Well, fellow adoring fans, it has arrived. The latest visual opus from Lady Gaga involves Hitchcockian puns, a disco lizard ballerina, a polar bear cape, space pods, and plenty of pop culture references we can’t spell out before the jump. Click through for our screen-by-screen analysis of the video for “Bad Romance,” complete with more cultural touchstones than you can shake a stick at (Anna Wintour! Where the Wild Things Are!, Nurse Mildred Ratched!) 12 costume changes, and at least one full disrobing.
What happens when Anna Wintour gets cast in the revival of Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Pod creatures borrowed from the set trailer of Janet and Michael Jackson’s 1993 space duet “Scream.”
Not even Lady Gaga is immune to the charms of Where the Wild Things Are.
She’s professed her admiration of Warhol, why not Jean-Michel Basquiat?
“Black Hole Sun” meets Hello Kitty revisit.
Evil nurses are rife in pop culture. See: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Say, that looks a lot like Madonna in the “Take a Bow” years.
Time out for a second. Where’s Gaga’s rib cage and spinal column? Or is she fully robotic.
Just another day, pantomiming hand jobs in Britney-approved rhinestones and nude body stocking. Oh wait, no… there’s no body stocking.
Hello, hairless cat. Did you escape from your master?
When in doubt, reference The Matrix.
This one screams Kanye to us: sunglasses, chrome, come to Jesus pose.
Fabulous! Lounge lizard meets disco ball meets ballerina. How in the hell does she walk in those shoes lobster claws?
Looks a bit like Daphne Guinness, no?
This cape is not PETA-approved. confirmed as a reworked piece from designer Benjamin Cho’s 2004 collection. PETA has yet to comment.
Behold, a woman scorned.
2001: A Space Odyssey meets Wild West hooker party.
Are we to assume her sparking bosom lit that bed on fire? If so, fantastic!
And in addition to pyromania, psychosis, nymphomania, and narcissism, Lady Gaga suffers from a disease called AWESOME that means she can make anal sex jokes out of Alfred Hitchcock films:
I want your psycho/
Your vertigo stick/
Want you in my rear window/
Baby you’re sick/
I want your love
Now that is talent.
Comments (23)
She was singing to Baron Underbheit, can’t believe you missed that.
Amazing video, full of possible references.
In the beginning, sitting on a throne in a gilded tunic like a pope or the sun king; manhandled in a clinical white crazy environment like Clockwork Orange; then a drama like the story of Anthony and Cleopatra, in that Queen Cleopatra becomes enslaved to the king of a rival nation;
Dancing like Salome for a king, only to exact her brutal revenge at the end…
[...] Here is a review of the new video: Lady Gaga Launches Her Next Phase With Eye-Grabbing ‘Bad Romance’ Video Here is a frame-by-frame analysis of the video: Lady Gaga Delights and Terrifies With Cultural References, Fire [...]
where’s the penis?
Is it me, or is this just re-imagining of Jabba the Hutt and Carrie Fisher? Just sayin’, is all.
I got more of a “murderous nurses from Silent Hill” vibe than WTWTA from the dancing nurse scene.
Check out my latest blog post for a quick analysis of her video:
http://angela.peang.com/blog/2009/11/10/gaga-for-lady-gaga
Here’s a snippet of it:
“product placement, common in every video, that I’m aware of. Parrot by Starck speakers, Lex Nemiroff vodka, Heartbeats by Dr. Dre and Gaga, modeling Alexander McQueen designer shoes and apparel, Burberry coat (?), Dr. Dre laptop, Carrera sunglasses. Also, her on display for a group to observe, like a mannequin, is perhaps a social commentary on the modern enmeshing of celebrity and commodity.”
I loved her video-couldn’t stop watching it over and over. From the looks of things, the best is yet to come from this powerhouse. <3
She looks a bit like Olympia Dukakis.
Or rather, if Olympia Dukakis and Cher had a baby together, they would get Lady Gaga.
[...] dropped her video for Bad Romance yesterday and I’m living the outfits! Flavorpill did an awesome scene by scene analysis of each look in the video. It’s a must [...]
Actually, the cape WOULD be PETA-approved — that’s a Benjamin Cho creation he made for the Humane Society. Fake fur.
Note the pic with the caption “Just another day, pantomiming hand jobs in Britney-approved rhinestones and nude body stocking. Oh wait, no… there’s no body stocking.” Lady Gaga’s butt: only a man’s glute rounds like that. The hip/ butt on the dancer behind Lady Gaga: THAT’s a woman.
Note the pic with the caption “Are we to assume her sparking bosom lit that bed on fire? If so, fantastic!” The slight bulge of skin to the right of the crotch: the tuck is coming undone.
This is fantastic. I hate pop music, but I love Gaga. Her style would be worse if she were prettier. This is anti-erotica the way that the last decade has brought us anti-folk. I approve.
EyeOfNez, even if she does have a penis, who cares? Do intersex people scare you or something? Why do people have this need to bring strong women down with claims of hidden male genitalia? I’d love her even if she had a 12 inch monster in her pants.
SOMEbody watched 2001 and the complete Cremaster cycle back to back. What a shame there wasnt an actual fire on the set.
[...] Flavorwire dug a little deeper on Lady Gaga’s vid. Whoever directed that video got some major movie-geek [...]
I get a combination of Sid and Nancy and Amy Winehouse in the last fire-in-the-bed shot.
Well regardless of what else went on, at 4:27 she does an erie version of the twist…. as if she’s dancing in one of those old beach party movies. Brilliant. And the way she spins at the end, claps while her dancers get into formation and checks both sides of dancers with two glances before she looks straight ahead is so theatrical.
I want your Psycho,
Your Vertigo step
While you admire a window
Baby is sick
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love
(Love-love-love I want your love)
this one scene reminds me of Un Chien Andalou.
[...] Lady Gaga Delights and Terrifies with Cultural References, Fire 13 01 2010 Check out the cultural borrowings as analyzed by Flavorwire. [...]
… i dont get why the beds on fire….. at the end and why shes smocking..but dam she is really hot…..
[...] think her videos already verge on the parodic and referential, if not on purpose then definitely in practice, but there’s always one more step to take into the depths of the absurd. And remember, [...]
[...] have put her at a nexus of performance and pop-culture commentary. (If you don’t believe us, analyze “Bad Romance.” ) But, unless you were on this bandwagon early, there’s no way you’re scoring tickets [...]
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