It takes a lot of work to reach a point where you can comfortably perform music in front of an audience or a camera. Adding to that, managing your image as an artist is hard. Not to mention those who prefer to also take the reigns of their own online presence (which is most of us), build their own tools (not most of us) or mix other types of media into their work, like visuals. Needless to say, juggling all of these things is beyond difficult.

That being said, there’s a pretty significant number of absolutely mind-blowing controllerism performance videos out there, from the Godfather’s original “Moldover’s approach to controllerism” video to the flying Adonis phenomenon that is M4SONIC and his amazing finger drumming.

But for every performer that can absolutely kill it there are a thousand others still figuring out how to juggle all those elements . And some of them are… well… eccentric, to say the least.  Sometimes what they present is not so bad, but the way they present it is just off. Other times the whole thing’s a journey into the surreal and unintentionally hilarious, from the artist’s image and looks to his attempts at music.

We all know that “special” kid in the schoolyard trying so hard to be just like his idols, dyeing his hair blond and rapping or singing “Baby, Baby, Baby, ooh” on YouTube. So, just like the success of pop idols gives rise to confused pre-teens, the success of people like Madeon, M4SONIC and AarabMuzik has led to the appearance of… well… just take a look:

4. 88-Keys makes out of tune hip-hop on the MPC Fly

Now, I might have a warped idea of what Hip-Hop is supposed to sound like, but the out of tune synth lines combined with the cartoonish looks the guy pulls behind his iPad make for a pretty unintentionally funny promo. To be fair, I heard 88-Keys is actually a pretty successful producer, so maybe the beat he made for this promo was just not something he cared that much about.

Or I’m just a square. Might be that.

3. The Sonic Manipulator was one weird dude before anyone had even heard of “controllerism”

Probably the only entry on this list that’s genuinely endearing. We’ve covered stuff made by the amazing Claude Woodward before, but last time we wrote about him , we kind of just touched on why he’s awesome.  This video shows him using a spaceman suit and self-built electronic instruments to perform on the street one year before the term “controllerism” was even first mentioned.

However, he’s doing that by rap-chanting “The Martians are coming/ The Martians are here/ The Martians are coming / They’ve come to take your beer”, which is incredibly hilarious. Maybe it’s not funny in the sense that he envisions it – wade through his songs and you’ll notice some surprising social commentary (OHMYGOD he predicted the NSA-Snowden scandal thing!) - but it’s easy to assume that the guy doesn’t take himself seriously enough to care that much. Entertainment is entertainment.

2. VJ Franz K invents the “world’s first iPad guitar DJ frame” for Korg Kaossilators

Damn, did I mention that managing your image as an artist is hard? Not only is it hard, but it’s not for everyone.  I mean, presenting an iTar/Mantaray that’s basically a glorified iPad and mini-Kaoss pad stand as the “world’s first serious guitar-style synthesizer frame” is  actually a viable business idea. Apple have gotten away with much worse than that.

But glue a strip of hair to your forehead, stare into the camera with a half-smile and talk very slowly and deeply into a mic about “units waiting for you to buy them”, and you’ve got yourself this list’s no. 2 entry.

1. Dj Buddy Holly raps about controllers

DJ Buddy Holly is the absolute king of this list, if for no other reason than the fact that it was incredibly difficult to choose one single video to show on here out of the plethora of absolutely surreal work he’s been publishing on his YouTube channel. I honestly have no jokes about this. It’s kind of beyond human comprehension, and as a result, I urge you to share it on all social networks that you can think of.

Vladimir likes making campy or interesting videos himself, and will talk to you on Facebook if you contact him. His upcoming album comes out at the end of  October.