MJ Corey of @Kardashian_Kolloquium is DeKonstructing the Famous Family

There’s no shortage of reality TV discourse on the internet, but on her TikTok and Instagram, MJ Corey of Kardashian Kolloquium gives fans and haters of L.A.’s royal family a more scholarly take. Under her pseudonym, the psychotherapist by day is unearthing a web of postmodern KarJenner narrative devices via handbag semiotics, BBL culture, and Interview covers. While she’s not analyzing her Kompendium of data or seeing patients, she’s hammering away at her upcoming book with Pantheon, DeKonstructing the Kardashians. For this week’s installment of SEARCH HISTORY, we slid into her DMs while she was in caffeine-fueled book-writing mode and talked Kardashian memes, stalking on Venmo, and accidentally fueling conspiracy theories.

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INTERVIEW: A/S/L?

MJ COREY: 33/F/NYC

INTERVIEW: What were your last three Google searches?

COREY: When is mercury retrograde over, lol this was a rough one. A Lover’s Discourse by Roland Barthes. And High Maintenance bc I was thinking like why is everyone rewatching Girls right now when they could be rewatching that? But then I realized it ended not that long ago so it’s not quite at the nostalgia point.

INTERVIEW: What was your AIM screen name?

COREY: Candycaneflapper. At 13 I was a huge White Stripes fan and I was also really into art deco aesthetics. A weird lil Aquarian from day 1.

INTERVIEW: What’s your favorite celebrity feud rabbit hole?

COREY: The Kim K and Paris feud. It tells a story about ethnicity and class and the different ways they strategized their fame quests. There’s going to be a chapter in my book about it actually. 

INTERVIEW: Kylie x Timmy Chalamet or Kendall x Bad Bunny?

COREY: I weirdly kinda buy Kylie x Timmy a lil more while I feel like Kendall x Bad Bunny is a… savvily-matched/timed pairing. So I actually vote the latter bc I there’s something very Old Hollywood and therefore fascinating about the formulated couplings.

INTERVIEW: What’s your stalking platform of choice?

COREY: Depends on the stalking agenda. I have a stoned rabbithole voyeur mode where I’ll treat Instagram as interactive reality TV. Like read between the lines of captions and interpret selfie-post-timing. This is always with random figures who have no connection to my actual networks and whose lives I don’t even have an aspirational investment in. Like there’s a quintessential L.A. Instagram bro in Jenna Ortega’s life that she definitely friendzoned long ago but he has pined for her forever. Why does it gratify me to figure that out? Part of the fun is later regaling my sister with these pointless findings bc she is the best audience for the “tea” and always impressed. Then there’s more material and actually relevant stalking, like new girlfriends of ex-girlfriends or ex-girlfriends of new girlfriends… and for that, Venmo is king. I’ll say this tho — whenever I stalk in that voyeur mode, I always do it with a sense of humor and curiosity about humans and it’s never motivated by toxic judging.

INTERVIEW: Most iconic KUWTK meme?

COREY: I’m not sure if this is actually THE one, but, “My diamond earring is gone.” “Kim, there’s people that are dying.”

INTERVIEW: Which sister has the best memes?

COREY: Kim is most meme-able. But Kris has some great memes too and they’re almost of a higher caliber. I have found that even the most fervent Kardashian haters will sometimes still indulge in a Kris meme.

INTERVIEW: Predictions for The Kardashians season 3?

COREY: They’re going to close a parasocial loop with us (which they like to do every so often) and make us feel like they’ve heard our social media discourse. More ferocious intrafamily drama than previous seasons of the new show. A return to Kim and Kourtney conflict, bc it has always played. Continued iconic cultural references at a level that contributes pluralism to their aesthetics and drives home just how big they are and how much access they have.

INTERVIEW: Which family member has the best IG presence?

COREY: The objectively true answer is SKIMS lol. But I’m personally partial to Kourtney’s vintage style sometimes.

INTERVIEW: Most ridiculous Kardashian sponcon moment?

COREY: The entire Kardashian project!

INTERVIEW: Choose one: money or clout.

COREY: Money! I might have said clout way at the beginning of my project, but now I know clout is merely the capital we’re offered in exchange for giving over parts of ourselves to these incredibly wealthy and psychically dominating social media platforms. My true dream is to just write and live but I understand that social media (and therefore cultivation of clout) is the best way to get your work out there today. Plus in my case clout is an illusion bc I’m not actually cool. So I just wanna get paid the old fashioned way lol.

INTERVIEW: Fuck, Marry, Kill Kardashian exes?

COREY: Fuck Jackie Cruz, marry Jordyn Woods, kill Cara Delevingne.

INTERVIEW: What does your TikTok FYP look like?

COREY: I’m so wary of TikTok I truly never scroll it, I just post and then get the fuck off.  But I just checked and Jules Terpak is coming up a lot — I recently discovered her work and engaged with a few of her brilliant videos so the algorithm appears to be doing its thing of sending me more! I do have a fave TikTok account tho.

INTERVIEW: What is it?

COREY: @djmoyvegas. He’s a DJ for Señor Frog’s in Las Vegas. He goes live and puts his camera on the crowd while he plays. Back to that stoned voyeur mode I enjoy. I watch the different interactions happening between people on the dance floor. It’s interesting to observe a party come alive and all the different vibes different nights end up having. It’s not only the consumption of the scene — there are a bunch of other people watching the live, commenting their feedback, giving people funny nicknames based on their actions. It’s all usually done with goodwill and a humorous almost tender regard for people being people. I’ve tried other lives by other DJs but there’s something about this one that’s uniquely compelling— idk if it’s his DJ style or the environment of Señor Frog’s or the screen-transcending energy of a simulation city like Vegas or what. When some friends and I were in Vegas I made us go and it felt like a personal act of performance art to show up in his live. 

INTERVIEW: Which TikTok do you wish you never posted?

COREY: The one where I suggested that Kylie Baby was originally meant to be Khloe Baby. It was too conspiratorial and I’ve since learned that TikTok is a breeding ground for conspiratorial thinking. I wish I hadn’t fed the beast. I just thought it would be fun to be speculative. But ofc it went viral. And people took it too seriously. I realized then I had to be more focused on the media theory frameworks I’m working with and much more specific and clear about my agenda. Specifically with my TikTok audience.

INTERVIEW: Strangest DM you’ve received?

COREY: I am famously bad at my DMs but I do get a lot of emails from young people asking me for homework help. Or like help with writing their papers.

INTERVIEW: What’s your password?

COREY: I think it’ll be most meta and therefore on brand to tell you that it’s “password” lol.