Mindy Kaling Channels Her Inner Beyoncé in 'The Office' Music Video
Kelly and Erin's pop duo Subtle Sexuality film their pop song "Male Prima Donna" at the Dunder-Mifflin offices.
There is a lot going in the world currently that is awful and heartbreaking. The goal of this newsletter is to provide a quick boost to lift your spirits, so if you need a pause from what’s happening right now, I hope this can be that for you.
**Quick note: I’m excited to share that I will be at the first Literary Diwali Festival, presented by Yu & Me Books and Brown Girl Bookshelf. It will take place on Nov. 4 in NYC, and I’ll take part in the panel, “The Art of Disruption: South Asian Novels as Agents of Transformation.”
For more info and to register for tickets, click here. Hope to see you there!
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If you watch this video, just know that you’ll get this song stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Not that you’ll mind, because it’s weirdly catchy.
Back in the late 2000s, NBC produced online-only episodes of The Office to take advantage of their talented supporting cast. That includes Subtle Sexuality, a wannabe pop duo made up of Mindy Kaling’s Kelly Kapoor and Ellie Kemper’s Erin.
Their song, “Male Prima Donna,” is a hilarious ode to Kelly’s unrequited love for Ryan. (Sample lyric: “If you even leave me again, I’ll down a bottle of baby aspirin.”) A lot of silly costumes and dancing ensues, with Kelly promising that “when this blows up, I’ll probably go solo like Beyoncé did.”1
A YouTuber commenter noted that “if The Office was set in 2020 Kelly would just make TikToks all day.” So true, and how I wish we could see that!
(The above clip only features the music video itself, but if you want to watch the entire webisode, featuring some familiar faces from Dunder-Mifflin, click here.)
Pop culture recs:
*An ode to the DVD menu, a digital artifact that is sadly aging out of existence.2
*What I miss the most about DVDs are the commentary tracks—so it was great to discover this YouTube channel that collects movie commentary tracks from a wide variety of movies and some TV shows too.
*I never considered reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula before, but Alexander Chee makes a persuasive case about doing so, especially right now. (The essay also includes a dollop of fascinating literary gossip.)
And as always, this week’s fun fact:
Trees can make friends and talk to each other.
(I find that strangely reassuring, especially the idea that they communicate about helping one on another, such as sharing sunlight with their neighbors.)
Thanks for reading! And take care of yourself this week.
Dare I say that Mindy Kaling is kind of the Beyoncé of The Office cast, having gone on to have the one of the most successful and multi-faceted careers since the show ended?
I would have never guessed, but apparently this is the best DVD menu of all time?