HOW IS THIS APPROPRIATE? Frank Zappa: You are what you is (video)


Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention tested the limits of free expression and racial taboos in this 1984 music video for You Are What You Is. The hippie-light-show-solarized extravaganza features a harmonica-playing Ronald Reagan, dancing African “natives,” scantily-clad ladies (sexy nurse? sexy stewardess?) and the N-word. It’s all inappropriate and it’s offensive and rude. It’s nothing but things nice people don’t say. And it’s all true. We’ve got lyrics:

Do you know what you are?
You are what you is
You is what you am
(A cow don’t make ham…)
You ain’t what you’re not
So see what you got
You are what you is
An’ that’s all it ’tis

Mas…HOW IS THIS APPROPRIATE? Frank Zappa: You are what you is (video)