Music

6 Embarrassing Music Video Cameos By Actors

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The experience of watching a Nickelback video is unfortunate enough without having to see one of TV’s most beloved actors dragged into it too. Kroeger and co. debuted their new video for “Trying Not To Love You,” and it features Jason “George Costanza” Alexander as a lovelorn barista who has to compete for the affections of a beautiful customer with… himself? At no point during the video does it not feel tonally weird, and at no point during your viewing will you not feel sorry for Jason Alexander.

This got us thinking — actually, it gave us Vietnam-style flashbacks — about other embarrassing actor cameos in music videos. Put your cringing hat on!

Limp Bizkit – “Behind Blue Eyes,” featuring Halle Berry

In 2001, Halle Berry was one of the world’s most respected actresses, having just won an Academy Award for her role in Monster’s Ball. At this point, her career degenerated so quickly that her Wikipedia page actually begins a new section called “2002 – present.” This involved starring in the legendary shitflick Catwoman and, perhaps even more embarrassingly, making out with Fred Durst in the video for “Behind Blue Eyes”. Ugh, gross. I bet his chin goatee smelled like Fritos.

Ke$ha – “Blow,” featuring James Van Der Beek

Here, we see James Van Der Beek get called “James Van Der Douche” by K-Dolla, before they have it out in a glitter/rainbow/laser-gun fight, which is possibly the only thing more humiliating than playing the weeping man-child Dawson Leery for six seasons. The final scene has Ke$ha and a hoard of unicorns laughing uproariously at James Van Der Beek’s freshly taxidermied head hanging on her wall. That’s probably a good metaphor for when we all found out James was going to be playing himself in Don’t Trust The B In Apartment 23. At our very base level, aren’t we all just a horde of unicorns, laughing at James Van Der Beek?

Jamie Foxx – “Blame It” (feat. T-Pain), featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Ron Howard, and Samuel L. Jackson

Isn’t it crazy that the only person in this video who hasn’t been at least nominated for an Academy Award is T-Pain? This video is, if nothing else, a colossal waste of talent. It’s really unfortunate that Hype Williams showed up to work that day; if Jamie Foxx had put Ron Howard behind the camera, and just ran some Curb-style improv scenes with the actors he had on hand, we could be looking at the best music video of all time (sorry Kanye/Beyoncé). Instead, it’s a steaming pile of embarrassing turd. How does something like this happen? Blame it on the Goose.

The exact moment each actor thinks “What the hell am I doing here?”:

Forest Whitaker: 0:14
Ron Howard: 0:45
Samuel L. Jackson: 2:01
Jake Gyllenhaal: 4:51

Justin Bieber – “As Long As You Love Me (feat. Big Sean),” featuring Michael Madsen

Michael Madsen is probably best known for his role as the sadistic killer Mr. Blonde in Quentin Tarantino’s cult thriller Reservoir Dogs. Flash forward twenty years later, and he’s roughing up an eighteen year old kid who really loves to dance. It’s still sadistic, but it’s a whole lot sadder this time around. Madsen should just count himself lucky that he doesn’t have any young daughters. They would never forgive him for pummelling Justin Bieber like this.

Brad Paisley – “Online,” featuring Jason Alexander

And now we’ve come full circle, all the way back to Jason Alexander’s pit of despair. He stars as a lovelorn (sensing a trend?) stereotypical geek who longs for his neighbor and simultaneously pretends to be Brad Paisley online. And he gets the girl, but not before mugging like a cartoon character as he suffers a wide variety of indignities like having a dollar bill slapped to his forehead and wine poured down his face. Why, George, why! Was this all a cry for help? Does Jerry not call enough?