# Seemingly random actors in music videos
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 27, 2016, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312 "2016-03-27T05:28:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2016, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/1 "2016-03-27T05:28:03Z")
So I’m screwing around on YouTube, and I just rewatched the video for [“Roses”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWju37TZfo0&list=RDgWju37TZfo0) by Outkast. There are a few actors/celebrities in it, including former Kid in the Hall [Kevin McDonald](https://www.google.com/search?q=kevin+mcdonald&espv=2&biw=1600&bih=799&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd57jNjuDLAhUDbSYKHULxAGgQ_AUIBygC) and Katt Williams (side note: if irony after the fact exists, then it’s telling that Williams, in this video, plays a high-school student who asks “which one of you Speakerboxes hit me in the love below?” Especially after reading about his getting beat by a [17-year old](http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/katt-williams-sucker-punched-teen-teach-lesson-article-1.2578607) after sucker-punching the kid). Paula Abdul also appears.
But what got me, from out of nowhere, is that [Lukas Haas](https://www.google.com/search?q=kevin+mcdonald&espv=2&biw=1600&bih=799&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd57jNjuDLAhUDbSYKHULxAGgQ_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=lukas+haas) is one of Andre Benjamin’s dancers in the video. It boggles my mind as to how Haas ended up in an OutKast video, since I can’t think of what kind of mutual friend they would have.
And Haas is kinda horrible in it. His choreography’s off, his movements don’t look natural, and the one time something is said in unison, he’s late.
Part of me wonders if that was deliberate, in a whole “white people can’t dance” kinda statement. But more than anything, it just seems like such an odd pairing.
Any other examples you can think of?
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### Author:  [@journeyman\_southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/journeyman_southpaw)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2016, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/2 "2016-03-27T06:18:04Z")
It wouldn’t be particularly odd to see Shaquille O’Neal in [this Owl City video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIz2K3ArrWk) if there were a bunch of other celebrity cameos in it, but it’s odd that he simply appears, unremarkably, among a bunch of non-celebrity actors. Apparently the [singer is a big Shaq fan](http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2010/03/25/owl-city%E2%80%99s-vanilla-twilight-steve-hoover) and that’s all there is to that.
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2016, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/3 "2016-03-27T07:05:08Z")
Christopher Walken / Fatboy Slim:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ7z57qrZU8)
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2016, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/4 "2016-03-27T08:43:37Z")
Annie Lennox - [Walking on Broken Glass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y25stK5ymlA)
If you haven’t seen it before, I don’t want to spoil who’s in it.
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### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2016, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/5 "2016-03-27T12:31:24Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> Annie Lennox - [Walking on Broken Glass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y25stK5ymlA)
>
> If you haven’t seen it before, I don’t want to spoil who’s in it.
Took me a few minutes to recognize Hugh Laurie
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/6 "2016-03-27T16:49:28Z")
> [@Superdude](#):
>
> And Haas is kinda horrible in it. His choreography’s off, his movements don’t look natural, and the one time something is said in unison, he’s late.
>
> Part of me wonders if that was deliberate, in a whole “white people can’t dance” kinda statement. But more than anything, it just seems like such an odd pairing.
Why does Kevin McDonald not strike you as odd also? What is his connection to Outkast? (Not pickin’ on ya - I am not aware of a connection and I think that is the more obvious weird guy! 🙂 )
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### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/7 "2016-03-27T19:25:50Z")
No, he jumped out at me, too. But I gave him a pass because he is just playing the same character that he was in KITH, and his appearances on “That 70’s Show.” He’s great at playing those wimpy, whiny characters that no one listens to.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2016, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/8 "2016-03-27T20:08:52Z")
> [@Superdude](#):
>
> Took me a few minutes to recognize Hugh Laurie
Did you also recognize John Malkovich?
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### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/9 "2016-03-27T20:11:03Z")
Yep. Much quicker than Laurie.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2016, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/10 "2016-03-27T20:30:30Z")
> [@Superdude](#):
>
> Took me a few minutes to recognize Hugh Laurie
That was pre-_House_, of course. He played a few variations of the British, upper-class twit. Easy to recognize him if you watched _Blackadder the Third_, but his transformation into Gregory House really was remarkable.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/11 "2016-03-27T20:44:02Z")
More than just a cameo, Chevy Chase starred in the video for Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al.”
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2016, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/12 "2016-03-27T21:34:57Z")
> [@Superdude](#):
>
> Yep. Much quicker than Laurie.
I’ll admit my first thought was that it was Christopher Guest.
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### Author:  [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2016, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/13 "2016-03-28T02:10:26Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> More than just a cameo, Chevy Chase starred in the video for Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al.”
And Ray Parker’s “Ghostbusters”:
[https://vimeo.com/103145947](https://vimeo.com/103145947)
Also it has John Candy, Danny DeVito, etc.
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### Author:  [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/14 "2016-03-28T21:59:20Z")
Does it count if it’s from years (about a decade) before the actor got “known”? Because Josh Halloway of Lost fame was in this Aerosmith video
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfNmyxV2Ncw)
Of course you might also recognize the actress there, but I think anyone who knows Aerosmith videos of that era would expect her, so it wouldn’t be “seemingly random”.
There’s also Mark Metcalf, best known as Neidermeier from Animal House (also The Master on Buffy and The Maestro on Seinfeld) in two Twisted Sister videos
And Robin Williams in Don't Worry Be Happy
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU)
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### Author:  [@smokey78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smokey78)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2016, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/15 "2016-03-29T01:57:32Z")
Patrick Swayze in “Roseanna”
Norman Reedus in many videos. Saw him in Ugly Kid Joe’s “Cat’s in the Cradle” but didn’t know he was THE Norman Reedus cuz he just started his career.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2016, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/16 "2016-03-29T04:35:37Z")
Lots of prefame people in videos. My favorite example is [Matt Dillon as a cop in the Pogues’ Fairytale of New York](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8) (just a few seconds in).
[Also a half-naked Jason Statham](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWu3JqLMImY) (several places).
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### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2016, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/17 "2016-03-29T05:29:46Z")
Hitchcock in “Misunderstanding” video by Genesis. (whoa Phil’s coif! YEAH!)
and I ain’t sayin where.
Terry-Thomas in the video for “I Am the Walrus”.
L Ron Hubbard in Europe’s “Final Countdown” video.
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### Author:  [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2016, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/18 "2016-03-29T05:41:52Z")
For sheer WTFness, it’s hard to beat Milton Berle appearing in [Ratt’s “Round and Round”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u8teXR8VE4).
Their manager was Uncle Miltie’s nephew (so for the nephew, he really WAS Uncle Miltie!)
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2016, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/19 "2016-03-29T06:36:18Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> That was pre-_House_, of course. He played a few variations of the British, upper-class twit. Easy to recognize him if you watched _Blackadder the Third_, but his transformation into Gregory House really was remarkable.
Yes. If you’d seen Blackadder you’d’ve recognised Hugh Laurie instantly.
[https://www.google.com.au/search?q=hugh+laurie+blackadder&rlz=1C5CHFA\_enAU503AU503&espv=2&biw=1314&bih=1244&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjLy6bco-XLAhVhvIMKHaHLBC4Q\_AUIBigB](https://www.google.com.au/search?q=hugh+laurie+blackadder&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU503AU503&espv=2&biw=1314&bih=1244&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjLy6bco-XLAhVhvIMKHaHLBC4Q_AUIBigB)
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### Author:  [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2016, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seemingly-random-actors-in-music-videos/750312/20 "2016-03-29T10:27:34Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> That was pre-_House_, of course. He played a few variations of the British, upper-class twit. Easy to recognize him if you watched _Blackadder the Third_, but his transformation into Gregory House really was remarkable.
He also was great as that type of character in the [episode Bambi of the _The Young Ones_](https://youtu.be/ysG96dUtGh4?t=21) (along with Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson\*!\*) Probably one of the funniest scenes in the whole series…
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