Резеңке Жонни

the short film and music video

Rubber Johnny is a 2005 British experimental short film/music video written, directed, and produced by Chris Cunningham.

The film, entirely presented in infrared vision, begins with an out of focus closeup of Johnny (played by Cunningham) babbling incomprehensibly while being interviewed by an unseen man. At one point, Johnny mumbles the word "ma ma" twice, after which the man asks if he wants his mother to come in. This causes Johnny to start breathing erratically and lose control, so the man gives Johnny a sedative injection to calm him down. The video cuts to a fluorescent light turning on, a mouse crawling over a press sticker credits list, followed by the title, "Rubber Johnny", which is shown written on a condom in a backwards playing shot of it being pulled off a penis. Johnny sits recumbent in his wheelchair with his oversized head hanging over the back of it. He starts dancing to the Aphex Twin track "Afx237 v.7" while his chihuahua watches. His dancing involves him performing balancing tricks with his wheelchair and deflecting light beams with his hands. A door opens and Johnny is interrupted by an aggressive male voice. During this, Johnny is sitting upright in the wheelchair. The voice yells at him indistinctly, a slap to Johnny's face is implied, and the door is slammed shut. Johnny snorts a large line of cocaine. Cunningham explained that the effect of an exploding head was made using "just a tangerine and Plasticine with a banger inside it". He created some effects in his own kitchen instead of relying on CGI.

Pascal Wyse of The Guardian referred to it as "virtuosic grossness", stating, "there is more fleeting shock than real haunting. Perhaps, in all the synaptic mayhem, there is just no room for the viewer to contact their own demons." Treble. com listed the film in its "10 Terrifying Music Videos", calling it "both hilarious and terrifying". Writing for The Telegraph, Chris Campion asserted that the video was "like a Looney Tunes short for a generation raised on video nasties and rave music".