The Met Gala 2019 took place under the theme "Camp: Notes on Fashion." Some celebrities took the term "camp" in its most literal sense, and failed to see beyond tents and bushes.
This year's fashion exhibition is based on Susan Sontag's 1964 essay "Notes on Camp," in which the author defined camp as the "love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration." Camp, the aesthetic sensibility, is nearly impossible to define. For example, drag, as VOX explains, is inherently campy. Merriam Webster Dictionary defines camp as "absurdly exaggerated, artificial."
"Camp is esoteric … To talk about Camp is therefore to betray it," Sontag writes in her essay.
Taking all these things into account, the definition of camp is open to interpretation. But, when a celebrity like Rami Malek shows up in a mediocre black tuxedo with patterned red shoes just months after his role as one of the campiest figures (Hey, Freddie Mercury) in history ... it becomes a different story.
Twitter users are most definitely disappointed in the actor's incredibly un-campy appearance at this year's event.
"Rami Malek should have to give back his Freddie Mercury Oscar"
"Played one of the most campy artists of all time"
"The nerve to come to the Met Gala in a black suit"
"Can't believe"
"The audacity"
"You won an Oscar for playing Freddie Mercury. Give it back"
One of the "disappointments of the night"
There were some who came to Malek's defense
