The Joker

This is the music video for Fatboy Slim's cover of the Steve Miller Band song 1973, The Joker:



I would love to have students analyze Fatboy Slim's use of kittens in this video to critique themes of self-promotion and partying commonly seen in music videos. In this video, the audience sees a group of kittens on their way to a Fatboy Slim Concert. On their way, they run into a group of ducklings, positioned much in the same way that attractive women are positioned in music videos. Later, the audience sees the kittens playing poker for money and catnip. In this video, this is hilarious and adorable, but I would also like to have students draw parallels between the kittens playing poker and the glamorization of gambling and drugs in many music videos. In the end, the kittens discover that the concert is sold out and they engage in a fist fight in order to get in. Again, how does this critique the violence typically glamorized in music videos?

Throughout the video the audience sees many signs promoting Fatboy Slim. In this video, how does he critique typical music videos, while still engaging in a culture of self-promotion? Does the fact that this song is a cover of another band's song play into this in any way?