I watched the entirety of Pharrell's new 24-hour music video "Happy"—on mute, in 2-hour chunks, over the course of several days; that is how I am still alive. Watching 400 Southern Californians dance for an entire day might sound like some kind of Pavlovian torture scheme, or the opening montage of an "Ellen" taping gone horribly awry. But, unexpectedly, watching all of "Happy" actually allowed me to appreciate (though it could have been some kind of Stockholm Syndrome thing) it for what it is—a visual census of a place, an homage to the neighborhoods of Los Angeles and the people who live there. Each of its 400 dancers were filmed in one take, and the video gets its charm from the fact that everyone had just one shot to make it work. There are blemishes, sure, but they're what gives "Happy" its character.
And yet, I am in no way advocating what I have done. So rather than suggesting that you too should watch the whole thing, I thought I'd share my 5 favorite moments after the jump.
Gas Station B-Boy [12:29 AM]
Here a dancer (whose pop n’ lock game is on point) schools the ticking clock in the nuances of his dopeness. Between the Michael Jackson crotch-grab shuffle and dude’s crazy stop-motion robotics, it’s an impressive showcase set against the unassuming backdrop of a Culver City intersection.
Magic Johnson Dancing In His Private Trophy Room [5:36 AM]
Six hours into the video, the camera shifts from some dancing Despicable Me mascots onto a pair of giant white sneakers. An upward pan reveals that the shoes belong to Magic Johnson, who then takes us on a jaunt through his front yard and into his Beverly Hills estate. We pass an archive wall displaying every magazine cover he’s ever been featured on as well as a handful of china cabinets filled with commemorative basketballs and other impressive trappings of accomplishment. We end up in Magic’s private trophy room, where he shimmies joyously in front of five Lakers championship plaques and five golden NBA trophies. He’s wearing an "L.A." t-shirt the entire time.
Jamie Foxx Using His Adorable Daughter as a Prop [5:28 PM]
Shortly after Steve Carell’s 5:08 PM appearance, Jamie Foxx and his two daughters parade down a train track, and all the youngest one can do is throw her hands up victoriously whenever Foxx throws her over his shoulder. It's a simple but poignantly adorable scene, beautifully framed in the waning desert sunlight.
Odd Future’s Dance Routine [1:48 PM]
In their goofy cameo Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, and Jasper do a broadway-dandy dance routine that finds them twirl-jumping into jazz-handed layouts every time they hear the word “Happy”. They share a three-way high-five around 1:49, and leap through intersections before getting low on a sidewalk while swinging their arms and snapping like extras in a Dick Van Dyke musical. They are no match for the actual tuxedo-wearing dandies at 2:20 PM—professionally-trained showmen whose tap-dancing prowess is, I should point out, next-level—but here the perennial oddballs still look more happy-go-lucky than we’ve ever seen.
Pharrell’s Final Cameo [11:00 PM]
A "Happy" fact I admittedly did not realize until four hours in: The camera returns to Pharrell at the top of every hour. It gives the video structure; even as the scenery meanders through Hollywood, Silver Lake, Beverly Hills and Runyon Canyon, Pharrell conveniently finds a way to pace the plot after his initial midnight kick-off. He reappears at 1 AM wearing a white Argentina hat and again 2 AM in a cropped black duster. By 5 AM he’s walking with a blue-haired lady friend; at 8 PM he’s doing the Peewee Herman dance in a supermarket. But his last appearance is the best of all 24 cameos: in a bowling alley (beginning with a slick stroll down a perilously-waxed lane) Pharrell has a dance-off with a little girl that ends in the most charismatic high five you’ve ever seen. By this point in the video we’ve encountered everyone from ribbon dancers to river dancers, skateboarders, park rangers and adorable swing-dancing coeds. No two muses are alike except in the singular joy that defines their moment on screen. But the real pleasure comes from watching Pharrell, who even after 24 appearances still looks happiest of them all.