Everything is Terrible! Presents Highlights from their Music Video Collection

Interview by Parisa Eshrati

​Everything is Terrible! is the video and performance collective that is responsible for some of the internet’s most bizarre and hilarious viral videos. Ahead of their 2019 tour, we asked EIT! about their curation process and had them share their favorite music videos from their vault, ranging from motivational raps to summoning Satanic verses. 

For over the past 12 years, EIT! has been pulling dead media videos and posting their re-edits on a daily basis. The culmination has resulted in a mass of tremendously cringey, often perverse, but always hilarious videos. In their vaults, you'll find clips from B-movies, public access television, and religious PSAs, all weaved together from their ingenious editing skills to construct its own narrative. EIT! has also collected over 24,000 Jerry Maguire VHS tapes that will one day be constructed into a permanent pyramid installation in the California desert. 

With 7 feature films already to their name, EIT! is about to embark on their 2019 tour with a new edit of highlight clips from over the years. In anticipation for their tour, we asked them to create a playlist of some of their favorite music videos, dance moves, and more:

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Can you briefly tell us a bit about the curation process for finding your music videos? I was watching your “best of” music video compilation and there’s really everything from public access clips to stadium shows and beyond, so I’m curious where you begin to source this stuff.

We wish we could say there’s some beautiful mystery to it all, but in reality it’s an endless journey of strip mall thrift stores. We’ve amassed most of our collection this way, but tapes are becoming increasingly more difficult to find. Thrift stores (especially chains like Goodwill) virtually never carry anything hand labeled anymore, so it’s pretty common now to see a tiny shelf of tapes with the same big studio releases over and over. That said, mid-2000s DVD-Rs are everywhere so there’s just no end to it all.


There’s a plethora of educational/motivational raps in your vault. Which ones are your favorites?

That’s really tough considering motivational & corporate rap are pillars of EIT! At the moment, the video ‘I’m Danny!’ stands out as a persnal fav. 

​​There were lots of great metal songs on last year’s Great Satan tour. If you had to pick one or two that would best be suited to summon Satan himself, which clips would it be?

This one, without a doubt:
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​What’re some lyrics you’ve come across that have really stuck with you for some disturbing reason or another?

What you’re really asking is, ‘What song lyrics will be the direct link to your collective dementia?’ and we can’t even begin to tell you how much our brains have truly decayed over the last 12 years. There are times on tour when we realize HOURS have gone by with all of us humming lyrics to ourselves like:
“Virginity is cool!”
“Gimme milk not soda! Gotta have my daily quota!”
“My friend tried to make me look at a dirty book! He’s just a crook!”
and
“Do it cause daddy says soooo! Trust Obeeeeeey!”

It’s a nightmare.
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Does Duane still hold the prize for best dance moves? What are some runner up music videos with the best moves? (I think this lady will always be one of my favorites.)

Duane will always be the undisputed Child-God, and Hip-Hop lady is perhaps his queen (who was immortalized in this episode of Bob’s Burgers thanks to us!). We keep trying to push other folks into the spotlight like Birthday Trolls and Garret Qullin (below)  - but they just don’t have the star power ya know??

RAP RAP RAP! from Everything Is Terrible! on Vimeo.

​Favorite music video just purely for the visual production?

This one's not really a music video, but so real and pure you want to crawl out of your own skin and start life anew.
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What can you tell us about your 2019 tour? Any particular theme? New costumes?

It’s a delicious hodge-podge of our favorite stuff over the past 12 years, which makes it a perfect show to come to whether you’re a superfan or totally new to our work! Our features’ shows usually have a theme (Satan, dogs, etc.) but this one’s a mix of all our favorite scraps we’ve uncovered over the years. Our live show tells an epic story involving tentacle monsters, virgin puppets, and a mysterious Melancholy Box of Infinite Sadness. You know those chips called Munchies, where it’s a combo of Cheetos, Doritios, Rold Golds, and Sun Chips? Our show is basically a bag of those put through a haunted blender.

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EIT! The Store! Opening Party
7/6 - Los Angeles @ 754 S. Atlantic Blvd, East LA 

US West Coast Tour Dates
7/31 - San Diego @ Casbah 
8/1 - Phoenix @ Crescent Ballroom
8/2 - Tucson @ 191 Toole
8/3 - El Paso @ Lowbrow Palace 
8/4 - Albuquerque @ Sister Bar 
8/5 - Santa Fe @ Meow Wolf 
8/6 - Denver @ Sie Film Center 
8/7 - SLC @ Metro Music Hall
8/8 - Boise @ Neurolux 
8/9 - Spokane @ The Bartlett 
8/10 - Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret
8/11 - Seattle @ Neptune Theatre 
8/12 - Portland @ Revolution Hall 
8/13 - Oakland @ New Parish
8/14 - SF @ The Independent 
8/15 - LA @ The Regent

More info and tickets:
watch.everythingisterrible.com