Harry Styles’ ‘Carpool’ duet a revealing ride
The show: Harry Styles, “Carpool Karaoke” The moment: Crying, in a cool way
Harry Styles, the epitome of adorable, sits in the passenger seat while host James Corden drives. Styles has everything: dreamy face, floppy hair, tats, happening flowered shirt. His hit “Sign of the Times” begins to play. Styles and Corden sing along, into it. Way into it.
The song finishes. “I went somewhere else emotionally,” Corden says. “I wasn’t in the car anymore, you weren’t here.”
“It makes me cry performing it sometimes,” Styles admits.
Corden begins to ask, “Because of the message . . .”
But Styles is still talking: “In a cool way.”
Corden jumps on this. “Did you just say, ‘It makes me cry in a cool way?’ ” he asks. Then he guffaws, hard.
I think Corden knew from the start that being in a car would make people playful (witness his and Styles sublime “Endless Love” duet). But I’m not sure he realized how revealing of character it is to watch someone sing along to their own songs. He sure knows it now and makes the most of it. (For the record, Styles both belts it out and grins at himself, further reinforcing his epitome-ofadorable status.)
Corden also knows that in a car, with people side by side but not always looking at each other, truths come out.
Let’s break this down: Corden fesses up to something (“I was somewhere else”). So Styles does, too (“It makes me cry”).
Then, comedian-Corden kicks in: he has Styles repeat his revelation, which turns it funny. The result: 14 million views, three of them mine.
Corden makes this look easy. It’s decidedly not. “Carpool Karaoke” is part of The Late Late Show with James Corden, which airs weekdays at 12:37 a.m. on CTV. Clips can be seen on YouTube and at ctv.ca. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on popculture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.