Justin Roberts with pipe-cleaner-and-paper-heart crown
I think in terms of the disparity of attitude between adults and kids, there is no holiday greater than Valentine's Day. Adults love it (or, depending on their relationship status, actively loathe it), but kids? Most kids are pretty much "meh" on it. It's like Arbor Day with candy, pretty much.
It's that disconnect that makes Justin Roberts' "Valentine" so appealing to me. It's a song whose chorus leads off with the lines, "I don't wanna be yours / You don't wanna be mine." Imagine a Christmas or Hanukkah song that led off with a similar sentiment -- it'd be shunned. But for Valentine's Day? Aside from the candy, there's very little that kids actually enjoy about the holiday.
For this latest video off his album Lemonade, Roberts wears an appealing dorky pipe-cleaner-and-paper-heart crown and fills it with kids who really get into being, well, just annoyed by the holiday. There will be a lot of sweetness over the next week or so, but this video brings just the right amount of, well, non-sweetness.
(As a song titled "Valentine," I think I like "Valentine" by the Old 97s slightly better, but this is a close second.)
Justin Roberts - "Valentine" [YouTube]
