At this point, it’s not an unpopular opinion to say that Chrissy Teigen is basically the queen of Twitter. She’s hilarious, unfiltered, and Comments by Celebs literally does weekly roundup posts of her best tweets. Amidst all of her relatable tweets about marriage, parenting, and just life in general, it can be easy to forget that Chrissy Teigen’s life is like, very different from yours or mine. She’s very famous and very rich, and I’ll just speak for myself, but I am neither of those things. This week, she stumbled into some backlash on Twitter, and the tweet that caused it is pretty hilariously out of touch.
On Wednesday, Chrissy posted a tweet about her mom’s fraught relationship with AirPods, saying that she “buys a few a month,” and says that she wouldn’t lose them so easily if they had a cord. LOL. When I first saw this tweet, I just thought it was funny, mainly because the whole point of AirPods is that they don’t have a cord. Obviously that makes them easier to lose, but AirPods with a cord are literally just every other kind of headphone. Which, obviously, is the joke.
my mom treats her air pods like they're disposable. buys a few a month. she says they would be easier to not lose if they had….a cord
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) November 6, 2019
But upon a little further reflection, it’s not that hard to see why people had an issue with the tweet. Aside from not having a cord, the other thing that everyone knows about AirPods is that they’re not cheap. Like, there was a time not that long ago when jokes about AirPods being expensive were pretty much the only thing on my Twitter timeline. It’s not like they’re $10,000 a pair, but most people definitely couldn’t casually just buy and lose a few pairs a month.
It’s not headline news or anything that Chrissy Teigen has an above average amount of money, but people on Twitter weren’t thrilled with the flippant tone of the tweet. Chrissy eventually realized this, and apologized in a way that some famous people could stand to take notes from.
Oh man I haven’t checked my mentions for a bit and I didn’t realize how many people were super pissed off about this. It was meant as a joke (and exaggeration) about how my mom doesn’t realize air pods are with a cord are headphones but it came across as super tone deaf and icky.
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) November 8, 2019
Chrissy first clarified that the original joke was an exaggeration, implying that her mom doesn’t actually go through 30+ pairs of AirPods a year, which is a relief, because damn. But then she smartly owned up to the fact that the tweet “came across as super tone deaf and icky.”
Really, that acknowledgement and understanding is all we need from famous people when they do sh*t like this. No one expects Chrissy Teigen to apologize for being rich (but she could Venmo me if she feels like it), but apologies when you mess up and upset a lot of people are always appreciated. Chrissy continued in a second tweet, noting that she “will not always say the right thing in the right way,” but that she hates “disappointing or pissing you guys off.” She also owned up to the fact that she was kind of an asshole with her first tweet, which just feels satisfying. Everyone is an asshole sometimes, and the world would probably be a better place if we were all better at admitting it.
I promise I will not always say the right thing in the right way but I also promise I hate disappointing or pissing you guys off. I’m sorry and I will do better to not be such an asshole.
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) November 8, 2019
Chrissy then finished off her apology with a return to classic Chrissy-on-Twitter form, by saying that her typo in the apology tweet is “destroying” her. This is actually me every single time I realize I made a typo in a tweet that already has more than two likes. Twitter, why the f*ck is it almost 2020, and we’re still waiting for an edit button?? I want answers, and so does Chrissy!!
The typo is destroying me
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) November 8, 2019
In the end, I don’t think this backlash will affect Chrissy in any long-term way. First of all, the initial tweet wasn’t especially egregious—not nearly as bad as the old tweets of like, half the Bachelor contestants. But also, Chrissy owned up to and dealt with her mistake in a way that felt genuine and sufficient, and I can’t really imagine being mad at her after her response. In my mind, Chrissy Teigen is still the queen of Twitter, and that probably won’t change any time soon.
Images: chrissyteigen (4) / Twitter
