Foo Fighters have always taken their music seriously without ever taking themselves too seriously. Right across the career of Dave Grohl’s rock titans, they’ve always loved a bit of dressing up and goofing around in front of the camera. One of their earliest examples of being game for a laugh is the video to their 1996 hit Big Me, where the-then four-piece crafted a spoof TV ad for their own brand of Mentos sweets called ‘The Fresh Fighter’, a parody done so well that they won an MTV Award for Best Group Video for it.
Then there was the hilarious promo to accompany Learn To Fly – very earnest song with a meaningful, hopeful message, very silly video that’s very funny. Featuring a cameo from Tenacious D, it saw the Foos play themselves as well as a variety of characters on board an airplane in a parody of the Airplane! Movies.
Away from their own videos, one of the best examples of the band’s comedy chops came in a clip they recorded for the iconic US chat show the Late Show With David Letterman. It was during a week-long Foos residency on the programme in the run-up to the release of their 2014 album Sonic Highways and saw Grohl, guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear, bassist Nate Mendel and late drummer Taylor Hawkins film a fake commercial posing as the law firm ‘Grohl, Hawkins, Mendel, Shiflett, Smear & Associates’. In it, the five-piece put on their best Saul Goodman impressions as they offer to help clients in their “fight against Foo”, promising that “we’ll fight Foo day and night to make sure you receive the compensation you deserve”.
Letterman was a huge fan of the band and they went on to perform Everlong on the final ever broadcast of the show in 2015 along a highlights reel of the host’s favourite moments from across 30 years. Foo Fighters took their acting abilities to the next step with their 2022 feature film Studio 666, a horror comedy that saw them move into a haunted mansion in LA. Watch the fake TV commercial for ‘Grohl, Hawkins, Mendel, Shiflett, Smear & Associates’ below.
