I feel like everyone gets one chance in their life to summon a celebrity by sheer force of will, and I'm choosing my moment right now: TAYLOR SWIFT, WHEREVER YOU ARE, YOU NEED TO SEE THIS. If my caps lock was not enough to summon you, then maybe the rest of my heartfelt plea will be. As all hardcore book lovers know, this week is National Library Week, and the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library's "Shake It Off" parody called "Check It Out" is hands-down the fiercest celebration we've seen so far.
Of course, if anything in the world is worth celebrating with this much gusto, it's National Library Week. It may have been awhile since the last time you graced a library with your presence, but this video is a reminder of all the beautiful nostalgia of the library-ing of your youth, and just how handy libraries still are today. Guys, why are we spending money on things?! In the words of my new best friends in Topeka and Shawnee County, "#CheckItOut" instead.
Not only will you save a ton of money and feel a lot of feels at libraries, but you can bro out with new friends you make there—particularly of the Taylor Swift-loving variety. As ridiculously awesome as the lyric changes in this parody are, the real crowning jewel of this video is just how many Taylor Swift references they squished into four minutes of singing. I am the biggest Taylor Swift super fan on the planet, and even I'm not sure if I got them all. (Correction: I know I didn't get them all, because if I had, I would have been screenshot-ing until the end of time.)
But being the class A geek that I am, I did take it upon myself to collect as many of the references to Princess Tay as I possibly could. BEHOLD:
Clever book titles
"Fearless" like her album, of course, and all of these other authors and titles have the word "Swift" in them.
Subtle movie references
She starred in the animation of The Lorax a few years ago, and has a song called "Stay".
And here are all the DVDs and book versions of things Taylor has starred or guest-starred in.
Song title references like ~whoa~
My heart literally can't take it. (I'm pretty sure there's a Swift-related title or author in every single one of those books they're carrying, FYI.)
Other clever hidden library references
This baking reference
A lot of people misheard "Fakers gonna fake, fake, fake" as "Bakers gonna bake, bake, bake" the first time they heard this song (including and not limited to me). This was a beautiful nod to that, as well as "Fearless" and Taylor's love of the ukulele.
This on point resume
"Wonderland," "Welcome To New York," and "State Of Grace" are, of course, more beautiful song references.
THIS ULTIMATE SWIFT REFERENCE
It went by so fast I could barely even screenshot it, but diehard fans know that Taylor was born in Pennsylvania on a Christmas tree farm. I can't tell what's happening on the far left, but I'm sure it's something juicy and amazingly Swift-related, so if anyone figures it out PLEASE hit me up.
Do yourself a favor and watch beautiful fusion of libraries and Taylor Swift RIGHT NOW:
Images: YouTube (17)
