Sometimes, on twitter (or whatever it’s called nowadays), people will just become fixated with something. Yesterday, it was this music video for a song called When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Gets Going. I lost track of how many times I saw this video shared on Saturday.
So, I figured, why not share it here as well?
This music video was made to promote the 1985 film, The Jewel of the Nile. Along with Billy Ocean, the stars of the film — Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, and Michael Douglas — also appear in this video. Was Danny really playing the saxophone? No, he was not. Apparently, in the UK, this video was briefly banned because Danny was not a member of the Musicians’ Union and his miming of the sax solo went against the rules.
The UK banning something because an American broke a rule? Wow, that’s so unlike them!
I’m not very knowledgable about Billy Ocean. But if there’s a stranger Billy Ocean video, then I wanna see it.
The video starts off, and we see Ocean get trapped inside a triangle.
After traveling through the universe, we finally land on the alien planet of the UK.
More specifically, the outdoor set of the video for Shout by Tears For Fears.
Shout by Tears For Fears (1984)
We follow this guy along the beach for some reason…
even though our hero looks different when he arrives.
After posing for the music video thumbnail…
we start to enter this cave along with the Billy Ocean triangle. There’s all kinds inside, but our hero goes right over to the BarBot.
Ocean continues to be trapped inside of a triangle.
Our hero spots, who I assume he’s here to find.
They exchange some glances, and he responds by whipping his tongue in the air.
Oral sex? It’s not a stretch considering the lyrics, the song title, and these followup shots.
Dog sailor.
Horny.
Johnny Wadd.
If this car is rockin’, don’t come knockin’.
After that, we see that Ocean is now trapped in the mirror from Superman 2.
He gets hit by some sort of phaser, which appears to force him into the shape of a cube.
Back in the bar, things are coming to a head, as he, and the people around the woman he wants, exchange some glances. This includes our hero once again, throwing his tongue up in the air.
The BarBot…
and one of Kang and Kodos’ cousins has to see what’s about to happen.
Someone is a fan of Star Wars because I have no idea who shot first.
Let’s go!
Meanwhile outside, the sand people who are indigenous to the limestone ridge on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth in Dorset, England–or Durdle Door for short–are worshipping the Billy Ocean cube.
Look honey, I know you’re not exactly enthusiastic about this, but it’s for the best.
Cliff Richard needs this set in 6 years to do a music video for the song Saviour’s Day.
Saviour’s Day by Cliff Richard (1990)
They ride off, and we get our hero raising his hand in…victory?
So, he saved the girl, but he seems to have left poor Billy Ocean trapped in a cube.
Speaking of which, was that cube supposed to be a window to that island in the background?
I came across this one by pure chance. Occasionally YouTube surfaces an older music video I haven’t seen or written about. This is one of them.
The video was directed by Maurice Phillips, who seems to have done only a handful of videos in the 1980s. A couple of them are kind of weird as well–like the one for Lies by Thompson Twins that includes a giant rabbit. Phillips would go on to work in film and TV. He directed Another You (1991). He passed away in 2012.
Through the Shattered Lens 