"Big Me," Foo Fighters

Following Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994, former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl started his own group, Foo Fighters.  The group struggled to establish itself in the shadow of Cobain’s legacy – that was, until “Big Me” came out.

 “Big Me” singularly established the group in a post-Cobain rock world by showing that they could rock out and have a sense of humor, too.  The video parodies the then-popular Mentos commercials where characters would get into sticky situations and find a solution to them by popping Mentos into their mouth. Instead of Mentos, though, Foo Fighters used Foo Tos, “the fresh fighter.”

The band plays movers and soccer players, respectively, in the short video’s first two scenes, before they play themselves in the band.  (Grohl even wears pig-tail braids for the occasion.)  A kid tries to sneak in and, after the security guard denies him, he pops a Foo Tos and decides to crash the stage anyway.  When the band and security guard notices, he pops another Foo Toos, and they all laugh together, ending the video.

“Big Me” marked the first of many popular Foo Fighters videos to incorporate parody and humor, helping them to become a major rock act in the late 1990s and 2000s. Their latest video, “Walk,” features Grohl in a variety of crazy situations and even takes a cheap shot at Coldplay.

And that kid?  He's old enough now to get into a club now without sneaking in.