One more gay male writer to discuss before I really kiss NYC's Pride Parade goodbye. That writer is Billy Eichner.
I don't know much about this person. I haven't seen "Difficult People"--though I admire the title--and I haven't even seen "Billy on the Street." It *is* refreshing to know that Eichner once created a transgender character who was an asshole, just to poke fun at the apparent pop-culture commandment that all transgender characters get finessed as if they were saints. Ballsy and smart!
But what I want to talk about is Billy Eichner's song, "Glitter and Ribs." It's a Taylor Swift song, allegedly (it's really Eichner's), and Eichner never pretends he's making fun of anyone other than Taylor Swift. Remember: To be gay is to celebrate something while also mocking it. Though "Glitter and Ribs" seems a bit vicious, I'd argue that you can only savage a certain writer's style if you really, deeply appreciate that style--if you've somehow incorporated it "into your being."
"G and R" follows the story of "All Too Well." Jake Gyllenhaal seems great--until: "With burgers on the grill, and sparkles on my eyes, he served me a fib with a side of lies." The discovery of the lie sends Taylor into an emotional hurricane: "I don't wanna buy ice cream just to watch it melt! And you can't tell me I wasn't feeling the feelings I felt! And I don't wanna get married just to get divorced! And I don't wanna play golf without a course...."
Time heals everything. With distance, Taylor can appreciate that the breakup wasn't really the disaster she'd thought it was. "Looking back, we were young and reckless. And looking back, the whole thing was meaningless." (That last sentence seems to be a particularly stinging indictment of the entirety of the actual Taylor Swift oeuvre.) A TS number requires some sign of growth or change: "You'll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team. I didn't know it at fifteen." "I thought all love ever did was break and burn and end. But, on a Wednesday, in a cafe, I watched it begin again." The change Billy Eichner assigns to TS, in "Glitter and Ribs," is really stirring: "I'm not the girl I used to be. My hair is straight now. There's this woman who helps me with it..." And: fade to black.
I've watched this clip a million times. In recent viewings, I've been especially fond of the abrupt cuts to Taylor-as-the-Lone-Ranger, and to Taylor-having-a-threesome-with-Daft-Punk. (Music videos really do make use of these sudden changes, in a way that is meant to be arty but is often just jarring. I'm not sure other comedians had made note of this before.) Anyway, what's so inspiring about Eichner is that he took a major American staple--the Swift pop song--and he found a way to understand it at its core, a way to look at its bare bones with an intensity no one else had ever attempted. And he has brought that knowledge to us--in a masterful video! Discovery is studying the same thing that is available to everyone else--but, also, seeing something new there. I give you: Billy Eichner!
https://www.google.com/search?q=glitter+and+ribs&oq=glitter+and+ribs&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60j69i61l2j0l2.1788j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
P.S. Yes, in "G and R," Jake turns out to be a 49-year-old schlub. That's one way this video does not quite line up with "All Too Well"--!
I don't know much about this person. I haven't seen "Difficult People"--though I admire the title--and I haven't even seen "Billy on the Street." It *is* refreshing to know that Eichner once created a transgender character who was an asshole, just to poke fun at the apparent pop-culture commandment that all transgender characters get finessed as if they were saints. Ballsy and smart!
But what I want to talk about is Billy Eichner's song, "Glitter and Ribs." It's a Taylor Swift song, allegedly (it's really Eichner's), and Eichner never pretends he's making fun of anyone other than Taylor Swift. Remember: To be gay is to celebrate something while also mocking it. Though "Glitter and Ribs" seems a bit vicious, I'd argue that you can only savage a certain writer's style if you really, deeply appreciate that style--if you've somehow incorporated it "into your being."
"G and R" follows the story of "All Too Well." Jake Gyllenhaal seems great--until: "With burgers on the grill, and sparkles on my eyes, he served me a fib with a side of lies." The discovery of the lie sends Taylor into an emotional hurricane: "I don't wanna buy ice cream just to watch it melt! And you can't tell me I wasn't feeling the feelings I felt! And I don't wanna get married just to get divorced! And I don't wanna play golf without a course...."
Time heals everything. With distance, Taylor can appreciate that the breakup wasn't really the disaster she'd thought it was. "Looking back, we were young and reckless. And looking back, the whole thing was meaningless." (That last sentence seems to be a particularly stinging indictment of the entirety of the actual Taylor Swift oeuvre.) A TS number requires some sign of growth or change: "You'll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team. I didn't know it at fifteen." "I thought all love ever did was break and burn and end. But, on a Wednesday, in a cafe, I watched it begin again." The change Billy Eichner assigns to TS, in "Glitter and Ribs," is really stirring: "I'm not the girl I used to be. My hair is straight now. There's this woman who helps me with it..." And: fade to black.
I've watched this clip a million times. In recent viewings, I've been especially fond of the abrupt cuts to Taylor-as-the-Lone-Ranger, and to Taylor-having-a-threesome-with-Daft-Punk. (Music videos really do make use of these sudden changes, in a way that is meant to be arty but is often just jarring. I'm not sure other comedians had made note of this before.) Anyway, what's so inspiring about Eichner is that he took a major American staple--the Swift pop song--and he found a way to understand it at its core, a way to look at its bare bones with an intensity no one else had ever attempted. And he has brought that knowledge to us--in a masterful video! Discovery is studying the same thing that is available to everyone else--but, also, seeing something new there. I give you: Billy Eichner!
https://www.google.com/search?q=glitter+and+ribs&oq=glitter+and+ribs&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60j69i61l2j0l2.1788j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
P.S. Yes, in "G and R," Jake turns out to be a 49-year-old schlub. That's one way this video does not quite line up with "All Too Well"--!
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