The Surprising Dignity of Cardboard

Nintendo has always been weirdly good at convincing adults that playing with toys is a legitimate activity. The Wii did it with motion controls, the Switch with pure portability, and Nintendo Labo—cardboard construction kits that snap together into working instruments, fishing rods, and robots—does it by being almost aggressively low-tech in the most charming way possible. You build the thing. Then you play it. There’s a directness to that which a lot of expensive hardware can’t match.

On The Tonight Show, Ariana Grande performed No Tears Left To Cry with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots—entirely on Labo instruments. And it’s genuinely good. Not novelty-good, not "impressive for cardboard" good—actually good. The song holds up stripped to toy piano and cardboard percussion, which tells you something real about its bones.

I’m always a little blindsided when a gimmick delivers something that earns its own place. This is one of those times.