Watch Miley Cyrus and a kitten sing ‘Wrecking Ball’ at the AMAs

Don’t feel ashamed. By the time you’re reading this, you’ve no doubt heard that Miley Cyrus performed “Wrecking Ball” in front of a projected image of a giant kitten at Sunday night’s American Music Awards. You’re hear to watch it, perhaps for the first time, perhaps for the 10th.

Why? Because said kitten was made to appear as if it was lip-synching to Miley’s heartache ballad, and it was weird. So weird, in fact, that my colleague Mikael Wood described it as “willfully amateurish,” complaining that it “blunted” the impact of the song.

Perhaps. Live by the kitten, die by the kitten, and it’s hard to foresee a future in which “Wrecking Ball” is not associated with a giant kitten head. But better to think of kittens than heartache, no?

And really, wasn’t Miley just giving us all we’ve ever really wanted in the first place? The Internet loves kittens (if the Internet loves something more than kittens, we should probably just remain ignorant as to whatever that thing is).

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We watch kitten videos when we should be working. We send kitten videos to our dog-owning friends. And when one of us is having a bad day, we no doubt have a friend who believes sending us a kitten video is the visual antidepressant we need (thanks, but it’s not).

In that case, Miley’s AMA performance of ‘Wrecking Ball” was almost a dare. Go ahead, she was saying to everyone who will be on the Internet on Monday, just try not share this. Miley, you win. It is shared.

But what about those cat-Grinches who say it kills the meaning of the song? Well, “Wrecking Ball” is the strongest tune on her recent album “Bangerz,” and the one in which Miley’s raspy-sharp vocals aren’t tempered by dance-pop routines. It’s a good song for staying in, eating ice cream and deleting the Instagram photos of your ex, and now, at least for today, it’s nothing more than an Internet meme.

On the plus side, we now can associate “Wrecking Ball” with a giant kitten head, and you can use mobile phone apps to try and make your own. So ... it’s a draw?

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