Katy Perry’s Flop Era: Bad Music, Bad Press, and Space with Jordan Myrick and Kendahl Landreth | 98

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Y'all, when I found out Katy Perry's tour was coming here to Austin, I went to go and check out tickets.

You would not believe how much they cost.

Like, I couldn't imagine paying that much money back in her heyday.

It is so wild the lengths some celebrities will go to stage their comeback.

Like, I don't know, maybe going to space?

Girl, this is not an SNL sketch.

It's real life.

Now, while some people might have forgot about Katie between her Super Bowl halftime show and her trip to space, today we'll be spilling some tea.

Our girl Katie has been flopping for years.

23, I got my first big break.

Thank God I didn't get it any earlier because I, you know, it's just like rejection sometimes is God's protection.

And now I'm taking up space, bitch.

I'm taking up space.

And there you can see the crew of six taking in everything that this mission had to offer.

Katie Perry jumped out of the aircraft and kissed the ground in a painfully cringe moment that has been roasted online.

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Why are there ridges on Reese's peanut butter cups?

Probably so they never slip from her hands.

Could you imagine?

I'd lose it.

Luckily, Reese has thought about that.

Wonder what else they think about?

Probably chocolate and peanut butter.

From Wondery and at Will Media, this is The Big Flop, where we chronicle the greatest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time.

I'm your host, Misha Brown, social media superstar, and I kissed a girl and didn't like it at your bestie Misha.

And on our show today, I'm so excited because we have the co-hosts of the very funny podcast, Happy Wife, Happy Life.

It's Jordan Myrick and Kendall Landreth.

Welcome Welcome to the show.

Thanks for having us.

Oh my gosh, I'm so happy.

Okay, before we get in today's episode, are you more of a California girl or a dark horse?

Well, I'm a huge fan of California.

I'm California's number one fan.

I grew up here.

I love California, so I'd say I'm a California girl.

I also, I just can't be a dark horse.

I wish I was a dark horse, but I'm not.

Okay.

Yeah, I think I am

like cusp because I echo all of Kendall's sentiments about California.

We are addicted to the state of California, but I would say I have goth undertones.

Okay.

I feel that.

I love that.

You're California girl rising and then dark horse.

Moon.

Moon.

There we go.

Well, today we're talking about none other than Miss Katie Perry, a reigning queen of pop music, not that many years ago.

Now, she's got the eye of the tiger.

She's a fighter, dancing through the fire, a champion, and you're going to hear her flop.

So, if I told you 10 years ago that we'd be sitting here roasting Katy Perry's more recent career decisions, what would you think?

Well, first of all, I'm appalled we're doing it now.

So, I would have been shocked 10 years ago, and I'm even more shocked now.

As a person who's attended the Vegas residency recently, hey, not a flop.

Not a flop insight for me.

Yeah, I think that if you were to tell me 10 years ago that Katy Perry like can no longer dance and she was friends with a bunch of billionaires, I would be like, yeah, 100%.

I love her.

Oh, I loved her.

I loved her.

I can't say I love her anymore.

I think she's so bad and so wrong.

I don't understand what she's doing.

She's betraying all gay people.

I'm sad.

I wish it had gone a different way.

Absolutely.

Katy Perry, she's a household name.

She's gone multi-platinum over and over again.

She's headlined an extremely memorable Super Bowl halftime show.

But let's back up all the way to the early years of this California girl.

Now, Kate Hudson, yes, that's Perry's real name, just like the famous actress, is born in Santa Barbara, California in October of 1984, just a few days before Halloween.

Fun.

We love it.

Now, even though Katy Perry was born so close to Halloween, her family will not be celebrating.

There will be no adorable spooky onesies for baby Katie or trick-or-treating when she's a little bit more grown up.

And that's that's because her parents are very, very religious.

So much so that they run their own Pentecostal church.

Now, Halloween, just like most fun things, is a pagan tradition and therefore associated with devil worship.

Even the word devil or eating anything devilish is forbidden.

Like that means no deviled eggs, no devil's food cake.

Like, and I am not joking.

Literally.

I've seen conservative people call them angel eggs, which is wild to me.

But I'm also like, how did they end up in Santa Barbara?

That's not a place where you go to start your own Pentecostal church.

Maybe the calling was there, these people really need Jesus.

And she came all the way to killing a nun,

full circle, she's done a full circle.

Actually, knowing that story, what you just said about her family, I'm like, it actually was more of a hero's journey than we thought.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

It was noble when she killed that nun, absolutely, especially because when she was growing up, she was not brought up to question things.

It was like,

this is how things are.

Now, luckily, Perry discovers she has some musical talent, except she's not allowed to listen to or perform secular music at all.

Her parents do have some connections in the gospel music industry, and off to Nashville she goes.

And by the time she's 16, Perry completes her first album.

It's a contemporary Christian rock EP called Katie Hudson.

Now, the sound/slash vibe is

pious evanescence, but worse.

Ugh, that sounds like a font.

I don't even know what that is.

Absolutely.

I think that's evil.

I think the only white people who should be allowed to do gospel music are Switchfoot.

Because I do think that one song was really good.

But other than that, I think white people should not be allowed to touch gospel music.

I think it should be illegal.

Okay, question.

What if I said it was white people who scat in the gospel music?

I think they should be shot in the head.

Silence or rifle.

Corporal punishment.

Absolutely.

Immediately.

I don't believe in corporal punishment, but that I do.

Just that one instance.

Her album only sells 200 copies.

200 copies is like Girl Scouts sell more cookies than that.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, you have more neighbors to buy things from you than just 200 copies.

Especially if you live in Santa Barbara.

Yeah, that's wild to me.

That tells me not only was it bad, they were hated, those people, that family, the husband.

She wasn't working hard.

I'm like, you need to be going door to door.

That's insane.

Yeah, absolutely.

Or maybe just God had other plans for her.

I guess so.

Well, after her breakthrough album fails to break through, Perry returns home to Santa Barbara and she briefly works at an antique shop while she figures out next steps.

And then at age 17, she moves to Los Angeles to try her hand at the forbidden secular music her parents warned her about.

They're not happy about this turn of events, but Perry, she learns to live with it.

Now, young Perry, she has promise.

She starts collaborating with one of Alanis Morissette's producers.

And that's a huge deal, especially for Perry, who has come to idolize Morissette.

And they spend three years writing and producing an album.

And while that's happening, Perry even gets asked to become a lead vocalist in a band.

But both her solo album and her group project fail to launch.

So Perry then spends the next three years borrowing money from her parents and trying to find a new way to break into the music biz.

What is with these people who hate their parents using their money?

I have so many friends that they're like, Oh, my parents, I don't speak.

I hate my parents, I hate my parents, but they're like freelance and they also don't work.

And I'm like, What's going on here?

And they're like, Well, my parents pay for my rent.

I'm like, I'm sorry, that is really awesome because I feel like

that's insane to like not speak to your parents.

You hate your parents, but they're like, Yeah, I mean, she's like, worships the devil, but we'll send her a couple books.

We'll send her a couple, she'll come around one more 20 and she'll come around.

so in 2007 perry she gets her big break and she signs with capital records one of the biggest labels in the industry she's paired up with lukish gottwald aka dr luke a talented and we'll see later problematic music producer

and he helps her make i kissed a girl

and it's a hit overnight sensation she is of course you want to sing some no thank you so much for asking.

And you don't want Kendall to sing some either.

This was never the way I planned.

Not my intention.

Wow.

Loved it.

I do want to know: is there any background since you appear to be a historian on the subject?

Did she kiss a girl or is that just a song Dr.

Luke wrote for her because he's a pervert?

Right, right, right.

He wanted to consensually kiss a girl one time.

Katy Perry said, I kissed a girl.

Truth be told, I did more than that.

I'm not buying it.

Sorry.

I believe it.

I think it's a PR stunt.

I don't think she did it.

I bet she did have sex with a girl, but it is like she can't not talk about it.

Anytime you get dinner with her, she's like, well, yeah, I had sex with a girl.

I'm also like, what kind of sex did she have?

I think there was like maybe some light fingering.

I don't think that she's done full, you know what I, I'm like, her face has not been near a crotch.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I feel that.

Well, just like how we feel about whether she kissed a girl or not, that's how people received this song.

Some people hate it, like conservatives think it's outrageous, hedonistic slop.

And then other folks think it's outrageous, exploitative, also slop.

Either way, she's so naughty.

But, you know, she can't please everybody, but the single does go multi-platinum, so who really cares, right?

Now, summer of 2010, Perry reaches astronomical heights.

Her sophomore album, Teenage Dream,

solidifies Perry's pop diva status, okay?

It has five number one singles, which is unheard of, except for the one time Michael Jackson did it in 1987.

So other than the very real possibility that Perry might have signed a contract with Satan herself, how do you explain the success of Teenage Dream?

I think it was at a time when we needed it.

I think it was fun and easy, but I think that whoever writes her music does an incredible job at just writing something that's both catchy and vague.

Firework is so vague.

Is Last Friday Night on that album?

That music video, I did not really grow up in a music video time.

We were not like all huddling around watching music videos.

We were watching last Friday Night's music video.

We were obsessed with it.

Firework, same thing, honestly, where it's like, what was it?

Like a plastic bag comes in and it's like a girl with cancer and she's like screaming at her that she's worth something.

Yeah, like, I don't think she's, doesn't think she's worth something.

I think she's sad she has cancer, but I, they're like, they were just so iconic in that way.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I do think the theatrics of her, I think, especially coming off of like the era of Lady Gaga when things were a little more grungy, a little more dark, a little more like adult.

And then her just being so bubblegum, it was just the complete opposite, but still had that like that very much over-the-top theatrics to it, which I think probably helped.

So, here's a question: What's your all-time favorite Katy Perry cartoon-ish dessert bra?

We've got a few to choose from.

Oh, thank God.

We have pictures of these in our house, but we don't want to have to leave the room.

I mean, for me, the blue hair, first of all, was so good.

And I don't think I've ever seen someone like to me.

I'm like, she should have stuck with that color, which is crazy.

But I love the blue hair with the with the pink cupcakes.

Yeah.

Yeah, I would have to say Hershey's kisses because

while it's not the most flashy, I love Hershey's kisses and also breasts.

So it felt like a real kind of homage to me personally, which is really special.

Yeah, I love that.

Well, amid all of this growing success, Perry lands a cameo role in a movie called Get Him to the Greek, where she meets actor Russell Brand and they quickly fall in love before marrying in 2010.

Maybe this is another clue that she's in league with the devil.

Brand and Perry actually get married in a traditional Hindu wedding.

For the record, neither of them is Hindu, but Brand has dabbled in Buddhism and all their religions, so close enough.

He is also British, and his people do have a long history of appropriating Asian goods and culture.

So absolutely.

She would have really been thriving in the time when Kabbalah

was

everything to us, when when everyone was wearing that little red strand bracelet, Madonna and all these other celebrities kind of like rode the Kabbalah wave and are still relatively fine.

I think he missed the boat on that, tried to do the whole religious thing too late.

No one joined.

And now he's just a huge loser.

Huge.

This does appear to be something that Brand and Perry have in common because you may not even remember that they ever get married because the relationship dissolves very quickly and Brand breaks it off after about a year he texts her right before she's about to go on stage for a performance yeah i remember watching that in the documentary and crying so hard that i couldn't breathe

why i don't know i don't care about them at all

you can you know like because she responded in kind of a first heartbreak way sure after my first girlfriend broke up with me i was sent home from work i worked as a canoe rental woman and i was crying too much at my canoe rental station and the other canoe rental women were already crying a lot so the fact that Kenneth was crying that much to be sent home says a lot.

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So, Perry brushes off her first failed Hollywood marriage like a pro and records more albums.

In 2013, she releases Prism, which features singles Roar and Dark Horse.

Most of her tracks are a collaboration with music producer Dr.

Luke, who at this time is very in demand on the pop scene.

He's a huge part of her career trajectory.

Now, in subsequent years, that is going to go off of the rails, but we'll just put a pin in that for a minute.

People quickly notice that a song by Sarah Borelis called Brave sounds very similar to Roar.

To be quite honest, both Roar and Brave are very generic four-chord pop ballads that sound like a million other songs, but people immediately assume Perry is plagiarizing, mashing up the songs to prove there's wrongdoing.

Now, the question is why do they immediately latch onto this?

I think it's because she's been in everyone's ears for a couple of years, so the public feels like they can finally be free to hate on her.

Oh, yeah.

So the shine is off the apple, or I guess the cream has fallen off the cupcake-shaped bikini top, if you will.

But Perry does need to reinvent herself, but that's also risky.

Sexy Candy Girl is getting stale.

So, how about cultural appropriation girl?

In 2013, Perry performs at the American Music Awards in a kimono surrounded by dancers in Japanese-inspired clothing, holding ornate fans against a backdrop of cherry blossoms.

Some people love it, but a lot of people think it's offensive.

Any opinions either way or the other?

I feel crazy because I don't remember this.

Do you remember this?

Yeah, I remember this.

I think.

I thought you were going to say, so she tried doing alien stuff because that's what she, I was like, yeah.

That's what you remember being next.

Yes, that's what I remember being next.

But okay, I don't remember this.

I thought it was stupid.

It felt like really grasping at straws.

I think that she was trying to go full Gwen Stefani.

And unfortunately, all cultural appropriation is bad, but no one will ever do it as well as Gwen Stefani.

Sure.

So I think Katy Perry was like, I'm gonna do the Gwen Stefani.

People really liked that.

Katy Perry just feels fake to me.

And when she was leaning into the fakeness of it all of like, she's an adult woman being like, I'm candy girl.

It's like, well, we know that's not true.

So it feels kind of like fun and ironic.

So then when she's like, no, I'm going to now do culture.

It feels wrong.

Yeah.

Sure.

Sure.

And I mean, she leans into it as well.

It wasn't just this one moment.

Like there's the hit dark horse and the video features Perry as Cleopatra, who happens to be an evil sorceress, and she's being wooed by various suitors dressed as powerful Egyptians.

But this video leads to a change.org petition calling out Perry as a blasphemer.

Katy Perry and a lot of other people forget that Cleopatra was a person from a place.

I think people think that she is essentially like

Captain America.

They're like, that's a character that I have that I can thank Party City for that.

Exactly.

I think they were like, that's a character.

And so I think she forgot.

I do think she's a blasphemer, though.

I will say there was one moment, though, that I truly was like, the blasphemy is getting out of control.

In her performance of the song at the Grammys, she portrayed a witch who pole dances using a broom.

And I'm sorry, that is purposefully blasphemous to pilgrims.

Uh-huh.

Yep.

So, and I haven't liked her ever since.

I've never forgiven her.

Yeah.

That is where you draw the line.

And that's the tea.

That's why we're having this podcast episode today.

Because that's your cultural background, right?

You come from the Pilgrims?

I've come from the Pilgrims, I guess.

Yeah.

Well, around this time, Perry also gets on the bad side of pop history because of her gigantic feud with Taylor Swift.

Uh-oh.

Now, there is way too much involved in that to unpack in this episode, but as fans take sides, Katie's pop star dominance becomes very precarious.

But even amidst the controversy, she successfully headlines the 2015 Super Bowl halftime show, Never Forget Left Shark.

Now, 2015, I mean, with all of this going on in real time, I was, I guess, busy twirling on my own stages.

I wasn't really aware of like problematic sides of Katy Perry popping up.

What team were you on?

Were you still like ride or die for Katie in 2015?

Or was this on your radar?

This was not on my radar.

I didn't really, I remember people being mad about the dark horse stuff, but to my recollection, she was like pretty quickly like, my bad.

Like, I don't remember it being such a like huge, long-standing issue.

And I feel like a lot of her appropriation of the African-American community came later to my recollection.

But this was all before I would say I was really tapped into pop culture.

But I was still a fan, and I'm not a Swifty.

So that feud did not affect me at all.

Absolutely.

I also think that probably a lot of the reason why these problematic things exist, but maybe they weren't like in the forefront of our like brains and memory is because we have to remember, like, we're in a whole new age of social media where like these things today, like she wears a costume like that and it's like over on TikTok.

You know what I mean?

It would be everywhere, but I don't think that

life wasn't like that in 2015.

No.

But in 2016, things were looking up.

for Miss Perry.

A year has passed since Taylor's release of Bad Blood and she's still in pretty good public standing.

She also meets and falls in love with actor Orlando Bloom.

But then there was another snafu.

She performs at the Democratic National Convention and she gives a short speech.

So both of my parents are pastors and staunch Republicans.

I didn't finish high school and unfortunately I don't have a formal education.

But I do have an open mind and I have a voice.

So I'm asking you to have an open mind and to use your voice because on November 8th, you'll be just as powerful as any NRA lobbyist.

You'll have as much say as any billionaire.

Or you can just cancel out your weird cousin's vote if you like.

Because remember, it's not where you come from, it's what you grow into.

So here's how I'm going to use my voice.

I'm going to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Wait, am I losing the thread?

I don't think that's that bad.

Why was I moved?

Why was I moved, actually?

Am I not okay?

Why did I say

I thought she was going to say a slur, so I was braced.

I'm like holding our desk.

Why did people not like that?

So I think at first, I think people just thought, saw her as like too much of a limousine liberal.

But then what really happened and what the downfall was was that when Clinton loses her bid for president in November, Perry gets a lot of that blowback by association.

No, I'm sorry.

That's wild.

I would love for it to have been Katy Perry's fault.

Unfortunately, it wasn't.

I think that it does make her seem stupid when she goes.

I did not finish high school.

I did not have, you know, so you didn't finish high school because you wanted to move to LA and be a pop star and your parents footed the bill and you are from Santa Barbara.

Like that not, to me, that feels like when someone's like, I'm a single mom and you're like, oh, okay.

And then you find out that they are divorced and both they and their husband share custody and they are rich.

I'm like,

that's not what people don't say it like that, meaning that people are thinking, Reba, people aren't thinking, you know, like you and your rich husband who works for like ExxonMobil doing joint custody.

You know what I'm saying?

Yes, ma'am, you have an au pair.

Yes, and that's what Katie is giving to me in that moment.

Well, she's back to music.

In 2017, her album, Witness, receives mixed reviews, and it only has one single in the top 10 slot on Billboard, a song called Chain to the Rhythm.

Witness is deemed too experimental,

and now Perry has revealed herself to be somewhat politically conscious, so that's not sexy, unfortunately.

So, whether it was the music or the politics, something's changed about Katie.

And maybe it was her new haircut.

This was her big transformation moment.

What was the hair?

The pixie hair.

The pixie cutter.

The pixie cut.

Oh, Lord.

I did not like it.

I did not like it.

This was the birth of the pixie cut.

She got this haircut and American Idol called her and said, it's actually the time in your career where you have to be a judge, Prussia.

Yeah.

No more performing.

It was not good.

Yeah.

This is giving midlife crisis.

that's what happens you become a judge on a competition reality show yes you have to come sit next to lionel ritchie now yes there we go perhaps this haircut is why dramatic pause orlando bloom breaks up with perry i would i would have broken up with her too JK, it's not the haircut, but they do have some turbulence and they separate, which leaves Perry pretty broken for a time.

By 2018, Perry's public image is really kind of all over the place.

Besides her needing to bounce back from the lackluster album, she's also one of the few popular singers who defends her longtime producer, Dr.

Luke, in court when he's accused in civil court by Kesha of sexual assault.

What a joke.

What is the end game of stuff like that?

There's some people, and I'm sure there's stuff behind the scenes I don't know about.

Well, I'm sure of that.

If I had to guess, yeah.

Because I know nothing about what's going behind the scenes with Dr.

Luke.

But I feel like there's some celebrities where they start speaking out.

I mean, I guess it's like the JK rolling of it all.

Or with danny masterson the guy from the guy from that 70s show yeah like sexually assaulted all those women and then so many people were like he actually has always been really nice to meet on the stage legally in court and i'm like cool kill him who cares no one came out and was like dr luke would never do this no kesha is a liar and he's bad instead they're like listen this industry is big and life is long and music is art thank you and i'm like what so it's that to me it's like you're not even like, this is my friend and I have his back and I know he didn't do it.

You're just like such a coward.

Can't you just give the same speech to like, you're giving the same speech you gave at the DMC.

I am voting for Hillary Clinton.

So the lawsuit is eventually settled without Dr.

Luke admitting any wrongdoing, but many a pop star end up taking Kesha's side in the fight, including T.

Swift, Lady Gaga, and Ariana Grande, Queens.

Now, from this point on, Perry is in a precarious spot.

And so it's time for another pivot.

And what should Perry do to bring herself back into the spotlight?

She becomes a judge on the rebooted American Idol.

She reminds me so much of, if you ever watched 30 Rock, Jenna.

She is literally Jenna from 30 Rock.

Where she, what does she say?

She's like, well, I will be willing to go gay or cowboy.

Yeah, it's like she, but then that's Katy Perry.

In 2020, Katy Perry is still a judge on American Idol, which might be a tad tad embarrassing, but hey, a gig is a gig.

So true.

And Perry has also gotten back together with Orlando Bloom and their with child.

In August, Perry gives birth to their daughter, Daisy.

And two days later, she gives metaphorical birth to her sixth studio album called Smile.

Now, even though the album is released during a relatively happy time in Perry's life, it comes after a few rocky years and features songs about her breakup with Bloom, her disappointing fifth album, and all of the public backlashes.

And to hammer the point home, the cover artwork features Perry as a sad clown.

What songs are on this album?

Daisy.

Daisy, for sure.

What's that?

Sing it, girl.

I actually don't, I don't know.

You love to sing.

I remember hearing it in concert, but I was so drunk.

I was like literally drunker than I've ever been.

Okay, but I like it.

I remember, I think it's like night.

It's like a nice song.

There's a song about her last album doing badly that's not a good that's pretty embarrassing i mean we all go through our joker phase in our careers where we question our craft and consider doing evil but she did this and the reviews for this album smile were not great so given all that you know about katy perry what would be your next move Join OnlyFans, I think would have been a pivot that made sense.

I think like, no, she needs to take a break from music so people can miss it.

Sure.

And then come back to it.

And then there's like a nostalgia factor to it.

I have two avenues.

I can't decide because I think my instinct is like she has to go full camp.

It's like she has to know who she is.

She has to go back to those early days, but in a new way that's almost like making fun of the old days, but in a fun way, whatever.

But my second option is I am like, I think there's a world where she becomes completely like a trad wife and then like posts photos and videos and then like starts her own like protein powder brand or something that's like made on her farm.

So I think she could go like that and then like have a couple more kids and like really post a lot about that and then go take that audience and go back to her gospel roots and do kind of a rustic but pop-ish type country gospel thing.

That would have been cool.

It's like a one-take music video.

It's like her sitting in a field.

And it's like, it's called like Katy Perry Raw.

Yeah, just like sunflowers.

I see the vision.

Well, you both were like right around what she actually did.

And that was the Las Vegas residency.

It was the move.

That was her next move, which, like Kendall, it went right back to her roots.

It was back to the cartoonish, like colorfulness.

You saw the show, you said.

Her residency in Las Vegas, it was called Play, and it's actually her first critical and financial success in a long time.

It was great.

Yeah, it was one of the highest-grossing female-led Vegas shows in history and makes over $45 million by the time it closes in 2023.

It's got dancing robots, dancing mushrooms, giant toilets, and a singing piece of poop.

Like, tell us about the show.

What do you remember?

it was so Vegas it's so great it's so amazing we were talking about this the other day because I was talking about on America's Got Talent how it's like you get a Vegas residency and I'm always like that is so weird some of these people that win I'm like it's like one girl playing an acoustic guitar and she's 12 years old Grace Vander Waal is gonna have a Vegas residency like when I'm on LSD I don't want to go see Grace VanderWaal in concert like these are people not that I've ever done LSD in Vegas I'm not that cool but I am just like if you're having fun in Vegas you want to go to a show like that that is such a perfect Vegas residency show so I think it was just absolutely the right right move I was like she should just do this forever literally and I agree with Kendall on that I think it was like it was so good she's one of those people kind of like pink where you just forget how many hits they have

where all of a sudden you're like oh my god she's played 30 songs and I know every word to every single one of them it's fun she like gets up there she like talks just enough but not too much what she says like doesn't really make sense but she's a good performer she has a presence Like, I do think there is like an X factor

essence.

It's just this kind of energy of like, that's a famous person.

I love that.

I didn't, I didn't get a chance to see it.

So love to hear that.

Now, one thing about her residency, there is reporting that the hotel, which hosted Perry's residency, lost a quarter of a million dollars every single performance.

But that's like, that's like a

I don't know, but that's a damn problem.

That does not feel related.

That does not feel related.

Yeah, because, well, we stayed there.

I've stayed there twice now.

We had a nice experience at this hotel in these two times.

And I don't understand.

If the show was making so much money, how was the hotel losing?

Well, maybe Katy Perry was a good luck charmer.

So everyone's going out and doing slots after.

That's it.

It's witchcraft.

It was her witchcraft.

Wow.

It's her doing pole dancing on the broom.

It's her pole dancing on the broom that did it.

It was the long con.

How hard is it to kill a planet?

Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere.

When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene.

Are we really safe?

Is our water safe?

You destroyed our town.

And crimes like that, they don't just happen.

We call things accidents.

There is no accident.

This was 100%

preventable.

They're the result of choices by people.

Ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime.

These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet.

Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it.

Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

It's your man, Nick Cannon.

I'm here to bring you my new podcast, Nick Cannon at Night.

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Once Perry wraps up her show in 2023, she's ready to be done with American Idol and reclaim her throne with an album that's better than ever.

The first single from the upcoming album is released in July of 2024, and it's called Woman's World.

It's dropped alongside a companion music video featuring Perry dressed as a sexy Rosie the Riveter before she transforms into a cyborg who pumps gasoline into her own butt.

This would have been unbelievable.

That's what I was going to say.

10 to 15 years ago.

And that's what must be so hard to be like just watching yourself do stuff that you know would have been number one on the charts 15 years ago and you just can't you can't get out of it.

Yeah, 15 years ago, gay people would have been on their knees for that song.

I promise you.

But a white lady can't release a song about how good ladies are in the year that this came out.

It's just, we're past it.

Too many things are happening politically.

Also, I think people start to catch on to the fact that she's being fake in a bad way.

I think people are like, okay.

It's kind of like you need to calm down the song.

Like the Taylor Stiff momentum.

Exactly.

It's like, shut up.

Yeah.

I think it's, I think it felt stupid.

She's like, girl, power.

And I'm like, girl, power.

Where?

Where?

You want us to all pay $75 to park at the Glendale Galleria?

I know.

I mean, yeah, even though Women's World was supposed to be a feminist anthem, at least according to Perry, it is full of classic male gays cliches, like Perry's barely functioning sequin bikini.

And it also feels like there's supposed to to be a deeper meaning to the video, but it's really hard to figure out what that is.

Like for example, when Perry struts around a vague dystopian world, like is this the woman's world?

The utter chaos surrounding you?

Where two gay delivery men are making out?

Yeah.

So, I mean, is it saying that we're lucky?

Like, it's supposed to be like ironic.

I don't know.

She then steals a black woman's ring light because it looks like the female gender symbol, then glamorously hangs from a helicopter while raising the symbol for all to see.

Meanwhile, the woman who's had her ring light stolen is yelling at her.

Sure.

Not the ring light.

That is

crazy.

Sure.

I mean, yeah, that's that.

She's just not trying at all because it's like every three years, she releases one song that's horrible that I'm going to horrible.

And it's just kind of like, I don't know, I'll just be like in a hot bikini.

I'm like, are you, you don't care at all is what it seems like.

But that's not even the worst thing about this song.

Perry brought on longtime collaborator Dr.

Luke to produce the track.

Oh.

And people asked her a lot of questions.

I remember people, everyone was asking her questions about it.

And she kept, she literally has a quote that is not this, but is exactly this, where she's like, music is a thing that everyone in the world can appreciate.

And together, we all listen.

When someone was like, why are you working with Dr.

Luke after he's had all these sexual assault claims?

And that was her like exact answer.

And then she got on the rocket.

And then she got got on the rocket.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's getting hypocritical.

But not only has Perry defended the accused producer, Dr.

Luke, she's gone back to work with him on this.

It makes for a lot of backlash online.

Gasoline, but despite the bad press around her single and the narrative that she's already failed to come back, Perry plows forward and releases her new album, 143.

It's the lowest-rated album of her career.

Of all time, of any artist.

Of any artist.

Yeah.

It's got a 2% on Rotten Tomatoes.

So she needs to make a bold move and fast.

So where, where can Katie go to prove that she's a powerful divine female?

Space, space, space, space, space.

I don't know why I did an echo of myself.

So I loved it.

Thank you.

So Perry will absolutely go on tour from her album 143.

But first, she's got to go to space.

If there's anything we know about rich people, it's that they inexplicably must go to space.

I mean, my theory is once you've done a Super Bowl halftime show, what else could possibly make you feel alive?

February 27, 2025, Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin announces its first all-female mission.

Actually, it's the world's first all-female space mission since 1963.

The last one,

it was literally one woman, so it was technically an all-female mission in 1963.

I stand by that.

Now, for some space nerds, this is actually really exciting.

For most other people, this is sketchy at best.

The mission, dubbed NS-31, will include some scientists, like bioastronautics researcher Amanda Nguyen and aerospace engineer Aisha B, but it will also include broadcaster Gail King, socialite Carrie Ann Flynn, and our lady Katie Perry.

Oh, and also Jeff Bezos' wife, Lauren Sanchez.

Those scientists that had to go on that deserve a Nobel Peace Prize.

They sure do.

The idea of these scientists being up in space looking down at Earth, something they probably worked on their whole career, everything's led up to this.

And Jeff Bezos's wife is like taking iPhone pictures and Katy Perry is singing.

I'm like, wow.

Yeah.

Yeah, this space mission.

So yeah, the six women, they board Blue Origin's new Shepard rocket, crossing the Carmen Line, aka the border between our atmosphere and outer space for 11 minutes of weightlessness and then returning.

Perry, she was stoked.

In the press, she expresses her desire to learn literal rocket science.

She says that she wants to make space glam and that she's proud this venture will be important for commercial space travel, women, and ultimately all of humanity.

You know what?

Let's have her explain.

I'm really excited about the engineering of it all.

I'm excited to learn more about STEM and just the math about what it takes

to accomplish this type of thing.

I was listening to Cosmos by Carl Sagan and reading a book on string theory.

And I've always been interested in astrophysics and interested in astronomy and astrology and the stars.

Okay, never mind.

She deserved to go.

She deserved to go.

Yeah.

She is a scientist.

Sorry to scientists.

Oh, I thought you meant she deserved to die.

You meant she deserved to go to space.

Yo, she deserved to go to space.

I was like, sorry to scientists.

Sometimes we all have to make a sacrifice.

Listening to that is so wild.

She does not know what she's talking about.

But once again, this is her problem.

Like, just be like, I don't know.

I thought it would be fierce and the homos would love it or whatever.

And then I think people would have been more like, ha ha, that's funny.

But instead, she's being like, um, um, I love astrology.

Um, I mean, astronomy.

Um, Carl Sagan.

Like, it's just,

I love math in there.

No formal education, always learning.

Yeah.

100%.

Always learning.

100%.

And I relate to that.

I do relate to that.

I'm always taking, I'm a sponge.

Student of the world.

I think sometimes we need stuff like this to just all, it's like the only thing we can unify on is how insane this is.

Yeah.

And it just makes us laugh and it's like not serious.

And we can just enjoy that little moment of insanity.

Sure.

So the day before the launch, she becomes very emotional, telling all her followers that she loves them.

This spaceflight is confirmation that she's gone in the right direction with her life.

She sees the signs that she's meant to be there.

And Blue Origin's logo is a feather, and her mother used to call her feather.

And the capsule is called Tortoise.

And her mother also used to call her Tortoise.

No, no, a lie.

But once again, she has to be lying more.

Like just like if you watch Cola Scola be interviewed where they're just like saying anything and none of it's true, that is the route that Katy Perry should have taken.

Of just yeah, being like, My mom used to call me Tardis, my mom used to call me Feather, my mom used to call me Bezos, my mom called me spaceship.

Like, just she needs to be like fake, but in a kid,

she's not trying to be funny.

That's what's so hard.

It's so sad.

How sad is that?

It's like, we're like, she needs to just lean into it more.

I'm like, she's not leaning into anything.

She thought she sounded smart and then she wants to be taken seriously, and that's devastating.

She said, I love math.

And then in her head, she was like, I just killed that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, on April 14th, it's go time.

Three, two, one, blast off.

Katy Perry is up in space for real.

Wee.

And she truly makes the most of it.

First of all, like you said, she took the time to have all of the women in space listen to her sing, what a wonderful world.

So Perry brings a little daisy flower with her to honor her daughter, Daisy.

It's a lovely gesture that most online trolls absolutely hate.

Finally, whereas her science-focused crew members might be doing some experiment or other, Perry holds up a butterfly cutout to the live stream camera that announces her set list for her upcoming world tour the lifetimes tour which to me gives eras

but okay and the lettering on the cutout was so small almost nobody can read it which like how embarrassing No one was trying to also.

Also, nobody cared.

Right, no one cares.

While some question the ethical nature of celebrity and commercial space travel in a time of economic turndown, mostly people on the internet just can't believe that here in 2025, one of our bigger headlines is that Katy Perry went to space for 11 minutes.

I mean, it's vaguely dystopian, sort of like her woman's world video.

Wait, was that the point of the video?

Woman's World is a good video.

Wait.

We love it.

She just figured out the hidden meaning.

Backtrack.

So it's unclear if Perry learned any rocket science while she was up in space.

I'm going to guess that she did not, but she doesn't have time to read the mean comments about her out-of-this-world experience because her tour starts just nine days after she lands back on planet Earth.

So, any wild guesses at what the theme of her concert is?

The Americana.

Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton.

Kitten Heels

as inspired by Hillary Clinton.

The story of the concert tour is that Perry is a half-human, half-machine character trapped inside a video game who's battling an AI called mainframe.

It sounds fun, but audiences get bored.

They're mostly watching her play a game and not really participating.

And the interactive elements that are there aren't built well.

For example, the audience has to choose which song Perry will sing using a QR code, but if the Wi-Fi is spotty, it doesn't really work.

Okay.

So reviews are mixed, but the internet has spoken.

After just one month of the tour, TikTok and Instagram flood with videos of Katie dancing and cringe comes up a lot in the discourse around the show.

It seems low effort, low budget, just like her latest album as a whole.

Now, official seat maps on Ticketmaster for various U.S.

venues show a significant number of available seats, with more than half of the seats in certain arenas unsold.

I live in Austin, and I saw her coming here, and I was like, for the plot, this would be fun.

And I went and I looked, $600 for nosebleed.

But not for long.

You wait until the night before the concert.

But our tickets are going to be free.

Are they sold?

Like, are but a bunch of them aren't sold?

Oh, yeah.

No, but like, the tickets were $600.

Karma's Real.

Do not do stuff with Dr.

Luke.

You won't be able to sell any concert tickets.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So several outlets, including the Economic Times and Futurism, report in late April of 2025 that the U.S.

leg of the Lifetimes tour was struggling with ticket sales.

As of this taping, Katy Perry is in the middle of her tour.

It'll continue to run until December of 2025, and it's not getting easier.

On May 26th, she was running across the stage in Las Vegas during a performance and her cone-shaped bra popped open.

Now, I wish I was making this up, but it's like she's living in a 60s horny comedy at this point.

But thankfully, and like I give her props for this, she laughed it off.

She kept dancing and asked a stage hand to help her while explaining to the audience that they did not pay enough to see her bare boobs.

That's funny.

That's funny.

Yeah, we'll give it to her for that.

So let's do a little, where are they now?

Perry continues wading through her flop era.

We'll see where she ends up, but she became one of planet Earth's biggest pop stars, but with record and concert sales down, not to mention the internet not being on her side, she's sinking rather quickly.

I mean, maybe it's not her fault.

Maybe it's just time for someone new to take up the air and the space shuttle for once.

Perry herself has a theory that being on American Idol may have overexposed her and possibly ruined her career.

In fact, she says she wishes she never did it.

Well, then she would be bankrupt if she hadn't, unfortunately.

I think she should be grateful for American Idol.

I don't think that's it.

I think she needs to be for real with herself.

I think what she needs to do is come out super left.

I think she needs to apologize to everyone.

I think she needs to start giving out her own stimulus checks

exclusively to black women as an apology for everything she's done.

Yeah, I think that is the thing that could save her career now.

Sure.

So here on the big flop, we try to be positive people and end on a high.

So are there any silver linings that you can think of that came about from Miss Katy Perry's recent career decisions?

Oh, yes.

I mean, space for me was a big one.

I think it really was so funny.

I know, like,

I'm sure there's a million reasons it was like not great that that happened.

I don't know environmentally the impact of a rocket going into the air, but I have a feeling it's not great.

I don't know, but it was, it did make me laugh.

I loved

her

use of the double entendre.

I think she was a master of it, and I think she used it in a really fun, campy way that allowed her to get a lot of pro-sex messages on the radio airwaves that maybe we wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

And once again, Katie,

We'll go to your Vegas residency again if you turn it around.

I want the best for you.

We are not haters.

So I think you could easily turn it around.

You just have to start like doing the right thing.

Absolutely.

Well, now that you both know about the arc of Katie Perry's career, would you consider this a baby flop, a big flop, or a mega flop?

I would call her a flop star.

I think it's a mega flop.

I think she's had a flop at every single turn.

And I think the biggest flop of all is her inability to lean into the flop.

And once again, Katie, you still can do it.

And I believe in you i'm gonna do big flop because it's kind of like a death by a thousand cuts it seems like which i didn't realize where it just seems like maybe she's constantly been flopping since she was put on this earth but i do think she i do think she's really hot so i'm gonna not make it a mega flop because i'm like there's nothing no flops in case she wants to have sex with me in case she wants to say i'm not gonna say mega i'm gonna leave that door open yeah just a little bit i respect that i respect that well thank you so much to our superstar guests, Jordan Myrick and Kendall Landrett, for joining us here on The Big Flop.

And of course, thanks to all of you for listening and watching.

If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a rating and review or subscribe.

We'll be back next week with another flop.

Was he a genius?

A con artist?

A murderer?

One thing's for sure, his software was on just about everyone's computer in the 90s.

It's the late, not so great, John McAfee.

Bye.

Bye.

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The Big Flop is a production of Wondery and At Will Media, hosted by Misha Brown, produced by Sequoia Thomas, Harry Huggins, and Tina Turner.

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