Celebrity feuds are nothing new and are probably the biggest first-world problem of first-world problems. Hell, in the last couple of years we’ve had some headline-grabbing spats between Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian, James Charles and Tati Westbrook, and Deadpool and Paddington bear.
These things are supremely ridiculous, stupid, and barely amount to something beyond a kindergarten playground fight.
And with that preamble, let’s take a look at one of the dumbest and pettiest feuds to have happened in recent memory: Marilyn Manson versus Justin Bieber and T-shirts with Marilyn’s creepy-looking on them.
Yes. Yes it does.
This odd little spat began back in 2016 when Bieber decided to sell a T-shirt with an image of Manson on it as merch during his Purpose world tour in an attempt to “reinterpret” the shock rocker’s old tour merch.
As far as tour shirts goes, it was pretty unsavoury as you got Manson’s face on the front and the words “Bigger than Satan… Bieber” on the back. To really rub it in this monstrosity went for about $150, which ranks up there with literally burning money as the biggest waste of dosh.
Now here’s the problem with Ol’ Biebs’ decision to sell over-priced shirts with Manson’s mug on them: he didn’t ask for permission and did it anyway.
Manson told Billboard that he later ran into Biebs at a bar and told him, “Hey, so you wore my shirt and everything onstage,” to which Justin replied, “I made you relevant again.”
Man, gotta give credit for the balls on Biebs for saying that to Manson’s face.
Anyway, Manson then fired back with, “Bad mistake to say that to me,” and later allegedly told Consequence of Sound that Bieber was a “real piece of s**t in the way he had the arrogance to say that.”
Yep.
Now Manson could’ve sued over those T-shirts but he took the high road and just took all the proceeds made from the shirt sales instead. Oh, the rocker also trolled Bieber by saying he’ll perform his song “The Beautiful People” at one of the Canadian’s shows before deciding to just not show, which is just the cherry on top of a super petty cake.
Manson later appeared on Howard Stern’s radio show and gave everyone an update on the feud by letting Howard read out a bunch of apologetic texts Bieber sent him. Just to really emphasise that there was no beef between the two, Manson promised he wouldn’t “s**t talk” Bieber on Stern’s show. Wow, what a guy.
At this point you’d think the two would’ve buried the hatchet and called it a day, right?
Well not exactly.
About a month after all that T-shirt drama, Manson went on radio and roasted Biebs on an open fire by saying that the singer is “Well he’s in some sort of sexual religious cult with an Asian version of Dave Navarro,” before saying he doesn’t want to fight Bieber because he doesn’t “like to fight with girls.”
When asked about his thoughts on why Bieber decided to repurpose his merch in the place, Manson said, “I don’t know, because I don’t know how to use the mind of a squirrel.”
Really couldn’t help himself that Manson, could he?
Bieber didn’t respond to Manson’s last little dig, which is ironically the most mature move in the whole saga, and the beef between the two seems to have cooled off since.
So there you have it, one of the dumbest feuds that started over a T-shirt and was subsequently escalated because people’s fragile egos were bruised.
If there is anything to take away from this edition of “Today I Learned” it’s that celebrities need better things to do with their free time and to stop putting faces of other people on T-shirts.