R&B lovermen have long been parodied as comically earnest lotharios, blissfully unaware of how ridiculous they sound. Why do so many people think the funniest pop star on the planet is the butt of the joke when he is so obviously in on it? It’s hard to think of a work that has inspired more parodies, from Weird Al to Jimmy Kimmel, from sketch comedy to cabaret. Kelly, not with him, as if the whole thing were some sort of glorious, terrible mistake as if the far-fetched plot turns (most infamously, the policeman cuckolded by the “midget” hiding beneath the sink) and cliffhanger endings (“Oh my God, a rubber!”) were the work of someone who set out to make a traditional musical and failed. Many of its biggest fans seem to think they’re laughing at Mr. The Web site for New York magazine () proclaimed this “the cultural event of the year,” while one fairly typical commenter at ifc.com called it “a perfect storm of the worst artistry ever.”Īnd yet there is something slightly unnerving about the kind of attention “Trapped in the Closet” has received. Kelly’s outlandish achievement seems to inspire overstatement, especially online. Kelly promised that “Trapped” would return, and now it has: the IFC channel’s Web site has been showing a new episode every day, leading up to tomorrow’s DVD release of “Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 13-22” (Jive). It was the kind of pop spectacle you had to see to believe thanks to the online video explosion you could.īack then, Mr. The DVD arrived in late 2005, just as YouTube was taking off, and “Trapped” became a viral hit. A 5-part single mushroomed into a 12-part DVD, and in retrospect, his timing looks perfect. Kelly’s unprecedented audiovisual opus, “Trapped in the Closet,” ever since its premiere, two summers ago. Because people have been talking about R. What is there to say, really, about a multipart R&B soap opera cum sex farce starring an expanding cast of actors and actresses, all lip-syncing to the increasingly kaleidoscopic story-songs of a pop star once known for slow jams and “I Believe I Can Fly”?
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