Lady Gaga ft Beyonce - Telephone

Amber Pothecary, Kiera Brown

IntertextualityThe “Pussy Wagon” from Kill Bill

• The most straight forward Tarantino reference in “Telephone” comes from the “Pussy Wagon” that Lady Gaga and Beyoncé drive; Uma Thurman steals and drives the same one in Kill Bill Vol. 1. Like, literally the same one: Tarantino lent Gaga the original when they were discussing the video.

Intertextuality

Lady Gaga – Telephone

Kill Bill

2. Beyonce’s nickname “Honey Bee”: diner robber “Honey Bunny” in Pulp Fiction

• Gaga addresses Beyoncé as “Honey Bee” before they pull off their poison murder spree in the diner; this seems like a pretty clear reference to “Honey Bunny,” the nickname given to Yolanda, one of the two robbers in the famous diner scene Pulp Fiction.

Pastiche5. Female banter in the car: Death Proof

• Idiomatic banter is a Tarantino staple, and “Telephone” rides that wave with lines like “once you kill a cow, you gotta make a burger.”

A car scene from Death Proof. A scene from telephone involving female banter

Wonder Woman- Bricolage

Beyoncé outfit resembles wonder woman

• We also get an image of Gaga's HeartBeats headphones, from Beats by Dre (the first of many product placements), while someone is busting her song "Paper Gangsta" on the radio. The song choice is, of course, deliberate; it's a song about girl power.

Hyper Consciousness And Narcissism

Bricolage• Alternating between Japanese and comic book-style subtitles, the

video channels Gaga's beloved pop art pioneers Roy Lichenstein and Andy Warhol. Inspired by the Warhol's exploration of mass consumer culture and advertising through his Campbell's soup studies, Gaga and Akerlund challenge the gender stereotype of the "perfect housewife" portrayed heavily in 1950s pop culture, using Wonder Bread and Miracle Whip as their artistic devices.