Ariana Grande thinks her ‘pony tail Tik Tok’ impersonators are ‘degrading’

Singer Ariana Grande wearing a custom Giambattista Valli dress with Christian Louboutin shoes arrives at the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards held at Staples Center on January 26, 2020 in Los Angeles, California, United States.

This is what we get for Quarantine Content: a pop star lowkey beefing with some fans who are “impersonating” her on Tik Tok. I mean, I guess? I’ll take it, because beggars can’t be choosers, and I also think Ariana is both right and wrong here. First things first: did you know that there are some relatively high-profile Ariana stans (Arianators) who look a lot like her and style themselves like her and make Tik Tok videos where they basically “act” like her? I didn’t know that, but I’m not surprised that those girls exist, nor am I surprised that they have some minor fame in the Tik Tok game. You can see one of them here.

So what’s the problem? Ariana has been watching her stans’ Tik Toks and she’s unamused by the impersonators. She finds them “degrading.” She said so in a now-deleted frame on Instagram Stories.

She wrote that in response to a video by Jordan Firstman who did an “impression of a meme” where “he calls out meme creators who ‘recontextualize’ and assign ‘a completely arbitrary meaning’ to a moment the original creator ‘loves so much, kind of like degrading its entire value.’” I’ll include it below so you can get the whole deal. Basically, he argued that memes are mostly awful because they’re stealing someone else’s creative endeavor and Ariana latched onto that point and said that she felt degraded when her fans dressed exactly like her and did impressions of her on Tik Tok. Which… I don’t know, is “degraded” the right word here? I’m not sure. I think it’s more “creepy” than anything else.

(It’s the third slide, but the rest of the impressions are amazing and the dish one turned me on.)

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If you can believe it…. more impressions.

A post shared by Jordan Firstman (@jtfirstman) on

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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31 Responses to “Ariana Grande thinks her ‘pony tail Tik Tok’ impersonators are ‘degrading’”

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  1. grabbyhands says:

    Is it say, less degrading than slathering on the self tanner and pretending you’re a different ethnicity?

    • NextToMe says:

      Thank you. Next!

    • Snowslow says:

      Boom *mic drop*

    • Otaku fairy says:

      She’s appropriated things from other cultures, but she hasn’t pretended to be another race or ethnicity. She’s just an Italian girl who tans.

      • Slowsnow says:

        @Otaku she doesn’t need to claim anything. I assumed she was mixed race until I stumbled upon old pictures of her when she did look like an Italian woman.
        I mean, she’s not the only one low key doing it though.

  2. Aang says:

    I’m think she’s upset that we can how basic she looks. My daughter bought a$100 ponytail on Amazon and went as Ariana for Halloween. My petit, small nosed, similar jawlined daughter looked just like her. Some fake lashes, fake nails, fake tan, fake hair, draw a tiny heart on your cheek, highlight the heck out your face and you too can look like Ariana Grande.

  3. D says:

    Not even sure where the guy’s meme discourse fits into this, did Ariana create the high pony? Fake tan? Fake nails? So then what meaning are her fans recontextualizing?

    Idk just because you make memes about memes doesn’t mean you actually know what a critique is.

  4. S808 says:

    Those girls are so creepy. It’s not just her looks they copy, it’s her mannerisms and way of speaking. I’d beef up my security if I were her.

  5. ChillyWilly says:

    I did not understand any part of this post and I’m ok with that.

    • Snowslow says:

      LOL. I also thought that this is a whole new level of Meta that doesn’t really concern at all and then I remembered I have kids who “quote memes” and that I have to get with the program to keep up.
      It’s a tiny bit exhausting because for all the effort you get very little in return.

    • Joanna says:

      Yeah, I don’t get it either.

  6. Erinn says:

    Rules of the internet – if you complain about it or try to hide it, people are going to do it twice as much.

    Honestly, I’ve watched some. I don’t know what her problem is. Maybe I just haven’t seen any of the ‘degrading’ ones – but someone doing an impersonation of you/a character you played it a pretty freaking standard thing people do to celebrities.

    Is Christopher Walken or Matthew McConaughey out there complaining that SO many people do impersonations of them? Hell, tons of celebrities do impersonations of other celebrities. They’re not always flattering, either.

    She’s really just opening herself up for a LOT of SNL skits.

    • Nahema says:

      I think it says a lot about Ariana and her level of confidence, that she can be so upset by this. It seems much of this was aimed at one teenage girl in particular, who really does look a lot like her.

      At no point did this kid seem to intend to portray AG in a derogatory fashion. How many teenage AG fans try to impersonate her and have far fetched ideas about the type of person she really is, behind closed doors? If someone could have made me look like a double of one of the Spice Girls back in the day, I’d have been flaunting it for all it was worth. This girl just did it on social media and was clearly good at it.

    • Anne says:

      Barbra Streisand effect

    • NextToMe says:

      A.Grande had to get some major procedures done to look the way she does (nose job, and I think she reduced her jaw), while this other girl only needs to wear makeup to look more like Arianna than Arianna. It’s not fun to see people swipe your style and do it better than you. It must sting especially hard when you’re famous and the fans that you hate do it better. I kinda feel bad for Arianna but then I don’t. The young girl’s response was mature.

  7. emmy says:

    Wait … what? So this guy uses social media to criticize people who use social media to impersonate or create memes? WHAT? He’s basically doing the exact same thing? It’s right there! “this is my impression of a meme” Dude, … I don’t even know. I do know he thinks he’s meta or something but he’s really just trying to be cooler than anyone else which, by default, makes you pretty uncool. But that’s just me. I still don’t know what Tik Tok is, really. And Ariana can be pretty thin-skinned. Her whole look is an impersonation of a different race/ethnicity/culture.

  8. Noki says:

    I understand that having someone impersonating you is definitely creepy. Especially if it is done in a mocking tone.

  9. Veronica S. says:

    There really needs to be a celebrity 101 class for learning how to laugh off the minor stuff. Fans can be gross and legitimately degrading in some of the stuff they send celebrities’ way. But not…that. Being the public eye is just being rife for parody. The persona you’re putting out there is part of the brand, whether you like it or not. Most of us realize who you are behind the scenes isn’t the same as what’s on camera.

  10. Teresa says:

    I don’t see impersonation of a famous person creepy. Of a non-public figure, perhaps, but impersonators make money and I would not be surprised if this girl is making money on tik-tok from it. I have watched Ariana do vocal impressions of other artists on TV shows. Does she consider that degrading? And to the meme guy, get over yourself. A funny screenshot is nothing more. Be happy your work is out there when so many people never get the chance.

  11. keroppi says:

    I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

    • Andrew’s Nemesis says:

      It’s like people claiming that they’re ‘mortified’ when, in fact, they’re terrified.
      And Miss G’s in for a big shock when she finds out about celebrity impersonators.

  12. Mabs A'Mabbin says:

    She’s ridiculous. Love all the impressions however lol.

  13. CROOKSNNANNIES says:

    Whatever happened to it being the sincerest form of flattery?

  14. lucy2 says:

    Her whole look is a costume though. Plus she’s been impersonating a young teenager for most of her twenties.

  15. trout predator says:

    What! She literally paints herself brown!

    https://i.redd.it/a4h45gsod3o21.jpg

  16. Amelie says:

    I guess it’s not flattering for someone to point out to you your basic bitch look is easy to replicate. Because Ariana’s whole look is so indistinguishable to me from all the other young Generation Z Instagrammers with the fake tanner, long extensions, duck lips/pouty mouths and millions of selfies.

  17. Normades says:

    The girl Ariana is calling out looks SO much like her that that on her instagram I thought some of the pictures were Ariana. She got pissy because the girl did a tick tok using her voice from Cat & Sam and I think Ariana thinks this period of her life is so beneath her now.

    She looks absolutely ridiculous picking a fight with a teenage fan. No self awareness or sense of humor.

    Look at Cher, does she care? No she loves them and does not mock her impersonators.