Montero (Call Me By Your Name)

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**Todd (VO):** This video is brought to you by Skillshare.

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> *Closing Skillshare logo*
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**Todd (VO):** Thank you, and on with the show.

> *Black screen, then episode plays*
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*Todd plays "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" on the piano.*

***LIL NAS X - MONTERO (CALL ME BY YOUR NAME)***
***A pop song review***

**Todd:** So. Turns out that Lil Nas X is, like... a real pop star.

> *Clip of Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus - "Old Town Road (Remix)"*
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> **Lil Nas X:** I got the horses in the back
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**Todd (VO):** I'll be honest with you guys, I didn't really expect that to happen. For all that is good and great and groundbreaking about "Old Town Road"...

**Todd:** ...let's call it what it is. It's a shitpost that got out of control.

> *Clip of Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots - Disco Duck*
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**Todd (VO):** I have a whole separate show about what happens when your first big hit is a really big novelty hit. It's usually not good.

**Todd:** Like, who wants a sequel to a meme?

> *Clips of the "Numa Numa" video...*
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**Todd (VO):** Did you know that the "Numa Numa" guy *[...and its follow-up "Numa Numa 2"]* made a second video? No, of course you didn't, no one cared.

**Todd:** That's kind of where I expected Lil Nas X was going.

> *Clip of Lil Nas X - "Panini"*
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**Todd (VO):** And yes, he's had a couple minor hits since "Old Town Road". But mostly I figured he'd end up in the same cultural spot where we put *[clips of Psy's...]* "Gangnam Style", *[...Bauuer's...]* "Harlem Shake", *[...and Rebecca Black's...]* "Friday"...

**Todd:** ...and so on.

> *Clip of Lil Nas X - "MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)"*
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> **Lil Nas X:** Welcome to Montero
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> I caught it bad yesterday
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**Todd (VO):** Add another tally to my wrong predictions, because Lil Nas X found a way to cause controversy again, *[clip of Lil Nas X on TikTok celebrating "MONTERO" reaching number 1]* and discoursed himself all the way to a second number 1 with "Montero" parentheses "(Call Me By Your Name)". Things have calmed down since then, and his second biggest hit has nestled comfortably in the low end of the top 10. But for a while there, it was pretty crazy.

**Todd:** It's a very provocative piece of work.

**Todd (VO):** For one thing, the song is, like, so gay.

**Todd:** That's a neutral description, obviously. The song is about a sexual relationship with another man.

**Todd (VO):** And that's nothing compared to the video, where Lil Nas X chooses to be condemned to Hell for his gayness. And then he takes a stripper pole to Hades, and gives Satan a lap dance and then takes his throne.

**Todd:** I consider myself pretty jaded...

**Todd (VO):** ..but I admit. I have not seen that before.

**Todd:** Like maybe there's a *[image of Gaahl from Gorgoroth with a pride flag behind him]* gay death metal band from Norway\* that's done this. But *[clip of Lil Nas X performing "Old Town Road" at the BET awards]* Lil Nas X is a mainstream pop star. *[image of Lil Nas X performing for a crowd of kids]* Little kids know who he is. So this is pretty remarkable.

* (Note: Gaahl is gay, but his band Gorgoroth plays black metal, not death metal)

**Todd:** But whatever, you're here for my take on this song.

**Todd (VO):** I don't know why my opinion matters to you, but since so many of you asked. Do I like this song?

**Todd:** Ummm... not really. But, you know what, ask me again in a few months.

> *Clip of "Old Town Road (Remix)"*
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**Todd (VO):** The fact is, none of Lil Nas X's songs have hit me the first time. "Old Town Road" didn't click for me until the remix. And *[clips of...]* "Panini" and "HOLIDAY", those didn't work for me at all at first. *[back to "Panini"]* But after a few months, I heard them and I'm like "Ehhh, actually those were alright."

**Todd:** So, give me a little time, I guess.

**Todd (VO):** I don't know, I gave it a full month already, I waited for the controversy to die down. Maybe I still need more time with it before it unlocks.

**Todd:** But for the time being, I just cannot really shake the suspicion that Lil Nas X is always going to be an artist who's more fun to talk about than to listen to.

> *Clip of CBS News interview with Lil Nas X*
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**Todd (VO):** Like, he's very interesting, he's very smart. *[clip of "Old Town Road (Remix)"]* Like, earlier, when I said "Old Town Road" was a shitpost that got outta control, that's- that's not true.

**Todd:** That was my first impression, but I now realize that was completely wrong.

> *Clip of "Old Town Road" Grammy performance*
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**Todd (VO):** "Old Town Road" was a shitpost that he had complete control over the entire time. *[clip of ABC interview with Lil Nas X]* Like, he played that controversy very carefully, he was very savvy in how he promoted and talked about it. *[clip of Lil Nas X red carpet interview]* And he's done that for "Call Me By Your Name" too. He trolled all the right people with the video. *[clip of Daily Pop story labeled "Did Lil Nas X Go Too Far?"]* There were a lot of very religious people who were just shocked and appalled. *[clip of Lil Nas X talking about his Satan Shoes]* There was a whole thing I didn't really get where he was selling Satanic shoes and that just made people angrier.

> *Clip of pastor talking to a crowd*
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> **Pastor (slightly sped up):** A bunch of devil worshipping wicked nonsense. Pentagram wearing on your Nike tennis shoes 666. You think I'm gonna stand for that, you lost your mind.
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**Todd:** *[sarcastically]* Gasp! He's satanic!

**Todd (VO):** He's promoting Satan worship!

**Todd:** *[back to normal]* Y'all did notice that he...

**Todd (VO):** ...killed Satan, right? What do you want him to do,

**Todd:** ...not kill Satan? Jeez!

> *Clip of Fox News story on "MONTERO"*
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**Todd (VO):** Like, on some level, I think religious conservatives should be offended cause it's trying to offend them. But I- I don't think they really get why this song and video is insulting to them, which... makes the trolling even funnier. *[clip of Lil Nas X on TikTok]* It's the message about how religious homophobia makes gay kids decide they'd rather be eternally damned than feel guilty. Which...

**Todd:** I'm sorry, but this really isn't hard to get.

**Todd (VO):** Like, if anything, the problem with the video is that it's *too* obvious. You don't have to be a scholar on biblical imagery here. Like, a garden with a snake in it. *[image of a figure with a large question mark beside them]* What could it represent? *[clip of pastor from earlier]* But instead, the fundamentalists are all, like, up in arms about Devil worship like it's the 80s. God, I should be a fundamentalist. I would be so much better at it.

**Todd:** And a few weeks after the video dropped, he made an even *bigger* troll *[image of Lil Nas X tweet saying "MONTERO" will be removed from streaming]* by announcing that everyone had to enjoy the new song *[clip of Lil Nas X on TikTok]* right now because it was gonna be removed from all platforms. *[screenshot of Billboard article "Don't Worry, Lil Nas X's 'Montero (Call Me By Your Name)' Isn't Being Pulled From Streaming Services"]* That was a complete lie, obviously, but it was a really entertaining one.

**Todd:** As promotional stunts go, at least it doesn't reek of desperation like *[brief clip of Justin Bieber dancing to "Yummy" on TikTok]* Justin Bieber trying to force a viral dance into existence. But all this hasn't really translated to me enjoying his music. *[screenshot of Pitchfork's review of Lil Nas X's Ep "7"]* Like when he dropped his first EP, Pitchfork asked if Lil Nas X even *likes* music. And that seemed to hurt his feelings, but I think it's a fair question.

**Todd (VO):** For me, all of his output has seemed like scraps of music. Incomplete fragments of a song. *[screenshot of Lil Nas X's Spotify page with "MONETRO"'s length circled]* Like, it barely crosses the two minute mark.

**Todd:** It's the only song I've ever heard of where the *[screenshot of Lil Nas X's Spotify page with Satan's Extended Version of "MONTERO" underlined...]* extended remix didn't clear three minutes. *[...and then its length is circled]* Two minutes and fifty seconds? Jeez, wrap it up already. What is this, a Phish concert?

**Todd:** This is taking forever. *[screenshot of Lil Nas X tweet reading "life's too short to pretend you're not a barb"]* Lil Nas X was originally on Twitter as a Nicki Minaj stan account.

> *Clips of "HOLIDAY"...*
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**Todd (VO):** And now that he's an artist himself, *[...and Nicki Minaj - "Chun Li"]* you can tell he was influenced a lot by Nicki's aesthetic. He wants the big, over-the-top image. But musically, he doesn't sound a thing like Nicki, for better or worse. He doesn't have Nicki's immediately ear-catching voice or technical skill...

**Todd:** ...as a rapper. Arguably, he's not a rapper at all.

**Todd (VO):** So it's funny to see this big, elaborate, controversial video for this extremely short, even unfinished sounding song. It just feels wildly unbalanced to me.

**Todd:** It's like if *[clips of live performance from...]* The Ramones performed with *[...and "Livin' on a Prayer" by...]* Bon Jovi's lasers and pyrotechnics. So what I'm saying is that I have reasons to be suspicious.

**Todd (VO):** As I always am with artists whose music seems secondary to their appeal.

**Todd:** But in this case, I think I'm willing to put that aside.

**Todd (VO):** Even if I'm not sure I really vibe with the song, I recognize that...

**Todd:** ...there is clearly a lot more going on here.

> *Clip of ET News video about Lil Nas X coming out*
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**Todd (VO):** So, a few months into "Old Town Road" mania, Lil Nas X came out as gay. This was something that I didn't see coming.

**Todd:** But now that I think about it, there were signs.

> *Clip of...*
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**Todd (VO):** "Old Town Road" is a depiction of traditional heterosexual masculinity that is...

**Todd:** Not super convincing in hindsight.

> *Clip of "Old Town Road" BET Awards performance*
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> **Lil Nas X:** My life is a movie, bull riding and boobies
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**Todd:** I love boobies! Who doesn't? Also, I did mention *[clip of Lil Nas X tweet from earlier]* that he was a Nicki Minaj stan, right? It wasn't shocking.

> *Clip of CBS News interview from earlier*
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**Todd (VO):** But shocking or not, him being out of the closet is a big deal.

**Todd:** Hip hop has not historically *[brief clip of Eminem - "The Real Slim Shady"]* been very gay friendly, so *[clip of CBS new interview]* a gay rapper who's as famous as he is, that matters. Or just being a black gay man at all, how many of those have there been in music?

> *Montage clips of Prince - "Controversy"; Sylvester - "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)"; Johnny Mathis - "Someone"; Frank Ocean - "Novacane"; Tyler, the Creator - "Bimmer"*
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**Todd (VO):** Prince pretended to be, but he wasn't. There were a couple disco guys, but they weren't nearly as big. You have a few who *were* bigger, but they didn't come out until way after the fact. The only ones who are in the same ballpark are Frank Ocean and Tyler, the Creator, who... are big, but in different ways.

**Todd:** Your mom never listened to *[image of the cover of...]* *Channel Orange*, she might be able to sing "Old Town Road".

**Todd (VO):** But more importantly, "Call Me By Your Name" is not just a number 1 hit by a gay man.

**Todd:** It's about having gay sex.

**Todd (VO):** That has *never* happened. Like I talk sometimes about how being gay is not a big deal anymore, which...

**Todd:** Is a very straight and sheltered thing to say, I know. But in some ways, it isn't.

> *Clip of Taylor Swift - "You Need to Calm Down"*
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**Todd (VO):** When Taylor Swift tried to write a gay rights song, my response was, you know, who cares? Where were you when this mattered? But a song about actually doing gay things, *that* is new. *[clip from* Call Me By Your Name*]* It's even named after a famous gay coming-of-age movie. Like, there is no bullshiting around here. *[screenshot of article "'Montero' Is the Gayest No. 1 Single in Billboard History"]* I saw one article calling it the gayest number 1 hit ever.

> *Clip of Lady Gaga - "Born This Way"*
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And a bunch of people responded to him, like "What about 'Born This Way'?".

**Todd:** You can be straight and sing "Born This Way".

**Todd (VO):** Like, just generally as a positive message of allyship, you can be singing, like, "I'm straight and you're gay, and it's all ok".

**Todd:** Like, they performed that song on *Glee*.

> *Clip of* Glee *performance of "Born This Way"*
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> **Glee Cast:** I'm beautiful in my way
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**Todd (VO):** I don't know that show, but I have to believe one of these characters is straight. *[beat]* Maybe. But you sing "Call Me By Your Name".

**Todd:** You are gay. For the duration of the song, you are gay. It makes no sense otherwise.

> *Montage clips of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Mary Lambert - "Same Love"; Troye Sivan - "Bloom"; Sam Smith - "Stay With Me"*
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**Todd (VO):** Like, I guess that's the big thing for me. Like, I've gotten used to hits about how it's okay to be gay, but not any songs about actually being gay. Like, some have tried but they didn't really manage to go mainstream with it. Others have kept it as subtext. Like, they'll do love songs that are pretty vague about who they're actually addressed to. There's a lot of second person pronouns. "Call Me By Your Name" is a gay song that does not care to hide that it's gay.

**Todd:** Nor does it feel the need to have a positive message.

> **Lil Nas X:** I'm not fazed, only here to sin
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**Todd (VO):** Like, I am glad that he doesn't feel the need to be positive about it. He can just be out there and piss people off with it, and who cares? *[screenshot of Lil Nas X tweet with a letter to his 14 year old self]* Like, he posted something on Twitter about how when he was a kid, he never thought he'd be one of *those* gays who are all public with their sexuality.

**Todd:** And, you know, keeping it lowkey is absolutely an option.

> *Clip of David Bowie video*
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**Todd (VO):** A lot of LGBT pop stars have this wink-wink, are they/aren't they approach to their gayness, or they just buried it altogether. *[clips of R.E.M. live performance...]* If you don't wanna know that Michael Stipe, or even *[...and "Bimmer"]* Tyler, the Creator is gay, you absolutely do not have to.

**Todd:** You can live in blissful ignorance.

**Todd (VO):** That is not the path that Lil Nas X chose.

**Todd:** But the video to me is less shocking than the song, *[clip of "MONTERO" Genius Verified interview]* which is... not only very explicit, but also really sincere.

> **Lil Nas X:** Was hoping I could catch you throwing smiles at my face
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**Todd (VO):** Like, for all that this kid smothers himself in irony, *[clip of Genius interview]* this is pretty direct about being his feelings about a real relationship. About having intense attraction to a guy who...

**Todd:** Seems like kind of a fuckboy.

**Todd (VO):** He's in the closet, he parties too much.

> **Lil Nas X:** Cocaine and drinking with your friends
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> You live in the dark, boy, I cannot pretend
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I don't know if that's a common gay experience, but at least one of my gay friends has described being in this exact scenario to me, so it might be.

> *Clip of Genius interview*
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> **Lil Nas X:** It was, like, the most real and the most, even vulnerable at times, that I've been on a song.
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**Todd (VO):** Like, Lil Nas X being realtable, I- I didn't see that coming. I did not expect this lifelong troll to get real.

**Todd:** Perhaps sincerity is the biggest troll of all.

> *Clip of Genius interview*
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**Todd (VO):** Damn it, Lil Nas X, you got me again.

**Todd:** So with everything that's pretty amazing about this song, I feel bad that I don't really feel it. Cause my reasons are entirely surface level.

**Todd (VO):** I don't hear much of a hook to it, I don't know how to vibe with it, I- I don't really get how you would listen to it. It just doesn't connect for me.

**Todd:** But I think one thing I've learned is that sometimes you've gotta let your opinion not matter if the song's meant for someone else.

**Todd (VO):** Lil Nas X is a gay kid from a small conservative town. I'm a straight guy from the suburbs, I am not the right demographic for this.

**Todd:** Like, no shit you don't feel it. This queer anthem by a black man is not meant for you, Todd. You're... old.

**Todd (VO):** Okay, I'm not actually that old for the record. But Lil Nas X makes me feel *so* old.

**Todd:** I like most Gen Z stuff.

> *Clip of "money machine" by...*
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**Todd (VO):** 100 gecs? They're great, I have no problem understanding them. *[clip of Lil Nas X ft. Nas - "Rodeo" (Remix)]* But Lil Nas X throws me. He makes me worry so much that I'm getting out of touch with the kids.

**Todd:** But then I remembered I wasn't in touch with the kids when I *was* a kid so, you know, there you go.

**Todd (VO):** It could just be that the song is bad and its overhyped and its riding off the video. I'm not saying I *don't* believe that, but plenty of other people *have* listened to this song and said that it is, quote, "a bop". And to me, it just sounds like a rough demo that's missing half of it. Like, what am I *not* getting?

**Todd:** I think part of it is that *I* remember a time before the internet. *[image of Lil Nas X surrounded by some of his Tweets]* But this kid's entire *existence* is the internet. I though I spent too much time online, but Lil Nas X was *born* online. *[images of...]* His DNA is *[...and...]* HTML. *[GIFs of man blinking and woman sipping tea]* His parents are animated GIFs.

**Todd:** He has never lived in a word with *[image of several stacks of...]* CDs. I think he just listens to music differently than I do.

> *Clip of Lil Nas X on TikTok*
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**Todd (VO):** Like, "Old Town Road" got big on TikTok. You know, lots of songs hit big on TikTok, but Lil Nas X is the only one who became a pop star on TikTok. And I feel like that has shaped his entire musical philosophy.

**Todd:** That's why his songs are so short. Like, songs are getting shorter regardless. But him especially. *[clip of "Kiss Me More" by SZA and...]* Doja Cat is also way too online, but her music is fairly normal. Lil Nas X is doing something *completely* different from anyone else right now.

**Todd:** And I can see the positive in that. Like, Lil Nas X may not be like, *[clip of Kanye West ft. Jay Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Bon Iver - "Monster"]* this technical virtuoso like Nicki. But he also *[clip of Nicki Minaj - "Starships"]* doesn't have any of Nicki's most sellout commercial instincts.

**Todd (VO):** He is doing things completely differently. There is not another Lil Nas X right now, I respect that he seems to understand what he's doing, even if I don't. *[sighs]*

**Todd:** I just wish he would throw me a bone.

**Todd (VO):** I'd really like to like this kid's music more than I do. Like, couldn't you just make a Max Martin dance song or something.

**Todd:** What I'm saying is: couldn't you just be more normal. Oh God, that's a terrible thing to ask!

**Todd (VO):** Ah jeez, is Lil Nas X gonna show up behind *me* to snap *my* neck? Maybe I deserve it.

**Todd:** Ohhh, I'm in way over my head, this episode is over.

*Gets up and leaves*

> **Lil Nas X:** Ooooh
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*Closing tag song: South Park - "Hell Isn't Good"*

***THE END***

***"Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" is owned by Columbia Records***

***This video is owned by me***

***THANK YOU TO THE LOYAL PATRONS!!***