There’s Now A Game Of That Video Where British Lads Kiss Then Hit Each Other With A Chair
Who says video games can't be art?
In 2016, the world changed — not because of the US election or David Bowie’s death, but the uploading of “British lads hit each other with chair”, an enigmatic one minute YouTube video where a group of shirtless lads hit each other with a chair for a bit of a laugh. Now, in 2020, the world changes again thanks to Hard Lads, a video game adaptation.
If you haven’t seen the video, please. It is immediately below.
Study it closely. There is much to discuss: the kiss, sure. But the cigarette being dropped and someone else picking it up? The various states of undress? The decision to smash a wine bottle on the floor before falling to the floor? The mention of Lucy, a feminine specter who haunts the scene? The bleak surrounds of the courtyard? The continual failure to hit the lad with the chair properly? The final blow, where the chair wielder accidentally uses the chair’s legs?
It’s perfection.
Lads hitting lads with chairs pic.twitter.com/l2cGMwXPwL
— blerg (@Rutho_) December 10, 2018
Video game designer Robert Yang was so intrigued that he’s now made a video game version, downloadable for Mac, Windows and Linux. In Hard Lads, you are both cameraman and director — as per the description, you can choose to be ” a proper hard lad or a surreal soft lad. The choice is yours!“
The game is free to download, though if you do decide to pay your own rate, 50 per cent of proceeds from June and July will go towards the Black Lives Matter UK fund.
Lament for Icarus x British lads hit each other with chair pic.twitter.com/U88jwnt7zW
— Minturn Alexander (@minturnalexandr) March 27, 2020
Yang has also written an artist’s statement detailing why they decided to make the video, going into the video’s homoeroticism and performance of masculinity. It’s a fun read.
“The video isn’t really about how he gets hurt, it’s about how this lad gets hurt in all the wrong ways like some sort of cartoon coyote endlessly thwarted by a roadrunner,” he writes. “He wants to project so much power, but he’s also just so powerless.”
Dive deep into the failure and download Hard Lads. You can watch some gameplay footage below. Yang has a habit of making video games about homoeroticism — check them out if you’re interested.