Lambchop Share Deadpan Short Film ‘Joke Country’ After New Album

Lambchop have shared a short film called Joke Country on the heels of their album Punching the Clown. The ten-minute piece is a fictional radio interview, directed by Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner. Steve Marsh plays the host, and Henry Phillips appears as Wagner.

The scene moves through dry riffs, meta gags, and sideways non-sequiturs. It works as deadpan comedy rather than a standard album visual. The humor lands through accumulation, not setup and punchline. The joke is in the format itself, an interview that keeps slipping away from useful promotion or a clear answer.

The casting connects to the album’s inspiration. Phillips led the 2009 film Punching the Clown, about a comedian-musician trying to make his way to Los Angeles. Lambchop have cited that film in relation to the album. As Pitchfork’s review points out, the title also carries a second meaning, one that gives the whole project a wry undertone.