Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus serves as the worst high school talent show MC in the hilarious new video for People R Ugly’s “Wake Up.” The track is set to appear on the up-and-coming indie-pop outfit’s debut album, Garage, out Oct. 24 via Verswire.
The video opens with an extended bit featuring Hoppus as a school principal doing an awful job shepherding a talent show along. There are lots of corny puns, poorly-thought-out linguistic choices, and a hot mic to capture the awkward hype-up speech he gives an anxious performer, played by People R Ugly drummer Tristan Kevitch.
“When you get nervous, just imagine everyone out there completely naked,” Principal Hoppus rambles. “Especially second row, Miss Stacy, Home Ec teacher. You know that song ‘All the Small Things’? She’s got some big ones. Been there, done that, I know what I’m talking about.”
From there, the video takes on a Napoleon Dynamite-esque quality, with Kevitch performing an awkward, endearing, and elaborate dance routine to “Wake Up.” Things take a turn halfway through when some light pyrotechnics wind up setting the entire auditorium on fire. But even amidst the chaos of the conflagration, there’s still a ton of dancing going on, and the video’s end seems to suggest the whole thing was all a fantasy as Kevitch’s routine comes to a close and the crowd erupts in applause.
People R Ugly wrote “Wake Up” during a songwriting retreat in Oakhurst, a small mountain town in California. While they were there, frontman Zak Dossi told Rolling Stone, they spent their nights at a bar that “painted the perfect visual for the song.”
Of “Wake Up” and its video, he continued, “It’s about locking eyes with someone on the dancefloor and realizing, ‘Even if I wake up, I’ll still be dreaming.’ Shooting the video with Mark was unreal — all of the dialogue was improv, and it gave the whole thing this raw unpredictable vibe.”
People R Ugly have enjoyed a big couple of years since 2023, when they released their breakthrough singles “What’s Up?” and “Brain Dead,” and dropped a self-titled EP. Since then, they’ve continued to share scattered singles while also making a name for themselves as a live act, including a big set at Lollapalooza earlier this summer.
Garage marks the band’s proper debut album, and as its title suggests, it was recorded in the garage of Dossi’s home in Orange County, California. “This project is unlike anything we’ve ever made before,” the band said in a statement. “We had a blast experimenting, messing around, and pushing ourselves in new directions, and we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. We hope it makes you laugh, cry, dance, mosh, and maybe even smile at a surprise feature you won’t see coming.”