The video features the members of Vampire Weekend performing in a long alleyway.

Throughout the song, the members of the band rotate places on a platform that moves up and down the alleyway on a track.

Stereogum describes the video as "quick, quirky, and unpredictable but not without a sense of humour about itself, so pretty much perfect for a band of Ivy Leaguers who aren't above self-satirizing their prepped up ways.

"[2] Vampire Weekend Technical Following Contra's release on January 11, 2010, "Cousins" began to receive increasing amounts of digital downloads.

Cousins is used in the opening sequence of the 2010 film, The Kids Are All Right, although the song does not appear on the soundtrack release.