The music video (directed by
Pete Angelus and
David Lee Roth, and produced by Jerry Kramer and Glenn Goodwin, choreographed by
Vincent Paterson with concept/treatment by Anthony Nasch) was filmed at
John Marshall High School, with
Phil Hartman performing the voice of Waldo, the video's protagonist. Waldo, an awkward boy with large glasses and a bow tie, is put on the school bus by his over-protective mother. He is terrified by the unruly kids on the bus; the driver played by Roth, tells him "si'down, Waldo!" as the opening drums begin. Along with Waldo, the "kid versions" of Van Halen face the trials and tribulations of grade school. Two models appear as teachers in the video, Donna Rupert (1981
Miss Canada pageant runner up), who plays the chemistry teacher, and Norwegian actress
Lillian Müller, who plays the Phys Ed teacher. The Phys teacher tears off her dress to reveal a bikini while the chemistry teacher walks in the classroom wearing a bikini, to the cheers of the students. As the kids leave at the end of the school day, the bus driver (again played by Roth) picks them up in a yellow 1932 Ford
Phaeton hot rod "school bus," the back of which is emblazoned with "Hot For Teacher." At the end of the video, the kids are shown to have grown up to become a
gynecologist (
Alex Van Halen), a
sumo wrestler (
Michael Anthony), a
psychiatric hospital patient (
Eddie Van Halen), and a game show host (Roth). Waldo's whereabouts and career are unknown but the video hints at him becoming a
pimp, the total opposite of his child self. The entire video is intercut with scenes with the band members dressed in orange suits and dancing to the song under a disco ball. An initial controversy arose when the video showed all the band members performing a quick crotch-grab during the "...
so bad..." part of the chorus; at first, the 1980s
NBC late-night show
Friday Night Videos added
black-box censor bars to the crotch-grabs but eventually relented and removed the black-box from their video. One potentially controversial scene managed to go unnoticed for many years, until Angelus unveiled it in the 2011 book
MTV Ruled the World: The Early Years of Music Video by Greg Prato: "One thing I remember about that video that a lot people don’t know or maybe didn’t see. When Dave turns into the television show host, we had an idea. I thought, 'You know ... there hasn’t been a really substantial
urine stain on MTV. Ever, when you really think about it. So let’s pour a lot of water on David’s crotch. Let’s make it look like he really just pissed himself. And then let’s see if anyone sees it when we hand the video into the record company and MTV.' And nobody did! I know this sounds absolutely pathetic to say, but we probably pulled off the first and most substantial urine stain in the history of television. So we’ve got that going for us." ==Reception==