What Was Up With That Mean Ariana DeBose Joke at the Critics Choice Awards?

It’s awards show season, which always brings new examples of everyone’s favorite genre of reaction pic: the celebrity side-eyeing a rude joke made about them. We already had Taylor Swift reacting to Jo Koy, and now we have Ariana DeBose reacting to Bella Ramsey.

DeBose was nominated for Best Song at the Critics Choice Awards for “This Wish,” from the Disney movie Wish, and Ramsey was on stage presenting the award along with Anthony Ramos when the bizarre quip happened. Ramsey, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, opened their speech with a line about “some of the most famous voices in the music industry,” causing Ramos to namecheck Billie Eilish, Lenny Kravitz, and Dua Lipa. Ramsey added, “And then there are the actors who also think that they’re singers. Jack Black, Ariana DeBose, and Ken himself, Ryan Gosling.”

The camera cut to DeBose when her name was said and she didn’t look impressed, at all. Sure, she put on a smile pretty quickly, but her face was like thunder at first. And she had good reason to be mad: she’s a very accomplished singer, not just an actress who thinks she’s one. She’s sung on Broadway—in fact, she sung alongside Anthony Ramos himself in Hamilton—and won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for a singing role in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story.

The fallout from the Critic’s Choice Awards joke

Gosling walked away with the Best Song award on the night and DeBose took to Instagram to explain that her annoyed face wasn’t an act. “No I didn’t find it funny. Lol,” was her short message on Instagram Stories.

Her fans were cross as well.

And yet … a lot can change in a day. At the Emmy Awards on January 15, Ariana DeBose and Bella Ramsey were photographed in a tight embrace. Maybe they simply talked the situation out like adults?

Ultimately there’s no harm done to anyone’s career, it was just a joke written by some unknown writer that massively flopped. It’s still strange that someone would come up with it in the first place, though. Don’t they know who this woman is?!

(featured image: Matt Winkelmeyer, Getty Images)