Chris Rock has felt the wrath of Selena Gomez fans after sharing a meme which unfavourably compared the singer to Beyonce.
This week the comedian shared a meme to his social media accounts of Gomez performing on her Revival tour wearing a gold leotard. Above the photo, it said: “When you buy your Formation ticket on Craigslist" which appeared to imply Gomez' tour is a worse version of Beyonce's.
Rock captioned the picture: “This is true”.
Rock, who regularly shares memes on social media, was met with scorn by fans of the former Disney star, who dub themselves ‘Selenators’ who rushed to support Gomez.
One Gomez fan shared a picture of Rock with his daughters meeting the 23-year-old at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards in 2010.
On Instagram, there were similar comments from fans. “Although what you said is just a joke, it is totally disrespectful to Selena Gomez,” one wrote. “It would be a funny joke if it wasn’t making fun of everything she’s been working for,” wrote another.
“It’s sad when you need to make other people feel bad about themselves you have no right to do that,” said one.
However, others defended Rock and suggested the fans calmed down as it was only posted as a joke.
“Some people forgot Chris Rock is a comedian for a living,” said one Instagram user.
Undeterred by the initial backlash, Rock posted the image again on Twitter on Friday writing: “ICYMI [In case you missed it] this is true”.
Representatives for Gomez and Rock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
