In yet another case this week of life imitating art, the
Parliament of the Republic of South Africa burst into a rendition of Katy Perry’s
“I Kissed a Girl”, using an arrangement of the composition made famous by the
television program Glee, also known
for its tendency to spontaneously break out into a musical interlude.
Sisulu and Glee's Chris Colfer, Invited to South Africa to Chair a Committee on "Boogeying Down" |
The
Parliament, currently run by the majority party the African National Congress
(ANC), announced Saturday night that due to low visibility and the Parliament’s
predisposition to get lost in the shuffle of international politics, the
governing body would recreate a popular moment from American television
bi-weekly in order to drive up Nielson Family ratings and bring in the coveted
18-49 demographic. The announcement came in tandem with the revelation that the
25th South African Parliament had bought a controlling stake in NBC
for pennies on the dollar of its blue book value, a move that was hailed as “business
savvy” and “inventive” by the Parliament itself.
Speaker of
the National Assembly Max Sisulu stated that the two revelations were “similar
but unrelated,” and that the politicians would have “totally been singing that
song anyway. It had been on the agenda for months.”
The move is
one of a long list that analysts suppose is indicative of South Africa’s intent
to be the “Global Capital of Whimsy.”