This year So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) is doing something a little different, where all of the contestants are kids.
Needless to say the tone of the whole show is slightly different than previous seasons. More crooked teeth, fewer scantily clad dancers.
Anyway, Monday night's episode was all rainbows and sparkles until some serious shade was thrown and things got ~heated~.
After contestant Tahari's performance with SYTYCD All-Star, Comfort, judge and hip hop extraordinaire, Jason Derulo started to remark on the performance.
As per usual he begins by complimenting the choreography of Sean Paul. BUT WAIT, Sean Paul is a singer who brought us dynamite tunes like "Temperature" back in 2005 and very much NOT a choreographer on SYTYCD.
SO... Nigel Lythgoe, the executive producer, head judge, and British royalty of SYTYCD steps in. If there is one situation you don't want to be in as a judge on SYTYCD, it's Nigel Freaking Lythgoe correcting you. But let's move on.
Nigel politely (classic Englishman) establishes that the dance was in fact choreographed by Laure Courtellemont. You would think that all would be well after being corrected by Sir Nigel but Jason then proceeded to mispronounce Laure's name like "Loh" or something because he is trying to mimic Nigel's English accent. This is insinuating that he has NO IDEA who she is.
Nigel tries to lighten the mood by talking to Laure remarking that "Sean Paul you look fantastic, ever since that operation." Laure pity laughs and Nigel gets right back into the judging. LOL NICE TRY NIGEL but everything is still awkward as heck.
So cool. Credit is given where credit is due and Laure did a wonderful job choreographing. Nigel: 1. Jason: 0. Let's continue, shall we?
Jason then tries to save himself by having an on-screen epiphany realizing that Sean Paul is the song. Comfort and Tahani correct him fervently saying that he is the artist, and not the song. We are all like OMG at this point thinking things couldn't possibly get worse, but DON'T YOU WORRY they do.
After the epiphany Jason starts complimenting the style of the dance and how he is happy it's finally being showcased and how Tahani (the contestant) is really good at it. But of course he can't do this in a socially acceptable fashion so he then decides that it's necessary to adopt a Jamaican accent while he continues to comment. This is just as horrifying and uncomfortable as it sounds.
Everyone laughs and Cat (the host/goddess/queen of SYTYCD) tries to move things along. She throws it to Nigel, the aforementioned EXEC producer and royalty, to hopefully get things back on track.
You would think that Nigel would save this entire situation in a jiffy but NOPE. He gets off to a poor start doing a weird, cringe-worthy jig in his seat saying that is has a "slightly African tribe-y feel". At this point Jason chimes in saying cooly that it is "Not african at all."
IMPORTANT NOTE: Maddie Ziegler's face RN
Nigel continues, talking over Jason suggesting that it also has a "west indian reggae feel" while Jason continues to comment on the dance's lack of African history. Basically it is a full blown meltdown at this point and just when you think we are done suffering, we are given one last opportunity to writhe internally.
Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer, then subtly adds to the mix, "Ah yes it is. I think you're fired."
YIKES.
This is so painful.
Nigel tries to prove his point by asking Comfort where the dance is from and she ends up telling him that it is from Jamaica. (Updated score- Nigel:1. Jason:1.) Luckily for our sake, Comfort tries to make the best of this CRAPPY situation and says something positive along the lines of it's from the heart it doesn't matter where it's from. THX COMFORT. A FOR EFFORT.
TBH Paula Abdul is the savior of our story when she says. "It's all good." and then Paula Abdul Claps. Clearly she was just as desperate for this ~situation~ to end as we were.
BUT THEN we were #blessed to see the most important television shot of Queen Cat Deeley to date. I repeat, TO DATE.
To the untrained eye it may appear that Cat is laughing hysterically but to the expert we see that she is clearly emitting a silent plea for help.
"PLS SEND HELP"
All hail Queen Cat.
Carry on.
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