15 Horrible Celeb Tweets That Failed AF
Twitter can be a beast to manage, but when you're a major celebrity, it's almost a requirement. In a lot of cases, major celebrities will look to their assistants and “people” to manage their accounts with friendly updates about what they're doing and casual shout-outs to their fans and those they're fans of. In other instances, like those listed here, the celebrities are not quite so Twitter-savvy and have been known to make their fair share of social media blunders.
It seems that when you combine a sense of entitlement with a profound sense of ignorance, you get a lot of these kind of tweets, which are littered with racism, homophobia, sexism, and just regular old stupidity! Many include jokes that didn't land or tweets that definitely weren't thought through, and most of these horrible tweets have been deleted and the celebrities responsible have had to answer for their behavior. But, thanks to the power of screenshots, we'll have their Twitter gaffes and errors in judgment forever, ready to dig out whenever the opportunity calls for it. That being said, enjoy these 15 celebrity tweets that majorly failed! They may make you think differently about some of your fave celebs.
15 Zac Efron's MLK Day Tweet
Zac Efron is your sweet boy-next-door with insane, rock-hard abs. He's sung and danced his way into the hearts of many young women since his role as Troy on High School Musical, and has continued to cement his heartthrob status.
That doesn't make him immune to terrible tweets, however!
Back in January, Zac decided to thank his devoted fans for helping him reach 10 million followers on Instagram. Seems pretty innocent, right? Well, his timing was more than a little off. Instead of making it a standalone tweet on a different day, Zac decided to share his gratitude for his high following alongside his thankfulness for Martin Luther King, Jr. “I'm grateful for a couple of things today: Martin Luther King Jr. & 10 million followers on IG.” He followed that up a black fist-pump emoji. Those are totally comparable, right? Obviously, Twitter took him to task and Zac tweeted out a genuine apology for his insensitivity.
14 Nev Schulman's Catfish Comment
Just because Catfish host Nev Schulman crusades for those who get screwed over on the Internet doesn't mean he's immune to the temptation of Twitter. Back in April, Nev was watching BET's special Black Girls Rock! before turning to the social media platform to provide his unwanted little “joke” regarding the show.
“#BlackGirlsRock I totally agree. They also tend to #catfish a lot. Just sayin',” Nev wrote in the since-deleted tweet, which immediately caused an uproar because duh, racial insensitivity and bias! It doesn't take a genius to let him know that he probably should've kept his mouth shut. Fortunately, New swiftly apologized for his remarks, saying he underestimated the impact it would have and how something he thought was playful was taken the wrong way. He addressed the complaints of multiple fans and acknowledged his ignorance in the area. Maybe stick to your day job, Nev, and leave the jokes to the real comedians! #justsayin
13 Naomi Campbell's Terrible Typo
Autocorrect can be a b!tch, right? That was the case for supermodel and notorious phone-thrower Naomi Campbell back in October of 2014 when she sought to congratulate Nobel Prize Winner, female crusader, and extraordinary young woman Malala Yousafzai for her achievement on Twitter. Unfortunately for her, whatever device she was using to post her tweet didn't recognize the name of one of the most important women in the world and autocorrected it to “malaria”!
This is a pretty minimal Twitter fail, but had to be included because it's too hilarious not to mention and because Naomi never corrected her mistake! The full tweet read: “Congratulations malaria on your #noblepeaceprize #2014 #Respect #joy #ithalljuststarted,” topped off with a heart emoji. Naomi's own heart was definitely in the right place with this tweet, but for next time, maybe she should learn to proofread before she posts!
12 Rita Ora's Ego Boost
Poor Rita Ora! Despite her upcoming appearance in the new Fifty Shades of Grey film and regular appearances on the red carpet, she hasn't quite been able to crack into the North American market in a major way. So it was no surprise when, back in 2014, she tried to stir up public interest to no avail.
Her original tweet teased her following that she would drop her new single if she got 100,000 retweets. Unfortunately for Rita, she ended up in the neighbourhood of 2,000 instead. A few hours later, when her tweet wasn't getting the response she wanted, Rita retweeted a complaint from a fan that read, “where her 3.9m followers at when you need them smh”. Of course, Twitter was having a field day with Rita's failure, and Rita quickly deleted her tweets in embarrassment.
Or was it?
She later tweeted that she was hacked and wasn't going to release new music until she was ready. Okay, Rita.
11 Justin Timberlake's “All Lives Matter”
Justin Timberlake has been problematic for a lot of people for a while, especially since he embarked on his solo career and left his Ramen-noodle-haired past behind him. One of the reasons for that perception of being problematic? The fact that JT regularly appropriates black culture in his music and appearance, while failing to give credit where credit is due.
So, back when the BET Awards aired earlier this year, your fave NSYNC member thought to throw his two cents in after hearing actor Jesse Williams' inspiring speech (which you can and should watch here), with a shockingly condescending - and since deleted - tweet that stated, “Oh, you sweet soul. The more you realize that we are all the same, the more we can have a conversation.” When Twitter lashed out at him for simply not getting the point, Justin further tried to explain himself - before apologizing and saying he had nothing but love for everyone. So, yeah, he still doesn't really get it. #fail
10 Amanda Bynes' Downward Spiral
Poor Amanda Bynes. Back in 2013 when Amanda was dealing with some serious mental health issues, she was taking to Twitter to air her grievances about her appearance while blasting other celebrities for their perceived “ugliness”. Some of these tweets included an awful dig at Rihanna, saying, “Chris brown beat you because you're not pretty enough," among other nasty remarks. She also took the time to claim that she had been microchipped by her parents and that her father sexually abused her.
While there are way more to mention, Amanda has since deleted all of her controversial tweets and is currently doing very well, enrolled as a student at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) and on medication. These tweets definitely qualify as major fails (and these are the ones that are safe for work!), but if Amanda is able to get healthy and move past them, then so are we!
9 Jason Biggs' Flying Fail
Remember the horrific year that Malaysian Airlines had in 2014? Two of their planes went down that year, and American Pie star (and the worst character on Orange is the New Black) Jason Biggs decided to lighten the mood with his own brand of ~humor~.
When the second Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down while flying over the Ukraine, Jason waited a staggering 65 minutes before taking to Twitter to ask his followers, “Anyone wanna buy my Malaysian Airlines frequent flier miles?” With the deaths of 298 people on board the flight being reported, needless to say Twitter was quick to let Jason know that his remarks were anything but funny. Like any celebrity who makes a major social gaffe like this, Jason deleted his tweet amid the controversy and appeared on talk show The View to apologize for his tweet, calling it “stupid” and “poorly timed”. Yeah, Jason, there is definitely such a thing as “too soon”!
8 Blake Shelton's Non-Apology
Maybe he thinks it's part of his good ol' country boy shtick, but Blake Shelton has had to answer for more than a few offensive tweets and he's only kind of apologized for them. Instead of choosing just one, more than a few of Blake's tweets can be pointed at as being massive Twitter fails, which took place before he was a major star on The Voice and Gwen Stefani's camo-clad arm candy. Some highlights include: “Standing in line at a coffee shop in LA talking with the man in front of me. He orders a skinny caramel latte. I couldn't tell he was gay!!!”, “Nothing says 'Happy 4th of July' like an airport shuttle bus driver that can't speak a F@@@ING world of English!!! To the terminal Omar!!!!!”
The tweets were between 2009 and 2011 but led to the #blakesheltonisover hashtag this past summer. Blake, instead of actually apologizing, claimed that those tweets were representative of the “comedy” part of his career. Well, Blake, we're not laughing.
7 Kanye West's Defence
Kanye West has had a lot of questionable tweets in the past, including his insane fight with Wiz Khalifa, in which he took ownership of Wiz's child with ex-girlfriend Amber Rose, not to mention a whole host of other things during his lengthy Twitter rant. While those tweets were definitely offensive, they don't quite match the level of WTF-ness he got with a tweet defending alleged serial sexual predator and disgraced comedian Bill Cosby.
In early February, Kanye simply tweeted, “BILL COSBY INNOCENT!!!!!!!!!” Obviously, people had a lot to say about Kanye's weird defence, with comedian and actress Sarah Silverman asking how Kanye could possibly ignore the scores of women who accused Cosby of sexual assault despite the fact that Cosby could not be prosecuted for those older cases due to the statute of limitations. Kanye never explained or followed up on his tweet, even though it sparked national outrage. Perhaps that hospitalization came not a moment too soon?
6 Bill Cosby's Meme Mistake
Speaking of Bill Cosby, maybe his social media team should've considered how their effort to engage followers could have gone wrong - because it went so, so wrong. Back in November of 2014, Cosby tweeted out a photo of himself, asking his followers to “meme” him. You know, to show he still has a sense of humour that can keep the young people engaged! Unfortunately for him, Twitter was not having any of his nonsense, and the meme became a bad idea very quickly.
The pervading theme of the memes was the allegations surrounding Bill Cosby's history of drugging and sexually assaulting women for decades while he was a regular father-figure type on the TV sets in many family homes.
Shortly after the meme idea crashed and burned, the meme generator was removed from his website and the tweet disappeared.
5 50 Cent's Anti-Autism Tirade
Way back in 2012, 50 Cent was still a bit of a hot commodity - or at least he was to one fan, whose tweet asked the rapper to “Release the album or get shot again.” Sure, the tweet was tasteless, mean-spirited, and offensive, but 50 Cent's response to his fan was so far past the line he couldn't even see it.
Offending special needs educations and civilized human beings everywhere, Fiddy replied, “yeah i just saw your picture fool you look autistic”. While not only cruel, the tweet was nonsensical, as autism is not associated with altered facial features. Never one to back down after one shot (get it?), the rapper followed that gem up with a demand that those with special needs stop following him on social media: “i dont want no special ed kids on my time line follow some body else”. Maybe someone should let Fiddy know that timelines aren't for Twitter? Oh, and that he's a d-bag.
4 Anthony Weiner's Digital Package
It was the sext heard round the world when former Democrat Congressman Anthony Weiner accidentally tweeted a picture of his crotch to all his followers in what was meant to be a direct message. While the jokes pretty much write themselves, Weiner apologized for his behaviour, which also uncovered the fact that he had been sexting multiple women on various social media platforms, despite the fact that he was married and very much in the public eye.
Unfortunately for Weiner, he simply couldn't keep on the right side of technology, and in 2016 was also shown to still be sending dirty photos to women, including one that featured his young son on the bed next to him where he lay in a not-so-casual casual pose - which highlighted his private area. The public turned on him again and now Weiner's personal and professional life are in tatters. Maybe he should take a course on social media etiquette? Do they offer that in prison?
3 Azealia Banks' Twitter Twofer
Azealia Banks just can't seem to keep her mouth shut. The rapper is no stranger to controversy, which she regularly courts on her Twitter account, where she finds more fame for her remarks than her music. In two instances this past year, Azealia took aim at former One Directioner Zayn Malik, calling him a slew of racial and homophobic slurs for no clear reason aside from the fact that Zayn refused to acknowledge her on his own Twitter.
A month earlier, in April of 2016, Azealia also put her fists up against former Alaskan governor, Sarah Palin, in a lengthy Twitter rant that called Sarah a whole host of disgusting, sexist slurs and recommended that the former governor be subjected to sexual violence. Palin, in retaliation, made things legal and threatened to sue. Twitter took things into their own hands and suspended Azealia's account, so fortunately the fame-hungry rapper is going to have to take her questionable talents and beliefs elsewhere.
2 Tila Tequila's Neo-Nazi Nonsense
If you've been living under a rock, you may not have noticed that former reality star Tila Tequila has gone off the deep end since everyone stopped watching her and her matchmaking MTV shows. First, it began when she vehemently declared that the earth was flat despite, you know, science. Then in July 2016, she went on a racially-motivated tirade that accused African Americans of being the sole perpetrators of crime in the United States, complete with copious use of the n-word. She followed that up by effectively endorsing Donald Trump for president, and saying, “They will stop when Trump is president and we ship everyone back!”
If Tila's rants sound vaguely like they belong to Adolf Hitler, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise that the disgraced star also changed her Twitter cover photo to show her dressed in Nazi regalia while standing next to a Photoshopped Trump in the Oval Office. Tila's account has since been banned, but she does lead us to our next entry in celebrity Twitter fails: Donald Trump himself.
1 Donald Trump's Everything
This could be an entire article about Donald Trump's worst Twitter fails ever, but we'd probably run out of room! The man has used the social media platform to voice much of his prejudices and biases, and it's hard to pick only a few to showcase here. Some highlights (or rather, lowlights) of Trump's Twitter feed include: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” (November 2012); “26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men and women together?” (May 2013); “I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.” (September 2013); “Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!” (March 2014).
There are so many more, but these are just samples of why Donald Trump easily tops out list for horrible celeb tweets that failed AF!