My increasing–yet still grudging!–affection for Carly Smithson increased a little just now, when I found out that while other contestants said in their latest Idol questionnaires that their favorite moments of the show were their admission to the top 24 (Asia’h, who should enjoy it while she can) and Idol Gives Back (Luke, who… ugh), she selected as her favorite the night that Sanjaya Malakar got voted off last season. Say what you will about her past; Carly certainly knows how to rile up the bloggers and message-board posters who decried her eligibility because of the major-label flop she put out a few years back. And it’s kind of awesome. An example: There are 94 comments about Carly’s flippant answer on Idolwatcher haven/Fanjaya gathering-place rickey.org already, spurred on by the very-displeased site proprietor Rickey:

What??? How could Carly Smithson say such a thing? How evil! What has Sanjaya Malakar done to you Carly Smithson? Sanjaya Malakar only brought joy and inspiration to the world! He’s the most talked about American Idol contestant EVER. He had the most dedicated fans on the American Idol tour last summer. Girls cried in his presence! Sanjaya Malakar was the talk of the town during the White House Correspondents Dinner — the governor of New York wanted his autograph. He totally upstaged everybody that night.

Oh my God you guys! He also mentions that her first single was about blow jobs! He also orders the Fanjayas to the war room, and here they come:

Motherly instincts!! BEYOTCH PUH-LEASE!!

I’m sorry Carly, but you’re officially DEAD to me. For someone who endured an EPIC FLOP so BIG that the WALL STREET JOURNAL did a profile on you as a living example of WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, you would THINK the SKANK would have some COMPASSION!!

But NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

This woman wants America’s SYMPATHY and to give her a 2nd chance. But she thinks it’s cool to kick a fellow contestant in the gut with a comment like THAT!

Carly, you don’t deserve SH**IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

snuffles on March 6, 2008 at 10:09 am

His name is snuffles! So you know he’s like totally serious! Let’s let someone who only reads rickey.org’s Sanjaya RSS feed take a swipe next!

Carly WHO? I never heard of her before reading this. I suspect she will fade into obscurity very soon.

Disrespecting another artist is beyond uncool and says a lot more about HER that it does about Sanjaya. Sanjaya has never had a bad word to say about anyone, including Simon.

kapua on March 6, 2008 at 12:20 pm

And finally–because if I read another exclamation point I’m going to scream–let’s all relive the night in question and ask ourselves: Was it really that good?

I think to truly appreciate the tastelessness and tackiness of her remark, let’s go back TO the night in question. Here is a then-17-year-old kid, who has already endured so much humiliation and garbage from the media for months, but has hung in there week after week, fighting the good fight. People tend to forget that Sanjaya wasn’t voting to keep himself in. It was the fans who kept him advancing, because we loved him and wanted to keep him in as long as possible. There was nothing the kid could do except come out smiling, week after week, and trying to do his best to compete and hang in there. This had been his dream. His may not have been the best voice in the competition. But let’s not forget, it was a GOOD voice and one that I’m sure he had been praised for all his life. So he enters the competition, as all of them do, with high hopes and dreams. He wants to make a better life for himself and his family by winning. If we go back in time to that night, we see a very brave and courageous kid finally giving in to all the strain and pressure. He collapses in tears on Lakish’s shoulder while people in the audience cheer like their favorite team has just scored a touchdown victory. That was heartwrenching to watch. I remember sitting at home and crying right along with him because his pain felt like my own. And now, for another AI contestant to come along and tout that as her “favorite” AI moment is just wrong, tacky and tasteless on so many levels. I don’t think it’s so much his getting eliminated (because that’s just the nature of the show) but it’s seeing what all he endured and knowing he was in such pain and heartbreak at that moment, and for this smirking ugly be-yoth to take pleasure in that and call it her “favorite AI moment” just really makes me hate her. Sorry, but she’s made this personal now. Heck, scroll to the top and look at Sanjaya’s pic, then look at hers. Kinda easy to see who’s the ugly one, right? Well, thing is, it’s not the ugly on the outside that counts, it’s the ugly on the inside. And Carly has proven she’s eat up with it. Yes, the war is on!
blackraven on March 6, 2008 at 12:56 pm

I have no idea how to answer the question I posed above, except to say that if there’s a war on… how did you have time to type all that?

Carly Smithson [americanidol.com]
Carly Smithson Declares War on Sanjaya Malakar [rickey.org]