OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine - Official Video on HackerTube: recommended by 5 Hacker News commenters across 5 separate months, 2010–2026.
music · evergreen
OK Go's music video for This Too Shall Pass, featuring a huge Rube Goldberg machine built in a warehouse in Los Angeles with Syyn Labs. The band interacts with the contraption in one continuous take.
HN points to it as an example of ambitious, practical-effects creativity in music videos, made without CGI.
“The Rube Goldberg machine [0] one is particularily impressive.”
7 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
That was OK, Go ( [link] ) . The song is "WTF?" They're famous for quirky video clips (original for this song is at [link] ). You should watch ▶ this video . You'll like it. Trust me.
in “Seriously.js” · View on HN
Reminds me of the 3 minute rube Goldberg machine in "this too shall pass" by Ok Go. ▶ this video I thought they really did it all in one cut but there are at least two. Still a great music video and song.
in “The Greatest Shot in Television: James Burke Had One Chance to Nail This Scene” · View on HN
OK Go really do make some amazing music videos. The Rube Goldberg machine [0] one is particularily impressive. It even got its own TED talk [1]. 0: ▶ this video 1: [link]
in “OK Go’s video, for the song “The One Moment”, took only 4.2 seconds to film” · View on HN
Not really. Stop-motion music videos have been done quite a bit, especially 10 years ago and more. There was a time before CGI when artists shot "videos" on film and computers weren't capable of the things they are today. Consider the Peter Gabriel videos: [link] [link] both of which feature various types of stop-motion animation as well as other effects. Also consider the works of Bruce Bickford whom Frank Zappa hired to work on several videos. This guy is a genius/savant, I don't know which. Zappa saw the genius and funded some incredible work. [link] [link] [link] You also might want to check out: ▶ this video and their other videos, which aren't stop-motion but are incredible videos made without CGI. There's tons more out there to find if you look.
in “Stop motion video shot over 2 years with 288,000 jelly beans” · View on HN
Reminds me a bit of Ok Go's latest video: ▶ this video Seems like something Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze ( [link] ) would do. I think it is abstract, but I like it a whole lot nonetheless. It's creative and cute and whimsical. Kudos!
in “Another lovely Google Chrome ad - Extensions” · View on HN
Brings to mind the OK GO music video with all the exploded guitars that they stated were already junk. Spilled paint is reminiscent of their videos too. They also smashed pianos in the Rube Goldberg video, and a TV with a sledge. Now I wonder if that was a 1984 reference. [link] ▶ this video
in “Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'” · View on HN
This video would be pretty uninteresting had they used artificial jelly beans. I think everyone is aware that it’s trivial to convert a simple animation to a jelly bean animation. That’s not the point. Art works by different rules. (Hey, and if you like to be a cynic about it you can also say that viral videos work by different rules. OK Go owes their fame to never taking shortcuts when creating their music videos†.) (I think that placing the singer directly on the jelly beans allowed them to do certain tricks that would be harder to accomplish otherwise: pay attention to the lighting or the costume changes. It’s not clear to me whether using a green screen would really have saved time.) — † One example: ▶ this video
in “Stop motion video shot over 2 years with 288,000 jelly beans” · View on HN