For years I’ve been haunted by the image of Philip Seymour Hoffman clad in a black leather jacket, strumming a guitar while walking on top of a semi-truck from the dvd extras on “Punch-Drunk Love.” This banal tableau then takes an oddly perilous turn when PSH jumps back first on to a pile of mattresses atop a car, and then falls about seven feet straight to the ground, destroying his guitar in the process.

My initial reaction was, “What the hell did I just see?” I still can’t figure out how it was done, as everything appears to be in one shot. If it really was Philip Seymour Hoffman taking the fall then my hat is off to him. But what purpose did it serve? For the life of me I couldn’t figure it out. Until now.

It turns out that the video is a note for note remake of a very real commercial where a mattress salesman strides atop a semi while strumming a guitar, jumps on to a pile of mattresses and falls to the ground, destroying his guitar in the process. Aside from the names, the dialogue is exactly the same.

Keep in mind that “Punch-Drunk Love” was filmed back in ‘02, long before the internet video revolution of youtube and the like. Paul Thomas Anderson, will you never cease to amaze?