Director, actor, artist, and more, David Lynch passed away recently and while people seem to be remembering back to a lot of his bigger stuff, my mind, almost immediately, dug out some commercials he did for Sony for the Playstation 2.
He had a couple like, "Rabbits" an odd one where it was just a dog asleep on a kitchen floor running in its sleep while an ominous hum plays over it.
We had "Bambi" in which we spend most of the commercial setting up a run in between a man in his car and a little deer about to enter the street that does not go as expected.
But I want to talk about the BIG one. The one that absolutely fucking HAUNTED me. Real ones know what I'm talking about but I'm going to guess most of y'all haven't seen this nightmare.
As you watch it, keep telling yourself that this is a commercial for the Playstation 2.
To break it down, we first follow a smartly dressed man in a hallway that looks like it's the place where they came up with the concept of "noir". Shortly before a gust of flames narrowly misses his face.
He then passes through a series of roots when he looks out a window at what I'm only assuming is a manic pixie dream girl and a series of moons float around. Before he can think about it he looks behind him to see himself at the end of the hall. The two exchange a confident thumbs up before he continues onward.
A loud speaker starts to play sounds as the hallway filled up with the kind of thick smoke one might have to create to come up with this commercial and the man continues on down the path head first. Literally. His fucking head comes free of his body and casually floats down the hall, his body casually following from behind.
Remember, this is about the Playstation 2.
As he leaves the smoke, his neck hole sucks his head back in and things look like he's gotten back to normal. Well, except for the bit where he spits an entire arm out of his mouth that flies away because...Sony?
The smoke briefly returns and he, for a moment, witnesses himself in the smoke before it clears and things get weird(er).
Like all Playstation 2 users, he finds himself in a well lit hallway where four images sit before him. Himself, a bloodied man wrapped in bandages like a mummy, the arm he presumably spat out of his mouth earlier, and everyone's FAVORITE Sony icon, a smartly dressed man with a duck's head.
The duckman says "Welcome to the third level" which, I'm assuming, is a play off Sega's motto at the time "Welcome to the Next Level". Then the commercial cuts to the PS2 logo and...that's it.
This is one of the things I love about David Lynch. Not that he was an absolute mad man, but that he was such a well respected mad man he'd shout out this absolute fever dream for a company and the company would say "thank you" and just air it.
Rest in peace, David Lynch. The irony of you passing just at the beginning of a year it looks like you directed is the sort of thing I think you'd appreciate.
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