Glee featured over 700 musical numbers all through its six-season run, lots of which have develop into essential elements of recent popular culture. Indeed, songs like “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” gained new life due to the present’s band of merry misfits.
However, not each musical quantity generally is a winner, particularly when there have been so many, and Glee has its justifiable share of problematic songs and performances. Whether due to their inappropriate lyrics or the present’s unlucky staging decisions, these musical numbers have aged like milk and develop into particularly controversial by at this time’s requirements.
Updated on June twenty fourth, 2022 by Amanda Bruce: Glee is an extremely robust sequence when it satirizes present choir, and it is also an extremely robust sequence when it earnestly encourages younger artists to comply with their desires. Sometimes, nonetheless, the center group between these two takes falls flat. That occurs with probably the most ill-advised performances within the present. While followers can rewatch Glee to their coronary heart’s content material now that it is accessible to stream on Disney Plus, these are numbers they could need to skip.
Content Warning: The following accommodates references to suicide.
Let’s Have A Kiki / Turkey Lurkey Time
Mash-ups are a staple of Glee. They’re one of many issues that made the present such an immediate hit in season 1. Over time they turned a calling card for the present, with the music division discovering new methods to combine songs that may appear full opposites at first.
Not all mash-ups had been winners although, and arguably the largest loser is the monstrosity that’s “Let’s Have a Kiki / Turkey Lurkey Time.” Performed in season 4 by Rachel, Kurt, and Isabelle, the tune begins robust with the LGBTQ+ anthem “Let’s Have a Kiki.” However, as soon as Rachel erupts into an out-of-the-blue and shoehorned rendition of “Turkey Lurkey Time,” the entire thing descends right into a competition of chaos and cringe.
Don’t Stand So Close To Me / Young Girl
Continuing the pattern of horrible mash-ups, the mix of The Police’s “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” and Gary Puckett & the Union Gap’s “Young Girl” has a particular place in tv hell. There are a lot of things about Glee‘s Rachel that have aged poorly, together with storylines, however her inappropriate infatuation with Mr. Schuester ranks among the many worst.
However, issues develop into much more reprehensible when Mr. Schue decides to sing to Rachel about why she should not be crushing on him and proceeds to serenade her. It’s an uncomfortable and problematic scene, made worse by the truth that Ms. Pillsbury is there and does nothing however swoon whereas Will sings.
Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)
Several wild things happened during Glee‘s many performances, however Dave Karofsky making an attempt to take his life whereas Blaine belted Young the Giant’s “Cough Syrup” was one of the vital extreme and impactful. The episode offers with Karofsky’s scenario surprisingly earnestly, incomes factors for a young scene between Kurt and Karofsky.
However, it loses any goodwill earned by having the Glee membership “dedicate” their Regionals efficiency in Karofsky’s honor and selecting this Kelly Clarkson hit. Performing a tune that claims, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” after a personality simply tried to finish his life shouldn’t be solely tone-deaf however insensitive and crass.
What I Did For Love
In the Season 2 premiere, Rachel meets Sunshine Corazon, an trade pupil from the Philippines with simple expertise. Ever the jealous and controlling fame-seeker, Rachel does all the pieces in her energy to maintain Sunshine away from the New Directions, together with sending her to a crack home. Eventually, Sunshine will get recruited into Vocal Adrenaline, making issues worse for the Glee membership.
Rachel tries to excuse her actions by saying she did them “for love,” however nobody buys it. Still, that does not cease her from belting out A Chorus Line‘s eleven o’clock quantity, “What I Did for Love.” Not solely does the efficiency appear pretend, but it surely additionally feels unearned and useless. In quick, it brings out the worst points of Rachel’s character.
It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World
Quinn got the short end of Glee’s writing stick. After having a well-developed and highly effective being pregnant story in season 1, her character regressed within the following seasons till Dianna Agron ultimately left the sequence. While Quinn’s being pregnant stays her most significant arc within the present, it additionally included some very questionable decisions, primarily her efficiency of James Brown’s iconic tune “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”
Quinn takes the stage backed up by a gaggle of pregnant youngsters, who then do a clumsy choreography whereas she sings. Not solely is Agron’s voice not fitted to such a difficult James Brown tune, however the efficiency itself is past cringeworthy. In the present’s protection, it is purported to be uncomfortable, however that does not make it any much less embarrassing to look at now.
Push It
Glee had plenty of nonsensical musical numbers, however “Push It” went past that. Performed by the New Directions throughout a faculty meeting, “Push It” is, in Sue Sylvester’s phrases, “the most offensive thing (she’s) seen in twenty years of teaching, and that includes an elementary school production of Hair.”
It’s onerous to argue with Coach Sylvester. “Push It” consists of the ladies grinding in opposition to the boys, Artie pretending to smack their backsides, and an entire lot of suggestive dancing. Again, the efficiency is meant to be ridiculous and embarrassing, however contemplating these children are purported to be sixteen, this quantity shortly veers into problematic territory.
Gangnam Style
“Gangnam Style” was a controversial tune even earlier than it obtained the Glee remedy in season 4. The New Directions nonetheless carried out it throughout Regionals, when the theme was “Foreign Hits,” and gave the solo to Tina Cohen-Chang as a result of, in fact, they did.
Tina was one among Glee‘s most underrated characters, the residing embodiment of “always the bridesmaid, never the bride.” Still, having the one Asian character within the membership carry out the Korean tune got here off as a tad insensitive; even Tina factors it out, however she’s so starved for any consideration that she nonetheless agrees to sing it. “Gangnam Style” appears extra like a fever-dream than an precise efficiency, and it is one of many many issues that followers dislike about season 4.
A Little Less Conversation
Mr. Schuester was by no means a task mannequin for instructing, however he no less than tried throughout the first two seasons of Glee. However, all his care disappears by Season 3, changed by a way of entitlement that adopted him in every single place. When a number of college students complain about his outright racist practices, most notably “Taco Tuesday,” Will decides to enroll in a Spanish lesson taught by Ricky Martin, AKA, David MartÃnez.
In true Glee trend, Santana and David carry out a shocking rendition of “La Isla Bonita.” Will then seems dressed as a Spanish torero and performs a jarring Spanglish rendition of “A Little Less Conversation” that features a mariachi band and Brittany and Mike dressed as bulls. Santana calls him out for treating Spanish as a joke and never a second too quickly. The entire efficiency is insulting, and it is genuinely surprising that the present’s writers went forward with it.
Blurred Lines
As the Glee membership’s chief, Mr. Schuester wasn’t afraid to affix his college students in tune. He carried out with them a number of occasions, usually surpassing the boundaries of applicable pupil/trainer conduct. Nowhere is that this lack of boundaries extra clear than in his efficiency of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.”
Mr. Schue performs this outright offensive tune throughout Season 5, joined by a refrain of scholars twerking round him. The tune’s lyrics are unhealthy sufficient, however Mr. Schue’s willingness to permit college students to bounce round and, in some instances, inappropriately near him is arguably the worst factor the trainer ever did.
Gimme More
Some followers willingly ignore a few of Glee‘s most problematic elements. However, not even probably the most passionate Gleeks can forgive the present’s unfair and merciless remedy of Britney Spears throughout the now-infamous Season 4 episode “Britney 2.0.” The story sees Brittany breaking down equally to Spears’ very public 2007 difficulties. The present goes as far as to recreate a few of her most susceptible moments, together with her infamous 2007 VMA efficiency.
Spears granted the present the rights to her whole music catalog, hoping for one among Glee‘s well-known tributes. Instead, Glee outright mocked her, lowering her struggles to a punchline. In the wake of the #FreeBritney motion, “Britney 2.0” turns into the proper instance of how unfair and merciless the media behaved in the direction of Spears.
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Glee: 10 Musical Numbers That Have Aged Poorly
Source: Panapanahon News
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