29 Celebrities Who Tweeted Something Superrrr Problematic Instead Of Logging Off For The Day
by Hannah Marder · BuzzFeed1. After the tragic Malaysian Airlines crash in 2014, which killed almost 300 people, Jason Biggs tweeted, "Anyone wanna buy my Malaysian Airlines frequent flier miles?" After backlash, he tweeted, "Hey all you 'too soon' a–holes- it's a f–king joke. You don't have to think it's funny, or even be on my twitter page at all." He also called his detractors "losers" who were "literally trying to find s–t to get angry about" and stated how sad the crash was.
Biggs later deleted the tweets and apologized, writing, "People were offended, and that was not my intent. Sorry to those of you that were," and calling his comments "insensitive and ill-timed." He also wrote, "This is obviously a horrible tragedy, and everyone-including myself- is sad and angry about it."
2. In a rare example where the tweet is still up, back in 2012, Lady Gaga tweeted, "I just landed in Bangkok baby! Ready for 50,000 screaming Thai monsters. I wanna get lost in a lady market and buy fake Rolex." Fans were less than thrilled at the tweet, which perpetuated Thai stereotypes.
3. We can't make this post without mentioning the famously problematic joke that got Roseanne Barr fired from her own show. "Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj," she tweeted about Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Barr later apologized and said she'd been joking, writing, "I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste." Still, the damage had been done, and Barr was fired from Roseanne, which killed off her character and was renamed The Conners.
4. In one of the most truly head-scratching examples on this list, Blake Shelton once seemingly admitted to killing a turtle on Twitter: "Does anyone know if the Eastern Box turtle is protected in Oklahoma? If so I didn't just swerve to the shoulder of the road to smash one..." he wrote, then replied "shut up" to backlash and boasted, "I solely have raised over a million dollars in animal rescue/conservation alone."
He later denied the story had happened, writing, "I want to apologize for my ignorant joke.. I never ran over a turtle. It wasn't even possible." He also said he wasn't even in Oklahoma at the time.
5. Demi Lovato once tweeted about a super messed up trick she pulled on her bodyguard, claiming she'd hired a sex worker (who she called a "lady of the night") to go "into his room without permission" and grab "him in his 'area.'" She then deleted it and tweeted, "I could tweet something about craving jelly beans and it would offend someone," and told people to listen to her song "Warrior," writing, "Of all people I know about sexual abuse. You don't have to educate me."
Lovato eventually apologized for her tweet, and her bodyguard Max called the incident Lovato referred to "a joke and a fun prank," saying he wasn't offended.
6. After Kevin Hart was tapped to host the Oscars in 2018, his past anti-gay tweets resurfaced, such as the 2011 tweet: "Yo if my son comes home & try's 2 play with my daughters doll house I'm going 2 break it over his head & say n my voice 'stop that's gay." Hart initially asked people to "stop being negative" about his past tweets but later decided to step down from hosting the Oscars and apologize due to the intense backlash.
7. In an even worse example of anti-gay tweets, 50 Cent once tweeted, “Perez Hilton calld me douchebag so I had my homie shoot up a gay wedding. wasnt his but still made me feel better" along with a photo of two men in tuxedos running away from an angry group of people.
He later deleted the tweet. Perez Hilton responded, “Joking about violence is not funny. 50 Cent should stick to what he does best, rapping, and leave the funny business to comedians.” It doesn't look like 50 Cent ever commented on this tweet specifically.
8. Later that same month, he tweeted, "If you a man and your over 25 and you don't eat pu**y just kill your self damn it. The world will be a better place. Lol."
50 Cent said afterward that the tweet was misinterpreted, pointing towards his "lol" as clear evidence it was a joke. "Somehow they turned a simple joke into an anti-gay statement. I have nothing against people who choose an alternative life." He also said, "In fact I've publicly stated my mom loved women. It's funny how people think negative statements are newsworthy but positive statements are not worthy of coverage."
9. In the wake of allegations of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2012, Cee Lo Green tweeted, "If someone is passed out they’re not even WITH you consciously! so WITH Implies consent” and "People who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!"
Green later apologized, calling his tweets "highly irresponsible."
As for the allegations, rape charges were not filed due to a lack of evidence, and his charges were reduced to supplying ecstasy to the woman. Green, whose lawyer claimed the sex was consensual, pled no contest and was sentenced to three years of probation.
10. In what I consider to be a pretty out-of-character move, Rashida Jones once tweeted, "This week's celeb news takeaway: she who comes closest to showing the actual inside of her vagina is most popular. #stopactinglikewhores"
She later tweeted, "Let me clarify. I don't shame ANYone for anything they choose to do with their lives or bodies..." continuing, "BUT I think we ALL need to take a look at what we are accepting as 'the norm' ... There is a whole generation of young women watching. Sure, be SEXY but leave something to the imagination." She then tweeted, "Also, calling on all men to show me dat ass."
Later, she wrote in Glamour magazine, “I’m not gonna lie. The fact that I was accused of ‘slut-shaming,’ being anti-woman, and judging women’s sex lives crushed me, I consider myself a feminist. I would never point a finger at a woman for her actual sexual behavior, and I think all women have the right to express their desires. But I will look at women with influence—millionaire women who use their ‘sexiness’ to make money—and ask some questions. There is a difference, a key one, between ‘shaming’ and ‘holding someone accountable.'” She also wrote, “I understand that owning and expressing our sexuality is a huge step forward for women. But, in my opinion, we are at a point of oversaturation.”
11. Kelly Clarkson was similarly pretty slut-shamey when she tweeted, "Just saw a couple performances from the VMA's last night. 2 words.... #pitchystrippers" after the 2013 VMAs. Many assumed she was referencing Miley Cyrus, who had memorably twerked on Robin Thicke.
Clarkson later said, "I didn't say any names. … I'm not dragging anyone's name in the mud. Everybody's art is their art. I was just simply expressing my artistic point of view." She also clarified her thoughts on strippers: "Ain't nothing wrong with being a stripper," she wrote, though she added, "maybe be on key."
12. Amber Heard once tweeted, "Just heard there's an ICE checkpoint in hollywood [sic], a few blocks from where I live. Everyone better give their housekeepers, nannies and landscapers a ride home tonight."
She later deleted the tweet, writing, "With this human rights crisis being so politicized, it is hard to make a simple statement w/out it being used to distract from the real issues. Its [ sic] hard for everyone to not be negatively affected by this subject in some way." She also wrote, "Checkpoints on your home streets….Is this the 'great' America we're aiming for? Raids, fences and police-state like checkpoints don't feel like the 'land of the free' our immigrant ancestors built."
13. In the wake of the whole Taylor Swift/Kim Kardashian/Kanye scandal, Chloë Grace Moretz tweeted that "Everyone in this industry needs to get their heads out of a hole and look around to realize what's ACTUALLY happening in the REAL world. Stop wasting your voice on something so petulant and unimportant." Khloe Kardashian replied to her on Twitter with "Is this the a hole you're referring to," accompanied by an alleged paparazzi photo of Moretz in a swimsuit with her butthole exposed. Moretz, who was 19 at the time, wrote back that the photo wasn't of her.
14. After a negative review of her album Manic, Halsey tweeted, “can the basement that they run p*tchork out of just collapse already.” Pitchfork's office is in the One World Trade Center.
Halsey deleted the tweet and wrote, “ABSOLUTELY deleted it upon realizing this. Was just trying to make a joke! Intended zero harm. Just figured I could poke at them back with the same aloof passive aggression they poke artists with! Clearly a misunderstanding.”
15. Halsey also once allegedly tweeted that she was "SO going to jail" due to "promising underage fans that I'm gonna make out with them." At the time, then-19-year-old Halsey had a tradition of taking kissing photos with fans.
It doesn't appear Halsey ever specifically addressed this tweet.
16. Chrissy Teigen has a number of old problematic tweets, including one about Toddlers and Tiaras that reads, “seeing little girls do the splits half naked is just…..i want to put myself in jail."
She later deleted the tweet, and as some users point out, she may have been saying the show was problematic. While it doesn't look like Teigen ever addressed this tweet specifically, she has issued a blanket apology for her "old awful (awful, awful), tweets," saying, "Now, confronted with some of the things that I said, I cringe to my core,"
17. Teigen also cyberbullied then-16-year-old Courtney Stodden after they married 51-year-old Doug Hutchison in 2011. Stodden told the Daily Beast Teigen had repeatedly told them to kill themselves. Teigen's old tweets to Stodden then resurfaced, revealing she had written things like "you. dirt nap." and "go. to sleep. forever."
Teigen apologized after Stodden's interview, saying she was “ashamed and completely embarrassed at [her] behavior” and was "so sorry.”
18. Cardi B has a history of calling dark-skinned Black women "roaches" on Twitter, writing back to women who criticized her with things like "You just ugly you look like a BURNED ROACH."
Defending herself on Twitter, Cardi said that calling people "cockroach" is her thing and also New York slang, pointing out that she's called herself a cockroach before and writing, "stop trying to make it into some racist shit."
19. Machine Gun Kelly once tweeted, "I wish 13/14/15 year old girls werent allowed to be hot so I wouldn’t feel like such a creeper when I look at them..Im still 19."
It doesn't look like MGK ever addressed this tweet.
20. And Sterling Knight once tweeted, "I wanna know when God decided to make 15 year olds so good looking......its just plain mean." He was 21 at the time.
He then tweeted, "Notice: no undertones in my last tweet. I just don't remember girls being so mature looking at such a young age. Just an observation."
21. Chelsea Handler has made numerous awful jokes about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's children over the years, including tweeting, "Angelina has filed for divorce from Brad Pitt...he wants the China; she wants Pax and Maddox ##sorrycouldnthelpmyself" after their divorce news broke.
Pax and Maddox were adopted from Vietnam and Cambodia, respectively.
22. She also tweeted from the Huffington Post Twitter account (during an Oscars takeover) congratulating Lupita Nyong'o on her Oscar win for 12 Years a Slave, and then promoting her book Uganda be Kidding Me. "Congratulations #12yearsaslave Go to Africa or buy #ugandabekiddingme." The only apparent connection between Lupita's win and the book is Lupita's African heritage — which, by the way, is not Ugandan).
23. During the same Oscars ceremony, she also tweeted that "#AngelinaJolie just filed adoption papers #lupitanyongo," seeming to joke that Jolie was interested in adopting Nyong'o.
Handler ended her series of Oscars tweets (which were made via the Huffington Post Twitter account) with "#imsorry." Huffington Post later stated, "the views (expressed by Handler) are not ours. ...The Huffington Post occasionally has celebrities take over our Twitter handle including Bill Maher during the State of the Union."
When Handler was asked about the comments on Good Morning America, she said, "Well, people are always upset with me about something. I don't take it personally. ... I said at the end, 'I'm sorry for just being me.'"
24. Speaking of Chelsea Handler, she once tweeted, "This is what a f-g bird likes like when he flexes" with a photo. The tweet is still up.
25. Sarah Silverman also tweeted using the f-slur, writing in 2010, "I dont mean this in a hateful way but the new bachelorette's a f----t."
26. Aaand Amy Schumer did as well, writing in 2010, "Enjoy skyfall f-gs. I'm bout to get knee deep in Helen Hunt. #thesessions."
27. Rihanna once tweeted a photo of a rice cake in earrings and sunglasses, a move many fans thought was a racist reference to Chris Brown's then-partner, Karrueche Tran, as she captioned it with the lyric from her song "Birthday Cake" with Chris, "Ima a make u my b****." Fuel was added to the fire when Rihanna's best friend Melissa Forde later explicitly referred to Tran as a "rice cake."
Rihanna also called rice cakes "dry." It doesn't look like anyone ever confirmed or denied that the tweets were about Tran.
28. Gregg Sulkin once tweeted, “Wow what a workout. Had to run up flights of stairs & all I could think of were the brave firefighters climbing the twin towers on 9/11.”
Sulkin later deleted the tweet, and also tweeted, “So much respect for those who put their lives in danger to protect us,” and in another tweet: “& they run up flights of stairs with heavy gear on their backs. Puts everything into perspective. #respect.”