Culture

Ranking Celebrities Cosplaying As Minimum Wage Workers From Charli D’Amelio To Lana Del Rey

by Ky Stewart  30 October 2023
ranking celebrities dressing up as workers charli d'amelio lady gaga lana del rey waffle house ben Affleck

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Newsflash! Celebrities are out of touch. It might not seem shocking to you but I’m always surprised whenever a celebrity does something that makes me think “Oh, they did not read the room on that one”. That’s how I felt when I saw the video of Charli D’Amelio “working” as a Walmart employee. 

Over the weekend, Charli D’Amelio dressed up as a Walmart employee and posed for cameras. In the video, she looks very animated and happy about the whole thing which is proof that it’s a PR stunt because no one is that happy to be working at Walmart. It’s very jarring to watch. 

The display sparked a conversation about celebrities cosplaying as minimum wage workers, effectively pretending to work a regular job. Are these stunts fun little publicity moments? Or do they trivialise the difficult ways people need to live in order to put food on the table? 

Well, as always, there are degrees to the (accidental) degradation. And with Halloween around the corner, I have to assume more celebrities will dress up as retail workers. So this felt like a good time to rank the different episodes from “that’s egregious” to “we need to understand the context”.

8. Charli D’Amelio 

Out of all the celebrities to cosplay as a minimum wage worker, there’s something rather sinister about Charli’s portrayal. The wide grin, the flippant hair tossing, the “comical” way she scans the items. You can tell that she actually thinks it’s a funny joke to be working at Walmart. She certainly doesn’t appear to understand the pain of working a cashier job. 

Charli won the lottery of life by becoming mega famous on TikTok, getting paid a lot of money to do dances or collabs with brands who saw her as the “face” of our generation. She thinks it’s funny because she’ll probably never have to work at Walmart to support herself or her family. 

The whole thing is made worse when you find out she did the stunt to promote her family’s new popcorn line. Yes, popcorn. Cotton candy, garlic Parmesan, and maple bacon popcorn to be precise. Charli is pretending to be someone who will have to scan her popcorn for a tenth of what she was paid to make this  video. 

7. Prince William

You’re literally a Prince. You can do more than just hand out a few hamburgers for good PR. That’s all I have to say about that. 

6. Ed Sheeran 

Ed Sheeran, cringe king, worked a shift at The Wieners Circle (interesting name) in Chicago to hand out hot dogs to a bunch of screaming fans. The same store that apparently is known for employees insulting its customers. 

While nothing is inherently wrong with this because he does seem to actually be doing something productive (looking at you Charli), I just wouldn’t be able to undo the damage of Ed Sheeran yelling at me while he gives me a hot dog. Things would get dark. 

5. Trisha Paytas 

YouTuber Trisha Paytas is known for her love of dressing up as fast food workers because she does it a lot. Like a lot. She’s cosplayed as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Dominos, Burger King, and Arby’s employees. Just to name a few. 

Trisha has an exuberant amount of money so it’s always a bit uncomfortable watching her dress up as minimum wage workers without actually ever having to do any of the work. But to Trisha’s credit, she doesn’t really do it as a PR stunt or to promote anything. I just think she really loves fast food. Most of the time she dresses up as the worker of the drive-thru she’s going to and buys a bunch of things to taste test them in a video. 

Side note: the ASMR videos never make sense to me because no place is more over stimulating than a fast food restaurant. I’m pretty sure ASMR videos are meant to bring audio stimulation and relaxation to listeners, but I’ve never known peace inside a McDonald’s. 

4. Tana Mongeau 

Fellow YouTuber Tana Mongeau dipped her toes in the celebrity-cosplays-as-normal-person waters a few times but the most notable was when she pretended to be a Starbucks worker with Trisha Paytas, the noted fast-food worker cosplayer.

I mean, the whole video is weird right? The collective wealth of these two is beyond my comprehension so to think that Trisha and Tana’s idea of fun is to pretend to be a Starbucks worker is bizarre. How can it be that fun? Everyone knows there’s nothing fun about working at Starbucks.  

3. Ben Affleck 

I will never fully understand Ben Affleck’s Dunkin’ obsession. Maybe it’s because we don’t have Dunkin’ here in Australia (anymore – it was here in the ‘80s). Regardless, with the fierce grip those coffees have on Ben you’d think they hold the secret to wealth and success. 

The sheer adoration Ben has for Dunkin’ made his SuperBowl ad a perfect collaboration. It’s obvious that it’s a commercial and he isn’t promoting his own food line. And the customers clearly get some joy out of Ben Affleck serving them so that’s a positive. It also looks like Ben enjoyed working there and I think he could use some more enjoyment in his life because that man always looks like he’s going through it.

2. Lady Gaga 

If there’s one thing Lady Gaga will do, it’s go full method actress. I’ve never seen someone take a Starbucks job as seriously as Lady Gaga did a few years ago. She’s dedicated, clocked into work, in the zone, and will make you the best coffee you’ve had in your life. Or at least try to. It’s Starbucks at the end of the day. 

Lady Gaga’s Starbucks shift ranks high on my list because she was there for a good reason. Instead of promoting bacon popcorn, Lady Gaga was there to raise awareness for her Born This Way foundation and her Channel Kindness book. The book is a collection of stories from young Americans about being kind to one another. 

Just look at how dedicated she was to making people drinks. We stan a philanthropic queen. 

1. Lana Del Rey  

I think about Lana Del Rey working at a Waffle House in Alabama more times a day than I probably should. It’s just the funniest thing to me because it’s the most Lana Del Rey thing to do. Of course a multi Grammy-nominated artist is just chilling in a Waffle House. 

Now listen. I might seem like a hypocrite calling out Charli D’Amelio for her little Walmart stunt while I defend Lana Del Rey but let me explain the difference. Lana was actually eating at the Waffle House with her siblings for several hours before an employee asked if she wanted her own shirt. Then the employee asked if she wanted to serve a regular customer. Lana didn’t intend to go viral or market her appearance there. She was just eating some waffles before giving a customer a coke and a cup with no ice.

Ky is a proud Kamilaroi and Dharug person and writer at Junkee. Follow them on Instagram or on X.

Image: YouTube