by I recently discovered this “fantastic” music video while trolling through YouTube (probably instead of working).
It’s a music video by Eddie Murphy, called Whazupwitu? Not only does it include every conceivable music video cliché (clouds, notes floating through the air, spinning, hearts, black and white singer in a colorful world, peace signs, doves, gravity-defying walking, etc…), but the backup singer on the cut is Michael Jackson (in full regalia).
If you can get past the sad clown exclaiming “The elephant is dying” and the 80s “Cameo-style” vocal-effects, something amazing happens at the 1:48 point – right before the Harlem Boys Choir appears (the best cliché of them all). That’s when Michael Jackson realizes that he is Eddie Murphy’s backup singer and decides to mop the heavens with the ostensible star of the production, Mr. Murphy.
Try getting the song out of your head! I dare you!
Veteran educator Gary Stager, Ph.D. is the author of Twenty Things to Do with a Computer – Forward 50, co-author of Invent To Learn — Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, publisher at Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, and the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute. He led professional development in the world’s first 1:1 laptop schools thirty years ago and designed one of the oldest online graduate school programs. Gary is also the curator of The Seymour Papert archives at DailyPapert.com. Learn more about Gary here.