Earworm
2026 · 12m
Directed by Patrrik Eklund
Genres: comedy, dark comedy
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic
A man tormented by a catchy tune becomes the subject of an amusing short that treats the banal horror of an earworm with unusual seriousness and profundity.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Everyone wants to make fun of earworms—it's low-hanging fruit—but Eklund actually *commits* to the bit with deadpan solemnity, treating a song stuck in your head like it's a genuine existential crisis; the fact that it's absurd AND weirdly moving is exactly the kind of premise that makes people uncomfortable before they admit it's brilliant.
Eklund's restraint in formal execution—the measured pacing, the refusal to over-explain the comedy—positions this within a lineage of Buñuel-adjacent absurdism where banal suffering becomes legitimate dramatic material; the craft lies in *not* winking at the audience.
The specific choice to keep the earworm itself almost inaudible, letting us experience the man's torment through his physical and emotional response rather than the song's repetition, is what transforms a one-joke premise into something genuinely haunting and singular.
Reviews
"Earworm" von Patrrik Eklund ist einer dieser Kurzfilme, der es schafft, amüsant zu sein, indem er ein eigentlich banales Thema ungewohnt ernst und profund aufzieht.