Synopsis

Devo perform "Peek-A-Boo!" against a constantly changing blue-screen backdrop of surreal computer graphics, cartoon figures, devils, pirates, and fragments from the band's earlier visual universe. The group dances in rigid formation while the imagery shifts in time with the song's mechanical rhythm and repeated laughter. Rather than following a conventional storyline, the video presents Devo as a tightly synchronized multimedia act, turning the song's playful surface and darker ideas about hidden human impulses into a deliberately artificial digital spectacle.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video abandoned Devo's earlier narrative approach in favor of a performance staged against blue-screen imagery.

• Its visual concept was connected to Devo's 1982 tour, where the band performed in front of a large synchronized video screen. The screen was intended to give viewers a sense of the multimedia stage show.

• Some of the computer-generated imagery was produced by Digital Productions in Los Angeles using a Cray X-MP supercomputer, an exceptionally advanced machine for the period.

• Mark Mothersbaugh said the devil faces were based on black velvet paintings the band found in Tijuana. The paintings were animated for use in the video.

• Dancer Craig Allen Rothwell returns as the Evil Clown, having previously appeared as Spazz Attack in Devo's "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" video.

• The imagery incorporates excerpts from earlier Devo projects, including "The Truth About De-Evolution," "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," and "Girl U Want."

• "Peek-A-Boo!" appeared on Devo's 1982 album "Oh, No! It's Devo" and was one of three videos made to promote the album.

• The song's darker subject was described by Gerald Casale as the side of human nature people try to hide or deny, treated through Devo's deliberately lighthearted circus aesthetic.