Last week, YouTube star Colleen Ballinger, the creator of sketch character MirandaSings, responded to allegations of having inappropriate interactions with underage fans. Instead of a statement, the internet star played a ukelele, accusing people of jumping on a “toxic gossip train.” Her apology was widely lambasted on social media, and the allegations against Ballinger just keep coming. Specifically, many fans are coming forward with more serious claims about Ballinger as a manager and about her content, accusing her of on-set micro-aggressions and posting racist content as MirandaSings.
The latest round of allegations started on June 30, when a former assistant for Ballinger’s Netflix show Hater’s Back Off published an essay in her newsletter about her experiences working for Ballinger. According to April Quioh, who worked for Ballinger in 2016, Ballinger wanted to limit the people of color used as background characters in some scenes because having not white people in the background would be “distracting” from the show’s Washington state setting. Quioh also alleged that Ballinger brushed off any criticism from others involved with the show that the entire cast was white, saying that she had only cast “the best person for each role and that it wasn’t her fault that all of those people ended up being white,” Quioh wrote. She also claimed Ballinger used the n-word when discussing another internet creator who “was being ‘cancelled’ for saying the n-word.”
“Content of the show aside, it was difficult to work for Colleen,” Quioh wrote. “She was cruel. And it was that same cruelty that I recognized in the video she posted, addressing the many allegations that have been piling up against her over the last few weeks.” (Throughout Rolling Stone‘s reporting, Ballinger has been asked for comment multiple times and has not responded, including for this story.)
Perhaps prompted by Quioh’s essay, many fans started digging into Ballinger’s content to find more examples of racial insensitivity. On Thursday, fans began calling for another apology after a video of Ballinger performing in what appeared to be dark face paint at a live show resurfaced. British YouTuber Paige Christie was one of the first creators to flag the video, which shows Ballinger and two other backup dancers swaying to Beyonce’s Single Ladies.
The clip tweeted by Christie is a condensed version of a slightly longer video, which is unlisted but still accessible on Ballinger’s YouTube channel as of Thursday afternoon. The full video was linked by a QR code in Ballinger’s 2018 book “My Diarrhe.” While the Twitter version seems grainy on the mobile player, the full YouTube version makes it more clear that Ballinger is wearing what appears to be green face paint. Before she strips down to the “Single Ladies” outfit, she’s also wearing a floor-length black costume, similar to that of Elphaba, the green-skinned character from the musical Wicked. Ballinger also has a long history of singing Elphaba’s song “Defying Gravity” from Wicked at her shows.
In an email to Rolling Stone, a legal representative for Ballinger confirmed that she was in fact performing as Elphaba immediately prior to the “Single Ladies” performance, and that she was wearing green face paint. The representative also provided a full clip of the performance featuring Ballinger singing the Wicked duet “As Long As You’re Mine” with actor Oliver Tompsett, who appeared in the original London cast of the show, then transitioning into “Single Ladies” while wearing the green face paint.
Although that specific allegation leveled by social media users was not accurate, this isn’t the first time Ballinger has been accused of mocking a racial group or performing a racial stereotype. With each new video surfaced by fans, what emerges is a pattern of comedy that often makes people of color the butt of the joke. And as the hapless and insensitive Miranda, Ballinger has been able to hide all of the more insidious aspects of her comedy behind a poorly red-lipsticked facade.
In a May 2020 apology video titled “addressing everything,” Ballinger apologized for an early YouTube skit that featured her and her sister as two Latina women with overdrawn eyebrows and makeup. They rap about “crossing the border” and working at Del Taco with exaggerated Hispanic accents, a video Ballinger later said weighed heavy on her heart.
“The characters are completely based on racial stereotypes,” Ballinger said at the time. “It is not funny, and it is completely hurtful. I am so ashamed and embarrassed that I ever thought this was OK. I was a sheltered teenager who was stupid and ignorant and clearly very culturally insensitive.”
Other examples of Ballinger’s stereotype-heavy comedy haven’t gotten nearly as much attention— or such a straightforward apology. In a 2012 cover of “Gangnam Style,” Ballinger as Miranda spends almost all of the two-minute video speaking fake Korean while she dances. This video is still available on Ballinger’s YouTube and has 6.7 million views.
There’s also her 2014 music video “My Family,” a parody of Jason Derulo’s “Talk Dirty.” The original Derulo video opens with an Asian woman giggling and saying his name. The same bit opens “My Family,” except this time it’s Ballinger’s sister Rachel saying her name in a mocking Asian accent. What’s interesting is that the intro appears to have remained on Ballinger’s page until at least June 21, 2023, after which it was edited out, according to the Wayback Machine.
As the days since Ballinger’s attempted apology stretch on, it’s not just fans speaking out, and it’s not just Balligner’s content that’s the focus. Trisha Paytas, another YouTuber, co-hosted “Oversharing with Colleen and Trish” with Ballinger, a 2023 podcast about YouTube drama, comedy, and motherhood. But after two former fans accused Ballinger of sending nudes of Paytas to them while they were still minors, posting censored screenshots on social media, Paytas made a public video, calling Ballinger’s alleged actions “the most disgusting thing.”
“I’m embarrassed to be associated with her. I’m embarrassed for the fans that she messaged those to. That should never have happened,” Paytas said in a video Monday, adding, “I will never speak on Colleen again. She just does not exist to me anymore.”
Throughout this public reckoning, Ballinger has only publicly spoken once about the multiple allegations, with the aforementioned 10-minute ukelele show. But she’s continued to perform on her ongoing tour — at least, for now. According to a recent statement on the venue’s website, her August 10 show in St. Louis, MO was recently canceled due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
Update Thursday, July 6, 2023, 4:26 p.m. This article has been updated with additional information from Ballinger’s team.