Is this cool?

Lady Gaga hosted Saturday Night Live this week and did a performance of "Do What You Want What You Want With My Body" (or whatever it's called) wherein she danced with R. Kelly. Except it looked more like a weird mating ritual with aches and pains. Watch.

I love Lady Gaga, even though I don't always love her music. I think she is an awesome blend of weird and fearless and genius, potentially Madonna-grade. But after I watched this, I looked at Mack and asked, genuinely curious, "Was that cool?"

I mean, I remember this performance on SNL and it was definitely cool. I feel pretty sure about that.

My cool thermometer must be out of whack because today I watched Kanye's new video featuring Kim Kardashian's boobs and again, when the screen went still, I realized my brow was furrowed and the only thing going through my head was, "Was that supposed to be cool?"

I think the only song I've ever sort of liked by Kanye is "Gold Digger," and even then I only liked it about a 7. But the beauty of Runaway earned him my respect as an artist. Everything about this scene, from the table setting with grapes everywhere to the ballerinas to the haunting plink of the rickety piano is flawless.

The artistry was everywhere with Kanye then, and when he performed "Runaway" and "Power" on SNL, I found him enchanting.

But this shit with Kim bouncing awkwardly on a motorcycle without a top on and stock video of natural landscapes while the song switches from squeaky R&B to boning-on-a-sink rap, I mean is this cool?

'Cause I'm thinking, unh-unh, honey.

I'm not old yet, and I'm definitely not uptight about my cultural input. I think Miley Cyrus is trashy but I fully support any woman's right to be trashy if that's what makes her happy. I think Kim Kardashian is a gorgeous woman, but a woman as concerned with the way she looks as Kim is shouldn't give a thumbs up to looking like such a rigid, bizarre sex symbol. I think Lady Gaga and Kanye have the potential to be as culturally impactful as Madonna and Michael Jackson, but I don't feel like this recent stuff is good at all... which makes me wonder if lame is the new cool.