JoJo Siwa has responded after her new, grown-up image was the subject of a mocking Saturday Night Live skit.
The former Dance Moms star, 20, recently shocked the world after she ditched her rainbow-colored clothing and hair bows in favor of a more rock-inspired look, consisting of a black bejeweled bodysuit and face paint.
The rebrand came as she released her new song ‘Karma’, but the new look – and the exaggerated dance moves that accompanied it – did not go down well with everyone.
SNL is the latest to make light of the viral moments, and JoJo has responded to the three-and-a-half minute skit about her.
In the clip, Chloe Fineman dressed up as JoJo to appear as a guest on the Weekend Update segment of the show alongside Colin Jost.
As Colin introduced her, Chloe was seen entering the shot in full JoJo make-up and costume, doing the exaggerated dance moves that were widely mocked on social media.
The pair addressed JoJo’s dramatic image change, which they compared to a “figure skater that joined a street gang” or if “Mad Max was on Broadway”, also making light of the fact she’d switched from “rainbow sparkles” to “black sparkles”.
Chloe, as JoJo, also told the host: “From 2011 until 2023 I was eight, now I’m 20 and gay. I’m the first gay girl in the world. Bet you never met a gay girl before.”
The pair also mocked JoJo’s viral interview in which she claimed she was inventing ‘gay pop’, despite the concept having existed long before JoJo was even born.
Colin said: “But JoJo, you were quoted as saying you invented a new genre of music?”, to which ‘JoJo’ responded: “That’s right – gay pop.”
The host then told her: “I think that’s maybe just pop.”
While fans had expressed concerns about people going in too hard on JoJo for simply trying something new, it seems the entertainer has taken the skit in her stride as she took to Instagram to respond.
She shared the clip on her Instagram story, telling fans: “ICONIC. I literally don’t what to say. This is f**king crazy. 3 and a half minute skit on SNL…”
JoJo previously told Good Morning America, that she didn’t care if people didn’t like the song as she knew she would never be “a Celine Dion” or “a Mariah Carey.”
As the interviewer said: “The new music video is very grown up,” JoJo responded: “No! You think so? I think it’s young.
“I told everybody on my team, ‘Look, there’s a line, and we have to go past it.’ My goal with this was – I didn’t care if people liked it, I didn’t care if people hated it – I wanted people to turn their head at it, and I wanted people to talk about it.”
JoJo was previously known for bright colors and big hair bows. Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
She continued: “I am an entertainer, I am an artist. I’m not a Celine Dion, I’m not a Mariah Carey – I never will have those vocal cords, ever, considering I only have one in here.
“Whether people like ‘Karma’ or don’t like ‘Karma’, they sing it, they dance, they know it, and it’s in their heads. At the end of the day, it worked,” the star added.