Like many of us, American Idol is social distancing. The first pandemic-era episode of the singing competition aired Sunday night, featuring remote performances from the contestants and commentary from judges Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan, and the indefatigably wacky Katy Perry, who donned a hand sanitizer costume for the entire two-hour episode. Let it never be forgotten that she’s pop music’s answer to a theme-park worker. She’s so unusual! The giant, impressively printed costume did nothing to deter her from taking her job as a judge seriously, and here are some highlights of Perry saying extremely earnest things to the contestants while encased in cardboard:
