I don’t know what’s in the 2023 air, but the U.S. government is in laughable shambles, Prince Harry has taken a blow torch to London SW1A 1AA, and Paul Mescal and Angelina Jolie are getting coffee. And yet, the gasps I gasped at those stories were nothing more than a typical inhale compared to the gasp I gasped at a certain Kim Kardashian TikTok on Thursday.
Kardashian joined her 9-year-old daughter, North, for a fun video posted to their shared account—which Kim runs, but North clearly creatively directs. It’s pretty casual; they’re both in sweats and at home. Very “nothing to see here, just doing something fun and silly with my daughter.” And there was indeed not much to see...but there was everything to hear.
The mother-daughter duo was dancing to “Shake It Off,” the 2014 pop song about not letting the haters get you down, which was written, performed, and fought over in court by Taylor Swift. Truly fucking wild.
You probably remember, but I’m going to quickly shimmy through their history anyway: There was the stupid phone call that Kim edited to make Taylor look bad. Then Kim got everyone to call Taylor a snake. Taylor disappeared; Kim did not. Taylor reappeared with a snake tour. Everyone said OK. Some other things. Kanye bad. Taylor good. Taylor great! Taylor more?!? Kanye very, very bad. Songs were written, shade was thrown, divorces were finalized, and albums were released on people’s birthdays. Cut to now: Kim is lip-synching the lyrics, “And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate,” while swaying her arms in the air like she just realized she had arms and doesn’t quite trust them yet.
This leads me to my favorite part of all this: Kim is not a good dancer. This is something she admits to and talks about all the time. Prince kicked her off the stage for her bad dancing in 2011. Big sis Kourt called her out for “having an inability to let loose” in 2018. She said, “Listen, I’m no dancer,” when Addison Rae attempted to teach her how to dance on an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians in 2021. And this is fine! She doesn’t need to be a dancer. But to dance badly to your nemesis’s song is...not brave, but, it’s something. I definitely wouldn’t fucking do it.
In August a source told Hollywood Life that “Kim has moved on from this a long time ago. She wishes Taylor nothing but success and happiness.” And also that she “really loves” Taylor’s music. So fine, Kim’s buried the hatchet—but there’s still a difference between making nice in the press and jumping around to a 60-second clip of your former enemy’s song that she knows will inevitably lead to a post like this. But I guess now she knows how to...shake it off. Welcome to the Swift Cinematic Universe, Kim. I hope you can’t get Eras tickets.