"You don't have to be so exciting."

"Sometimes love
don't feel like it should."

I've only recently found out about Sanjaya Malakar, but I am already conflicted. I mean, on the one hand, I want every brown kid who seizes the North American pop culture spotlight to make it -- to really make it! gosh darn it. On the other hand...er...ummm...I still have no idea how this particular brown kid made it. Young girls love puppy-cute boys with floppy hair? Howard Stern is more influential than you thought? There's even a Malakar hunger strike, for pity's sake, though I am not entirely unconvinced that this petition is NOT fake and NOT the work of some snickering American Idol intern (and if it is, then...well played, A.I. publicity team...well played indeed).

Seriously, isn't this kind of like William Hung making it past the audition round?

TRACK LISTING: John Cougar Mellencamp, "Hurts So Good"