Ariana Grande Became The Butt Of The Joke At Aretha Franklin’s Funeral

On Friday, Aretha Franklin was laid to rest in an epically long funeral service with a star-studded guest list. Nothing could be too over-the-top or amazing for the Queen of Soul, no matter how lavish it gets. But the event has created some interesting cross-sections of culture. The whole thing was also televised, so people participated in the way they do in 2018: by live-tweeting it.

Folks have a lot of feelings about Aretha Franklin; she was an incredible musician and icon who influenced generations of people. One of those people is Ariana Grande, a more modern artist who has been the center of a lot of attention lately. Most of those jokes have been about her sudden whirlwind romance with Pete Davidson; they’ve been inseparable and he was there by her side at the funeral, too, looking like he just rolled outta bed. The singer was asked to perform a tribute to Franklin, since she undeniably has a powerful voice.

That was a lot for some people:

This may be the start of why Grande started to catch flack. She was scheduled to sing “Natural Woman,” and after her performance she was thanked by the Bishop Charles H. Ellis, presiding over the day’s event. Ellis joked that “Ariana Grande” sounded like an item on the menu at Taco Bell:

That everyone LOVED:

Well, maybe Grande didn’t like it. She’s more used to being called a Starbucks menu item.

She also got a lot of comments on her dress, which was pretty short for a funeral. Like, I don’t have a problem with it, wear what you want, but it obviously raised eyebrows. Especially because of who she was performing in front of:

To recap, it was a rough event for the pop princess:

Ariana Grande did her best, but no one showing up to Aretha Franklin’s funeral is going to escape without catching shade. That’s just the vibe.