Kesha Cannibal Jennifer’s Body

Among the many examples of a certain song being perfect for a certain scene of a movie—but not yet even being out in time to be considered for said movie—is none other than Kesha’s 2010 single, “Cannibal.” Released just one year after Jennifer’s Body (known more as a Diablo Cody movie, in one of the rare instances of a film’s screenwriter outshining the director [in this scenario, Karyn Kusama]), the song just missed the “cutoff” for getting on the filmmakers’ radar. And, considering how “open” Cody is to the use of music of the moment in her work (with Juno being an exemplar of that thanks to songs from The Moldy Peaches and Cat Power being prominently featured), there’s a chance that “Cannibal” could have been a contender, had it gotten into the right cochleae and had the right “presentation” been made. After all, what could be a more perfect song—in both title and lyrical content—for a movie about a boy-eating succubus?

The irony of how well these two pieces of pop culture would go together is that, when each was released, they were met with something of “opposite” receptions. In the case of Jennifer’s Body, the reaction to the film, both critically and commercially, was lackluster, with few understanding or appreciating the wry tone of Cody’s writing style (manifest in such now iconic lines as, “It smells like Thai food in here, have you guys been fucking?” and “You’re killing people!,” to which Jennifer Check [Megan Fox] replies, “No, I’m killing boys”).

In contrast, the wry lyrics of Kesha’s “Cannibal” largely slipped under the radar in 2010 long enough to land the song on the Billboard Hot 100 (even if “only” peaking at number 77). However, the track gained greater scrutiny in 2022 (after already going viral in 2020), following the release of Dahmer, as a result of the lyrics, “Be too sweet and you’ll be a goner/Yup, I’ll pull a Jeffrey Dahmer.” As in, you know, eating people. Or, in both Dahmer and Kesha’s cases, eating boys. Again, à la Jennifer Check. Who makes the clear distinction between boys and people. And as she should, considering that boys like the ones that went to a certain private island for the “elite” had no problem eating people, mostly women and babies (and 2009, the year of JB’s release would have likely been a prime time for these grotesque activities). So why not “even the scales” a bit on that front?

Little did Kesha or Diablo Cody know, that’s exactly what they were doing. Nonetheless, when the backlash to “Cannibal” came (thirteen years after the backlash to Jennifer’s Body right when it was released), Kesha’s co-songwriter and mother, Pebe Sebert, protectively came forward to defend her daughter by pointing out that she was the one to come up with the lyric, even emphasizing Kesha’s “innocence” in the matter by explaining that her naïve child didn’t even know who “JD” was until Sebert introduced the rhyme (itself suggested by the MasterWriter program, so, in the end, it was really a “thing” that helped bring that rhyme to fruition).

As Sebert recalled, “At the time, Kesha and the other writer were too young to even know who Jeffrey Dahmer was.” Granted, “youth” is hardly an excuse to be unaware of something or someone, especially with the internet at one’s grubby little fingertips. And Jennifer’s best friend-turned-ultimate frenemy, Needy Lesnicki (Amanda Seyfried), is probably a prime example of that, undoubtedly using the internet at some point to look up information on succubi. Or maybe she’s just that intuitive when it comes to dealing with them.

In any event, it’s a shame that the timing of the existence of these two pieces of pop culture didn’t align quite at the same moment in order for it to be used in Jennifer’s Body. Hell, more than just “used” in a particular scene. Because, better still, it could have served as the lead single for the soundtrack with an accompanying video featuring key scenes from the film (including that moment when Jennifer goes to town on Colin Gray [Kyle Gallner], with the gore of it all being shown by their shadows against the candlelit wall). This interspersed with Kesha herself looking as blood-soaked as Jennifer after showing up at Needy’s in the dead of night after that Low Shoulder concert.

The second that Kesha opens her carnivorous single with a feral “raw!,” it’s obvious that “Cannibal” is the track so clearly made for conveying Jennifer’s horny, animal search for fresh boy meat. Indeed, it’s almost as if Kesha watched the movie and then wrote the song based on Jennifer, what with such lyrics as, “I get so hungry when you say you love me/Hush, if you know what’s good for you” and “I’m gonna eat you fool/I eat boys up, breakfast and lunch/Then when I’m thirsty, I drink their blood/Carnivore, animal, I am a cannibal.” There truly couldn’t be another more on-the-nose type of verse, short of Kesha specifically mentioning character names from the film.

In another instance, it’s as if Kesha is speaking directly from Jennifer’s perspective every time she gets another guy spun into her web because they’re so attracted to her beauty, goading, “Whenever you tell me I’m pretty/That’s when the hunger really hits me/Your little heart goes pitter-patter/I want your liver on a platter.” In other words, Hannibal Lecter has nothing on this sordid cannibal woman. Incidentally, when Kesha did write this particular song, perhaps there was some subconscious part of herself that was writing it for Dr. Luke, taking aim at him with her still-not-entirely-processed feelings about the events that had transpired between them in 2005 and in the subsequent aftermath of his control over her career.

However, at a more conscious level, “Cannibal” does come across like a direct response to one of Cody’s masterpieces. One that, appropriately, took biting (pun intended) aim at men and misogyny well before the #MeToo movement created a space for women that made them feel comfortable enough to act like the “succubus” that Jennifer was so ahead of her time in becoming. As for Kesha, she, too, was ahead of her time in so many regards. Not least of which is comprehending the vast and versatile talent of James Van Der Beek.