As advertised, South Korean rapper PSY made his first televised appearance in mainland China at the Shanghai Spring Festival TV Gala, which aired on Dragon TV on Sunday. There were indeed dancing robots, as you can see. But much more bizarre was the exchange at the beginning, in which PSY tried to teach Gangnam basics to the hosts, who appeared contractually obligated to play dumb as if there were still people in the world seeing this for the first time.
After going over the steps, PSY explains in English, “And then, upper body is like, like riding a horse.”
The long-legged dumb hottie of a host in the glittering gold dress says in Chinese: “Really like riding a horse. Audience, pay attention, there’s feet and hands.”
“So together,” PSY says, “five, six, seven, eight.”
And then this happened (GIF by Gabe Clermont):
Oh God, the audience. The butchery. The personification of tepid earnestness and assembly-line enthusiasm.
It’s all over, everyone. Shark jumped. The song is officially dead. RIP Gangnam Style, July 2012 – February 2013.
Here’s a longer version of the performance, if you can stand more chit-chat from the insufferable hosts:
Perfect analysis.
Say what you like but that female host has got amazing legs which I could watch all day long!
Exactly.
She looks alot like Taiwan’s Lin Zhi Ling. Can’t tell. If so, she looks amazing for 38.
(Just watched a bit of the clip. Yup. It’s her. Oil of Olay.)
Also, the Shark jumped about 3 months ago on this song–and I just watched a movie (越来越好) where this f’n song is a critical plot point…I wanted to vomit and the sheer idiocy of this movie. China’s still not got the memo that the Macarena was fucked out 15 years ago.
To PSY, sorry for making you go through with this painful humiliation. Enjoy the money. Again, sorry. I knew you thought this was going to blow over in a couple weeks. Happy New Year.