'What Is Up With' is a feature that asks the question posed by lazy stand up comedians everywhere about random phenomena. Enjoy.

We aged out of the "young and with it" demographic so long ago that the next record release we're looking forward to is the upcoming remaster of Laurie Anderson's Big Science, but even accounting for our low level of knowledge about what the kids are listening to these days, we're still baffled by the Amy Winehouse phenomenon. Seriously, what's the fucking deal? Why can't we turn a corner in town or click on a page on the Internet without hearing about this chick? We have so far been able to determine that she a) is a singer and b) likes to drink, but that's about the extent of it. We asked Emily—our old person's version of a young person—about it but she just giggled and said, "Fuck off, grandpa, your day has passed." So help us out. Does she merit paying Lily Allen-amounts of attention to, or does she merely merit Pussycat Dolls-quantity monitoring? Any advice would be most helpful.