Gnarls Barkley
Dynamic Duo
To promote their highly entertaining, deliciously bizarre debut album, St. Elsewhere, Gnarls Barkley ransacked Hollywood’s tickle trunk and dressed up as a series of famous silver-screen duos for their press photos and live performances.
“Strangely enough, I never really dressed up for Halloween much. Maybe when I was really young I dressed up like Superman or something,” admits producer DangerMouse. “If you’re going to put a record out and put visuals out, you might as well make it something more creative or interesting. Either that, or don’t do it at all. And we didn’t want to not do it all.”
See how Cee-Lo and DangerMouse, two wild and “Crazy” guys, stack up next to seven of their costume inspirations.
The cast of Star Wars, starring Cee-Lo as Darth Vader
Until the most recent trilogy in creator George Lucas’s Star Wars, the origins of Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker’s Dark Side father, remained a mystery. Because of their curious name, producer DangerMouse explains that many fans, especially in Europe, believe Gnarls Barkley to be a mystery: “People think it’s just one person; they don’t know who it is or what it is,” he says.
The cast of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children’s book written way back in 1900 by L. Frank Baum. The story gained popularity as a musical that debuted in Chicago. DangerMouse takes his name from a children’s animated British TV series of the same name. He gained popularity when he recorded DangerDoom for Adult Swim, a network which airs adult cartoons.
Superman and Clark Kent
To avoid drawing attention to himself, the Man of Steel passes himself off as Clark Kent, a mild-mannered newspaper reporter. DangerMouse avoids drawing attention to himself when touring through Europe by checking into hotels under the mild-mannered alias of “Stan Smith”.
The cast of School of Rock
Paunchy actor and wildman singer Jack Black is admired for his perfect imperfections: scraggly appearance, childish behaviour, and fearlessly acting the fool. On paunchy rapper and wildman singer Cee-Lo’s first solo LP, Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections, he fearlessly rocks out an intoxicating mix of rock, rap, soul and R&B.
Napoleon Dynamite and Pedro Sanchez
The quirky, small-budget Napoleon Dynamite, which cost only $400,000 to produce, was a gigantic leftfield critical success that has now earned $44.5 million. DangerMouse’s small-budget The Grey Album, a quirky mash-up of The Beatles’ White Album and Jay-Z’s Black Album, was a gigantic leftfield critical success.
Freddy Kruger and Jason Voorhees
This pair of horror-flick villains is known for shocking their victims to an attention-grabbing soundtrack. According to DangerMouse, Cee-Lo shocked him “every time he went into the vocal booth and sang something” over one of DM’s attention-grabbing soundtracks: “He liked to surprise me. He always kept it a secret what he was going to do.”
