Ariana DeBose defended online after baffling Critics Choice Awards drag
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The Critics Choice Awards writers apparently didn’t learn anything from Jo Koy’s embarrassing misstep taking cheap shots at Taylor Swift and Barbie for no good reason, opting instead to similarly swing at (and miss) Ariana DeBose during Sunday’s ceremony.
Bella Ramsey and Anthony Ramos presented the award for best song, rattling off the “famous voices” whose songs were nominated—Billie Eilish, Lenny Kravitz, and Dua Lipa—before referring to the remaining three contenders—Jack Black, Ariana DeBose, and Ryan Gosling—as “actors who also think that they’re singers.”
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Truth be told, the joke falls flat on all three counts. Black has been one half of comedy band Tenacious D for a rocking 30 years—they even had their own pretty well known movie in 2006, Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny. Gosling is certainly an actor first and foremost, but one who got his start on The All New Mickey Mouse Club alongside the likes of Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera, where, yes, he sang and danced. The average person would be forgiven for not knowing this young Gosling trivia, but it would take a joke writer ten seconds to figure it out—or that he also had a band in the aughts called Dead Man’s Bones—via Wikipedia.
But aiming this “joke” at DeBose is, hands down, the most egregious offense here. This woman is literally known for her Broadway successes, originating multiple roles, getting nominated for a Tony Award, and making the jump to Hollywood after killing it in the ensemble for Hamilton.
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And even once she made it in Hollywood, she immediately went on to star in multiple musical projects, including The Prom, Schmigadoon!, and West Side Story—for which she literally won an Oscar. If pretending she’s not really a singer is a joke instead of pure, mind-boggling ignorance, I’m missing the punchline.
And clearly, so did DeBose, who looked shocked when the camera panned to her in the moment during the ceremony, and admitted after the fact that no, she “didn’t find it funny.”
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The only slightly redeeming part of this whole debacle is that it turned into an excuse for people to share clips of her talent across social media, potentially introducing new people to how talented she is.
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Maybe it's time to stop hiring people who think they're comedians to lash out at talent during awards shows that are meant to be celebrating their achievements and contributions to entertainment, rather than trying to knock them down a few pegs.
