It was a jarring sight. Kanye West was laughing.
Basically everyone with an Internet connection knows why this would seem strange, but here is a quick recap for anyone who has been asleep for the past 60 days: West has spent the past few months alienating his fan base with Twitter rants about the alt-right and Donald Trump (that were part of a philosophy book that was not actually a book) and real-life rants at TMZ about his twisted idea that slavery was a choice.
He has also released three records: a great one by Pusha T that he solely produced, a mediocre one billed exclusively to his name and a very good collaboration with Kid Cudi. The latter dropped this weekend, and though it sounds much more realized than “Ye,” it remains a dark exploration of a cracked psyche. This sure ain’t party music.
So it was as refreshing as it was strange to see a happy Kanye along with his wife, Kim Kardashian West, and three of his cousins appear on “Celebrity Family Feud,” playing against the Kardasians themselves — including Khloe, Kendall and their mother, Kris Jenner.
This was “College Dropout” Kanye, not “Yeezus” Kanye. But while it might appear the rapper is back to his fun-loving self, it is important to note this episode was filmed in February — long before Kanye took to Twitter. So, in some ways, the episode felt like a time capsule of a happier — or certainly simpler — time.
Here are a few takeaways:
Kanye loves Kim, but he really loves “Family Feud.”
During the opening introductions, Kanye could not stop smiling. Rest assured he remained this way for the rest of the episode, his pearly whites blinding the cameras (a discordant sight if you had to pause one of his dark, new records to watch the episode). One of his biggest smiles came early: when he sheepishly introduced “my beautiful wife, Kim Kardashian West.”
But it is Kim who first truly exposed their adoration for the show, telling host Steve Harvey, “That’s…
