Lady GaGa does not get much love from you guys in the commentariat, I think in part because it is natural to be suspicious of anyone who achieves a fame that can seem instant and unearned.  But I'm of the mind that while her initial blow-up came out of nowhere, she has pulled the rare trick of proving equal to her success, and I think her performance on Saturday Night Live over the weekend is a case in point.

Let's start with her outfit: she's got some kind of gyroscrope/Rings of Saturn thing going on, and it's a pretty unambiguous statement.  That she has mass and stability; she's a point of gravity, and things orbit and flow around her.  And yet she presents herself as an icon and a force, only to give a much more human and personal performance than is her M.O.  Video, after the jump.