By Quinn Tierney

From a controversial theme to a dead cockroach, this year's Met Gala showed us a different side to the entertainment industry, breaking down the glitz and leaving its audience cringing yet entertained. 

  It could be said that the Met Gala was set up for failure even before its first celebrity hit the carpet. When the Met announced that its theme would be Karl Lagerfeld, many people opposed this idea, as the Chanel designer was never far from controversy. Throughout his career, Lagerfeld was known to be fatphobic, misogynistic, and even racist when he put one of his models in blackface. For this reason, so many people criticized the Met and its host Anna Wintour for their choice in the theme, which caused many people to boycott watching the event. 

  While people did speak out in opposition, many celebrities sang Lagerfeld's praises and devoted their outfits to him. Specifically, designer Vera Wang walked the carpet in a custom dress with the name Karl on the train of her dress. Watching celebrities like this praise such a controversial man made viewers uncomfortable and upset about the celebration of harmful behavior. 

  This year's Met was no different from others, and celebrities went above and beyond, making previous appearances like Katy Perry's burger dress look like an everyday look. Jared Leto was the epitome of this when he strutted the carpet in a full body cat suit to honor Lagerfeld's cat. The appearance of Leto's cat suit next to Kim Kardashian's stunning gown was comical and entertaining. It made viewers like myself feel slightly uncomfortable. It not only made the audience uncomfortable but also celebrities. Nick Jonas went as far as to say what everyone else was thinking and call Leto a "furry." 

  Leto was not the only cat on the carpet. Doja Cat was living up to her name with a prosthetic cat nose, cat ears and only responding to interview questions in "meows." If the audience hadn't already been cringing, they did even more with the awkward interview between Doja Cat and Vogue interviewer Emma Chamberlain. While taking several vape breaks, Doja solely responded to Chamberlain with cat noises. This sole interaction almost made me shut off my TV, but made me stay for the pure entertainment of what would happen next. I felt terrible for Chamberlain, but the empathy I felt was masked by the pure curiosity and joy in Doja Cat's ability to completely negate and inform a prestigious and exclusive event such as the Met. 

  Last year the Met received lots of backlash from the invitation of social media influencers, as people felt it ruined the merit of the event, so I find it comical that celebrities they believe should be there, like Doja Cat, are doing precisely what they didn't want to happen. 

  If Leto's cat suit and Doja Cat's vape breaks weren't enough to solidify the disaster the Met was this year, the social media's obsession with a cockroach on the carpet did so. Social media users quickly identified a cockroach on the carpet throughout the event and became attached. People on the carpet even began to catch on, with one of the camera operators taking pictures of the cockroach, leading to the infestation of memes. Tragically, the cockroach was stepped on, which led to even more memes around social media putting the previous memes of Leto and Doja Cat to shame.

  While Met Galas have had their mess ups and controversies in past years, nothing beats this year, with almost a comical series of events. While I hope something like this doesn't happen again, a cockroach and multiple cats at the Met Gala provided great entertainment.