TLDR: We’re analyzing a song through our philosophical lens. If you don’t like our interpretation, blame every other subculture that’s ever done this to art they didn’t create.
The Original Song as Abiscoridist Foundation
Gorillaz’s “Feel Good Inc.” already captures our core philosophical tension – the critique of manufactured happiness versus authentic struggle. “Melancholy town where we never smile” isn’t depression; it’s honesty about living in systems designed to extract joy rather than create it.
The windmill imagery – “windmill, windmill for the land” – represents the endless, absurd repetition of trying to generate meaning in meaningless systems. Yet we keep turning the windmill anyway, because the alternative is complete surrender.
“Care Bear repping in harder this year” perfectly encapsulates our approach: we’re still trying to care for each other, but we’re “harder Care Bears” now – ones who’ve seen too much to maintain naive optimism but haven’t given up on community.
The Unusual Suspect’s Transformative Layer
The movie mashup version adds crucial philosophical depth by using 198 film clips to tell the story. This mirrors exactly how we build meaning in the Ghetto of Beautiful Things – taking cultural fragments that weren’t designed to work together and assembling them into something that tells a different truth.
Each film clip becomes a piece of shared cultural experience, recontextualized to create new meaning. The video demonstrates that authentic community emerges from creative recombination of existing elements, not from starting fresh with perfect materials.
Why This Specific Version Matters
The mashup approach embodies our “simultaneously serious and absurd” positioning. It’s technically a novelty video, but it creates something more emotionally authentic than most “serious” content. This is Abiscoridism in action – finding genuine meaning through seemingly irreverent methods.
Final Disclaimer: On Cultural Interpretation and Artistic Ownership
Look, we’re probably 99% sure this isn’t what Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett intended when they created “Feel Good Inc.” But here’s the thing – they released it into the wild, and once art exists in public space, it belongs to everyone who finds meaning in it.
Want proof? Check out what various political groups have done with Tolkien’s work, how different factions have claimed Beatles songs, or the seventeen thousand competing interpretations of Warhammer 40K lore. Hell, don’t even get us started on “The Prisoner” – that show has spawned more conflicting analyses than there are episodes, and each viewer is absolutely convinced their interpretation is the “real” one.
We’re just doing what humans do – taking cultural artifacts and filtering them through our own existential crisis management system. The Unusual Suspect already demonstrated this by taking the song and 198 movie clips to create something new. We’re just adding another layer.
If you’re offended by our philosophical hijacking of your favorite song, practice Tenets 4 or 5. The art will survive our interpretation, and so will yours.
Love, Michael 🙂
