This past weekend, like any young person who loves carousing and popular music, I went to a karaoke bar. It was full of 20-somethings, the majority of whom were singing classic rock songs—tons of Queen, which I blamed partly on the success of Bohemian Rhapsody. Starting this Friday, over 750 North American theaters will screen sing-along versions of the highest-grossing music biopic of all time.
According to Variety, these karaoke viewings will “display song lyrics on screen, allowing viewers to perform the movie’s score.” That selection includes Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” and of course, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” That’s interesting, because “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of the worst karaoke songs of all time (too long, too high, too boring), and these screenings are (technically) liquor-free.
Can you imagine singing Queen songs in a movie theater, looking at the image of a toothy Rami Malek, with a bunch of sober classic rock geeks? Please shoot me into the sun, or the people who will attend these viewings into the graphic t-shirt section of a Target.