Beans” on YouTube last Friday, and by the end of the Memorial Day weekend, it had received over 3 million hits and was the most-viewed video on the Internet. Directed by Mathew Cullen, the video features appearances by YouTube celebrities Chris Crocker (“Leave Britney alone!”), Lauren Caitlin Upton (Miss Teen South Carolina), Tay “Chocolate Rain” Zonday, and many others. (People)

What the commentators said

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

“Just when we thought Weezer had finally totally lost it,” said MTV News, “they webcammed their way back into our hearts.” The video for “Pork and Beans” is “pretty flippin’ fantastic.” And here in our office, it’s “inspired comments like, ‘It’s their best since “Buddy Holly,”’ ‘Pure genius,’ and ‘Why has no one ever thought of playing the drums with lightsabers before?’

“Weezer have always had a knack for making great videos,” said Chris Conaton in the blog Pop Matters, and they can add “Pork and Beans” to “their list of video triumphs.” But they’re not “the first to combine a pile of Internet references in one place—South Park did it to hilarious effect a couple months ago, and that’s just one example.” And the problem with a video like this is “it will probably seem dated six months from now.”

Am I the only one who doesn’t like the new Weezer video? said the blog Screen Crush. “This song/video is exactly what’s wrong with Weezer. Instead of giving us earnest, poignant moments of raw emotion (Pinkerton) they give us this post-90’s meta crap.” At one time, “Weezer was the soundtrack to countless daydreams. Now it’s just the soundtrack to stupid YouTube videos."

(Watch the video here)