Marvel star Simu Liu gets bombarded by Nicki Minaj fans over resurfaced joke
Several observers despaired at what they deemed to be an overreaction to what Liu himself described as ‘a dumb tweet’
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Marvel’s new star Simu Liu found himself bombarded by Nicki Minaj fans on the day he was celebrating the new trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings — the studio’s first film to star an Asian lead.
Minaj fans were disgruntled after it emerged that the 32-year-old apparently made a joke about the artist in 2012, which read: “I thought I was at a Nicki Minaj concert for 20 minutes before I realised I was just watching a homeless man yell at a pigeon….”
In one of the recent posts where Liu tweeted a photograph of United States trends with the caption: “Picking up poop when I realise we’re trending #1 in America”, one person replied with: “Because of your anti-blackness maybe”
The actor has since appeared to comment on the backlash, tweeting: “Well this was a highly dumb tweet. Looks like a dumb 23-year-old trying to sound clever.”
He added that he was deleting the offending post.
Several observers raised their concerns about Twitter’s policing.
One user wrote: “People canceling Simu Liu for a burn he did on Nicki in 2012? Was not even hateful or an attack... he just doesn’t like her music. The no-life twitter cancer culture is attacking and hurting people 10000 times worse than his little ‘burn’. They are destroying people’s lives.”
“Wait so people are going after Simu Liu cause he made a joke about Nicki Minaj’s music 9 years ago?? LMFAO if this isn’t peak Twitter idk what is” another person wrote.
Liu has had a lively few days on social media. Also this week, his past career as a stock photo model came back to haunt him, after a journalist reshared an article featuring the original images.
The actor said: “I did ONE stock photoshoot for 100 bucks cash in 2014... and I have ended up on HUNDREDS of ads and storefronts and pamphlets and textbook covers,”
He added: “Moral of the story: Think twice before doing a stock photoshoot because they own the photos FOREVER.”
This isn’t the first time the actor has referenced the photoshoot, as he tweeted a request for people to “stop buying these photos” in February 2020.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments