The Young Pope has had a somewhat confusing American reception, complete with polarized reviews, seemingly endless comparisons to the new administration, and several weeks' worth of memes about the very concept of a show where Jude Law plays a young American pope. It would be easy to write the show off as a fleeting cultural phenomenon, but if you've been on the fence—the show isn't for everyone—one scene in particular from the show's fifth episode perfectly captures what makes The Young Pope so special.
Series creator Paolo Sorrentino talks about how the show got its often bizarre, always unforgettable music.
The episode aired last night, and it's not an understatement to say the scene is one of the most critically lauded moments of television of 2017 so far. Nicole Cliffe at Vulture calls it "a truly perfect, sulky-bitchy-sexy montage." At Rolling Stone, Sean Collins calls it a "wild mini-music-video." Over at The A.V. Club, I called it "one of the best, most memorable TV scenes of 2017," which it is and will continue to be.
What is it? Only a montage of Jude Law as Pope Pius XIII preparing to give a speech to the assembled cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, dressing himself in vestments, painstakingly selecting his slippers, gloves, rings—all the best accessories—set to LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It."
There are many layers here. There's the comedy of the pope's fussiness, trying different pairs of shoes to get his outfit just right, juxtaposing his care for his appearance with the gravity of his office. There's the voyeuristic confusion of the other priests (including Valente, one of the pope's attendants) peeking in to see what he's going to wear. And, of course, there's the grand entrance of the papal tiara, which is basically a fetish object for the pope. Jude Law's mouth is rather prominent in The Young Pope, but the way his lips part just so as he stares down the crown is uncomfortably sensual, and almost certainly a part of the design for the scene.
The Young Pope's architect, Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, refuses credit for the song choice. In an email to GQ, he said, "In this case the merit goes entirely to my editor. He laid down this track, which he loves, edited the scene over it, and timidly suggested it to me, thinking I'd be horrified. But I found it very amusing."
If you still somehow needed extratextual evidence to prove that Sorrentino had a blast making the show—that The Young Pope is in on the joke—there you go. You might feel a certain glee at the prospect of a prestige drama-adjacent show about the pope airing on HBO doing a dress-up montage that prominently features the vocal stylings of Redfoo. Sorrentino feels it too.
The best thing about this scene isn't the careful composition of the shots or the lushness of the vestments. It's that the whole thing is impossible to watch without cracking a smile. But, you might ask, did The Young Pope really need to enlist LMFAO to achieve this effect? Sorrentino himself answers this question with a level of certainty that would impress the pope: "No other musical attempts were carried out for this scene."