How Radiohead uses an intertextual approach in the Burn the Witch video

In the video for Burn the Witch, Radiohead uses intertextuality to create a more hard-hitting message.  A Radiohead collaborator explains that the band wanted to "raise awareness about Europe's refugee crisis and the blaming of different people". The video is a parody of the 1960's children's TV show Trumpton, which tells the story of a small English village, with villagers made out of modelling clay. The mayor is almost identical, and the layout of the primary-coloured town is practically the same. An older audience would recognise the town immediately, bringing back fond memories of their childhood. Radiohead have done this in order to attract the audience that needs to hear the message the most. The older generation are most likely to have more traditional values and beliefs, especially concerning race and war. Using the children's show also highlights the idea that everything in the past was pastoral and good, even though racism was rife and inequality was a major issue. The contrast between the "perfect English village" and the violent imagery shown by the characters suggests that memories of the past may be filtered, and bad issues forgotten.

Another intertextual reference is shown in the use of the giant wicker man at the end of the video. This references the 1973 film The Wicker Man, in which an inspector visits the town of a cult, and ends up becoming a human sacrifice-being burned to death in a giant wooden statue. The mob mentality is shown in both the film and the music video, since the villagers of both are synchronized and seem to be almost brainwashed to follow the lead of the mayor. Creating the link between the 1973 cult film and the song highlights the mob mentality shown in western culture, whereby certain populations are persecuted, such as people of the Muslim faith and refugees. It could also be argued to be a critique of the increasingly tribal nature of western politics, since we seem to be going backwards by punishing people for being different. Radiohead shows here that they believe that we should be accepting of refugees and helping them instead of persecuting them for not fitting in to our very rule-based society.