This may seem completely unrelated to my usual posts – and it is! – but I saw this again recently and felt the need to share it. Yes, its an enduringly popular and relatable song, but its the video that I love best. Years and years after its release, it remains the funniest music video I’ve ever seen, or at least the first three minutes of it. Mark Metcalf, the actor playing the father, has to be the best damn actor I’ve ever seen in the role of a psychotic former Marine-turned father. I assume he was a Marine in this role at any rate, they don’t yell that in the army or navy 
The rest of the video kind of drags admittedly, but what can you do? It was the eighties and music videos were still in their infancy. But it is worth watching just to see the opening scene where Metcalf berates the kid playing his son, and then gets his ass kicked by the sheer musical power of the song’s message of pure, rock and roll defiance! Seriously, who wrote this script? It’s gold, baby!
“You’re worthless and weak! You do nothing, you are nothing!You sit in here all day and play that sick, repulsive electric twanger! I carried an M16 and you, YOU carry that, that, that, guitar!” Hell, I’ve known Drill Sergeants that were nicer than this guy!
Check it out if you haven’t already. It’s definitely one for the musical hall of fame!
Why does this make me feel incredibly old?
It shouldn’t… am I just saying that because I remember it too?
Yes my dear I think you are. We are NOT old. We just liked good hair metal. Yeah, that’s it!
I agree with you! This and Twisted Sister’s follow-up video for “I Wanna Rock” were two of my absolute favorites of the 1980s. Dee Snider is a music legend!