The Guitar - They Might Be Giants TMBG

What this video is

Released in 1992 as the third single from Apollo 18 — They Might Be Giants' fourth album and first on Elektra Records following the platinum success of Flood — 'The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)' arrived at a pivotal moment in TMBG's career. The band had just been named Musical Ambassadors for International Space Year by NASA, connecting the album's space theme to a global cultural initiative. The video marks a…

Why it matters

Represents the collegiate alternative rock video aesthetic of the early MTV era — low-budget, concept-driven, performance-anchored, and rooted in graphic/visual art sensibility rather than narrative spectacle. TMBG's videos, including this one, were instrumental in demonstrating that…

The director

John Conant Flansburgh (born May 6, 1960) is co-founder, vocalist, guitarist, and visual artist of They Might Be Giants. He earned a BFA in printmaking from Pratt Institute in 1984 and worked in graphic design at Condé Nast before TMBG's commercial…