Justin Bieber And Miley Cyrus Rising Above The Snark, Even Joel McHale’s

Comedian Joel McHale, best known for his pop culture slice-ups as The Soup host and various acting roles, dropped some snark on Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, and Kim Kardashian in a recent guest spot on Extra.

Ostensibly promoting new season starts for Community and his upcoming Klondy Awards webcast on Sunday, the funnyman ribbed on the Canadian superstar, the new queen of Twerk and Kanye West’s girlfriend/co-parent.

Asked by host Maria Menounos about why he liked to poke fun at the Kardashians, McHale joked,

“I like that Kim says ‘I need to get back to work now’.” A punchline followed: “At what? Just existing and then someone recording it?”

Menounos then asked McHale for his take on Cyrus, after which he segued to Bieber.

Referring to the MTV Video Music Awards, where the “Wrecking Ball” songstress twerked her way through a duet with Robin Thicke, the 41-year-old said: “I feel like if we just stopped talking about that MTV performance, it would just go away.”

Seconds later, McHale quipped, “I love her [Miley’s] new haircut,” adding, “Because I can’t tell the difference between her and Justin Bieber. It’s great… (sic)… They’re both very pretty.”

Ouch.

Meanwhile, Cyrus and Bieber will both release new, solo music next month after guesting together on Young Money rapper Lil Twist’s recently leaked “Twerk” record.

Encoring her VMAs moment with latest single “Wrecking Ball” and its accompanying video in which the 20-year-old is seen naked, not surprisingly the video smashed Vevo’s “Most Views Of A Video in 24 hours” record after racking up 19.3 million views in that period.

Amid the days-old ending of her engagement to Oz actor Liam Hemsworth and speculation about her relationship with “23” producer-writer Mike WILL Made It, Miley has reached out to her fans for feedback on cover art options for her upcoming Bangerz album, the latest sees the singer topless.

The record drops on October 8, neatly dovetailing with the debut of her MTV documentary Miley: The Movement on October 2 and her SNL hosting stint on October 5.

Over in Bieberville, following months of bad press over on and off Believe tour exploits — some of which is likely inflated — the 19-year-old appears to be focusing on collaborative output ahead of an announced new music release in October and the unveiling of his movie-documentary Believe this Christmas.

Justin recently appeared in Detroit singer-hitmaker Maejor Ali’s euphemistically themed R&B/Hip-Hop video for his single “Lolly,” appearing shirtless at points in the clip and rapping adult content. Following Tuesday’s premiere, the single is still holding at number six on iTunes’ hip-hop chart.

The pop singer also recently launched his 14-year-old YouTube discovery, Madison Beer’s debut single “Melodies” on iTunes and Radio Disney and its video. Beer recently inked a deal with Island Records.

The single sold 9,000 downloads in its opening week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, while the song’s official video has already attracted 1.7 million (and counting) YouTube views.

Over the past months speculation about what Bieber’s new music will sound like has accelerated after reports of studio sessions with producers such as Tyler, The Creator, Future, Wiz Khalifa, R. Kelly, the renowned Pharrell Williams, Jason “Pooh Bear” Boyd, and Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins — who recently posted an Instagram video of the team working in Bali.

Bieber is due to perform at the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix on Monday before the last leg of his mammoth trek moves through Asia, Latin America, New Zealand and Australia.

While Justin continues to draw “Lolly” related heat from some seemingly unfamiliar with over 70% of contemporary music for the last 40 years, and Miley incurs censure for her pneumatic, new public image, nevertheless these two young people are keeping on.

They’re on the grind. Working, creating, and moving forward. Some call it punk (the good kind), others condemn them as divas. But wouldn’t it be refreshing if instead of insisting two individuals making the leap to adulthood abide by prudish often hypocritical social mores, were applauded for their successes and allowed the freedom to make mistakes as they evolve their artistry and mature?

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