It’s well established by now that in 2018, weird shit happens. The rules of convention as we know them have been upended, Azealia Banks went to Elon Musk’s house, anything is possible.
In the latest surprising-but-not-that-surprising-when-you-really-think-about-it encounter, Ariana Grande and her fiance Pete Davidson ran into Hillary and Bill Clinton at Aretha Franklin’s funeral in Detroit on Friday.
2018 wyd pic.twitter.com/UeYsDIz0r7
— Tanya Chen (@tanyachen) August 31, 2018
BuzzFeed News reports that one of the things to come from this celeb run-in was a moment of intense eye contact and a brief exchange between Hillary Clinton and Grande, who was set to perform at Franklin’s funeral.
Ariana Grande bonding with Hillary Clinton. pic.twitter.com/URSjK0oopg
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) August 31, 2018
People on Twitter tried to guess what Clinton said to Grande by reading her lips (some guesses were more serious than others).
i’m pretty sure this is hillary telling ariana she loves her and was proud of her after manchester . it looks like that’s what she said anyway, my heart pic.twitter.com/zQu0owtyep
— mia (@onelovesbutera) August 31, 2018
I studied lip reading extensively and Hillary is saying, “‘God is a woman’ is the greatest contemporary work of feminism. Gloria Steinem found rotting!” https://t.co/eD5Z6YxikE
— Matthew (@likeholywine) August 31, 2018
Grande and Davidson also snagged a photo op with the Clintons. The kicker here is that Davidson, who rose to fame as an actor on Saturday Night Live, may have never lived this moment were it not for being Grande’s beau.
Pete Davidson in as much shock that this is his life now as the rest of us pic.twitter.com/nuJ5mqnwC9
— Amber Jamieson (@ambiej) August 31, 2018
Seriously, there’s no way Davidson could have predicted meeting HRC herself when he got his face tattooed on his arm. He was already shook when, in December, Clinton commented on his Instagram post to say she was “honored” by the ink (and joke that she had a tattoo of him).
Hillary Clinton responded to Pete Davidson’s tattoo of her face and I think Pete’s dead now. pic.twitter.com/Bisq3wKMSv
— Jillian Sederholm (@JillianSed) December 16, 2017
The people of Twitter were just as blown away (and amused) by Davidson’s appearance at the funeral.
lmao what a wild ride for pete davidson man pic.twitter.com/IT18Wp8RYR
— scott.fw.png (@_scottjohnson) August 31, 2018
Can you imagine being at #ArethaHomegoing…looking over and seeing Pete Davidson?
— Franchesca Ramsey (@chescaleigh) August 31, 2018
What would Franklin think?
Aretha in heaven wondering how Pete Davidson got an invitation to her funeral. pic.twitter.com/nJCvU94wOa
— Hi Friend (@FolukeFiasco) August 31, 2018
All in all, it’s another moment that would be hard to believe any other year, but in 2018, it’s just par for the course. It’s all fine—so long as Bill Clinton doesn’t start talking about big dick energy.
I swear to God, if anyone tells Bill Clinton about BDE…. pic.twitter.com/CyNoVcKztH
— Gabriella Paiella (@GMPaiella) August 31, 2018
H/T BuzzFeed News