The Klaxons have announced that they are launching the world’s first 3D Printed Tour. Of course the video detailing the new tour is pretty clearly a joke, but unfortunately for us someone forgot to tell the media.
In a video released to announce their upcoming tour in support of their new album, the Klaxons visit the fictional “3D printing press” that is going to be producing all of the equipment used on their tour. In the video, fictional company SJA 3D Printing manager Jeffrey Royce gives us a tour of the 3D printing shop that will be producing all of the bands instruments and equipment. Including in his own words “the guitars, the microphones, the amps, the base, even the lights.”
The video is pretty funny but it’s at that moment when you’re sure that it is clearly not real. Apparently not everyone got the jokes because an uncomfortable number of media outlets are reporting the story seriously. I’m not sure if some of these websites are just being coy, genuinely confused, or just cannibalizing the story from other places but clearly several of them didn’t bother to watch the actual video. It’s almost funnier than the video actually. Almost.
“We’re really excited to have this commission because it means that we’ll be printing something that people will actually use. Rather than just printing something to prove that we can 3D print it.”
“Wow it’s kinda just like a real guitar but… not”
“Well, we’ve managed to get the shape down to 100% accuracy, which I’m quite proud of. What we need to work on is the functionality. It could be tweaked. It could be better.”
Obviously not everyone is going to get the meaning behind the jokes. 3D printing is still a niche industry so an informed punchline would have little to no context to an outsider. But certainly people can still tell that they’re jokes, right? I don’t need to understand why it’s supposed to be funny to understand that Larry the Cable Guy is purportedly telling jokes.
I have to hand it to the Klaxons, or at least the ad company that produced the video, it’s a clever way to get a new album a lot of free advertising. And if you’re so inclined the entire album is being streamed at The Guardian. It’s a pretty good listen.
Source: NME
