To further prove that every celebrity is ultimately just in love with themselves, Sabrina Carpenter has released a video for her new single from emails i can’t send, “nonsense.” Which is sure to get a playlist boost from her recent photo appearance—the one at the American Music Awards where she was pictured sandwiched between two very tall, FUPA-parading women—Taylor Swift and GAYLE (who will open for Swift during select dates of the already controversial Eras Tour). But even without their help, “nonsense” was a “pop hit’ (as Carpenter refers to it in the song) already.
A large part of that has to do with something of an Ariana Grande-esque formula (and the way Carpenter “hits the octave”). The one she implemented so well during her thank u, next cycle. An album that was better-promoted with the release of a video for “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” the same day as the record came out. Showing off her sense of humor at a time when she had just ended her engagement with Pete “Rebound” Davidson, maybe there was a jocular tone to the idea that Grande would try lesbianism next (she is, after all, into dabbling—if her blackfishing is an indication).
So it is that the big “plot twist” of the video is that she’s been more interested in her pony-tailed lookalike, played by Ariel Yasmine, the entire time. The dalliance commences at a club (how very 2000s) wherein Yasmine and her boyfriend, played by Riverdale’s Charles Melton, invite Grande (sporting a blonde coif that’s more in keeping with her Sweetener era) to join them in their dance. This being Los Angeles, Grande isn’t averse to a one-night throuple scenario. And yet, maybe it isn’t just one night. For how else would a blonde-haired Ariana have had time to pull a single white (yes, white) female by emulating Yasmine’s look (itself emulating Ariana’s during that period)? Maybe she was invited to a party at their house on another night after meeting them at the club… or did she go home and dye her hair before showing up at the party—who knows? But the timeline doesn’t feel linear. The point is, Ari has become narcissistically attracted to someone who looks just like her. Her doppelgänger, if you will (a word that often doubles for “alter ego”—usually embodying a darker [or at least slightly more irreverent] persona).
Carpenter decides to take that concept one step further in the Danica Kleinknecht-directed video for “nonsense” by enlisting none other than herself (as opposed to a “mere” lookalike) to play the alter ego. She goes further still by making that alter ego male instead of female. And then there is the context of this duo’s encounter. Despite being twenty-three (as Olivia Rodrigo was so fond of pointing out her “older” age in “drivers license”), there is a more teenaged (or college, at the latest) sensibility to the concept of the setting in lieu of Grande’s more “adult” nightclub backdrop, followed by a lavish house in the Hills. Conversely, in the opening scenes of “nonsense,” we see Carpenter preparing for a house party (seemingly one that she’s throwing) that the boy version of herself, outfitted with a trucker hat that says “Dipsh*t” on it, also attends. Because, yes, like Ari before her, Carpenter only really has eyes for, well, herself. Something Lady Gaga additionally proved when she showcased her own male alter ego, Jo Calderone.
Whether Carpenter named her “drag king” is unknown, but it’s quite apparent she’s very attracted to him. Even though he comes off like an even worse version of Amanda Bynes doing drag in She’s The Man. Yet somehow, he has the appearance of someone much younger than Carpenter, who he spots from across the room as he exhales a cloud of smoke from his vape.
It doesn’t take long for the two to find a “quiet corner” amid the red Solo cups and impromptu karaoke sessions. Because, really, who hasn’t been attracted to a male or female version of themselves (see: Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow in the late 90s)? As the two get increasingly drunk, interspersed scenes of Carpenter dancing around and looking at herself in the mirror add to the overall narcissistic motif that Grande also showed us with just as little subtlety in Hannah Lux Davis’ visuals for “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored.”
Carpenter even sounds like Grande in general—and then very specifically… closing “nonsense” with some spoken dialogue that reminds one of Ari’s back-and-forth with Victoria Monét at the end of “monopoly.” Both moments feature gigglingly-stated lines. In Carpenter’s case, it’s the brush-off that this song will never make the cut for the album, laughing, “That one’s not gonna make it.”
Luckily for Carpenter’s fans (and even Grande’s), it did. For it’s just the sort of gushing love song that might prompt one to make out with their reflection in the vanity. Self-love (and sologamy), after all, has never been chicer. Even if shown in the self-deprecating way that Taylor Swift does it with her alter ego in the video for “Anti-Hero.” In which she “sarcastically” remarks, incidentally, on her self-obsession via the lyrics, “Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism?” In contrast to Grande and Carpenter, Swift appears to more openly admit to it with her take on this ostensible “doppelgänger” trend in music videos (regardless of whether that double is a male or female version of oneself).
