Maybe it’s exhaustion, maybe it’s acquiescence, maybe it’s just time, but Ke$ha and her whole glam-wasted shtick are starting to charm us. Her trippy, drunk party jams are at least reliably trippy, drunk party jams, and she seems to have a functioning sense of humor. And not in a “Ha-ha, wouldn’t it be funny to shoot whipped cream out of my boobs?” way, but in a zany “Wouldn’t it be funny to put unicorns in tuxedos and pretend James Van Der Beek is a stud?” way. All to say, we enjoyed her new video for “Blow,” featuring James Van Der Beek (who is really crafting quite the comeback on the strength of meta jokes at his own expense) and unicorns in tuxedos. The video begins with a disclaimer — “No mythological creatures were harmed in the making of his video” — before cutting to Ke$ha swilling Champagne with those unicorns, spouting the absurd dialogue, “So I grabbed the bear by the throat and I looked him right in the eyes, and I said, ‘Bear, you have till the count of zero to put some pants on and apologize to the president.’ And that’s how I was elected to the parliament of Uzbekistan.” Ke$ha! She can say Uzbekistan. Then the music starts, and Van Der Beek and Ke$ha make eyes at each other in a riff on/copy of the standard hot-boy/hot-girl making eyes at each other across a room music-video convention. That segment of the video ends with both of them pulling off their bras. (Yup, Van Der Beek too.) Then the two exchange dialogue straight out of Glee (“Well, if it isn’t James Van Der Douche.” “Hello, Ke dollar sign ha“) before the music starts again, and they have a gun fight, where the guns shoot Lisa Frank rainbows. (Ke$ha really likes her sloppy rainbows.) The shoot-out bit isn’t as enjoyable as what came before, but it’s not bad. Also, please take note, early on, of Ke$ha’s impressively textured manicure.
