The Keke Palmer Moment Is Here to Revive Us All

with Kevin Fallon

Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.

This week:

An ode to the Keke Palmer moment.

Looking for the next Ted Lasso? Here it is.

Lady Gaga fans are being too hateful.

Don’t Look Up is now real.

Sexually confused over Weird Al.

Bless Keke Palmer for Being the Absolute Best

Keke Palmer’s first scene in Nope is spectacular. It’s the kind of “oh wow, that’s a star…” commanding moment reserved for the likes of Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, lately Andrew Garfield or Florence Pugh, and the entire cast of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

As Emerald Haywood, she catapults herself onto the screen, running late for a safety presentation on a film set she’s supposed to give on behalf of the Hollywood horse-training business she runs with her brother OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) after their father died in a freak accident on their ranch.

In addition to delivering the safety protocol, she starts selling herself and all of her side hustles. Need her to act? Do stunts? Fix some grilled cheese over at crafty? She comes off as part-grifter, part-influencer, part-girl-just-doing-her-best. But she is spellbinding. It’s a one-take monologue with an energy that bounces off the screen.

She is gregarious and mischievous, and clearly performing. But you know this person. This is a person who has a zest for life, even if life isn’t returning back the same enthusiasm or generosity. She speaks with a passion, too, talking about her abilities and her willingness to work with the same ferocity as, say, I might describe the virtues of half-off appetizers at Applebee’s during happy hour. (If you have around 45 minutes to three hours free, I’ll be happy to demonstrate.)

You believe her. I would buy the TikTok “Pink Sauce” from her immediately and be so afraid of disappointing her that I would pressure myself into believing it tastes good. “So yummy…” I’d mumble from my hospital bed as my stomach was being pumped. “Thanks Keke.”

That scene isn’t just a great character introduction and a perfect, jolting start to a fantastic movie. There’s a metaness to it as well. You are won over by Emerald completely. You trust she can do any of those things. Thus is the power—and the unparalleled gift—of Keke Palmer.

For years, “Keke Palmer is having a moment” has been building like a tidal wave. A star already from a young age, earning accolades for her breakout performance in Akeelah at the Bee and gaining popularity with the Gen Z set who grew up alongside her while she starred in the Nickelodeon series True Jackson, VP, she’s been building a solid resume of major, often surprising projects.

She’s frequently made history while doing so, which, when taken with some of her most impressive off-screen moments, speaks to her desire to have a legacy and open doors—which she’s done with elegance and explosiveness, like the classiest grenade there is.

She’s done things that are undeniably fun, like playing Chilli in the TLC biopic that aired on VH1 or playing Marty in Grease Live! (Gay millennials have two formative pop-culture moments that confirm their identity: the first time they saw Ryan Phillippe’s butt in Cruel Intentions, and when they went wild raving about how good Keke Palmer’s “Freddy My Love” was in Grease Live!)

Her acting credits have been very “cool,” which is a silly descriptor, but an accurate connector between series like Scream Queens, Masters of Sex, Big Mouth, and Insecure, and the movie Hustlers.

When she launched her talk show Just Keke, she became the youngest talk show host in history. She became the first Black woman to star as Cinderella in the Broadway musical. That same year, she signed a record deal. In yet another “sure, why not, let’s do everything” move, she also co-hosted Good Morning America’s short-lived third hour alongside Michael Strahan and Sara Haines. Currently, she hosts the revival of the game show Password and was a judge on the recent season of Legendary.

She was the first woman of color to host the MTV Video Music Awards, which aired in the first summer of the pandemic (were we ever so young?) and, oh-so-briefly, gave the wallowing viewing public actual endorphins.

In other words, she’s a multi-hyphenate—but like an actual one, who is legitimately good at each of the many hats she wears. As a bit of a multi-hyphenate myself—a person who can participate on a skilled, professional level in entertainment journalism, podcasting, and ordering too much takeout minutes after complaining about his weight—I recognize the challenge of excelling in multiple arenas.

Nope is Palmer’s biggest acting showcase after several years of routinely going viral for being unabashedly herself in interviews, which is to say irresistibly charming and possibly the most appealing celebrity on the planet.

“Sorry to this man,” the clip that crowned Palmer as the Meme Queen in which, while taking a lie detector test for Vanity Fair, she failed to recognize Dick Cheney, was high art. The video was everywhere, the meme inescapable, and the phrase—“sorry to this man”—used by me at least twice in every conversation for six months, laughing until I wheezed each time as I was just so clever.

But what she’s proven in the time since is that it wasn’t a fluke. She is almost relentlessly magnetic and has one of the most natural comedic sensibilities in Hollywood. Her talk show appearances routinely go viral; this one in which she rants about Rose at the end of Titanic to a totally oblivious Steve Harvey is a personal favorite. A new Vanity Fair clip from the Nope press tour in which she reveals she hasn’t heard of The X-Files’ Mulder and Scully—“Now who the hell are they?”—is being billed as a “sorry to this man” sequel in headlines, as if such a perfect, off-the-cuff moment from Palmer could ever be so planned.

But then there’s the clip of her at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020 exhorting a National Guard unit for kneeling instead of marching, and her ensuing op-Ed on the topic. And there’s a clip of her interviewing Vice President Kamala Harris at the Essence Festival and asking earnestly how her generation can usefully mobilize and make a difference without feeling exhausted and hopeless by a system that fails them. She has a head on her shoulders. She gets it. She’s remarkable.

So often pop-culture coverage trades in cynicism, a jaded exhaustion with the predictable orchestration and micromanaging of major celebrities’ careers and outward-facing personalities. And, of course, the minute a person becomes popular, the backlash inevitably ensues. So it’s kind of thrilling for Palmer to be on the crest of a moment like this, be so good in Nope, and have everyone genuinely, fervently be rooting for her.

There’s constant talk from silly people who care about these things (me) about whether A-list movie stars and celebrities still exist the way they used to. Keke Palmer proves they do.

Here’s a Great, Underrated TV Show to Binge

There was that thing at the start of the pandemic when we were desperate for sweet, touching TV series—especially comedies—to watch. Then there was the reaction to that where we like, no, we must lean into the darkness and be unflinching about the times we’re living in. After that, we were like, dear god, please give me some comforting TV to watch again. Then we were all just watching Below Deck.

I don’t know where we are anymore in that pendulum swing; I’ve long since got motion sick and hopped off to do my own thing. What if we just watched good things, and stopped tying them to a cultural mood? Impossible!

That said, if you are absorbing the constant bad news—Just had COVID? Here’s a monkeypox threat! Oh, and coming around the corner: polio, too!—and would like to go back to when we were all watching Schitt’s Creekand Ted Lasso and, at least while watching TV, felt nice for a while, here’s what may be a discovery for you.

The series Trying already has two seasons that have aired on Apple TV+, and its third premiered on Friday. It is a gem of a show, a comedy about a couple who lives in the Camden neighborhood of London who, after being unable to conceive their own child, embark on an emotional and stressful—and very, very funny—adoption process.

The Ted Lasso comparisons are fairly obvious. It’s set in the U.K., its lead is a tall and incredibly charming comic actor (Rafe Spall), and it’s the just-right amount of sweet without crashing into saccharine.

As someone who recently reacted to The World Right Now by shutting down completely and bingeing all the episodes that have aired so far, as well as screeners for the new season, I can confirm that it serves the same public service as Ted Lasso did when it exploded into an absolute phenomenon: It transports you into a world that seems lovely—the folksy music choices that define the Lasso vibe are here—but doesn’t shy away from the complicated realities of what it means to be a human navigating meaningful relationships. (Also, again: It’s funny!)

If you haven’t seen the first two seasons yet, I don’t want to spoil where Season 3 picks up, but Jason (Spall) and Nikki (Esther Smith) are working their way through a pivotal turning point in their journey to be parents. Their characters have the kind of chemistry that makes you think, “Wow, can relationships really ever be that great?” You’re just happy to go along the ride with them. Watching this show cheered me up (even when it made me cry). I suspect it could do the same for you!

Justice for “Hold My Hand!”

There was monumental news in my world this week (my world is on Twitter) when Lady Gaga played the first show in her much-anticipated Chromatica Ball arena world tour. It opened in Düsseldorf, a city in Germany and not a word made up by Kristen Wiig for her Bjork impression on SNL, which meant that we got a first look at the set (!) and the set list (!!) through thousands of low-quality snippets of her performance posted online by fans (!!!).

In an Instagram video ahead of her first show, she said the set was inspired by brutalist architecture: “materials, textures, crudity, transparency. A real savage and hard look at yourself, and what you’ve been through.” If she wanted to make a stage that is a savage look at what I’ve been through, I’m confused why the set isn’t a replica of the subway platform at Union Square during the recent New York City heat wave when I was sweating so much that a busker stopped performing to whisper to me as I walked by, “You OK?”

But the big news was the set list. A major reaction was that it didn’t include any songs from the Artpop album, a gripe I can get behind. But people on Twitter were dragging Gaga for the choice to end the show with “Rain on Me” and then come back for her encore with her Top Gun: Maverick track“Hold My Hand.”

These people on Twitter will argue that “Hold My Hand” is a flop, that it hasn’t caught on, and that no one wants to wait to beat the crowd rush home in order to hear her sing it as an encore. I will not stand for this hatefulness.

Justice for “Hold My Hand!” It’s a catchy ballad. I imagine, especially in a giant arena, it’s a moving finale. I feel like it was modeled after great ’80s anthems that are designed for that kind of venue. And enough with the disparaging. It’s a good song. Sometimes being basic is rewarding. “Hold My Hand” is playing at a Chili’s in Delaware as we speak and two aunts who had too many margaritas are clasping each other during the bridge and I’m crying thinking about it.

While working on this newsletter, footage leaked of Gaga rehearsing “1000 Doves,” possibly as a replacement following the mocking reaction “Hold My Hand” received as an encore choice. I’m not sure if that’s the case, but I do not like this idea that bullying works.

Hot Enough for Ya?

Look, I haven’t stopped sweating for six days. I took the subway yesterday and thought I might die. I have a few friends and colleagues who live in the U.K., and according to their dispatches I believe they are all melting into a puddle and/or catching on fire. It is hot. Climate change!!!

A news clip has gone viral in which a British expert is explaining, in harrowing detail, the very real danger these heat waves pose and the reality that things are only going to get worse, which will have incredible ramifications for the planet and our daily lives. The news anchors interviewing him chastise him for being so doom-and-gloom, chiding him for not letting people just enjoy some good beach weather. It’s shocking to watch.

It’s also, as it happens, almost an exact replica of a scene in the movie Don’t Look Up, a film that treats the dangers of climate-change denial with all the subtlety of, well, an asteroid hitting the earth. Many people on social media have pointed out these similarities. But I stand with this take:

The Weird Al Biopic Is All I Think About Now

I already didn’t know what to make about the fact that I am so sexually aroused by Daniel Radcliffe in costume as Weird Al Yankovic for an upcoming biopic. But now there’s a scene featuring Quinta Brunson as Oprah! Is it even possible to pander to me more directly?

Nope: A great monster movie! Keke Palmer! Just go and have fun! (Fri. in theaters)

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: I will die on the hill that this show is so smart and fun. (Wed. on Disney+)

Shark Week: Maybe hitting more close to home than usual, given the recent news out of New York beaches. Duh-dun… (Sun. on Discovery)

Alone Together: What has happened to Katie Holmes’ career? (Fri. in theaters and on-demand.)

The Gray Man: Just because this movie hits Netflix this weekend doesn’t mean you have to watch it! (Fri. on Netflix)

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