8 photos in galleryBy now, you have probably heard that Lady Gaga spent the entire duration of the VMAs in character — with excruciating dedication — as Jo Calderone, a dude who kept talking about living with/having sex with Lady Gaga and relishing in noting how different they were because she’s a FEMALE and he’s a MALE and all that, and then they would cut to Justin Bieber looking all confused like, “Wait, then which one am I?” And all I have to say about it is: Gaga, I have seen Danny Zuko, and you, sir, are no Danny Zuko.
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Comments (62):
She has really big eyes. They’re actually quite pretty.
I think she looks better as a “man.” But apparently, she thinks acting like an asshole is a surefire way to do it convincingly. Sigh.
So bored with her and her need to show off as if she’s somehow doing something radical or interesting.
Ugliest. Dude. EVER.
Forget the poll above, I think we need a poll for best photo title in the album (Heather, you must have either been cursing or giggling putting them together). To recap:
1. Lady Jo Calderone Gaga
2. Lady Jogaglerone
3. JoGaga
4. Gagjo Calderlady
5. Go Jalderone
6. Gagjo Ladyrone
7. Lajody Calgaga
I’m torn between JoGaga and Go Jalderone myself. Lajody Calgaga comes right after those…
When someone like Katy Perry dresses kooky and does kooky things, it’s because she has to, as Katy Perry does not have the greatest voice. I understand her need to draw attention to herself, so generally, I don’t mind it.
Gaga, however, is immensely talented. She actually draws people away from her talent by wearing stupid stuff or doing whatever the hell it is she was doing at the VMA’s. She has just taken to it too far, continually, and I’m so sick of it. Just sing. That’s all you gotta do.
As soon as I saw the video for “You and I” I realized that Gaga had no clue how much of her own insecurities and narcissism she was giving away by playing her own “boyfriend” in the video and how gross and creepy her vision of “boyfriend” is.
But she had to do something to distract from the fact that her last three songs have sucked so bad they make me cry. “Born This Way,” is beginning to sound genius after “Edge of Glory” and now “You and I.” Even Brian May’s brilliance couldn’t save that dog of a song.
But I like Gagjo Ladyrone or Lajody Calgaga the best.
Reading Kanye’s THOUGHTS made me laugh until I cried.
And Gaga looks really, really scary as a man. No wonder she piles on the makeup.
Anyone else flashing on Joyce Hyser in “Just One of the Guys”? No? Just me?
Well, clearly, Gaga’s formative years were the ’80s, given that she can’t decide whether she wants to be Madonna or a cheesy teen flick.
I’m so sick of all the celebs saying, “she’s so immensely talented”, yada yada. Then why can’t she just play the piano and sing, for cripes sakes! Does Adele have to get up there and put on a whole new persona and sideshow? No, because she actually IS immensely talented, has an amazing voice, and never has to be autotuned. At this point, I’m just like, Go Away, Gaga!
Think kind of alter-ego crap has never worked for anyone else and smacks of desperation to stay relevant. Remember how quickly that Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines thing came and went? Remember in the before times when Beyonce was Sasha Fierce?
And, honestly, if this is her idea of what “men” are like then she really needs to take some time to re-evaluate her sorry man choosing skils.
I actually felt a small twinge of liking/tolerating Gaga after she was a guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance, and now … more off-puttingly effortful hijinx.
Am I the only one who thinks her general drag just sucks? She hardly looks like a man at all. No facial hair, plucked eyebrows…GIRL PLEASE. A Budweiser, greasy hair, and smoking cigarettes do not a male make. Google the video of the chick doing her Jared Leto drag and get back to me.
I’m with Christian. “I am frightened” sums it up for me. I don’t ever need to see the VMA’s thanks to these incredibly bad pics of her over-the-top pouting and posing. This isn’t drag, this is a girl playing a guy in junior high drama production. As the judges on Project Runway would say “Who is this guy and where is he going dressed like that? You don’t know?? That’s a problem.”
I just keep thinking of Jess on Gilmore Girls. If he were a cartoon.
Ugh! Ugh, ugh, ugh! And her talking about masturbating to a pic of Britney was just disgusting! I wish she would go away.
I really hope Gaga was just like “ugh, my feet hurt, i want to be able to sit down at these awards, and I just ate too much. I know, I’ll wear a white T, flats, baggy pants, and just pretend to be a guy the whole time. Clever, Gaga.”
Ok, she needs to disappear for like a year or two! The last thing we need is another celebrity rubbing their identity crisis on our collective faces with their alter-egos looking RIDICULOUS while doing it! *Cough* Chris Gaines *Cough*
So….she’s in love with herself? But we knew that already.
Not just you, Karen. I got Joyce Hyser, Katherine Moennig as “Jack” on “Young Americans” and a bit of “young Michael Imperioli” thrown in for good measure.
Yay, Brian May!
I’m a big Gaga fan. I love her, I love what she does, and I think her take on celebrity and pop music culture is fascinating.
But this was a bit much for me. Not the drag, so much, as the affect of this “character.” I understand that overblown production is par for the course as part of her normal performance, but “You and I” is a pretty stripped down song, as it’s actually a real ballad for her IRL boyfriend. So I get that in the promotion of this song, it makes sense for her to do something a little less overproduced, and the drag thing could have totally worked for it — it’s so starkly different from the rest of the songs on the album, so it could have been pretty realistic that the person who performs it is not the Lady Gaga of the “Born This Way”/”Edge of Glory” big flashy songs. But the second it turned into the Jo Calderone stand up show, where he waxes all poetical about his relationship with Lady Gaga, it wasn’t just obnoxious — it was boring. You could see it on the faces of everyone there. They just wanted to hear her play the song, not go on and on with the cigarette and pseudo-existentialism. When she finally did sit down to play, it was great, but she’d already lost everyone’s interest by then.
All that said, I do have trouble with the “Adele has true talent so she doesn’t need to do all of that stuff” argument. If everyone in pop was just like Adele, it would be boring. Pop music needs people like Lady Gaga (and Nicki Minaj and Rhianna and to a lesser extent, Katy Perry) because they make it fun, bizarre, and give us something to talk — or gripe — about. Look at Beyonce up there, with her baby bump and sky-high heels and glittery jacket and huge hair that she’s throwing all around. I don’t see anyone criticizing her or implying she’s less talented because she puts on a damn show. No, last night was a misstep for Gaga, but other than that she should never change.
Gaga Jumps the Shark
:film at 11
totally silly, but was instantly made awesome when Brian May hit the stage. From that moment on I was completely won over. Whaddyagunnado?
@Karen – OMG! That’s exactly what I thought when I saw this! LOL. So glad someone other than me remembers that movie.
Since I imagine that the number of people who follow both hockey and this blog is rather limited, check out yahoo sports’ comparison of Lady G to Vancouver Canucks’ goalie Roberto Luongo: http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Apparently-Lady-Gaga-went-to-MTV-VMAs-as-Robert?urn=nhl-wp11296
Disturbingly alike!!
She looks like she’s auditioning for the part of Racetrack Higgins for Newsies: The Musical.
Gaga. Dear.
Watch and learn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pISsAndOLmA
I agree it would all be boring if everyone was just like Adele, but on the other end of the spectrum, it comes off as exhausting and desperate when Gaga has made it COMPLETELY impossible for herself to ever be anything but this ridiculous caricature. There ought to be some middle ground. Even Katy Perry can tone it down sometimes.
So now she “quotes” umpty- thousand drag king performances?
I’ve always had Lady Gaga in the peripheral at most- the wacky costumes and detached, affected bit was only ever sort of interesting to look at. As a concept, I think it works better than it ends up working in practice, it just gets old so quickly, and although I get that it’s meant to be a send up of modern pop music culture, it doesn’t really hold up much further than that. Then you’ve got the Joe persona, which, again, I liked a lot more when it was a well-directed shoot for a magazine. It felt like a marginally interesting idea, and because of the photography it was well played. Now it’s on stage? No. Took the joke too far sort of thing.
And all of it- wacky costumes, batcrap crazy Gaga persona, joe whatever, it would all be so much more enjoyable if she didn’t seem to take herself so seriously. Someone I know honestly and fervently believes her to be an illuminati puppet who was brainwashed and reprogrammed as “Lady Gaga.” I love that theory infinitely; this idea that the absolute death of logic that is her whole vibe came to be because some old men in a cult obsessed with world domination had to program a pop star based on their isolated and misunderstood concepts of pop culture.
she just tries too hard. It’s exhausting.
On another note, I thought those commenters on the Beiber post were overreacting about the Death Valley ad, but having made my way through my fourth post of the day, I really cannot take one more screaming bloody woman. It’s disgusting. I know you guys don’t control your advertising, but it’s scaring off your readers. I’m disappointed, too–I haven’t gotten to Fugs and Pieces yet, my absolute favorite. Hopefully I’ll be back later when I’ve regained control of my gag reflex.
Ralph Macchio from the Outsiders
I LOVE Gaga and most of her craziness but I fully 100% agree with people that her whole schtick really turns people away from her music. You + I is a BEAUTIFUL song, if she would have just come out in the white slip dress and long blond wig from the video people would have noticed how great the song is.
Also, there is a dude from the video I want to see more of…and it’s not Jo Caldon’t…why couldn’t she have just brought the hot guy with her?
PS fun fact, actually the record label suggest that Gaga go blond when she first came out because they thought she looked too much like Amy
Time to have fun again, Gaga. You’re taking yourself too seriously. Lighten up, it’s just music! (to paraphrase Santino!)
Kerry. Yes. As a Vancouverite-in-exile (in Boston, of all places… imagine my life a couple months ago), I TOTALLY see that.
That said, if Jo was a real person who was not Lady Gaga? I’d think she was pretty cute if she wasn’t so angry-looking all the time.
Omg. She is an idiot. Enough said.
Considering how “out there” and “kooky” and “wacky” and “over the top” she is, I’m just so bored to death of her. It’s too bad that she actually has a pretty great voice, because you wouldn’t know it when all everyone pays attention to is the ridiculous shit she does. Yawn.
I’m sorry, but isn’t this whole thing incredibly offensive toward men? Why is it that to be a “man” she has to dress up and act like a complete dillhole?! All men are not like that! That’s like a man dressing up in drag and being a total whore because that’s what women are. It’s offensive. She really missed the mark here. Oh, and also, she looks about 100% mentally retarded.
I realize that the “mentally retarded” thing is offensive as well. I was just playing to a little bit of irony . . . Sorry.
Julia, WORD. A still photo of a gun pointed at my face all “cutesy” style is unwelcome enough, but I do NOT need to see a screaming bloody woman shot to death over and over and OVER again, thanks.
Gaga, your schtick is not art, it’s clownish and you come across as a tiresome, talentless poseur. You’re a bore.
I don’t really care one way or another, but my main reaction when I saw the photos was to be happy for her that she finally got to wear something comfortable.
For someone who says she is about acceptance, why can’t she accept herself? Does anyone even know what she really looks like? Like what would she wear if she had to pop into the grocery store? What does her face look like?
I get that she had to be all that at the beginning to get noticed and famous and whatever, but is this really necessary at this point?
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i turned on the VMAs halfway through and so while I knew it was gaga when she spoke because her voice is distinctive .. I had no idea who she was being, i first thought Ralph Macchio cause she looked just like him, but how would he be relevant? so then i thought she was doing a send-up of all the guys she used to have date / blow off when she was coming up in NY
PS .. she is sooo short in flats oh my goodness
It’s not the stick that is annoying, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj I can handle because they know they look completely ridiculous. They are having fun with it. Gaga just takes everything way to seriously for it to be any fun, which just makes it condescending.
I too think this male persona is incredibly offensive to men. If that is the only type of guy she knows she should get out more and meet some of the better ones. They is the kinda of guy who would expect “his” “woman” to do nothing more then get him a sandwich.
HATE. The only thing good here is that she’s in drag. The terrible thing is it’s BAD drag. She’s always such a caricature in her self-presentation. There is no art there.
There’s something about the commitment to this and the swag Jo had. I’m not saying he could get it were he a real man, but I’d definitely consider it.
I thought [s]he was hot. Then again, I think getting attention is what being a successful artist is all about.
I am sorry, but I think people have completely misunderstood when they complain about her being too serious. How could someone who feels an outsider or different than others identify with Nicki Minaj or Katy Perry, because for them being funny-looking is a play? When they look at Gaga they see a person who claims that her weirdness is art and true. It gets attention, but I believe Gaga when she says it’s for the fans.
Anyway, alter egos have worked before, see Ziggy Stardust.
Gaga tires me out. On one hand, she’s talented. On the other, she relies on spectacle rather than talent to sustain her celebrity. On the other hand, she’s actually really good when she mentors kids on talent show TV. On the other hand, she did indeed act like a dick on the VMAs. Really, is staying in character more important than letting other people have the limelight occasionally?
Seriously, Gaga, take a tip from Adele: Unplug the persona, ditch the bells and whistles, and just sing.
I just find that I can’t even listen to her songs on the radio because of my negative reaction to her bizarre posturing. She may or may not have talent – I’ve only ever heard a bar or two of her music before stabbing the next preset button on the radio. This whole Jo Gagdurrone thing is just more of the same. Ick.
When Britney wore that wig and spoke in an English accent all the time as her alter ego, apparently she was cray cray and got sent to rehab. How is this different? Go away Gaga.
It’s funny, Gaga’s actually a NATURAL brunette and went blonde because she was tired of being MISTAKEN for Amy Winehouse. Pity, I like her better brunette.
This is the greatest fing post of all time. Hilarious.
What happened to the days when singers merely sang, when they only relied on their talent to get by? She doesn’t need to be doing this. She has a good voice.
Your commentary was the best laugh that I had today. Thanks.
“….and then they would cut to Justin Bieber looking all confused like, “Wait, then which one am I?””
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I love this site!
Just… Thanks for wearing pants and looking like a semi normal asshole instead of the cracked out asshole you usually look like.
So now she’s a drag king for one night. Big woop.
Zzzzz
I thought this was the Karate Kid The Middle Aged Couch Bum Years. You rubba wax here on brow now waxa off… Danielson!