Paul Mescal’s nightmarish Samsung ad is giving people a serious case of the ick

I’m just going to come out and say it – you won’t see anything more cursed for the rest of the month than Paul Mescal’s Samsung ad. For those who aren’t aware, Paul Mescal appeared in a Samsung advert in December 2020 endorsing the concept of “finding your stage and sharing your performance,” but the whole thing is just… terrifying from start to finish.

Obviously, people on TikTok have found the ad, where they’ve been gleefully tearing it apart in the comments section. I mean, for starters the whole performance is so seemingly unrelated to any of Samsung’s products, but it’s in fact a rather hefty task trying to work out which part of this dance routine is the most visually displeasing – but that’s what we’re here to do today. I’m sorry, but not even Paul Mescal’s little rugby shorts or chain can save him from this one.

So let’s get the premise of Paul Mescal’s Samsung ad down so that we’re all on the same page. Paul Mescal is alone in an empty industrial-looking building. He dips, swinging around a metal beam before running down the stairs into an ominous room full of creepy mannequins.

Excuse me sir you’re scaring the other customers in the store sir SIR I’M GOING TO HAVE TO ASK YOU TO VACATE THE STORE SIR

He spins, throwing up a load of peculiar hand movements with a vacant gaze painted onto his face. More really really weird dancing follows (including a rather spectacular jump in the air) before he stops and glares into the camera: His performance is over. Paul is finished.

I just… don’t get it

If you managed to watch the above advert through from start to finish then there are probably a few questions on your mind, the first of which being: “What, and I cannot stress this enough, the fuck did I just witness?!” And that’s completely fair enough because none of this makes anyone feel remotely compelled to buy any Samsung technology.

Does this mean something?

Although the (probably heavily moderated) YouTube comments seem to be solely concerned with finding out the name of the song that accompanies this mastery of the dance, I think it’s fair to say that the TikTok community took a lot less kindly to this choreographed nightmare, where people have likened his dancing to year seven dance class.

Commenters are likening Paul’s dance to Matthew Morrison’s moves and I totally get it

Paul, you seem like a sound bloke, but this whole dancing thing just isn’t it. “Find your stage and share your performance” – I can imagine it was probably for the best that this stage was a dilapidated warehouse in the middle of nowhere.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Meet Paul Mescal, the 24-year-old Trinity College grad starring in BBC’s Normal People

• Paul Mescal is auctioning off his Normal People shorts and I’m ready to be bankrupt

• Help, I’m still not over Paul Mescal