Ariana Grande apologizes for insensitive joke about JonBenét Ramsey
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Ariana Grande issued an apology after making an “out of pocket” joke about JonBenét Ramsey. But, she’s still receiving backlash for the insensitive comment from people who say she should have known better.
The controversy stems from a now-deleted Instagram post by Grande’s friend, Doug Middlebrook, who shared a photo of a tabloid news magazine featuring a photo of the young beauty queen who was killed when she was just 6 years old.
“No one has done more covers,” Middlebrook captioned the photo. Grande then commented, “i cant WAIT for this to be your halloween look,” before Middlebrook responded, working on it already.”
And although the 26-year-old ultimately deleted her comment and Middlebrook discarded the post, a fan had already taken a screenshot of the exchange and posted it to Twitter to call the singer out.
Wait WHAT?? an 8-year-old girl who was violently killed, strangled and suffocated cannot be anyone's costume... pic.twitter.com/MwaAXavyBE
— IVAN (@ivanmoratroya) July 29, 2019
“Wait WHAT??” one person wrote. “An 8-year-old girl who was violently killed, strangled and suffocated cannot be anyone’s costume...”
The tweet prompted thousands of responses, including one from Grande who admitted that her joke was “not at all funny.”
@ivanmoratroya yeah no i deleted it very quickly and understand that it’s not at all funny. this was out of pocket and i sincerely apologize.
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) July 29, 2019
Even after her apology, however, the Twitter user informed followers that he would be keeping his tweet up so that others could learn from Grande’s mistake. People have since questioned why it took so long for the star herself to realize the joke was wrong in the first place.
She NOW knows? Where is her common sense? Why did someone need to explain it to her or call her out for her to realize that what she said is horrendous? For Christ's sake, she should know not to joke about tragedies and murder better than anyone. I'm..
— FabiK (@phabbik) July 29, 2019
I can’t believe that comment Ariana Grande made about Jonbenet Ramsey... how can a grown woman (who knows right from wrong) joke about a murdered child being a Halloween costume ?!
— ✨ 𝓋𝑒𝑔𝒶𝓃 𝓁𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃𝒶 ✨ (@dreamybabyari) July 29, 2019
literally disgusting. we're not supporting her on this. they better apologize.
— zoe (fan account) (@arimyron) July 29, 2019
Many others also brought attention to the fact that Grande should be more sensitive, considering the trauma she experienced when 22 people were killed by a suicide bomber during her Manchester concert in 2017.
Wtf. Especially considering the trauma that she went through given bombing and young fans being killed at one of her shows... I can’t fathom that she would think saying this was okay.
— Erin 💔💃🏻 (@CC1_Trash) July 29, 2019
Ariana Grande's own young fans were literally murdered at a concert and she has the nerve to joke about a JonBenet Ramsey "costume" for halloween? https://t.co/DPLhrrElRT
— Becca 🐍🦋 (@swiftlypastel) July 29, 2019
Everyone says stupid things from time to time especially on social media but Ariana needs to eat a humble pie and properly apologise. If someone made a joke about a child that died at her show she would loose her shit so why a different standard for this child??
— Jessica 💫 (@Katycatdemelza) July 29, 2019
Naturally, the world-famous pop star still has some defenders, as fans have said that people need to get over the mistake that Grande has already apologized for.
Can someone please let ariana breathe omg. She did wrong and she's now apologizing , so just get over it. There are some artists that do really bad shit and they dont say a word about it. Ariana is recognizing that she did wrong and that she overstepped about this. Get this done
— 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 (@migue3lmejor) July 29, 2019
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