Lady Gaga is a more interesting performer/cultural figure on mute. The "Paparazzi" video is glamorous, provocative and decidedly not mainstream. She's slightly odd looking and is constantly in costume. She looks like the product of Andy Warhol and Un Chien Andalou and Dr. Evil.

And then her music is... meh. Catchy, but meh.

Then again, if her music was as exotic as her performance, probably no one would listen to it (myself included), which means no one would get to see the (honestly pretty awesome) video which she probably couldn't make because she wouldn't have the money, which means the total weirdness would actually be less, and maybe we should be happy to get anything at all.