Poor Ariana DeBose is the center of another unfortunate awards show moment

If you’re a certain type of awards show junkie, “Angela Bassett did the thing” is still a beloved part of your vocabulary. But though Ariana DeBose’s bizarre BAFTAs rap has now been embraced as iconic, let’s not forget the frenzy around it initially drove DeBose off social media in early 2023. The moment transformed DeBose from an Oscar winner into a meme, and made her an easy target. Presumably, that’s how she ended up the butt of another awards season joke at the Critics Choice Awards, which carried over into a headline at the Primetime Emmy Awards.

The quip (which The A.V. Club deemed one of the worst moments of the night) was delivered by The Last Of Us star Bella Ramsey, who while presenting highlighted “the actors who think that they’re singers”: Jack Black, Ryan Gosling, and DeBose. Perhaps the joke was meant to be ironic, given all three have genuine music careers (Black in Tenacious D, Gosling in Dead Man’s Bones). DeBose, of course, won her Oscar for West Side Story and was nominated for a Tony for Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, and was part of the original Broadway cast of Hamilton—as Ramsey’s co-presenter Anthony Ramos would well know. Whatever the case, the humor didn’t land, as was immediately obvious by the less-than-pleased expression on DeBose’s face when the camera cut her way.

“No I didn’t find it funny. Lol,” she posted on her Instagram Story after the ceremony. Social media largely sided with the Wish star, as friends and fans alike decried the joke as disrespectful. “If you think Ariana DeBose is an “actor who thinks she’s a singer,” you are so wrong it’s embarrassing,” writer Cinco Paul posted, sharing a clip from their musical comedy show Schmigadoon! Jamie Lee Curtis—who previously defended the BAFTAs rap as “joyous, celebratory, sisterly, hot, spicy”—also condemned the joke in a since-deleted Instagram post, writing, ““ARE YOU F-ING KIDDING ME! @arianadebose IS A QUEEN! #backthefuckoff #shutthefuckup.”

A spokesperson for the Critics Choice Awards confirmed to NBC News that the joke was scripted for Ramsey, who was merely reading lines off a teleprompter. Nevertheless, being the face of the joke, they bore the brunt of the backlash. It seems that Ramsey had a chance to apologize, however, because a photo of the pair embracing at the Emmys went viral after Monday night’s ceremony, which took place the day after the infamous Critics Choice moment.

All’s well that ends well—except that DeBose has now been an awards season punchline two years running. Here’s hoping that the trend ends with 2024.