Lady Gaga Featuring Beyonce: Telephone (Video Premiere)

by Bradley Stern
filed under: Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Quentin Tarantino, Video Premiere

And now, the official video premiere of “Telephone” by Lady Gaga, featuring Beyonce.

Things I loved:
The concept. Pulp Fiction meets Faster, Pussycat! Kill Kill! Half Grindhouse, half glamour…and it’s all guts and glitter in the end. How is this not a Quentin Tarantino production?
The Miss Mann cameo. Did you catch it? The second jail guard? It’s Miss Mann from Scary Movie! Which tucks away nicely into the next moment I loved…
The penis puns. “I told you she didn’t have a dick.” She’s taken a lot of shit in the press for her big dick, so why not have a little fun slapping it in our faces now and then?
The Beysus-to-Godga Honeybun snack munch. So cute, so fierce, etc. etc.
The Poison TV concoction sequence. A deadly serious Gagz takes a quick turn as an ice cold Paula Deen gone-terribly-wrong. Coupled with the peen punches, it’s nice to remember that ‘art’ doesn’t always have to be serious business.
Literally everything Beyonce did. The .gif Gods were truly smiling upon us tonight. How immense were those repeat-heavy shots of Beyonce manically wielding that telephone? Amazing.
The flowing outfits at the end of the video. Thelma and Louise take a stab at haute couture.

Things I didn’t love:
The gratuitous girl-on-girl kiss on the prison yard. It felt forced and, as Hard Candy Music‘s Matt pointed out to me in our conversation, felt like Gaga was merely going for a ‘Banned on MTV’ video with that move. A smart move, though contrived.
The product placement. I know it must be done sometimes–that’s how these big budget productions get funded. But really, spending screen time on the home page of a dating website? There’s a thin line between tongue-in-cheek sponsorship and a full-length pop up ad.

In summation: The video is basically perfection.

With each boundary breaking video she’s released, Gaga continues to one-up herself as an entertainer in every way possible. There is literally no artist in the industry that is more powerful, influential or entertaining than Lady Gaga at this point in time.

There’s just no use arguing anymore…

Lady Gaga truly is the next Madonna, isn’t she?

pixel Lady Gaga Featuring Beyonce: Telephone (Video Premiere)

  • RJ

    I thought the Plenty of Fish product placement was more comical than the 5 seconds spent on Miracle Whip.

    A musical Pulp Fiction & perhaps it was Beyonce’s best role she’s ever played. BRAVO, GAGA. BRAVO.

  • Paul

    I usually like your reviews..but I’m a little disappointed here. This i did not like. It was just too..forced. All of it was so forced….

    and PLEASE for the love of God…I wish everyone would stop bringing Madonna into this. Madonna is God. Madonna made it possible for Lady Gaga to even have a flying fuck in hell. Talented and entertaining as she may be right now..there is NO justification in hailing her the next Madonna. Not yet anyway…she still has SO Much more to do before that can even be said. And in that amount of time i’m Hoping Madonna will have done something to help everyone remember who the motherfucking Queen of Pop is.

  • WestsideGuy

    I’m craving miracle whip, wonder bread, diet coke and I feel like switching to Virgin Mobile!

  • Eve

    Oh please, Vadge is an old sea hag. Gaga is in every aspect above her. That video is immense.

  • http://www.acrowdelectric.com david

    i think my favorite bit is right before the 3:00 mark. gaga gives a knowing look to a brunette in sunglasses who is so obviously the young stephanie germata that we’ve seen in pictures and unreleased demo covers. it’s sweet and touching- the “get-me-the-fuck-outta-here” look the younger girl gives her. a nice “inside” moment.

  • http://artfulmichael.tumblr.com/ Michael

    A lot of this video felt contrived, forced, and excessive. The problem that Lady Gaga usually has is that she does not know how to reconcile all of her ideas. Instead of being concise and deliberate, she compiles too many concepts that don’t make sense together. The general feel was executed well; I love the choreography, cinematography, costuming, and the pop culture references (her “penis”). However, she needed to focus on one theme.
    If we are bringing Madonna into this, refer to the “Like A Prayer” video. Madonna dances by herself in a nightgown, in front of flaming crosses. None of the images overpower each other and the video highlights the song, not the “story” or other excesses.

  • Coty

    I loved every bit. Well maybe I could do without the lesbian kiss thing because that was…awkward. But it was shocking nonetheless.

    The PlentyofFish was weird. That was out of place. At least Miracle Whip made sense.

    Please yell at people who have been jerks about this video. I’m so tired of the anger.

  • http://gia gia

    good video who cares how many time pple compare her 2 madonna im a huge madoona fan….its only been like a year….its flattering pple compare her 2 madonna she must feel like wow pple just keep bitching bout how much they hate this n hate that well then find something that u do like n go do it…..but even that said it is kinda funny 2 watch these pple bitch because those r the pple who r the first one on itunes or in line at the record store to get the new album of madonna lady gaga britney etc etc so just keep giving pple u hate sooo much ur money..n to those pple who underdtand what i mean n just looove music for who makes n knows everbodys good at something while just kick back n listen to are gaga songs oh wait song just ended on my ipod n wouldnt u know the next song is…….aerosmith….hahahahahahahah lolol

  • http://myvertigo73.blogspot.com FND

    When I found out it was kind of the sequel to paparazzi, the video kinda made sense to me. But during the Paparazzi video, the song matches the story. But how do you put Telephone into this storyline? I agree that it felt too much, too forced, like trying to hard. Like, everyone’s behind the scene is thinking like “oh the make up will be cool..oh the ciggy sunglasses will be cool….ooh lesbian kiss, how edgy will that be..ooh this is so groundbreaking”..but when you sum up all of them, it just doesnt make sense. Even the joke wasnt funny. Gaga stans will eat up anything, but as someone fascinated by her and what she tries to do, I find this video a bit too self involved for me to enjoy or be in awe of. And how do I connect this to the song again?