Synopsis
A handmade, deliberately outrageous fan video turns "Glazin'" into a surreal puppet show populated by singing vulvas. The animated genital puppets are styled to resemble the three Jacuzzi Boys, while other characters include a giant purple octopus, a bug-eyed monster, and recognizable pop-culture figures. Shot with a scrappy, homemade energy, the clip follows the song's glammy garage-rock spirit into deliberately crude and playful territory. Its mixture of absurd humor, explicit imagery, and low-budget ingenuity made it impossible to confuse with a conventional band promo.
Factoids & Trivia
- The video first appeared as an unofficial fan-made clip in late October 2011. The band enthusiastically embraced it and referred to it as the "official" video for the song.
- It was presented as the work of six anonymous female fans calling themselves the Jacuzzi Gals. The creators maintained that playful identity while the video circulated online.
- The puppets were dressed and styled to evoke singer-guitarist Gabriel Alcala, bassist Danny Gonzalez, and drummer Diego Monasterios.
- YouTube removed the original upload, and the clip was later taken down from Vimeo as well. Hardly Art cited concerns involving libel and copyright infringement, after which a heavily censored version circulated.
- The video became a short-lived viral sensation. Contemporary reports variously described it as receiving roughly half a million views in its first 36 hours and approaching 700,000 views during its initial online run.
- Several recognizable figures and characters appeared in the original version, including Fidel Castro, Homer Simpson, Jabba the Hutt, Violent J, LeBron James, and Ronald McDonald. Some of those images were removed from later versions.
- The controversy became the subject of the 2013 SXSW session "Case Study: Vagina Puppets and Fair Use," which examined the legal and creative questions raised by the clip.
- The video attracted sharply divided reactions. Eric Wareheim praised it as one of the year's best music videos, while director Joseph Kahn dismissed it as one of the worst he had seen.
- "Glazin'" is the title track from the Jacuzzi Boys' second album, released by Hardly Art in 2011. The record was recorded at Key Club Recording Co. in Benton Harbor, Michigan.