Sunday afternoon, we noticed a lot of tweets and Facebook posts directing us to the new Mumford & Sons video for "Hopeless Wanderer". People were very careful not to reveal the concept of the video, but since it's been out for a while, I think we can spoil the fact that the video stars Jason Sudeikis, Ed Helms, Jason Bateman, and Will Forte as the four members of Mumford & Sons. It's hilarious, unexpected, and a pretty amazing music video.

Music video cameos are definitely nothing new, of course, but this one seemed different. I've never really seen a band use a music video to so effectively self-parody themselves before. Sudeikis, Helms, Bateman, and Forte (let's call them Bizarro World Mumford & Sons) do such a spot-on takedown of all the earnestness and hipster cliches that people love and hate Mumford & Sons for, that it's almost hard to beleive that this is a Mumford & Sons video and not a Funny or Die or SNL video mocking them. For all we know, all four members of Bizarro World Mumford & Sons could hate Mumford & Sons. There's nothing in here that really firmly establishes this as a friendly tribute rather than an ill-willed mocking.

It helps that this is also a really hilarious video. I'm not that big of an Ed Helms fan but I laugh every time I see him struggling to weild an accordian in the boat (note that there is no accordian in "Hopeless Wanderer"). None of them ever betray an intense focus on being earnest band members who completely believe in their song and see humping their upright bass as just a result of music overpowering them. Sam Jones captures all the little touches like Jason Bateman's lip quiver when he has a moment with Ed Helms early on in the video.

A quick glance over the YouTube comments and other blog posts shows that people are alternately very confused and very amused with this video. We've read a lot of articles that really hate this video and lament that it even exists. I think the added confusion comes from the fact that director Sam Jones brilliantly builds up to the fact that the four people in the video are not, in fact, the actual Mumford & Sons by obscuring their faces for the first 45 seconds or so. There's no indication anywhere in the video who these people are, either - you just have to know. However, I think the real confusion comes from people who just don't understand why Mumfords & Sons would do this.

And it's not as if Mumford & Sons hasn't had a lot of success building on the image that is under scrutiny in "Hopeless Wanderer". The video itself is mostly a parody of 2009's "Little Lion Man", which is the original source of things like the four members in a line, the strings of lights, and the overzealous instrument hip gyrations.

Bizarro World Mumford & Sons takes it a step further and really go after the entire "merry band of dudes" concept, adding in a scene where the fake band is so overcome with emotion for their own song that they literally have tears streaming down their faces. Then, of course, there is the moment where Forte and Sudeikis are so in the moment of the song that they decide to just make out right then and there.

One of the new roles of music videos is to act as sort of canonical releases for artists who want to change their image. Music videos have a way of being solidified in culture in a way that TV/award show appearances and similar outlets don't, so artists use videos as a way to push new boundaries in a way that will stick. Miley Cyrus is a pretty classic example of this - she's spent the better part of the last four years carefully honing her image through music videos, and her last collaboration with Diane Martel for "We Can't Stop" is one that really stuck and will probably act as a visual and thematic reference for this point in Miley Cyrus' career in the future.

The thing is, Mumford & Sons has already tried to push the boundaries of their image in music video format before but they still got pigeonholed as the rustic hipster band. They had a group of four men Indian men in military band uniforms perform as Mumford & Sons while they rode around on motorcycles in "The Cave" in 2010. They had a beautiful video made with Idris Elba for "Lover of the Light". However, their popular image sticks with them.

In that context, I think releasing a video like "Hopeless Wanderer" is a really bold, interesting move for a band clearly tired of their image. There was clearly also no punches pulled or boundaries for Bizarro World Mumford & Sons - from making out to humping their instruments, to mercilessly mocking an image that has made them gobs of money.

The real question is will the video fufill its intended purpose? In a way I think it already has - Mumford & Sons has sent a clear and strong signal to people who are skeptical about the image of Mumford & Sons that they are self-aware. It's a message that is clearly intended to communicate to a certain group of people that will get it without any sort of explanation. The message says "we're in on the joke too". Maybe a few people who were too cool for Mumford & Sons before will turn it on in their headphones when nobody is looking.

Adam Fairholm is the co-founder and lead developer of IMVDb. You can find him on twitter at @adamfairholm.