Aphex Twin - Windowlicker Directors Cut

"Windowlicker" is a 1999 single by electronic music artist Richard D. James, released under the Aphex Twin name on Warp Records. The picture on the single’s cover was taken is by The Designers Republic. The single reached #16 in the UK Singles Chart.

The name of the single comes from the derogatory British term “windowlicker,” meaning a mentally handicapped person. The term is also a direct English translation of the French term faire du lèche-vitrine, meaning “window shopper,” a second meaning played up in the song’s video.

The music video for “Windowlicker” is a ten-minute long parody of contemporary American gangsta hip-hop music videos. In the video, two foul-mouthed young men (a Latino and an African American) in Los Angeles are window shopping for prostitutes (referred to in the end credits as hoochies); the French term for window shopping is faire du lèche-vitrine, which literally translates to licking the windows. Suddenly, a ridiculously long white limousine (38 windows in length, including driver’s window) crashes into the two men’s black Mazda Miata (MX5) convertible, and a “pimped-out” Richard D. James, displaying a surreal amount of wealth and power, emerges with his signature fixed grin. The two women, among others, accompany James in his limousine while their faces morph into James’ own likeness. The video was directed by Chris Cunningham, who also directed the infamous music video of Aphex Twin’s “Come to Daddy” in 1997.

There are 127 uses of profanity in the dialog segment of the video (which is under 4 minutes), including 44 uses of the word “fuck.” This averages to more than one use of profanity every two seconds.