Warning: people keep defending Ariana Grande's doughnut licking video, but did you all forget the $5,000 fine?
I looked up the 2015 incident after a coworker brought it up and found out she actually had to pay a fine and apologize to a shop in Lake Elsinore for licking doughnuts she never bought, which is way weirder than the meme recap makes it sound, so why do people still treat it like a harmless joke?
Wait, she actually had to pay five grand for licking doughnuts she didn't even buy? That detail alone makes the whole thing way less funny to me, because I always thought it was just a gross viral moment with no real consequence. Acting like it's a cute meme when there was a real fine and a real apology to the shop just feels like everyone memory-holed the part that actually mattered.