Mr Oizo — Music Videos
Original title: Mr Oizo
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Synopsis
A yellow puppet with a fixed, unreadable expression nods along to a distorted bassline, answers phones in a surrealist office, and devours hot dogs while communicating solely through electronic squawks. Other characters exist only as hints at the edge of the frame — the camera has no reason to look anywhere else. Quentin Dupieux places the entire narrative weight on that flat, impassive face, and the internal logic never wavers.
Context & Trivia
Flat Eric was created by Quentin Dupieux and designed by Janet Knechtel for Jim Henson's Creature Shop in the United Kingdom, making this music video one of the character's earliest appearances and a singular document in the history of commercial puppetry. The puppet descends from an earlier prototype called Stéphane — similar in shape but with fixed ears and hands — and the evolution toward that flattened head and neutral expression is itself a design decision with considerable cultural consequences. The name came from a discarded Levi's concept in which a car ran over the puppet's head, while «Eric» was chosen as a nod to Eric Morand, co-founder of the F Communications label.
The manipulation technique relies on an internal performer whose entire expressive vocabulary is built around head movement and rhythmic cadence — no facial articulation whatsoever — making Flat Eric a compelling case study in how blankness can generate empathy. That same puppet would go on to front the iconic Levi's Sta-Prest campaign, operated by Drew Massey, and its popularity translated into more than 100,000 plush toys sold within months. In 2019, to mark the twentieth anniversary of «Flat Beat», Dupieux released a limited-edition set featuring Flat Eric alongside Flat Eric Junior, confirming the puppet's enduring place in contemporary puppetry culture.
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M Seq (1998)
Flat Beat (1999)
Where's the Money George? + Positif (2010)
Stade 3 EP Announcement (2012)
All Wet (2016)
Hand In The Fire feat. Charli XCX (2016)
Puppeteers
Quentin Dupieux
Puppet design
Janet Knechtel
Puppet building
Jim Henson's Creature Shop · Janet Knechtel
Direction
Quentin Dupieux
Cast
Flat Eric, Angel (Philippe Petit)
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