Synopsis

Beck works alongside a group of miners in a stark black-and-white coal mine, where the routine shifts take on a surreal, dreamlike quality. Willie Nelson appears briefly in a passing mine cart with a dog, while Beck encounters a showgirl perched on a mound of coal that transforms into a peacock. When the workday ends, the miners emerge into a brightly colored world. A suited beekeeper silently greets the outside crowd, adding one final, eccentric touch to the video's strange journey from confinement to release.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video uses the Butch Vig mix of "Jack-Ass," rather than the version heard on *Odelay*. The remix was issued with the 1997 single.

• Willie Nelson appears in the mine-cart sequence, accompanied by a dog. His cameo connects the video to the song's folk and country undercurrents without turning the appearance into a conventional performance scene.

• The video first aired in July 1997, ahead of the single's August 26, 1997 release.

• The song is built around a sample from Them's 1966 recording of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." That musical source helps explain the video's old-fashioned mine setting and its mixture of melancholy, Americana, and surreal imagery.

• "Jack-Ass" reached No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 15 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.