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Joshua Joy Kamensky, the ex-City Hall press aide turned writer, argues that Jewel's videotaped stunt in Santa Monica for Funny or Die (above) wasn't funny. Further, he says, by dressing up like a large-sized woman with a big nose and fooling the crowd with her golden voice Jewel violated the unspoken social contract of karaoke. Here's the gist.
This is terrible. Karaoke is the exact wrong place to stage what tvtropes.com calls a King Incognito moment....Karaoke has an exact opposite mythopoetic gesture. We’ve all been to the bar where amid the drunk jocks and party girls (bless them) moaning through “Light My Fire” or “Lady Marmalade” there’s a shy, old man, talking to no one, who reveals as golden a throat as ever ran with the Rat Pack. Karaoke is a scene where an ordinary person can reveal talent that only celebrities are suspected to have.
By mixing with the rabble and then revealing her powers, Jewel sucks the fun out of karaoke.
So far the commenters and his Facebook friends agree with Josh.