The Fine Art of Goofing Off

In 1972, San Francisco's KQED public aired the first of these three half-hour programmes devoted to celebrating pointless activity. Goofing Off dances between the silly and the philosophical with free-associative abandon. The films combine stop-action photography, claymation, collage, cut-outs, and continuous drawing, with few if any creative limits set by the station. Goofing Off revealed a fresh, imaginative collaboration between animator Bob McClay and composer Henry Jacobs's droll tape explorations, including contributions from philosopher Alan Watts, author George Leonard, psychedelic poster artist Victor Moscoso and filmmaker Jordan Belson. 'The pursuit of happiness can be extremely tiring - sit still and let happiness pursue you for a while.'