Despite Studio Killers’ track, “Jenny,” being released in 2013, its need for revitalization has been made manifest via Kim Petras’ presence on the song. Giving new life to a band that has too often been forgotten, we’re reminded that Studio Killers (also animated) have got just as much right to be put on a pedestal as Gorillaz, presumably their only real counterpart as far as popular animated bands go.
With tinges of “Stereo Love” in the original version, this shortened one still sustains its echoes of The Knife’s “Pass This On” (mainly because of that sweet xylophone) as Petras incorporates her own vocals into a song about lustful obsession easily bordering on Single White Female territory. In fact, the lyrics now compose the sort of narrative one could expect to find on Taylor Swift’s folklore or evermore (at least in the minds of fans wishing that “betty” was a lesbianic track). To boot, we can even look at “Jenny” as vaguely inspired by Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) herself, and the “lesbigay” dynamic she has with her own worshipful best friend, Anita “Needy” Lesnicki (Amanda Seyfried) in the iconic Jennifer’s Body (indeed, if there’s ever a reissue of the movie, this song should be inserted into the soundtrack at some point).
Further, a ditty like “Jenny” has become even more relevant among the cultural zeitgeist of the moment (see also: Euphoria, in which Rue [Zendaya] views her bestie, Jules [Hunter Schafer], as her very own version of Jenny). As lesbianism has given way more to the term “sexual fluidity” (as well as the revelation that the male gender has proven increasingly useless), it’s clear “Jenny” belongs in the queer canon as much as Kim Petras (despite persistent transphobia in said community), whose vocal suffusion onto the song breathes a fresh take into it, while still emphasizing the intense yearning and burning for a friendship to transmute into something more—a theme so often universal in just about every gender permutation, and certainly not limited to the Dawson and Joey cliche.
Together with Chubby Cherry, Petras sings in unison, “Jenny, take my hand/‘Causе we are more than friends/I will follow you until the end/Jenny, take my hand I cannot pretend/Why I never like your new boyfriends/Oh, your love for them won’t last long (forget those amigos).” Jenny seems amenable, if the video is any indication. And her reciprocation proves that, ultimately, at the crux of every long-lasting romance should be a rapport rooted in the strength of a friendship. After all, when sexual desire based on the physical vanishes in old age, all you’ll have to keep you connected to your significant other is an attraction to their mind, and the common interests you’ve always shared. In other words, sapiosexuals are the future.
Thus, Studio Killers give hope that, sometimes, perhaps, it’s worth that gamble on ruining a friendship for the sake of making a girl realize that “we should be lovers instead.” As Tommy Tutone will also attest…granted, things are much creepier in this song as it comes across as stalker-y rather than sweet. He’s not even actually friends with Jenny, after all, so like, what right does he have to call her just because he has her number?
