Begging for the Bare Minimum Never Looked So Fun!

In Sabrina Carpenter's latest music video, she's Janet Weiss to Colman Domingo's Frank-N-Furter. There's a dance break, some light pole work, and—best of all—another man's death!

By Audra Heinrichs | August 29, 2025 | 1:32pm

Photo Credit: YouTube Music

Begging for the Bare Minimum Never Looked So Fun!

On Friday, Sabrina Carpenter released her seventh studio album, Man’s Best Friend. So far, the reviews seem pretty split. While The Guardian deemed it “smut and stunning craft from pop’s best in show,” it’s “half-baked” per The Independent. And, if you think that’s bad, the Times went one criticism further and called it “vanilla.”

I concur there are flops (“Don’t Worry I’ll Make You Worry”), bops (“Go-Go Juice”), and a lot of the same schtick from Short n’ Sweet. Is it cynical to market oneself as an enemy to the male gaze yet spend the bulk of an album waxing poetic about the many prospective partners that treat you like…well, a dog? Probably! But kudos to Carpenter for capitalizing upon the hypocrisy we’ve all embodied at one time in our lives (or still do) and fashioning it into something that sounds more fun that it feels. Speaking of! Her latest single, “Tears,” all but promises sex to any dude doing the bare minimum. The chorus? “I get wet at the thought of you being a responsible guy.” A man doing the dishes, building an IKEA chair, and answering his phone is the stuff that gets women hot, so sings Carpenter. As she claims much of her discography is, “Tears” is another silly little skewering of today’s heterosexual relationship dynamics. I’m not entirely convinced it’s a great one, but I do love the music video!

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Unveiled on Friday, the video opens with Carpenter—paying homage to the horror damsels of yore—waking up beside her car. She’s crashed outside a spooky house only to discover its inhabitants are a gaggle of shes, theys, and gays in full drag (including one very famous one: Colman Domingo!) Of course, Carpenter wanders in and it’s only a matter of time before she winds up whirling around with Domingo in her signature lingerie and stockings. It’s clearly a tribute to The Rocky Horror Picture Show; she’s Janet Weiss to Domingo’s Frank-N-Furter. You see the vision.

There’s a dance break, some light pole work, and innumerable looks that have absolutely been added to Halloween costume inspiration lists today. Oh and, as in the last four music videos, Carpenter kills a man. All in all, it’s delightful—as is the entirety of Carpenter’s cinematic universe. With the exception of Chappell Roan, Ariana Grande, and Doja Cat, very few pop girls are making music videos like her right now. Who else has gotten a priest demoted? Even if I can’t fully connect to her lyrics because I’ve de-centered men from my life a bit more than it seems Carpenter has just yet (of course I have, I’m over the age of 30 and live in New York City), her visuals have always indicated a cleverness that goes beyond cutesy grasps for agency in relationships with men.

In Carpenter’s Instagram announcement of Man’s Best Friend, she wrote: “It’s a real party for heartbreak, a celebration of disappointment! It’s laughing at yourself and your poor choices as everything is falling apart, it’s wondering how loyalty and love always gets you back to third wheeling, spoken sarcastically like a true 25 year old!” Frankly, if that’s the ethos of the album, then the music video for “Tears” presents the path forward (or, the most valuable lesson to take from one’s 20s): Your poor choices will come and go, but your gays are forever.

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