Ariana Grande Apologizes for Joke About Murdered Child Pageant Queen JonBenét Ramsey
By Ryan Carroll
While Ariana Grande has been mired in her fair share of controversy during her career, it’s rare that she gets into situations that are downright messed up--but an exception to that rule came this weekend, when Grande came under fire for making a joke about murdered child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey.
The controversy, according to BuzzFeed, began when Grande’s close friend Doug Middlebrook posted a photo of a tabloid magazine cover purporting that Ramsey’s killer had been arrested. Middlebrook captioned the photo, “No one has done more covers,” with Grande commenting, “I can’t WAIT for this to be your Halloween look [heart emoji].”
Ariana is a 26 year old woman who we would think would be mature but instead had the audacity to go under Doug’s post about JonBenet Ramsey and proceeds to type “i cant WAIT for this to be your halloween costume. ?” and she put a motherfucking heart to it too... pic.twitter.com/BZuuhrKmT0
— داني (@vogueokonma) July 29, 2019
Subsequently, fans and non-fans alike responded with aggressive backlash to the insensitivity of Grande’s comment. One user tweeted, “[I] love her but this was out of line and [I]’m disgusted” and another said, “I love Ariana but that comment about Jon Benet [sic] was very tasteless.”
Later, Grande posted different apologies on social media, saying that she “understand[s] it’s not at all funny” and calling the comment “out of pocket.” In another tweet, which has since been deleted, she said (per BuzzFeed) that dark jokes were a “coping mechanism” and thanked her fans for “always helping her learn.”
But that’s the thing, Ariana Grande always says something wrong and then she apologizes and everyone forget about it. That‘s fucking unfair, why is she so privileged? Everyone knows that the Jon Benet’s case is NOT funny, she’s 26. She’s pushing 30. Like hello? {C}
— 2019 Predictions (@2019thoughts) July 29, 2019
To many, however, this apology felt insufficient. “Ariana Grande always says something wrong and then she apologizes and everyone forget[s] about it,” one user said. “That’s...unfair, why is she so privileged? Everyone knows that the Jon Benet’s [sic] case is NOT funny, she’s 26. She’s pushing 30. Like hello?” Another echoed the sentiment, saying that Grande was old enough to know that such a joke was inappropriate.
In any case, we’re glad that there’s meaningful thinking about the whole event. It’s important to give individuals a chance to grow, but it’s also important to make sure that they’re actually being genuine.