“Ashes to Ashes” Clown Suit Story (Adam Buxton Bowie Parodies, Pt. 2)

The main thing that’s funny about this parody is its sheer absurdity, but as with the other Buxton parodies, it crams quite a bit of Bowie-lore into a very short cartoon.  It begins with a clip of Bowie being filmed for the “Miracle Goodnight” video, but the clip is so brief that you might not pick up on what you’re seeing, even if you know the video.  I don’t think the “Miracle Goodnight” video is regarded as particularly memorable (though I very much like the song), so there might be a subtle commentary about the arc of Bowie’s career from the “Ashes to Ashes” video, which is remembered as groundbreaking and one of the best of the 1980s, to where he had found himself in the early 1990s.

The joke about Bowie asking for a “ziggy,” is, I think, probably made with the knowledge that the chain-smoking Bowie was sometimes called, “Ciggy Stardust” (though the joke is fairly obvious, so maybe Buxton came up with it on his own).

Several of the references made about the “Ashes to Ashes” video are correct— David Mallet directed it.  Some of the cast were actually recruited from the Blitz Club in London (they were known as the “Blitz Kids.”  And Steve Strange was there.  He was a singer, nightclub host and promoter..  The club, Strange and the Blitz Kids were the vanguard of the “New Romantics” movement, which Bowie himself had inspired from his glam period.  Bowie never truly embraced the movement and, perhaps ironically, kind of took a shot at it with the line, “Same old thing, in brand new drag, comes sweeping into view,” on the song, “Teenage Wildlife,” which appeared right alongside, “Ashes to Ashes” on, “Scary Monsters.”