It’s late at night. There’s nothing on telly and you can’t be bothered to scroll through Netflix. You’re the only one up in the house. The laptop basks in its own glow on the coffee table.
You know where this story is going, don’t you? Yes, you do.
Well, one click led to another and before I knew it, I’d spent two solid hours on YouTube looking at random clips of Jim Carrey. There’s no particular reason for finding myself in this attention-hogger’s wormhole. Everyone I know finds him mildly grating and have rarely got to sit through any of his films. Apart from Liar Liar this past Christmas, but that was because I’d lost the remote.
I laughed at Dumb And Dumber clips, watched some of his early stand-up clips and sat stony-faced while grainy rips of The Duck Factory played to an audience of one.
Then, out of nowhere, a clip of Carrey enthusing about Napalm Death appeared in the suggestions column. This first appeared when the internet was made of cardboard and spit, but is still worth repeating.
“I’ve really started to get in to this thrash metal music; there’s something about it that I just can’t let go…“ Carrey tells his host, before letting off a volley vocal sounds to rival Barney Greenway’s guttural raw.
It’s hard to tell exactly which song he’s performing but our guess is Twist the Knife (Slowly) from 1994’s Fear, Emptiness, Despair.
Watch the clip below and imagine him fronting a politically-driven grindcore band. It’d be daft.
This isn’t Carrey’s first dalliance with rock. In 1994, he invited Cannibal Corpse to perform Hammer Smashed Face for his film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
But six years before that, he appeared in The Dead Pool as the rock star Johnny Squares. Here he is showboating his way through Guns N’ Roses’ Welcome To The Jungle. And yes, it’s mildly irritating.
If you’ve seen any unlikely celebrities espousing grindcore – or any extreme metal sub-genre, for that matter – please let us know in the comments below.
