PEOPLE OF IRELAND — today is a momentous day for it is the tenth anniversary of one of the original viral Irish comedy videos.
Accessorise, Accessorise, Accessorise starring Hugh Cooney was uploaded to YouTube ten years ago today. How time flies, eh?
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(If you can’t see the video, please click here.)
Cooney is a performer, artist and filmmaker, who now lives and work in London. The Irishman made the video while he was still a student and could never have foreseen what a cult classic it would become.
I was studying art in NCAD and got into making videos. I got a camera for Christmas and started messing around — just having fun with it, you know — and I started this two character conversation buzz where I’d pause the camera and be someone else. Just throw a wig on or something. I used to do it at home when everyone had gone to bed. I was aware it was a bit odd but a lot of craic.
Accessorise, Accessorise, Accessorise was a push on that to and fro style with some jewellery and make-up stolen from my mother. I made it in a shed alone at 2am.
The weird and wonderful video has been viewed over 189,000 times since it was uploaded ten years ago. (Cooney uploaded it to Facebook this morning where it has been viewed an additional 39,000 times and counting.)
If you haven’t seen it before, please take a few minutes out of your day to look at it.
“Andrea, your jewellery is absolutely gorgeous.” Iconic.
Cooney told DailyEdge.ie that he made the video in a shed alone at 2am one morning with the aid of some jewellery and make-up he had stolen from his mother.
A low-budget affair, so.
As for how he got the idea for Andrea to splutter water and beans from her mouth?
I originally thought it would be funny to have water hosing from Andrea’s mouth. The beans were a last minute addition. I forgot to clean up the shed after and came back a month later to find mouldy furry beans all over the place.
Cooney says he had no concept of how far the video had spread until he was asked to enter Miss Alternative Ireland. (“Which I didn’t sadly.”)
A decade on, Accessorise still has legs, as demonstrated by the warm reaction today.
(To say nothing of the hundreds of nostalgic comments on Facebook.)
Cooney reckons that the video will haunt him to his grave, but he’s okay with that.
I often have “Accessorise!” shouted at me on the street. I think it’ll be on my headstone whether I like it or not. You make your bed.
All together now: accessorise, accessorise, accessorise…
