If you watched Billie Eilish‘s new video for “Therefore I Am” it’s likely you thought two things: wow, that René Descartes was one cool cat, and, yeah, I would love to romp around an empty mall eating snacks.
Whereas Eilish shot her video at the Glendale Galleria (the shopping center of Eilish’s youth, according to Rolling Stone) The Tonight Show‘s Jimmy Fallon had to make do with the empty corridors of 30 Rockefeller Plaza on Friday.
It started out okay, with a mimicked shot of a rising escalator and a reproduction of Eilish’s trademark baggy duds and bright green hair. Things went south, though, when a guard caught Fallon lip-synching with his mask down.
While putting his mask back up might have done him favors in case he forgot the lyrics (the song is new after all!) other COVID-related problems then arose.
Watch as a security guard gets to yell at the guy whose name is actually in lights on one of the most famous and art-festooned buildings in America.
Eilish co-wrote “Therefore I Am” with her older brother Finneas O’Connell, who also produced it. In an interview she referred to the performance as “feel[ing] like a natural” and thought it would inspire people to stop taking her so seriously.
The video had close to 21 million views in under 48 hours. Eilish has yet to explain why she chose to chomp on those mediocre-looking french fries but never once bit into the buttery-salty goodness of a mall-enriched Auntie Anne’s pretzel.
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