Vampire Weekend Enlist Their Celebrity Friends For “Giving Up The Gun” Video

Becky Bain | February 19, 2010 11:34 am

While Nick Jonas travels the road as a solo artist and Kevin Jonas enjoys purity ring-free married life, Joe Jonas is keeping busy—the middle JoBro is one of a handful of celebrity guest stars in the new Vampire Weekend video for their single “Giving Up The Gun,” which also features Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, Lil Jon, and (hey, why not!) Jake Gyllenhaal. Watch Joe, Jake and the gang make a racket in a dreamlike tennis match in the clip below.

In the ultra-modern, Malloy Brothers-directed vid, RZA plays a ref, Lil Jon plays a coach and Jake and Joe get rough on the courts. This is like our dream Fourth of July picnic in space.

Vampire Weekend – “Giving Up The Gun”

The girl in the video should look familiar—she previously appeared in Vampire Weekend’s similarly quirky “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” video. As for the male guest actors, the band sought some fresh, more famous blood. Says VW frontman Ezra Koenig to Spinner:

“We always thought RZA would be perfect. We’d been in touch with Lil Jon since the first album. He heard the reference on ‘Oxford Comma’ and sent us some cases of Crunk Juice. Joe Jonas and Jake Gyllenhaal were both excellent—lot of improvisation and some surprisingly powerful serves.”

This isn’t the first time Gyllenhaal made a cameo in a music video—he also appeared in Jamie Foxx and T-Pain’s “Blame It” clip. But we’re pretty sure this is the first time he’s worn short shorts, so this is indeed a day to remember.

As for Joe, just in case he and his siblings go their separate ways, we know Joe can always fall back on being a tennis pro.