Watch: New Yorker Poetry Editor Paul Muldoon Critiques Ke$ha's "Tik Tok"

Normally we have a zero tolerance for LOL-pop-music-type gags, in which someone old and stentorian soberly reads some silly Soulja Boy versa with a bunch of misplaced gravitas and strategic confusion, but let's make an exception here for the virtuoso poet and aging hipster Paul Muldoon, whom the Princeton Tiger talked into critiquing Ke$ha's "Tik Tok." For one, Muldoon, whose sideline is as the New Yorker's poetry editor, is pretty good on pop culture for a poet. For another, dude is genuinely funny. "One of the most prevalent motifs seems to be this idea of oh," says the Princeton buffoon interviewing him. "I think it's a reference to King Lear," Muldoon responds. "'No no no no,' which she has kind of transmogrified into 'oh oh oh oh.'" Smart! [Book Bench]