Paul Rudd's recreation of Go West's "King Of Wishing Thinking" video is glorious. Following early roles in Parks And Rec.
He moved to blockbuster status with Mac And Me whenever he visits Conan O'Brien.
He gets a little more elaborate when he comes to The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. The pair have teamed to make almost shot for shot recreations of classic music videos, including Dead Or Alive's “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)" or Styx’s “Too Much Time On My Hands.” The best goes to Go West's "King Of Wishful Thing," where Rudd and Fallon play singer Peter Cox and guitarist Richard Drummie.
Go West's "King Of Wishful Thinking" was a tie-in song for 1990 hit Pretty Woman, which made Julia Roberts a star. The video itself is a delightful relic from another time, where Cox and Drummie perform the song while assorted madness happens in the background, including a group of men shuffling through bags of film and ballet dancers performing while zebras or elephants run around. Paul Rudd and Fallon set out to do an almost perfect recreation, and while the latter is fairly subdued, Rudd goes for broke.
Paul Rudd captures Peter Cox's receding hairline and oddly aggressive dance moves and is clearly having the time of his life. It's easy to question the point of this "King Of Wishful Thinking" video at all since, like Gus Van Sant's Psycho remake, it just copies shots wholesale - though this version cuts the elephant and an appearance from the pope. Despite this, it's joyfully silly and entertaining, with the pointlessness almost being the point. It's certainly one of the better skits to appear on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon in recent years.