We love T-Pain and Taylor Swift, and this skit from last night’s CMT Awards fulfills a certain vision of them both (as populists, as humanists, as young folks who don’t see people and music in rigid categories) to think that they’d concoct something like this. But that’s exactly why Swift rapping about being a thug with Pain standing alongside feels stale and unfunny — there’s no tension between the two. This is Taylor Swift, T-Pain, and indeed, Justin Bieber’s world now, and they no longer need to make room — on television, anyway — for a white country girl to stand next to a black guy who raps. As a matter of fact, this gag feels a little regressive.

On Taylor Swift and T-Pain's "Thug Story" [VV]