After over a week of build-up and speculation, Ariana Grande has dropped the video for ‘Thank U, Next’, and it does not disappoint.
It starts off with what we saw in the teaser – people, including Jonathan Bennett, Troye Sivan, and the heavy-flow girl from Mean Girls, talking to the camera about Ariana as though she’s Regina George.
Then it cuts to Ariana in an amazing recreation of Regina’s bedroom, lying on her bed and adding the ex-boyfriends she’s singing about to the Burn Book.
“Sry I dipped.”
Pete Davidson and Big Sean’s entries are particularly noteworthy, with Ariana writing “Sry I dipped” and “HUUUUUUGE” (the latter in reference to rumours about his… size) on Pete’s, and “Could still get it” on Big Sean’s.
“sry i dipped” “HUUUUUGE”
I’M CRYING I’M LAUGHING SO HARD #ThankUNextVideo pic.twitter.com/Z8fOWO0KTh— zoe ⧗ (@BLACKWlDCWS) November 30, 2018
Ariana Grande implies that Big Sean “could still get it” on the #ThankUNextVideo pic.twitter.com/kRWovoeGch
— Music News Facts (@musicnewsfact) November 30, 2018
It then cuts to the Plastics, complete with Aaron Samuels, walking down a school hallway. Liz Gillies, of Victorious and Dynasty fame, plays Cady Heron fantastically, looking incredibly awkward and overwhelmed by all the attention the Plastics are getting.
At this point, Ariana proves how committed she is to the role of Regina, and shoves Troye Sivan into a locker:
And we see ‘Karen’ clutching her chest, because, as we all remember, she uses it to tell the weather.
There’s a 30% chance it’s already raining!
For the first chorus, Ariana recreated the iconic Christmas talent show scene:
Complete with Kris Jenner as Amy Poehler’s character of the overbearing mum:
The same energy #ThankUNextVideo pic.twitter.com/P0f2X8JM1r
— c (@chuuzus) November 30, 2018
The next teen movie she pays tribute to is Bring It On, so we cut to Ariana as Torrance Shipman, alternating between being in her bedroom and in the bathroom, recreating the toothbrush scene with Matt Bennett, another one of her former Victorious co-stars:
We then see Ariana in her cheerleading outfit, and there’s another cameo from a Victorious co-star in this scene, with Daniella Monet playing one of Ariana’s teammates:
She follows this up with her 13 Going On 30 tribute for the verse “One day I’ll walk down the aisle / Holding hands with my mama”:
The line after that, “I’ll be thanking my dad / ‘Cos she grew from the drama”, references her strained relationship with her father, from whom she is estranged.
The fourth and final movie Ariana references in the video is Legally Blonde, so next up is Ariana as Elle Woods, pulling into a college parking lot with her very own Bruiser, her Beagle-Chihuahua mix Toulouse:
At this point, there’s a break in the song as Ariana talks to Jennifer Coolidge, who played Paulette in the Legally Blonde movies, about her boy troubles.
Ariana teaches Paulette the Bend and Snap, and there’s even a new UPS guy (except his badge says “BDE” instead).
It ends with Kris Jenner shouting “Thank u, next bitch!”, which is a Huge Mood.
It’s the perfect homage to four movies beloved by girls of Ariana’s generation (so, me), and a great reminder that Ariana can do comedy really well.
Check it out for yourself here:
