Kim Kardashian's birthday present from Kanye was this nightmarish hologram of her dead dad
If you have ever lost a loved one, you'll know that grief is an unending process — a hole in your heart and life that can never be filled, a bittersweet love forever within you with nowhere to go, a lifetime of cherished moments trapped in amber.
So we don't want to judge Kim Kardashian too harshly for this, but... good lord.
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Robert Kardashian, the father of Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, and Rob, died of oesophageal cancer in 2003, weeks before Kim's 23rd birthday. He was best known as O.J. Simpson's defense attorney in the former NFL star's 1995 murder trial, and was played by David Schwimmer in American Crime Story: The People Vs. O.J. Simpson. Kanye West is Kim's husband, a rapper, fashion designer, and according to this hologram of his dead father-in-law, "the most most most most most genius man in the world."
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The message the hologram delivers is mostly sweet, telling the birthday girl she looks beautiful, "just like when you were a little girl. I watch over you and your sisters and brother and the kids every day."
But if you can't bring yourself to watch the video (and I cannot in good conscience recommend that you do) you should know that the posthumous approval of Kim's choice of spouse is not the only whiplash-inducing tone shift. I cannot un-experience the phrase "big peefee" — or the moment where "Robert" transitions from reenacting a treasured memory of driving around in his car with the kids singing to Barry Mann's "Who Put The Bomp," to an earnest proclamation of pride in "the woman you've become, Kimberly."
Here's "a more close up view to see the incredible detail"!
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Again, for Kim and her family, this extremely Kanye gesture may genuinely have been a special gift. Who among us wouldn't want our dead dad to return from beyond the grave for one last visit and tell us he's proud of our achievements, even if he's actually an eldritch digital puppet through which our most most most most genius husband can endorse himself?
But like Kim's 40-person birthday party on the No-COVID Island For Rich People that became an all-consuming meme this week, perhaps this incredibly special moment could have stayed private. We were all a bit better off not knowing.
Topics Celebrities
Caitlin is Mashable's Australian Editor. She has written for The Guardian, Junkee, and any number of plucky little music and culture publications that were run on the smell of an oily rag and have since been flushed off the Internet like a dead goldfish by their new owners. She also worked at Choice, Australia's consumer advocacy non-profit and magazine, and as such has surprisingly strong opinions about whitegoods. She enjoys big dumb action movies, big clever action movies, cult Canadian comedies set in small towns, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Replacements, smoky mezcal, revenge bedtime procrastination, and being left the hell alone when she's reading.
