"Miserable" is a single by Alternative Rock group Lit. The song is from their album A Place in The Sun. The song charted #3 on the US Modern Rock Tracks and is one of the band's biggest hits, along with "My Own Worst Enemy".
Although it was a major hit in its own right, the song is best remembered for its Fanservice-heavy music video. It features the band (A.J. Popoff on vocals, Jeremy Popoff on lead guitar, Allen Shellenburger on drums, and Kevin Baldes on bass) performing the song for a giant woman, played by special guest star Pamela Anderson, while climbing on and exploring different parts of her body.
The video helped keep the song holding onto its number three spot just as it seemed like its run was about to peter out, and for many, the video is far more well known than the song itself. It might even be the most well known thing they've ever done.
The video first premiered on Pamela Anderson's show V.I.P. in the episode "Hard Val's Night", shortly before also being shown on Total Request Live and becoming a popular staple of MTV.
The video itself can be viewed on YouTube here
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"Miserable" contains examples of:
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Tropes A-E
- Addiction Song: The band's singer has stated that, if not interpreted as an anti-love song, it could also be about addiction. The fact that the "woman" (represented by Pamela Anderson/Vallery Irons) is described as using up his friends and plans, yet she still "means everything (to him)", and the fact that in the end she devours him support this alternative interpretation.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: At least two of the band members (Allen and Jeremy) resort to begging the giantess not to eat them. It fails. She ignores their pleading and devours them.
- All Men Are Perverts: Almost all the places the guys choose to perform on are parts of the giant woman/Val's body that invoke Male Gaze such as her hip, her legs, one of her platform heels, and her chest. Notably they stand on her butt multiple times, and only twice in the whole video play in front of her rather than on top of some part of her body.
- All There in the Script: In promotional materials for the video the giant woman's name is listed as Val (after Vallery Irons, Pam Anderson's character from VIP, where the video premiered).
- As Herself: The giantess is sometimes named as her actress Pamela Anderson, but other times she's credited as her V.I.P. character Vallery Irons. (The video premiered during one episode, where the band played themselves.)
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Attack of the 50 ft. woman in a bikini. Though it's less "attack" and more "Lounge around while a band uses her body as a performance area." At least until the end.
- Anti-Love Song: The relationship A.J. is singing about isn't a very positive one. The chorus even says "You make me completely miserable."
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Done not once, but twice in the chorus. At first it seems like they're saying "You make me cum", then it sounds like they're saying "You make me complete", and finally, they finish the sentence as "You make me completely miserable".
- Between My Legs: There's a couple of shots of the band framed between the woman's really long legs. This served multiple purposes. One was of course fanservice, since it gives us a great view of Pam's toned legs and her platform heel stripper shoes. Another was to further emphasize her gargantuan stature (since she is a giantess and most of the video is the band using her scantily clad body as a performance stage ). The third is to show how much power she wields over all the all-male band members and why she was able to so easily hunt them down and devour them at the end.
- Big Rock Ending: While most of the song is played at a largely relaxed pace, it ends with a guitar solo that gradually builds up the tempo before launching into a fast-paced refrain of the chorus. In the video, this is set to Pam/Vallery swallowing the bassist alive and the other band members attempting to run and hide as she picks them off one-by-one and eats them up.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Initially, The Giant Pamela allows the band members to stand all over body, only to then hunt them down and eat them, one by one.
- Clung on Tight: The members of Lit are on a Giant Woman (Vallery Irons/Pam Anderson) and are performing on different parts of her body. While they are performing on one of her shoes note , she shakes her foot, and the guys have to desperately try to keep their footing. When they fail to fall off, she simply looks away and rolls her eyes, seemingly annoyed. So instead of trying to force them off her, she waits until they are playing on her face. While one guy is standing on her lips, she opens her mouth and swallows him alive which sends the rest of them running.
- Colossus Climb: The giantess lets the band members climb her body.
- Cue Card Pause: The three choruses go: "You make me come...", "You make me complete...", and finally "You make me completely miserable".
- Eaten Alive: This happens to all of them, at least it was Pamela Anderson doing the eating.
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Epic Riff: As the song nears the final chorus, there's a prominent electric guitar solo that slowly starts to build up in pace towards the Big Rock Ending. In the video, this is accompanied by shots of Pam/Vallery writhing slowly to the music and the band framed between her legs before cutting to the band lined up on her face, with the bassist standing on her lips. The riff ends right as Pam/Vallery eats the bassist, and the other members start to run for their lives. - "Everybody Dies" Ending: At the end of the video, every band member gets eaten by the giant woman.
Tropes F-N
- Face–Heel Turn: At first Pamela seems totally cool, allowing the band members to perform all over her, in the end they all end up in her stomach.
- Fanservice: Pamela Anderson, Ms. Fanservice herself, lounges around in a skimpy bikini and platform heels.
- Fearsome Foot: Probably the only time this trope has been combined with Fanservice. After all the others have been gobbled up by the giantess, A. Jay is the only member left. Then one of the woman's platform heels slams down behind him, right before she gets down on all fours, catches him, and makes him the last course in her meal.
- Giant Woman: The most common interpretation of what Pamela's character is. She's huge and the members of Lit are much smaller than she is.
- Gentle Giant: Val/Pam, the giant woman, lets the guys walk all over her body while she smiles and flirtatiously waves at them. Subverted at the end, where she suddenly eats the band members one by one.
- Hot Paint Job: Jeremy's signature shoes have white flames decorating the tops.
- Hope Spot: After she slurps up Jeremy the giant woman makes a face and appears to be rolling something around on her tongue. At first, it seems like she's going to spit him out. But instead she just spits out his shoe.
- High-Heel Power: The Giant Woman is rocking a pair of 8-inch black platform stripper pumps. And despite spending much of the video as a Neutral Female and the Lust Object of the guys who are climbing all over her body it becomes clear that she was in control the whole time. In fact one instance is in fact demonstrated with her shoe. She has one of her pumps poised in the air while she lies on her stomach, and the guys are perched on top of it. Then without warning she casually shakes her foot, and the guys start to lose their balance and nearly fall off. And once she decides she's had her fun with the band and starts eating them, she's able to keep up with the guys no matter how fast they run, despite chasing them in these heels. And she's able to catch and swallow the guys with ease no matter how much they try to stop her.
- I Am a Humanitarian: In the end, the woman just eats the band members one by one.
- Karma Houdini: Pamela eats all the band members and gets away with it.
- Leg Focus: Incredibly long legs. Fifty feet long at least.
- Light Is Not Good: Pam/Vallery has golden blonde hair, wears a bikini that is almost entirely white, and even has white nail polish. However, that doesn't make her good. Despite seeming friendly at first, once she's done being climbed on by the band, she starts gleefully devouring each member one-by-one as they beg for mercy.
- Literal Man Eater: At the end, after luring them into a false sense of security by letting them walk all over her body, and flirtatiously waving, giggling, and smiling at them, the giant woman eats the band members one by one.
- Male Gaze: The video opens with close-ups of the woman's body, and that's before we get to the scenes of the band climbing on her. The video also uses it as a tool to trick the audience. Aside from the Giant Woman wearing nothing but a bikini and high-heeled shoes, the band also specifically plays on places like her butt, her thighs, and her breasts. Combined with her occasional flirtatious smiles and giggles directed towards the band, makes it seem like she's just there to be eye candy. So it comes as a suprise when the last 17% of the video is dedicated to her gleefully devouring the terrified male band members.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: The ending of the video seems to take a great amount of glee showing the giant Pam/Vallery eating the all-male band. With lots of shots of each terrified man begging for his life before showing Pam/Val eat him entirely on screen with no cutting away or Gory Discretion Shot for any of them. And by the end, not only is every single man dead, but the Giant Woman gets off scott free, suffering no repercussions for what she did. It's hard to imagine an all-female band getting eaten one by one would ever end with all of them killed off, or be portrayed in such a cavalier way.
- Ms. Fanservice: Pamela Anderson's character wears little more than a white bikini with black trim, and black platform high heels, and the camera pans across her legs, butt, and other such body parts as the band climbs on her. Making her an example of this trope.
- Nobody Loves the Bassist: Poor Kevin Baldes is the first to get eaten.
Tropes: R-W
- Rule of Sexy: A giant Pamela Anderson struts around in little more than a white bikini and high heels, and flirts with the four guys climbing all over her curves, with little to no explanation as to why.
- Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: All the members of Lit are fully clothed, with the only real skin showing coming from Allen (the drummer) in his blood red shorts. Meanwhile, Pam/Vallery, the woman making them miserable, is only wearing a bikini and platform stripper pumps.
- Sibling Team: Lead vocalist A. J. Popoff, and lead guitarist Jeremy Popoff are brothers.
- Side Boob: Despite the slightly sports bra like nature of the bikini top, the video still features a couple shots of side boob while Pam is swaying to the band's music. Which adds to the Fanservice-y and Male Gaze-y nature of the video.
- Spit Out a Shoe: After eating Jeremy, the giant woman spits out one of his white-flame sneakers.
- Strange Stage: The band often performs on top of the giant woman, like on her butt, her knee, her hip, her platform shoe, etc.
- Stripperiffic: You expect Pamela Anderson to wear anything more sensible than an itty-bitty bikini and platform pumps in a music video?
- Title Drop: The chorus builds up to a title drop with the phrase, "You make me completely Miserable."
- To Serve Man: Each band member barely makes a whole mouthful for the giantess. Doesn't stop her from eating them, though.
- Swallowed Whole: This happens to all the band members.
- Too Dumb to Live: The whole band for getting too close to a giantess and not expecting her to hurt them. Special mention goes to Kevin, who is standing right on her lips, and is thus the first to get eaten.
- Undignified Death: The video ends with three in a row for Baldes (the bassist), Allen (the drummer), and Jeremy (lead guitar). They're all Swallowed Whole by a giant woman. Each of the three guy's deaths are undignified in different ways. Baldes chose to stand on Vallery's lips, which makes it easy for her to eat him and makes him look stupid. After that the surviving members run for their lives, but Allen is easily caught by the woman and starts pathetically putting up his hands, pleading not to be eaten, only for her to ignore him and callously eat him anyway. Jeremy spends his last moments cowering behind a speaker while Vallery sneaks up on him. And after he tries to plead for his life, she slurps him up and casually spits out one of his shoes.
- Played with when she eats A.Jay. Unlike his bandmates, A.Jay didn't pick a bad spot to stand like Kevin Baldes, and when she captures him he doesn't beg and plead like Allen or Jeremy. But what he does do is pathetically try to struggle out of Pam/Val's grasp as she dangles him. Then this turns into panicked flailing as she tosses him into the air and catches him in her mouth.
- Walking Swimsuit Scene: The woman is wearing nothing but a white bikini and platform heels.
- White Void Room: The video takes place in a blue featureless expanse. Makes it hard to gauge the scale of the characters.
- Women Are Delicate: Played with. The giant woman is very attractive and her mannerisms are still very feminine despite her enormous size. She's also, at first glance, somewhat passive. Letting the band members walk all over her body pretty freely. However, there are moments here and there that show that she's the one in control. Such as when she shakes her foot when the guys are playing on her shoe and they barely keep their footing. Then there's the end when she starts eating the guys one-by-one. The all-male band members try their best to escape her, trying everything from running and hiding to begging, but the woman is able to snatch up each member and devour him with zero effort on her part. She even gobbles up each guy with a little playful finish such as slurping one up and spitting out his shoe, or tossing one in the air and catching him in her mouth, showing that she's stronger and deadlier than all of the guys.
