It doesn’t take much to be a celebrity these days. A couple half-funny Snapchats here, a video of you playing through the latest Playstation masterpiece there, and a couple million followers later, you’re famous. But when someone does something truly worthy of fame, even they are sucked into the traitorous paradox that is notoriety in modern culture. That pitfall is exactly what director Scott Cudmore examines in the video for Holy Fuck’s “Neon Dad”.
“The song title ‘Neon Dad’ made me think of some kind of psychedelic god, like a patriarchal, biblical God,” Cudmore told Noisey. “And then that made me think about the David & Goliath story and what if that happened now, in our modern world? How would the sudden celebrity affect that young man? That was the jumping off point…it’s a bit of the classic fish-out-of-water story mixed with a parody of ‘lifestyle’ culture. The real Goliaths are of our own making.”
The video finds young David coming home after conquering the Giant. At first, fame does him well, bringing him new friends, adoration, and even a lover. But as will happen in these tales, he eventually takes a few dark turns, and suddenly being David the Giant Slayer doesn’t seem so great after all.
Watch the video above. “Neon Dad” comes from this past summer’s Congrats, Holy Fuck’s first new album in six years.
