Is ‘I Want Your Cray Cray’ The Most Embarrassing Moment In The MCU?

Season 2 of Marvel’s Jessica Jones had a lot of highs and lows, but one moment is seared in our memory forever: “I Want Your Cray Cray.”

Trish Walker’s embarrassing foray into teen pop stardom is as clever as it is stupid. It’s clever because it’s a pitch perfect bit of early ’00s pop music satire, and stupid because…well, do we have to say it? It’s “cray cray,”and Netflix just released the entire music video for all the world to see.

“I Want Your Cray Cray” has even divided Team Decider. Is it good? Is it bad? Should it have been cut? Does it say something profound about the commodification of women? Decider’s own Brett White and Meghan O’Keefe duked it out in an entirely civil conversation:

Brett White: “I Want Your Cray Cray” is one of the most embarrassing moments in the entire MCU, right?

Meghan O’Keefe: Honestly, I love it. I thought it was super entertaining. A bright spot of satire in an otherwise “blah” season.

BW: It’s like…I mean… I guess it’s helped that it’s from roughly, want, 10 years ago?
5 years ago? God, what is time in the Marvel Universe? Anyway, it’s part of a flashback which justifies them using a very dated and tired slang term like “cray cray.” Honestly, I wish the entire season had been more cray cray, that is for sure!

MO: We could honestly argue about its merits. There’s a lot in that clip about the commodification of young female sexuality in order to please a very toxic male gaze. And it tells you a lot about Trish. There was a time where she wanted attention and acclaim at any cost. It didn’t matter what she was doing to her body on or off screen, she just wanted to be celebrated. “I Want Your Cray Cray” is emblematic of this. Just this woman’s opinion.

BW: Ooooohh interesting. Okay, that definitely comes across in the scene and makes it a stand out moment in the season. My whole anti-cray cray stance comes from the fact that I just cringe every time people say “cray cray.” It’s the same way I react to when people say “awesomesauce” or “amazeballs.” My problem with “I Want Your Cray Cray” is 100% “cray cray” based.

MO: Well, let’s break that down. “Cray cray.” It’s idiomatic speech that a woman might use to purposely make herself seem more infantile, so as to seem less aggressive. The use of it is trendy, yes, but it’s also strategic. Trish, as Patsy, isn’t trying to intimidate men. She wants to invite their attention.

BW: It also feels exactly like the kind of thing that a former child actor would do to immediately seem “hip” and breakthrough into being a mainstream pop star. It’s former teen Trish trying to up her cred by dropping some then-hot slang into her big single. It’s just that… the slang she chose was “cray cray.” I would wonder what it would have sounded like if she used “awesomesauce” instead, but using that word in a song is totally Andy Dwyer territory.

MO: Ha! And I completely agree. The whole styling in the song feels like a vague echo of say, Britney Spears’s early career or when Selena Gomez or Miley Cyrus tried to sex their images up. It’s also quite sad since it’s a sign that Trish, at this point, is just taking the conveyor belt through stardom.

Anyway, I get your personal distaste for the phrase, but that cringe factor is what I like about it. It broadcasts to the audience how bad this era is for Trish.

BW: Oh, yeah, it really reads as generically mediocre. Knowing that “I Want Your Cray Cray” is supposed to be cringeworthy also makes it less cringeworthy. A lot of the initial cringeworthiness of it was my feeling of, “Oh god, is this what they really think good pop music is like?!” It’s not! It is desperate on purpose!

MO: That said, I still want to know if she ever got nominated for that VMA…

Stream Marvel's Jessica Jones on Netflix