Top 10 Celebs Who Clapped Back at Talk Show Hosts
#10: Aziz Ansari
Not only is Aziz Ansari ridiculously funny, but he also uses his platform to advocate for better representation of minorities in the media. So, when “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert brought this up in an interview with the comedian and jokingly added that with the two of them on his show “50% of the people on the TV are not white,"Ansari did not hesitate to shoot back that indeed, such diversity was an "all-time high for CBS”. Their discussion of representation didn’t end there though, as they went on to joke about how a fact-checking mistake that led to Stephen calling Aziz’s book by the wrong name would likely lead to someone getting fired — and that someone being white — since, Aziz quipped, "there are a lot of white guys back there".
#9: Little Mix
Top 20 Celebs Who Clapped Back at Talk Show Hosts
When releasing the video for their song 'Strip', Little Mix featured themselves, and other women of all body shapes and sizes, in little to no clothing, in an effort to promote body positivity. This didn’t go over well with “Good Morning Britain” host Piers Morgan who claimed that if men did this they’d be arrested, and that the nudity was just a ploy to sell records. When the comments were brought up to the girls in an interview, band member Jesy called him "a silly twat" - to which Morgan responded with demands that the group apologize to him directly. While the group never ended up going on “GMB” they included the clip of Morgan's demands in the intro to a song during the LM5 tour.
#8: Nicki Minaj
Wendy Williams is known for spilling all the tea - even if it gets her into controversy. This was no different when the host commented on Nicki Minaj's marriage to Kenneth Petty while including details of his criminal past. After seeing Willams' comments, Minaj called Wendy out in a separate radio interview for her hypocrisy, claiming that Williams has rappers on her show that talk about shooting and killing and that Petty had paid his debt to society. She also brought up Wendy's now ex-husband, Kevin Hunter, who had an affair that resulted in his mistress having a baby, saying that the money Williams makes from being "vicious" paid for his mistress's shopping sprees, hotels, and medical bills.
#7: John Legend and Chrissy Teigen
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Following the death of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, host Piers Morgan( him again!) tweeted out that the boxer had said “far more inflammatory/racist things about white people than Donald Trump ever has about Muslims." and that he “hope[s] people don't make me sound too perfect when I die.” Chrissy and her husband John Legend were less than pleased with the talk show host - with John taking to Twitter to tell Morgan that "you could test us by announcing your retirement” while Chrissy informed her husband that "trolling isn't a job". Legend and Teigen aren’t the only celebrities who have taken shots at the host, as Sophie Turner has also schooled him on Twitter about the importance of mental health awareness.
#6: Hasan Minhaj
While Ellen mispronouncing Hasan Minhaj’s name during his appearance on her show in 2019 may not have been ‘Adele Dazeem’ level bad, it was enough to have the Patriot Act host call her out on it. Not only is Minhaj clapping back at Ellen, but also at anyone who has ever mispronounced his name, as he goes on to call out the hypocrisy of those that mispronounce his name while being able to pronounce the names of other celebrities with odd names, quipping that “there’s an actor just named Ansel Elgort and we all just walk around pronouncing it, completely normally”. Minhaj also joked that when ordering Starbucks he goes by the pseudonym “Timothee Chalamet’ to keep things simple. Zing!
#5: Anne Hathaway
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When Anne Hathaway appeared on the “Today” Show to promote “Les Misérables,” the interview took an odd turn as later-disgraced host Matt Lauer got weirdly invasive. Lauer started the interview off in an extremely inappropriate fashion by saying that he'd seen "a lot of [her] lately" - referring to an incident where paparazzi took a photograph at an angle where you could see under Hathaway’s dress. Lauer then went on to ask what she had "learned" from the incident, placing the blame, not on the photographers who had invaded Hathaway's privacy but instead on the actress herself. While Lauer continued to push the invasive line of questioning, Hathaway shut him down with incredible decency and grace.
#4: Jerry Seinfeld
When Jerry Seinfeld joined Larry King on his CNN show “Larry King Live,” things quickly turned very awkward as the conversation turned to the “Seinfeld” finale. King, who asked the show’s namesake if the show was cancelled or if Jerry had "cancelled them", quickly retracted the inquiry as Seinfeld began questioning if King even knew who he was and asked to see the longtime host's resume. While it is uncertain if the comedian was actually hurt by Larry’s lack of knowledge or was only joking, we can be sure that no one will ever ask Jerry if Seinfeld was cancelled again.
#3: Zendaya
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While E!'s “Fashion Police” provides a platform for fashion commentators to discuss the stylistic choices celebrities make on the red carpet, the commentary went too far when host Guiliana Rancic said some less than appropriate things about actress Zendaya. At the 2015 Academy Awards, Zendaya showed up with her hair styled in dreadlocks - a choice that didn’t go over well with Rancic, who said the style made her feel like Zendaya "smells like patchouli oil. Or weed.” Not only did Rancic's comments spark outrage with viewers, and online, but Zendaya took to Instagram to clap back at the host stating that "certain remarks cannot go unchecked" while calling the comments "outrageously offensive" and a "large stereotype".
#2: Jimmy Kimmel
It probably wasn't the best idea to bring Jimmy Kimmel, a long-time friend of fellow talk show host Conan O'Brien, on “The Jay Leno Show” in the midst of a major feud between Leno and O'Brien - but it sure was entertaining! During one of the show’s segments, “10 at 10”, Jimmy Kimmel joined as a guest via webcam to answer what appeared to be easy questions; however, Jimmy took every opportunity he could to throw shade at Leno - commenting on everything from his appearance to his cancelled show to of course - the Conan feud.
#1: Dakota Johnson
When Dakota Johnson appeared on “Ellen,” things turned awkward very fast as the long-time host questioned Johnson for not inviting her to her 30th birthday party. Despite Ellen’s protestations, the actress insisted that she had indeed invited her, and had never actually gotten a reason as to why Ellen didn’t attend. It wasn’t until after Ellen’s producers stepped in and informed the host that she had been invited that Ellen gave in, choosing to change the subject to Dakota’s favourite comedian: spoiler alert, it’s not Ellen. This isn’t the first time Dakota Johnson has clapped back at a talk show host; she also hilariously called Jimmy Fallon out for talking over her during an appearance on “The Tonight Show”.
