The Big Mood: Toulouse the limelight-stealing terrier
One week, one mood: Moya Lothian-Mclean’s deep-dive into the feel of the week.
Culture
Words: Moya Lothian-Mclean
The internet has sounded the death knell for sincerity. It doesn’t matter the subject; stopping Kony, circling a petition, writing a deranged thread about the need to respect lamas…
…anything that demands you stop laughing and take it seriously will inevitably be greeted by a chorus of ‘HAHAs’ louder than any produced by Nelson Muntz. Someone’s always ready with a snarky Quote Tweet or cruelly funny parody, ready to turn your worthy attempt at earnestness into the day’s viral entertainment. Thems the breaks!
So it is this week, as a cavalcade of farcical scene-stealers emerged to re-direct the spotlight from the intended beneficiaries. All are deserving of the title of Big Mood; they’ve worked hard to be ridiculous in the public eye and are being recognised accordingly.
In the Wimbledon stands it was a red-faced and emotional John Bercow, spotted disrupting Roger Federer’s post-match signings by bellowing loudly and emphatically: “We love you Roger, all of us!” (question: who is the all? Is Bercow speaking on behalf of the whole country? The Parliament? Questions abound). Sadly Roger ignored the sentiment.
Elsewhere Disney dropped the first trailer for their ‘too big not to fail’, live-action reboot of The Lion King which stars Beyoncé and Childish Gambino and Seth Rogen and James Earl Jones and just about every famous person who could possibly be involved. Unfortunately, it looks like absolute horse shit.
Taking the Bill O’Reily approach to rebooting films (FUCK IT, WE’LL DO IT LIVE), rather than just uh… coming up with new ideas has, I’d argue, largely backfired. And it turns out, there’s a reason the original Lion King worked with standard animation – it’s because realistic-ass animals singing looks fucking ridiculous. This was immediately noted upon the trailer’s release and the triumphant ‘Look Beyoncé is in our film!’ moment quickly transformed into ‘Why does that lion have Beyoncé’s voice, this is horrific, please make it stop’.
But top dog (intended) of faintly ridiculous limelight hogs and therefore, The Big Mood of the week is Toulouse, Ariana Grande’s rat-faced little terrier, who stole all the attention when they were shot together by Annie Leibowitz for the cover of Vogue. Why do famous people love ugly dogs so much? Is it because they’re surrounded by too much beauty and glamour already? So they get a yappy, beady-eyed little scrote for a pet?
Anyway, Grande gave an incredibly candid interview about trauma and relationships and her constant healing process but also… that sad-eyed dog is just sitting there, undermining it all with its blank, placid stare. Big mood.
