Do you get credit for taking much longer to do something crappy that everyone was kind of expecting you to do immediately? This philosophical brainteaser tickles our noggins today courtesy of musician Chet Hanks, who has finally cashed in his “Did you know my dad is Tom Hanks?” tokens in bulk, releasing a music video this weekend in which he recreates famous moments from Forrest Gumpwhile his father sits on a bench near him, looking some mixture of uncomfortable and proud.
Hanks (known to the deep lore divers as Chet Haze) released the video as part of his group Something Out West, which, we are picking up from context clues, is now a country band. (Hanks has had a long, illustrious wander through the White Boy Summer world of rap, pop, and other genres over the years. Also the worlds of vaccine denial and at least one allegation of domestic violence. There are many worlds, in the universe of Chet Hanks.) The song in question, titled “You Better Run,” would be generically inoffensive, if not for the fact that its video is absolutely stuffed with Forrest Gump references, with the younger Hanks—setting up an implicit charisma comparison that we would not subject ourselves to in a million years—in the place of his father. Who then pops up halfway through, in a bit of a reveal, mugging for the camera in ways that look like they’re trying to short circuit the natural instinct to say “Does Tom Hanks really love his son this much?”
We’ll be honest: This is one of those things where we’re sharing it at least in part to spread around the pain; having viewed the video a few times ourselves, we now need it to exist in other people’s memories, too.
