We don't want any Valenki! We don't even know what it is!
Don't Play the Fool, America! (Russian: Не Валяй Дурака, Америка!) is a music video released by Russian rock band Lyube in 1992, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Cold War. note It's a satirical play on anti-American propaganda (without literally being one itself) that cries for the return of Alaska to Russia along with some decries of American culture. It utilizes some of the most sophisticated computer animation and hand-drawn animation utilized by Russia at the time, though the United States had accomplished these feats long before Russia had. The lead singer is Nikolay Rastorguev, a controversial musician blacklisted and banned from Ukraine for attacking said country, who provides most of the singing as he does with most of the band's music.This video is not banned from the United States, but unsurprisingly did not get any major broadcasting deals in American media either. This is considered Lyube's Signature Song since it's their best recognized and most acclaimed song in Russia.
Tropes associated with both the song and music video (sharing the same name):
- America Takes Over the World: Russian musicians criticizing America's growing influence on the world.
- Artistic License – Geography: The band sings that Americans must be freezing more so than Russians. Despite that Russians avoid the vast majority of their own country's land which is frozen tundra.
- Artistic License – History: The band makes it out like America stole Alaska, when really the Russians sold it to America centuries ago and back then Russia had no idea how rich in natural reserves Alaska was.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Nikolay, the lead singer, uses binoculars to watch closely on what appears to be New York City.
- Eye Pop: The Fish.
- Grass is Greener: What Lyube tries to convince the Americans about Russia is.... not that Americans would really give up their video games, TVs and more recently computers and the Internet for horses, vodka and accordions.
- Idle Rich: How the band Lyube views the United States. They see Americans as being lazy and inactive due to their affluent wealth and opulent lifestyles enabled by technological advances.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Uncle Sam and his girlfriend are interrupted in their make-out session by a huge valenki (a type of Russian wool boots) thrown at them, causing them to scream. The valenki also landed on their table filled with food, which flew their whole chicken into the air and land into the girl's breasts.
- Medium-Shift Gag: When Uncle Sam and his girlfriend are making out and gorging. Plus the eye-popping fish.
- National Stereotypes: The video portrays some of the United States, such as Uncle Sam enjoying sex, smoking and feasting all day and being sedentary and lethargic preferring feasting and indulging in technology and material luxuries.
- Russia Called; They Want Alaska Back: This is made very clear in the video, though the only justification Lyube provides is that Alaska is "very" close to Siberia, despite how the Americans bought Alaska a while ago. In real life, most of Russia's vast territory that allows them to be the biggest country on Earth is frozen tundra uninhabitable for humans and so Russia has limited living space for its population totaling in the hundred millions.
- Satire: Many media analysts, both American and Russian, claim this video isn't meant to be taken seriously or politically.
- Smoking Is Cool: Uncle Sam's girlfriend is smoking a cigarette while kissing him passionately.
