Clairo Shade

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Part of a series on Internet Slang. [View Related Entries]

About

Clairo Shade is a slang term spawned from a series of Twitter / X posts in 2024 concerning American singer-songwriter Clairo receiving "shade" from other pop singers, like Katy Perry and Chappell Roan (among others), and their fans. While some agreed that Clairo was receiving shade, other X users mocked it and used "Clairo Shade" ironically in slang overload posts that combined it with other then-trending Stan Twitter buzzwords. Many of the posts humorously asked, "Does Anyone Feel Like This is Clairo Shade?" when highlighting obviously unrelated pop culture stories. Clairo Shade memes also went viral when a twink fell through the roof of a Bushwick, Brooklyn lesbian party where a Clairo Shade cake was served.

Origin

The phrase "Clairo Shade" was used online as early as 2018, evident in a post shared by X^[1] user @RyLou_95 on August 13th, 2018, which replied to artist LIZ's post that condemned "manufactured industry plants." @RyLou_95 joked, "Clairo shade??" implicating the discourse about Clairo's father Geoff Cottrill being a former recording studio executive.^[2] The reply was non-viral, receiving only two likes in five years.

Other non-viral usage of "Clairo Shade" surfaced on X^[2]^[3] in 2023.

The first known viral instance of "Clairo Shade" was a quote posted by X^[4] user @saintmacklin on July 10th, 2024. The user joked about the covers for Katy Perry’s forthcoming album 143 being Clairo Shade by outlining a pattern in the album's number sequence to implicate Clairo. In a month, the tweet amassed over 15,000 likes (shown below).

Spread

On July 11th, 2024, X^[5] user @yo_scoot added to the trend when quoting the video of U.S. President Joe Biden mistakenly calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "President Vladimir Putin" at a 2024 press conference with "this might be clairo shade," receiving over 3,600 likes in a month (shown below).

Increasingly viral and absurd instances of the meme surfaced going into late July 2024. For instance, on July 13th, X^[6] user @notjoshszn posted about the Donald Trump assassination attempt, when writing, "Trump assassination lowkey Clairo shade," gaining over 46,000 likes in a month (shown below).

The Lesbian Bushwick Party Where The Twink Fell Through The Roof

On August 18th, 2024, X^[7] user @poIarseltzer tweeted a photo of a cake with "Clairo Shade" written on it, captioned, "whole party lowkey felt like clairo shade," gaining over 13,000 likes in four days (shown below).

Later on August 18th, X^[8] user @poIarseltzer tweeted, "entire birthday party immediately ending because oomf fell through the skylight," gaining over 1,400 likes in four days.

Then, X^[9] user @_garrettcharles tweeted, "I don’t have many life regrets but not getting a video of the twink crashing through the skylight at this lesbian rooftop party tonight will definitely be something that haunts me til I die." The tweet gained over 2,500 likes in four days (shown below).

Users then drew the connection that the Clairo Shade cake party was the same party where a "twink" fell through the roof of a Bushwick, Brooklyn building's skylight.

For instance, on August 19th, 2024, X^[10] user @kriscawog tweeted, "The lesbian Bushwick party where the twink fell the roof turning out to be Emerson College alum is the icing on the Clairo shade cake," gaining over 6,700 likes in three days (shown below).