If you weren’t on Facebook or Twitter yesterday, you might not have been aware that it was May the Fourth, a.k.a. “Star Wars Day,” a made-up holiday invented to promote awareness of one of the single most financially and culturally successful media franchises on the planet. Adding to the festivities this year is this video, produced by CollegeHumor in association with Lucasfilm, featuring a variety of famous musicians, including Ben Folds, Rick Springfield, Lisa Loeb, and “Weird Al” Yankovic auditioning for the Mos Eisley cantina band (whose real name, as you almost certainly know, is Figrin D’an And The Modal Nodes).
All of the performances come complete with cheesy Star Wars-esque names (Comedy Bang Bang bandleader Reggie Watts is a droid named RG-WATTS, while American Idol rocker Chris Daughtry dresses up like Darth Maul and calls himself Chris Darthtry), and a quick joke about why they won’t be joining the band. The best of these is Liz Phair (or, rather, Lliz Ph’air) protesting that she shouldn’t be dismissed as a tree-hugger for her anti-Empire, pro-environment song, because “the Death Star literally destroys planets.”
It’s not like you have to look super far these days to find Star Wars-themed comedy, but the combination of the talent on display and LucasArts’ involvement (and their costumes and make-up) makes this worth checking out.
You can see bonus footage from the video here, at CollegeHumor