We’ve known for a while now that the inaugural balls welcoming President Donald Trump to Washington were going to be sparse in terms of big-name talent. Trump has done his best to make a virtue of his widespread rejection by the “elitists” who serve up America’s most popular music and dance, positing his celebrations as a tribute to the regular Americans whose hat purchases and votes got him elected. And yet, those low expectations were still clearly off-kilter, because ladies and gentlemen: It got goofy tonight.
A brief caveat, first: We here at The A.V. Club are all a bunch of asthmatic, four-eyed dorks whose only musical talents come from the click-clacking of our keyboards, and who only venture out into the real world on our occasional attempts to kill ourselves with food. So the intent here is not to mock the specific performers who played tonight’s balls—especially the young ones, who naturally leapt at the chance to perform on a national stage, and who may or may not have looked incredibly slick in their bright purple shiny suits while doing so. The goal here is to simply point out and bask in a few of the more surreal moments of this internationally viewed event, as a shared antidote to any dread that might be lurking in our hearts as Donald Trump steps into office.