As many people have seen on the internet recently, Beatrice Kristi Ilejay Laus, a Filipino-British singer-songwriter that goes by beabadoobee, has responded to an internet trend in a very negative way. The internet trend in question is a satire list of artists who “can sing” verses artists who “can’t sing” in which beabadoobee is listed as someone who cannot sing. After beabadoobee is shown for a short period, the video cuts to the well known rapper, NBA (something), in a booth with opera music dubbed over him. In the comment section under the videos, replies saying “beabadoobee had too much screen time” are also common.
The problem with beabadoobee’s hostile reaction stems from the fact that the video was satire, something she might not have realized, despite the obvious implications in the video. What many are scratching their heads over is why she started slandering a specific gender for no reason. In her reaction, she goes on a tangent about men and how “if they get no [women] they can just say that”. It’s needless to say this anger is misplaced at best and maybe telling of what she thinks about on certain topics.
When events like these happen on the internet, the first thing that comes to mind is the importance of understanding and comprehension of satire on the internet. TikTok, the app where the internet trend got popularized, is well know for videos and making light of things through sarcasm and creative ideas. Understanding this sarcasm and not falling for “ragebait” is one of the only ways you can enjoy your time on the internet. Because of her reaction, beabadoobee has left a bad taste in a number of people’s mouths, even to the point where the trend adapted to include a short blurb about how she can’t take a joke, which would not have happened if she did not reacted in such a way. The contents of the videos hardly damaged her reputation by themselves. In fact, fans of her in the comments didn’t seem too bothered by it either. Another reason for her reaction might have been the references in her own comments. Some people say that a majority of those comments were men, which could have been a factor in her reaction, but it doesn’t really justify the way she handled things.
Trends like these have a nature to die out quickly anyway. In a month’s time there will be hardly any videos like that. In any other context other than the joking theme of the trend, offense to it might have been warranted, but it wasn’t in this case. That being said, you can’t control the people on the internet, so unless something is entirely offensive to you or others, it’s best to brush it off instead of getting angry about it.
