In another case of people perhaps assuming that once enough time passes in the pop culture realm, it opens up a free-for-all opportunity to copy and/or “extrapolate” certain “elements” for oneself, Doja Cat and SZA’s new video for “Kiss Me More” (which somehow reminds one, title-wise, of Rihanna’s “Kiss It Better”) is essentially a neo-“Oops!…I Did It Again”—no matter how much anyone tries to bill it as some The Odyssey shit because Doja and SZA are “sirens” luring their astronaut (played by Grey’s Anatomy’s Alex Landi) like some kind of interplanetary Odysseus. And even if the duo and their director, Warren Fu, had managed to get away with the heavy “homage” (alas, if only “Oops!…I Did It Again” wasn’t such an iconic video, complete with the ever-imitated red catsuit–here’s looking at you, Miley), the whole “sexy girl in outer space” concept has already been well-played out since around the time of Barbarella. To that end, Britney herself couldn’t help but become susceptible to another “oops…I did it again” moment with 2015’s “Pretty Girls” video featuring Iggy Azalea (which offered a riff on 1988’s Earth Girls Are Easy).
But, once again, everything old is new again. Thus, we have Landi arriving on the planet with the announcement, “Oxygen levels: stable.” It harkens back to the opening of the Britney video with a screen that reads, “Entering Mars orbit,” before a flight controller speaks into the microphone to demand of Britney’s space boy, “Earth to Mars lander. Report status, please.” Walking along the surface of Mars, he describes, “Gravity device status: effective. Oxygen status: ninety-eight percent.” The man back down on Earth further inquires, “Any sign of habitation?” Space Boy replies, “Not so much as a—whoa there, horsey!” It’s at that moment, naturally, that the astronaut finds a rock with Britney’s image imprinted on it. How very Lascaux indeed. “Cute. What is it?” Earth Man wonders. Space Boy continues the objectification with, “Oh it’s cute all right. It couldn’t be…” Right then, a city seems to spring up before the astronaut’s very eyes. “Mars lander, what’s happening up there?” Earth Man wants to know. But Space Boy cannot come up with any logical riposte when he sees Britney and her slew of underlings then materialize to show him how they dance on Mars, lulling him into submission before Britney throws the signal to have him snagged by being pulled up with a chain. A Mars diva needs her sex slave, after all (a fact implied but not “fully realized” during the repressed era during which this video was released).
When she’s done mugging for the camera from an aerial perspective, she then flips right on over to her freshly caught astronaut and pulls his helmet off, allowing for a decidedly dated special effect that reveals what happens to earthlings who lose their oxygen supply. The same phenomenon doesn’t quite occur for the leading man in Doja Cat and SZA’s outer space realm, where they appear to rule together in order to take Brit Brit’s place in the far reaches of the galaxy. And it looks as though the two each possess their own form of “crystal ball” in order to see what little pieces of earthling male candy might wash up on their shores. And wash up he does, so to speak. First appearing in the “desert” and then seeing a boat “magically” arrive at the edge of the sand, he decides “instinctually” to get on it—perhaps, like all of us, forgetting that there isn’t really such a thing as free will.
It doesn’t take him long, as he goes on his watery journey (yes, there’s plenty of wet ass pussy imagery, in case you couldn’t yet pick up on it), to catch sight of a giant Doja Cat lying prostrate on her own little island. This gives a certain Pam Anderson effect in the video for Lit’s “Miserable.” Soon, the lyrics showcase themselves to be quintessentially Doja Cat lowbrow when she “raps,” “I, I feel like fuckin’ somethin’/But we could bе corny, fuck it/Sugar, I ain’t no dummy, dummy.” She asserts this while dancing between two giant cats. Because, yes, once again we must iterate that the kind of kiss she really wants is on a different set of lips.
Meanwhile, our astronaut is also wowed by a giant version of SZA posing next to Doja as he begins to reach the end of his “ride.” Or really, he’s only about to start it as he arrives at the opening to a cave in the shape of lips that will soon open up (ah, the subtlety continues) to let him in. The “astronaut in space” motif makes ample sense, of course, being that Doja’s next album is slated to be called Planet Her. And she’s clearly laying all the groundwork for what such a planet might entail. Though again, it has to be said that Britney Spears was always the original Elon Musk.
Grabbing some very “pussy-like” fruit from a tree (it could also double as shellfish, to be honest), the astronaut sucks from it for added innuendo, then becomes delirious after drinking from it as the cave opens for him. He awakens on a “bed” (if a pink, satiny sheet on the ground counts) where both Doja and SZA await to pleasure and be pleasured by him. Unfortunately for the astronaut, his enjoyment is short-lived—just as was the case for Britney’s own Space Boy. He finds himself “glitching out” before realizing too late he’s submerged in some “fluid” of a different variety than what might have poured forth from the vaginal canals of Doja and SZA. That’s right, instead he’s trapped in a test tube as we hear the reminder being told to him, “Your mission is to observe and study Planet Her only. Do not engage the local inhabitants.” So much for that.
Like most concepts that are “borrowed,” Doja and SZA do try to put their own “unique” spin on the Britney-helmed motif of being space queens who attract the lovesick attention of an astronaut. Which is why, at the end, the “twist” of it all is that they’re just playing a little video game that happens to require use of real astronauts from “Ee-arth” (as Doja pronounces it) in order to wield their avatars. Yes, you could say there’s a Black Mirror quality to it. And also the pilot episode of the original Twilight Zone, where another astronaut awakens to realize he was in a simulation (or hallucination, if you prefer) all along. Alors oui, that’s a whole lot of rippin’ off (Doja’s modus operandi of late, if the “Streets” video is any indication). But mainly from the continued Space Queen that is the legendary Miss Britney Spears.
Video aside, while some might think we’re ready for a message like “Kiss Me More” “post”-pandemic, it still feels too soon to be encouraging such free-flowing physical contact. But Doja assumes, “We’re so young, boy/We ain’t got nothin’ to lose.” Ah, but it’s precisely then that one has the most to lose. As Britney can tell you.
