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Watch Chris Hemsworth's Fat Thor Sing The Saddest Johnny Cash Song

Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Avengers: Endgame
By Mike Floorwalker

Who knew that the God of Thunder had musical leanings?

In a recent Twitter post, Avengers: Endgame star Chris Hemsworth posted a video clip featuring an edited montage of himself, in character as the chunky version of Thor, performing Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' classic song "Hurt" while accompanying himself on guitar.

Here it is in all its glory, and please note that the caption here is a work of sublime genius.

We must note that Odinson starts off more than a little bit off-key, but seems to settle nicely into the melody as the song goes on. Also, it's pretty freakin' impressive that Hemsworth never breaks character or cracks so much as the faintest of smiles for his entire performance (unless, of course, there were a few guffaws in the segments he edited out). Breaking down into bitter tears at the clip's ending is a nice touch, too.

It seems like the internet's fascination with "Fat Thor" will never die, especially with Hemsworth himself feeding the flames. As we've previously reported — and in case you're one of the two or three people who haven't seen Avengers: Endgame, um, spoilers — a certain segment of the online world wasn't terribly happy about Thor's portly new physique in the film, the result of a five-year descent into a profound depression following his failure to "go for the head" at Avengers: Infinity War's conclusion. (His uncharacteristically dishonorable murder of Thanos in the opening moments of Endgame likely played a role, as well.) 

Having spent those years sitting on his duff playing Fortnite with Korg and swilling enough beer to kill a herd of elephants, Thor developed just a bit of a gut, which of course earned him plenty of snide insults from Tony Stark. Some audience members were displeased, with their perception being that Odinson's depression and weight gain were being played for laughs (although we're not sure exactly what they expected out of Stark). Others, however, felt that Thor's fragile mental state (and not-so-fragile physical state) was handled with compassion and dignity, which screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have said was their intent.

As for Hemsworth, while he found his character's new bulk to be quite a challenge physically (especially the shirtless scene, for which he had to haul around a 90-pound prosthesis), he successfully lobbied against a third-act switch which would have seen the Thunder God somehow revert to his previous, ultra-jacked self. "I enjoyed that version of Thor," the actor said. "It was so different than any other way I played the character. And then it took on a life of its own."

Hemsworth obviously feels a great deal of love and ownership toward the character that made him a superstar, and his slyly self-deprecating appearance in this clip only has us hoping that he'll continue filling Thor's shoes for years to come (and there's a pretty good chance that he will). The reaction of fans on Twitter to the clip was quite interesting: while there was certainly a strong contingent of jokesters ("omg when's the tour," wrote user bucky barnes bomber jacket), there was also an amazing outpouring from users who were genuinely appreciative of Hemsworth's Endgame performance, and felt that he did an excellent job of making Thor's depressed state realistic and relatable.

Count us as being among those who feel like the Outrage Camp jumped the gun on this one. The only gags made about Thor's state in Endgame came from a character who would absolutely be expected to make those kinds of remarks, and in our opinion, Hemsworth — particularly during the moving sequence with Frigga in 2013 Asgard — gave a performance that was sensitive, daring, and yes, pretty funny as well. We actually kind of hope that the rumored Thor 4 opens with Odinson doing yoga, meditating, and exercising, getting himself back into a good mental and physical place. After all, there are no shortcuts to self-care — even for an Asgardian. But in the meantime, he's allowed to sing a sad song or two; let's just hope Rocket can refrain from bursting into the room to tell him to pipe the hell down.

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