Why Is Katy Perry So Embarrassing?

At some point in late April, near the apex of the memes and jokes and ridicule of Katy Perry’s recent “women’s empowerment” trip to space, Melody and I wondered: is it even worth doing a Katy Perry episode? Do we have anything to say, other than wow, all of this — the new album, the tour visuals, the trip to SPACE, is hilariously bad? But then we asked Zach Stafford if he had anything to say, and when his response was an immediate YES, we decided to turn the episode over to your (as always, very insightful) questions and probe deeper. Yes, all of this recent promotional tour is cringe, and the album is not good — but cringey people with bad albums still get their singles played on the radio.

So what is it about Perry that makes her such a target in this moment? Join Zach and me as we try to figure it out (and decipher what’s happening with those Lifetimes costumes).

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Show Notes:

• Follow Zach on Instagram and listen to Vibe Check here

• One of the many SpaceX Instagram posts that made people want to bang their heads against their desks

• Just another shot from the Lifetimes Tour for good measure

• Zach mentions the episode he and I recorded with Sam Sanders re: the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

• The satire that fell flat for “Women’s World”

• “‘I created this character called Katy Perry. I didn’t want to be Katheryn Hudson. It was too scary’”

• Before we taped Melody had me watch this pretty heartbreaking clip of Katy breaking down backstage and having to go on with the show

• The very messy and complicated fight with the nuns over the Los Angeles monastery

• Katy Perry at Gaga’s show in Mexico City

We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• The evolution of internet slang (and how it’s affected how you speak offline, too)

• The intersection of technology and parenting (especially how mothers are surveilled)

• REGIONAL ACCENTS!!!! (We have a accent/dialect expert as co-host!)

• Sabrina Carpenter????

• Book trends right now

• Fiction concierge!! Much like our old movies episode, let us know a few books you read and loved as well as whatever other parameters you want to put in place, and Maris Kreizman and I will make some recs!

• Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segment!

• As always, you can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here

For this week’s discussion: What do you think of our thesis about why we have to performatively disavow Katy Perry? What did we miss? Let’s go deeper!