Katy Perry is being slammed for making light of a bizarre conspiracy theory that claims she is JonBenet Ramsey during the MTV Video Music Awards.
The 32-year-old singer, who hosted the ceremony, referred to the outlandish theory in a pre-taped segment with comedian Billy Eichner.
In the clip, Eichner, 38, asked Katy: ‘Blink twice if you’re really JonBenet Ramsey’, pretending to be a subscriber to the idea that the six-year-old girl didn’t die in Boulder, Colorado, in December 1996, but instead grew up to be the pop star herself.
Offended: Katy Perry (left) is being slammed for making light of a bizarre conspiracy theory that claims she is JonBenet Ramsey (right) during the MTV Video Music Awards
That theory gained attention in February last year, when a now-defunct YouTube video attempted to make the case for it and claimed to warn viewers that the beauty queen’s unsolved murder was fake.
In response to Eichner’s question in the clip, Katy laughed and replied: ‘No, that’s not real.’
Eichner, however, didn’t seem to hear her and pretended to take her behavior as a confirmation of the theory, announcing he was going to sell the information to the celebrity website TMZ.
Katy seemed to think this was distasteful, telling him: ‘Do you need the money or something? I mean, come on!’
The comedian seemed to agree with her comment and shot back: ‘You’re right. I’m rich!’
Video: The 32-year-old singer, who hosted the ceremony, referred to the outlandish theory in a pre-taped segment with comedian Billy Eichner
Dialogue: In the clip, Eichner, 38, asked Katy: ‘Blink twice if you’re really JonBenet Ramsey’, to which the star laughs and responds: ‘No, that’s not real’
Reactions: Some viewers thought the joke was insensitive, and that it addressed JonBenet’s unsolved murder in a disrespectful way
Several viewers took offense at the exchange and found that it was a disrespectful way to talk about JonBenet’s death.
‘A child’s unsolved murder is not to be laughed at or made fun of, it’s sad,’ one person wrote.
Someone else added: ‘How dare Katy Perry make a JonBenet Ramsey joke?’
Others, however, seemed to rejoice that the conspiracy theory was mentioned at all during the awards show.
Thousands of people had previously watched the YouTube clip making the case for the theory and claiming to prove it, despite the fact that Katy was born six years earlier than JonBenet.
JonBenet was found strangled in the basement of her family’s house almost 21 years ago, and the case remains open to this day.
Outlandish: A now-defunct YouTube video once tried to bolster the theory by stating Katy Perry’s parents (left) look a lot like JonBenet’s mother and father (right)
In the now-deleted clip, which has gone off YouTube because the account that posted it has been terminated, a man named Dave Johnson claimed that JonBenet’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, look similar to Katy’s mother and father, pastors Keith Hudson and Mary Perry.
According to his theory, Katy hid from the public eye from 1996, when JonBenet’s death was reported, to 2008, when the singer shot to fame with her single I Kissed A Girl.
‘JonBenét Ramsey became Katy Perry. That’s a fact,’ he said according to the New York Daily News. ‘So if any of you continue to lie about this person dying, you are in fact a false witness to murder and death.’
Johnson seemed unbothered by the fact that Katy released a Christian pop album in 2001 called Katy Hudson, and was signed, then dropped, by major labels Island and Columbia, prior to her breakthrough.