The wit and wisdom of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has already proved itself viable as a force of great cinema—we’ve endured an entire summer season since Lemonade and have yet to see anything quite as mesmerizing hit the big screen, after all. But as we learned last night on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Bey’s music is just as powerful when translated to another time-tested American art form: the soap opera.
On Monday night, James Corden and his featured guests performed a sketch that parodied the grand tradition of the love triangulation we’ve seen in every soap opera since the dawn of the art form. What made this example unique, and furthermore tantamount to spoken word poetry, was that every line of dialogue was ripped from a Beyoncé song. And trust me, even when filtered through soap opera parody, the vigor of Bey’s self-possessed lyricism remained. It remained when delivered by a betrayed Corden, by a conflicted Meg Ryan, and even by a derisively dry Adam Scott. (The only variety of Adam Scott yet observed by humankind, mind you.)
As a good deal of Beyoncé’s lyrics are about standing up for yourself in the face of adversity or even betrayal, their transition into a scene about an extramarital affair proved unsurprisingly seamless. Of course, we’re sure Bey’s scripture would translate well into any number of sequences, across the cinematic and televisual genres. An all-Beyoncé-lyrics war movie. A sci-fi film scored entirely to 4. And this last one should really go without saying: a Beyoncé Broadway musical. Anybody on board?
Featured Image: CBS
