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.