The Most Brutal Celebrity Insults Of The Past Decade
Gone are the innocent days of Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff feuding over Aaron Carter's affection. The Simple Life is not so simple anymore. This past decade saw deeper, more caustic showbiz feuds than the previous era of MySpace Top 8s and Perez Hilton.
In the early aughts, celebs had to pause before spilling their absolutely burning hot tea — be it during an on-the-street interview with TMZ or a radio appearance. Thanks to Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, the filter has been lifted and anyone is free to instantly fire off comments in a fit of rage without thinking about the consequences. This lets feuds spiral for better or for worse (and definitely for our entertainment, either way).
From Kim Kardashian unveiling the true meaning of National Snake Day to Gwyneth Paltrow jabbing the fairy godmother of domesticity with a simple pie recipe, keep on scrolling to relive the ultimate Hollywood shade with some of the most brutal celebrity insults of the 2010s.
Calvin Harris needed to calm down
Taylor Swift and Katy Perry's ongoing feud lasted the better part of the decade. Though the pair eventually buried the hatchet in 2019 while dressed up as fast food in Swift's music video for "You Need to Calm Down," it was certainly no thanks to the country-turned-pop songstress' ex, Calvin Harris. The Scottish DJ admitted to GQ (via NME) that he absolutely "snapped" at Swift, whom he dated from March 2015 to June 2016, and dragged the oh-so-touchy subject of Perry into the mix.
The month following the couple's split, it was revealed that Swift helped Harris write his Rihanna collab, "This Is What You Came For." According to Billboard, Swift's team confirmed that the star was credited under a pseudonym. Harris, who claimed his former flame "smashed it as usual," even acknowledged that Swift sang on the track, but moments later, changed his tune and accused the singer of trying to make him look bad. "I figure if you're happy in your new relationship you should focus on that instead of trying to tear your ex bf down for something to do," he wrote in a now-deleted series of tweets (via Billboard). "I know you're off tour and you need someone new to try and bury like Katy ETC but I'm not that guy, sorry. I won't allow it."
Harris, who maybe needed to calm down, later admitted (via NME) that lashing out "was completely the wrong instinct." You think?
Kim Kardashian spit some venom on National Snake Day
With One Direction's breakup, Brexit, devastating climate change news, and whatever the heck was going on with U.S. politics for much of the decade, it seems like there was only one reliable constant in the 2010s: Taylor Swift's feud with Kanye West. This thing has been kicking since West's "Imma let you finish" moment at the 2009 MTV VMAs, but the peak fell on National Snake Day in 2016 thanks to Kim Kardashian, the Internet's reigning queen of snide clapbacks.
By now, we all know Kardashian's infamous tweet, which eventually resulted in Instagram allowing users to ban specific emojis and Swift finding a new favorite holiday. "Wait it's legit National Snake Day?!?!?" the reality star wrote. "They have holidays for everybody, I mean everything these days."
Essentially, the whole thing stemmed from an argument over West's hit "Famous." The song included the lyrics, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that b**ch famous." According to Cosmopolitan, West claimed Swift approved the line — but Swift's team claimed she did not. Kardashian then released an onslaught of secret Snapchat footage that seemingly showed Swift approving of the song (but not the specific line in question). That's when Swift clapped back with her now-famous line, "I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative," which launched a thousand memes. Basically, National Snake Day 2016 deserves its own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Madonna loved Lady Gaga's remake (and we're not talking about A Star Is Born)
Listen, it's no secret that Lady Gaga draws inspiration from Madonna. What modern pop star doesn't? Though, according to E! News, Madge was initially supportive of the budding singer, things kind of went downhill in 2011 when Gaga released "Born This Way." The song had a glaring resemblance to the Queen of Pop's 1989 hit "Express Yourself" — and it wasn't lost on the "Vogue" singer.
In an interview with Jay Leno (via The Hollywood Reporter), Gaga claimed that she received an email from Madonna's team sending her "their love and complete support" for "Born This Way." Yet, in a 2012 ABC News interview, Madonna called the song "reductive" while smirking and taking a literal sip of tea (or whatever was in her mug). "I thought, what a wonderful way to redo my song. I mean, I recognized the chord changes. I thought it was ... interesting," she said (via E! News). The singer even took it one step further and performed a mashup of the two songs during a 2012 concert in Tel Aviv – saucy!
Unfortunately, all good feuds must pass. In a 2019 British Vogue interview, Madonna admitted the pair were never enemies. That same year, they posed together at the Oscars.
Miley, what's good?
There's absolutely nothing like a good public call out on live TV. When Nicki Minaj accepted her MTV VMA for best hip-hop video in 2015, she used her acceptance speech to call out former Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus. "Back to this b**ch that had a lot to say about me the other day in the press," she said, as we all collectively spit out our drinks. "Miley, what's good?" So, where did the beef begin?
According to MTV News, this organic, Twitter-fed beef stemmed from earlier in 2015 when Minaj lamented over the fact that "Anaconda" was left out of the video of the year category. For some reason — possibly because Minaj referenced women with slim bodies — Taylor Swift thought the "Super Bass" singer was subtweeting her. Minaj denied it. Cyrus then weighed in during an interview with The New York Times and called Minaj "not too kind" while accusing her of starting a "pop star against pop star war."
Despite the call-out, which was caustic enough to launch a series of memes, Minaj had no regrets. ”I saw [Cyrus] just looking at me, with her face screwed up, and I thought, What the," she told The New York Times Magazine, adding, ”The fact that you feel upset about me speaking on something that affects black women makes me feel like you have some big balls."
Pusha-T went too far in a Drake diss track
Drake and Pusha-T had been feuding for years, but in 2018, Pusha-T took it far enough to have Drake remove himself from the narrative entirely. Apparently, all is not fair in a hip-hop war.
The feud began to snowball when Pusha-T released the song "Infrared," which seemingly accused Drake of using ghostwriters. Less than 24 hours later, the former Degrassi star fired back with "Duppy Freestyle," a standard, career-focused diss track. That's when things really started to spiral. With "The Story of Adidon," Pusha-T took a shot at the Canadian rapper's longtime producer, Noah "40" Shebib, who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, and revealed that the star had a secret lovechild. Pitchfork hailed it "character assassination" and Drake promptly raised his white flag.
During an episode of HBO's The Shop (via Pitchfork), Drake claimed he always expected something about his kid to come up, but Pusha-T took it too far when he made fun of Shebib's illness. He did record a response, but ultimately decided to take the high road and not engage. "I got home, listened back to it, and I was like, 'Man, this is not something I ever want to be remembered for," Drake said. "'This is not even a place I necessarily want to go.'"
Revenge is as sweet as pie
Watching Martha Stewart and Gwyneth Paltrow duke it out with desert recipes may just be the best celebrity back-and-forth of the decade. According to Us Weekly, it all began when Martha Stewart Living published a spread of pie-filling flavors called "Conscious Coupling" in October 2014. The introduction read: "Every Thanksgiving table should be blessed with the presence of a long-married pair who bring out the best in each other, are completely enamored despite their differences, and leave every other guest thinking, I'll have what they're having."
This, of course, read like a pointed jab at Paltrow, who had famously publicly labeled her split from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin as a "conscious uncoupling" in a Goop newsletter earlier that year. Making fun of a divorce, especially when there's a child involved, is a little uncouth, but in this case, the revenge was as sweet as chocolate cake — literally. Paltrow ultimately came up with a recipe of her own called "Jailbird Cake," which she posted to Goop the following month. According to Us Weekly, this may or may not be a reference to Stewart's five-month prison stay in 2004. Burn!
The Fashion Police should have arrested Giuliana Rancic for this comment
Giuliana Rancic's racially charged Fashion Police incident didn't just get the star "cancelled" on the Internet — it may have actually played a role in the eventual cancellation of Fashion Police altogether. In 2015, the longtime E! host flippantly said K.C. Undercover star Zendaya must've smelled like "patchouli oil" and "weed" because she wore dreadlocks to the Oscars red carpet. Yikes. This was a whole lot more than just calling a dress fugly.
Zendaya, of course, took to Instagram to shame Rancic, calling her comments "ignorant slurs" and "pure disrespect." The Euphoria star wrote in part, "To say that an 18-year-old young woman with locs must smell of patchouli oil or 'weed' is not only a large stereotype but outrageously offensive."
Rancic backpedaled on Twitter, claiming her comment had nothing to do with race and everything to do with a "bohemian chic look," but the damage was already done. Despite an on-camera apology, Kelly Osbourne admitted the comment made her question staying on the show. She left for good not long after, according to TMZ, and the series — which faced much criticism and struggled to find its footing following Joan Rivers' passing — was finally cancelled in 2017.
Mariah Carey didn't know what Nicki Minaj does
You'd think Mariah Carey would know that Nicki Minaj could sing considering they were both serving as judges on American Idol during Season 12, but Carey hit the "Anaconda" hitmaker with her classic "I don't know her" energy. Apparently, the pair did not get along, and their feud was so bad that fellow judge Randy Jackson openly admitted to Oprah Winfrey (via HuffPost) that "it was definitely difficult. It wasn't quite the panel we thought it was going to be."
That may have been an understatement. According to People, there was reportedly a flurry of f-bombs and rumored gun threats. Barbara Walters, who spoke about the pair on The View, claimed Carey had to hire extra security, though Minaj denied threatening her with violence. Nonetheless, the beef reportedly beefed on.
In a 2013 episode of Nightline, Carey finally addressed the feud after Walters read off some of Minaj's lyrics that were allegedly about the show. "'I'll take it. Sign on the dotted line ... but I'm quick to a check a b**ch if she's out of line.' Are you the b**ch she's singing about?" Walters asked (via Latina). "Don't know," Carey replied, before throwing some not-so-subtle shade. "I didn't know she sang. I thought she rapped. Or whatever."
Azalea Banks vs. Grimes took petty to a new level
Azealia Banks vs. Elon Musk and Grimes might be proof that we're actually in a simulated reality à la The Matrix. Though Banks has been known to feud with just about everyone, the star inadvertently accused the billionaire Tesla founder of investment fraud — and writing tweets while on acid — in 2018. Business Insider, which DMed the star and captured some of her Instagram Stories at the time, reported that Banks claimed to have visited Musk's home for the weekend under the promise of collaborating with Grimes on music, but instead found herself in a "real [life] episode of Get Out."
Apparently, Banks' stay coincided with Musk's announcement that he was taking Tesla private and had the "funding secured," according to Vox, which triggered an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Banks alleged to Business Insider that he was "scrounging for investors to cover his a**" and that he wasn't "cute at all in person." But the real icing on the cake came when Banks released an apparent text conversation between her and Grimes via Reddit (per Nylon). With Grimes supposedly calling Banks a "narc, narc, narc" and fat, Banks retorted, "You smell like a roll of nickels, you look like a little boy" and "you need an IV and a tan."
Please, someone give us the red pill. Get us out of this horrific simulation.
Jenny McCarthy sparked a sharknado on her radio show
Jenny McCarthy got a sharknado of her own when Tara Reid made an appearance on her radio show in 2016. The pair pretty much wrote the playbook on disguising insults as compliments. Here's how it went down.
The whole spat began when McCarthy urged Reid to talk about her time on Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars. Reid called it "so stupid and silly," and refused to talk about anything but Sharknado 4 (something that's not "stupid" or "silly"). McCarthy eventually brought up plastic surgery, which seemed to anger Reid even further. The entire thing devolved to the point that the former American Pie star abruptly attempted to leave by saying, "It was really nice talking to you." However, McCarthy jabbed, "Good luck to you, too, and I'm so excited about Sharknado, and I hope you stay married. I hope your knees get a little wobblier than they already are."
Reid, having none of that, was equally as sharp-tongued (or sharp-toothed — the girl knows her way around a fake Great White). "I hope you stay married too. I'm sure he's a nice guy," she said. "I hope your t**s get even nicer, because they're amazing. The same guy who did mine, right? ... I'll always use your advice. You're the best. Bye."
McCarthy had the last word, as listeners everywhere tried to keep up: "Love you Tara. Good luck with Sharknado 18." What the heck just happened?
Snoop Dogg totally dunked on Tekashi 6ix9ine
As one of the reigning kings of hip hop, Snoop Dogg doesn't need to weigh in on other people's drama to grab headlines, but the rapper couldn't resist dunking on Tekashi 6ix9ine after he testified against two members of the Nine Trey Bloods gang in September 2019. Apparently, Snoop doesn't take too kindly to a snitch, or at the very least, thought the barrage of snitching was comical.
Snoop let his opinion be known with a simple Instagram meme featuring his admitted "M.F. home girl" Martha Stewart. "As we watch Tekashi 69 (or whatever his name is) snitch on EVERYBODY, I invite you all to remember Martha Stewart snitched on NOT ONE soul during her trial," the meme read. "Baby girl kept it 10 toes down and ate that prison sentence by herself like the true baddie she is." Snoop also added that Martha was "solid as a rocc." Dang.
As for Tekashi, it seems like everything is working out for him so far. According to TMZ, he declined witness protection (which would have probably taken a fortune in laser tattoo removal), has since signed a $10 million dollar record deal, and will reportedly be released from prison sometime in 2020.
Paris Hilton's jab at Lindsay Lohan was 'beyond'
Paris Hilton may be an heiress, but she's not exactly the arbiter of tact. The former reality star's brand is pretty much built on doling out snide remarks. Remember when she said her former assistant-slash-bff Kim Kardashian's butt reminded her of "cottage cheese inside a big trash bag?" Absolute gold. This decade, Hilton kept the heat off of Kardashian and moved it toward Lindsay Lohan, the former BFF of her former BFF, Nicole Richie.
During a May 2019 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Hilton was asked to say three nice things about Lohan. All she could come up with was, "She's beyond ... lame and embarrassing." According to Access, which captured Lohan's subsequent Instagram response before it was deleted, the former Mean Girls star retaliated with a move from the Regina George playbook. "#Beyond," she captioned a photo of the pair, adding, "Friends are true. Love @parishilton." Hilton later told Jenny McCarthy that she was "really nervous to go on the show," "didn't know what to say," and ultimately felt bad about the diss. "It's beyond," she said. Aw, at least Hilton had some remorse. We call that personal growth.