# REM video "Losing My Religion"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rem-video-losing-my-religion/486505
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 19, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rem-video-losing-my-religion/486505 "2009-02-19T03:45:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2009, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rem-video-losing-my-religion/486505/41 "2009-02-20T04:52:28Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> Going by the lyrics it could also mean the narrator has lost a love, or a chance at his love, and has put him/her up on such a pedestal that he doesn’t know what to do without having this person to worship - e.g. he’s lost his religion. Inasmuch as they meant anything by the lyrics, it reads to me as if it may be a double entendre.
That’s more or less it. It’s about having a secret crush on someone and being afraid to reveal it (and thereby risk losing that object of worship). Stipe confirmed it a while back in an interview.
The video? Silly as all get out. But R.E.M. had a lot of good videos, too, so they’re allowed one over-the-top pretentious one.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2009, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rem-video-losing-my-religion/486505/42 "2009-02-20T04:54:17Z")
> [@Miller](#):
>
> [It’s based off of this painting.](http://moneyradio.org/images/thomas.jpg)
Huh. That’s “doubting Thomas” there with the finger.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rem-video-losing-my-religion/486505/43 "2009-02-20T05:07:54Z")
Gosh, I’d never seen the Everybody Hurts video before. I love it.
I’m sort of charmed by the earnestness of the Losing My Religion one. There’s a lot of references to paintings in that – the guy flung against the tree with arrows is St. Sebastian, of course, and in the scene with doubting Thomas I think the girl to the left of the action is from some Vermeer?
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### Author:  [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rem-video-losing-my-religion/486505/44 "2009-02-20T05:23:18Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#):
>
> My brain had done just the reverse, I had forgotten the flailing white guy and remembered only the very old man with wings. I really liked the video, but perhaps that is because I had just read GGM’s _[The old man with enormous wings](http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/garciamarquezoldman.html)_.
Holy Crap! Same here!
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### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rem-video-losing-my-religion/486505/45 "2009-02-20T13:35:50Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> While that’s very bad, it surely has to be topped by Live’s “Dolphin’s Cry.” I’ve never seen the video and I don’t need to. Just the title - “Dolphin’s Cry.” That’s hilarious; you’d expect to see that airbrushed onto a cheap black sweatshirt.
What’s weird is despite that cheesy lyric, the song is pretty damn catchy. _Live_ was a really good band (for a time).
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### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2009, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rem-video-losing-my-religion/486505/46 "2009-02-20T13:40:55Z")
> [@spoke-](#):
>
> **But R.E.M. had a lot of good videos, too** , so they’re allowed one over-the-top pretentious one.
Like the one for “Stand”?
🙂
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