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Posted on Feb 11, 2016

Top 10 Funniest Bob Dylan Moments

Bob Dylan is a genius, but he's also frequently weird when the TV cameras are in front of him. Here are some of the best and funniest moments.

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Kanye has a lot to learn from the master pot-stirrer here.
Dylan was never really comfortable with the MTV age, nor has he ever enjoyed answered a question straight.
Yeah, he delivered an MTV Unplugged and a couple of awkward music videos in the 80s which are a far cry from the the genius work he's done more recently with Nash Edgerton, but here it's as if he sensed the absurdity of an MTV reporter asking him serious social and political questions, and perhaps knowing the reporter could not possibly be prepared for the true gravitas of a genuine answer, decides he knew better than to give the passionate answer and twists the situation into a awkward contortion that sounds oddly Libertarian.
The facial expressions are priceless. Comedically it's a brilliant set up or trap for the ever earnest Santana to plunge right into. — youtube.com

Kanye has a lot to learn from the master pot-stirrer here.
Dylan was never really comfortable with the MTV age, nor has he ever enjoyed answered a question straight.
Yeah, he delivered an MTV Unplugged and a couple of awkward music videos in the 80s which are a far cry from the the genius work he's done more recently with Nash Edgerton, but here it's as if he sensed the absurdity of an MTV reporter asking him serious social and political questions, and perhaps knowing the reporter could not possibly be prepared for the true gravitas of a genuine answer, decides he knew better than to give the passionate answer and twists the situation into a awkward contortion that sounds oddly Libertarian.
The facial expressions are priceless. Comedically it's a brilliant set up or trap for the ever earnest Santana to plunge right into.

youtube.com

Kanye has a lot to learn from the master pot-stirrer here.
Dylan was never really comfortable with the MTV age, nor has he ever enjoyed answered a question straight.
Yeah, he delivered an MTV Unplugged and a couple of awkward music videos in the 80s which are a far cry from the the genius work he's done more recently with Nash Edgerton, but here it's as if he sensed the absurdity of an MTV reporter asking him serious social and political questions, and perhaps knowing the reporter could not possibly be prepared for the true gravitas of a genuine answer, decides he knew better than to give the passionate answer and twists the situation into a awkward contortion that sounds oddly Libertarian.
The facial expressions are priceless. Comedically it's a brilliant set up or trap for the ever earnest Santana to plunge right into.

It doesn't get funnier and/or cooler than this. Dylan is at a cultural remove from everything that happens today, you don't catch him on Twitter talking about his breakfast, you won't find him wedged between Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar on The View, no, he manages to slip through this hyperreal globalised super-structure we call the modern world by playing town to town with his cowboy band on low lit stages night after night, not talking to the audience, escaping the TMZs and the Entertainment Tonights, even the local news. But here he is, in Vegas, the definition of the hyperreal and looking rather cool.
AND he fist-bumps.
The most surreal part of this is Chum Lee having Self Portrait, SELF PORTRAIT! for Bob Dylan to sign. With that back catalogue all they have is SELF PORTRAIT!!
I think Bob saw the funny side. — youtube.com

It doesn't get funnier and/or cooler than this. Dylan is at a cultural remove from everything that happens today, you don't catch him on Twitter talking about his breakfast, you won't find him wedged between Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar on The View, no, he manages to slip through this hyperreal globalised super-structure we call the modern world by playing town to town with his cowboy band on low lit stages night after night, not talking to the audience, escaping the TMZs and the Entertainment Tonights, even the local news. But here he is, in Vegas, the definition of the hyperreal and looking rather cool.
AND he fist-bumps.
The most surreal part of this is Chum Lee having Self Portrait, SELF PORTRAIT! for Bob Dylan to sign. With that back catalogue all they have is SELF PORTRAIT!!
I think Bob saw the funny side.

youtube.com

It doesn't get funnier and/or cooler than this. Dylan is at a cultural remove from everything that happens today, you don't catch him on Twitter talking about his breakfast, you won't find him wedged between Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar on The View, no, he manages to slip through this hyperreal globalised super-structure we call the modern world by playing town to town with his cowboy band on low lit stages night after night, not talking to the audience, escaping the TMZs and the Entertainment Tonights, even the local news. But here he is, in Vegas, the definition of the hyperreal and looking rather cool.
AND he fist-bumps.
The most surreal part of this is Chum Lee having Self Portrait, SELF PORTRAIT! for Bob Dylan to sign. With that back catalogue all they have is SELF PORTRAIT!!
I think Bob saw the funny side.

OK so Bob Dylan was running a temperature that night, he had the flu, it was the height of the Gulf War and many of the acts who were going to come pay tribute to him decided not to fly out to LA and he brought his mother for moral support. As Dylan later remarked, Jack Nicholson was one of the people who showed up.
So aside from the fact he might have been feeling a little less than sprightly, he delivered one of the strangest most Chaplinesque performances of his career, reminiscent of the scruffy awkward kid fresh as the cold winter snow of New York in 1961, and that was just his acceptance speech.
"It's possible to become so defiled in this world that your own mother and father will abandon you" — youtube.com

OK so Bob Dylan was running a temperature that night, he had the flu, it was the height of the Gulf War and many of the acts who were going to come pay tribute to him decided not to fly out to LA and he brought his mother for moral support. As Dylan later remarked, Jack Nicholson was one of the people who showed up.
So aside from the fact he might have been feeling a little less than sprightly, he delivered one of the strangest most Chaplinesque performances of his career, reminiscent of the scruffy awkward kid fresh as the cold winter snow of New York in 1961, and that was just his acceptance speech.
"It's possible to become so defiled in this world that your own mother and father will abandon you"

youtube.com

OK so Bob Dylan was running a temperature that night, he had the flu, it was the height of the Gulf War and many of the acts who were going to come pay tribute to him decided not to fly out to LA and he brought his mother for moral support. As Dylan later remarked, Jack Nicholson was one of the people who showed up.
So aside from the fact he might have been feeling a little less than sprightly, he delivered one of the strangest most Chaplinesque performances of his career, reminiscent of the scruffy awkward kid fresh as the cold winter snow of New York in 1961, and that was just his acceptance speech.
"It's possible to become so defiled in this world that your own mother and father will abandon you"

This is a strange one. It's 1984. Two legends present best song category at The Grammies. Stevie doesnt appear to be reading the braille on his card but he's more coherent than Bob who doesn't seem to know where the telepromter is during the Lionel Ritchie song and spends most of the time looking around at the floor for something thats obviously crawled under the lectern.
Then Stevie has the wonderful idea to do something "unique" and "wonderful" because it's the 80s, right? He tears up his cards and asks the audience to guess.
The rest is just a brilliant 80s cringefest with Bob wanting to crawl under the nearest rock and never come out. — youtube.com

This is a strange one. It's 1984. Two legends present best song category at The Grammies. Stevie doesnt appear to be reading the braille on his card but he's more coherent than Bob who doesn't seem to know where the telepromter is during the Lionel Ritchie song and spends most of the time looking around at the floor for something thats obviously crawled under the lectern.
Then Stevie has the wonderful idea to do something "unique" and "wonderful" because it's the 80s, right? He tears up his cards and asks the audience to guess.
The rest is just a brilliant 80s cringefest with Bob wanting to crawl under the nearest rock and never come out.

youtube.com

This is a strange one. It's 1984. Two legends present best song category at The Grammies. Stevie doesnt appear to be reading the braille on his card but he's more coherent than Bob who doesn't seem to know where the telepromter is during the Lionel Ritchie song and spends most of the time looking around at the floor for something thats obviously crawled under the lectern.
Then Stevie has the wonderful idea to do something "unique" and "wonderful" because it's the 80s, right? He tears up his cards and asks the audience to guess.
The rest is just a brilliant 80s cringefest with Bob wanting to crawl under the nearest rock and never come out.

This list just wouldn't be right without a nod to the conspiracy lunatics.
To the terrifying drones of Ligeti, a wink to the conspiracy-buff favourite Stanley Kubrick, apparently Bob made a pact with the devil, I don't just mean going down to the crossroads Robert Johnson style either. I'm surprised there aren't clips of Alex Jones claiming that Bob Dylan was in Skull & Bones.
Bob does say with a grin that he made a deal with 'the chief commander' not the one you're thinking of though, you know, the one in 'the world you can't see'. — youtube.com

This list just wouldn't be right without a nod to the conspiracy lunatics.
To the terrifying drones of Ligeti, a wink to the conspiracy-buff favourite Stanley Kubrick, apparently Bob made a pact with the devil, I don't just mean going down to the crossroads Robert Johnson style either. I'm surprised there aren't clips of Alex Jones claiming that Bob Dylan was in Skull & Bones.
Bob does say with a grin that he made a deal with 'the chief commander' not the one you're thinking of though, you know, the one in 'the world you can't see'.

youtube.com

This list just wouldn't be right without a nod to the conspiracy lunatics.
To the terrifying drones of Ligeti, a wink to the conspiracy-buff favourite Stanley Kubrick, apparently Bob made a pact with the devil, I don't just mean going down to the crossroads Robert Johnson style either. I'm surprised there aren't clips of Alex Jones claiming that Bob Dylan was in Skull & Bones.
Bob does say with a grin that he made a deal with 'the chief commander' not the one you're thinking of though, you know, the one in 'the world you can't see'.

This is probably my favourite Bob Dylan moment. He's composed, cool, dry and his guitar playing here is pretty fantastic.
This appearance is also crucial for another reason, it sparked his interest in developing a TV project which eventually grew into the film Masked & Anonymous.
To be honest with hindsight I'd have much preferred a TV series, especially if it had been in this vein. If there's one thing lacking in Dylan-land its his involvement in a sitcom something that doesn't directly revolve around him trying to act properly - he can't - interspersed with his music. — youtube.com

This is probably my favourite Bob Dylan moment. He's composed, cool, dry and his guitar playing here is pretty fantastic.
This appearance is also crucial for another reason, it sparked his interest in developing a TV project which eventually grew into the film Masked & Anonymous.
To be honest with hindsight I'd have much preferred a TV series, especially if it had been in this vein. If there's one thing lacking in Dylan-land its his involvement in a sitcom something that doesn't directly revolve around him trying to act properly - he can't - interspersed with his music.

youtube.com

This is probably my favourite Bob Dylan moment. He's composed, cool, dry and his guitar playing here is pretty fantastic.
This appearance is also crucial for another reason, it sparked his interest in developing a TV project which eventually grew into the film Masked & Anonymous.
To be honest with hindsight I'd have much preferred a TV series, especially if it had been in this vein. If there's one thing lacking in Dylan-land its his involvement in a sitcom something that doesn't directly revolve around him trying to act properly - he can't - interspersed with his music.

It would be remiss to avoid using any of Bob's commercials. Yes, the prince of the counter culture sups at the milk tray of corporatism.
The best one will always be the Victoria's Secret commercial. Why? Because of Bob's goatee which inevitably gives him a high-class pimp look and because he's sick of love in scenic mysterious Venice seeing silhouettes in the window. And when he sings silhouettes they cut to a revealing shot of Adriana Lima complete with angel wings.
This advert was a touch of genius and the brouhaha among his fanbase must have delighted Bob Dylan. — youtube.com

It would be remiss to avoid using any of Bob's commercials. Yes, the prince of the counter culture sups at the milk tray of corporatism.
The best one will always be the Victoria's Secret commercial. Why? Because of Bob's goatee which inevitably gives him a high-class pimp look and because he's sick of love in scenic mysterious Venice seeing silhouettes in the window. And when he sings silhouettes they cut to a revealing shot of Adriana Lima complete with angel wings.
This advert was a touch of genius and the brouhaha among his fanbase must have delighted Bob Dylan.

youtube.com

It would be remiss to avoid using any of Bob's commercials. Yes, the prince of the counter culture sups at the milk tray of corporatism.
The best one will always be the Victoria's Secret commercial. Why? Because of Bob's goatee which inevitably gives him a high-class pimp look and because he's sick of love in scenic mysterious Venice seeing silhouettes in the window. And when he sings silhouettes they cut to a revealing shot of Adriana Lima complete with angel wings.
This advert was a touch of genius and the brouhaha among his fanbase must have delighted Bob Dylan.

OK one more commercial. But there is a legitimate reason.
Who applied all of that makeup and dyed his hair?
Bob Dylan is authentic, yet here they turned him into a cartoon character. And just in case the viewers are like the woman police officer who arrested him in 2009 for looking like a suspicious vagrant or the security guard who wouldn't let him into his own concert, there are smatterings of 60s era Dylan here and there just to make sure.
Weird. — youtube.com

OK one more commercial. But there is a legitimate reason.
Who applied all of that makeup and dyed his hair?
Bob Dylan is authentic, yet here they turned him into a cartoon character. And just in case the viewers are like the woman police officer who arrested him in 2009 for looking like a suspicious vagrant or the security guard who wouldn't let him into his own concert, there are smatterings of 60s era Dylan here and there just to make sure.
Weird.

youtube.com

OK one more commercial. But there is a legitimate reason.
Who applied all of that makeup and dyed his hair?
Bob Dylan is authentic, yet here they turned him into a cartoon character. And just in case the viewers are like the woman police officer who arrested him in 2009 for looking like a suspicious vagrant or the security guard who wouldn't let him into his own concert, there are smatterings of 60s era Dylan here and there just to make sure.
Weird.

Bob Dylan, in the presence of the President of the United States and wearing shades indoors forgets to get up when Obama calls for him and then shuffles uneasily while receiving the nations highest honour.
Vintage Bob Dylan, a quick handshake, a pat on the back and he's away. — youtube.com

Bob Dylan, in the presence of the President of the United States and wearing shades indoors forgets to get up when Obama calls for him and then shuffles uneasily while receiving the nations highest honour.
Vintage Bob Dylan, a quick handshake, a pat on the back and he's away.

youtube.com

Bob Dylan, in the presence of the President of the United States and wearing shades indoors forgets to get up when Obama calls for him and then shuffles uneasily while receiving the nations highest honour.
Vintage Bob Dylan, a quick handshake, a pat on the back and he's away.

And perhaps my favourite. Bob Dylan at his culturally most remembered on the corner of Queen's Gate Mews and Gloucester Road, Knightsbridge, West London, 1966.
Thin, pale, androgynous, shades, cool, mercury-like, pristine-prose and poetry seeping out of him at the speed of light, and then this strange word play. — youtube.com

And perhaps my favourite. Bob Dylan at his culturally most remembered on the corner of Queen's Gate Mews and Gloucester Road, Knightsbridge, West London, 1966.
Thin, pale, androgynous, shades, cool, mercury-like, pristine-prose and poetry seeping out of him at the speed of light, and then this strange word play.

youtube.com

And perhaps my favourite. Bob Dylan at his culturally most remembered on the corner of Queen's Gate Mews and Gloucester Road, Knightsbridge, West London, 1966.
Thin, pale, androgynous, shades, cool, mercury-like, pristine-prose and poetry seeping out of him at the speed of light, and then this strange word play.

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