Mariah Carey Iconically Addresses Iconic 'I Don't Know Her' Meme: 'I Was Just Being Honest'

In the classic film You’ve Got Mail, Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) tells his internet girlfriend/object of his emotional affair Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) why men love quoting The Godfather.

Says F-O-X:

The Godfather is the I ching. The Godfather is the sum of all wisdom. The Godfather is the answer to any question. What should I pack for my summer vacation? “Leave the gun, take the cannoli.” What day of the week is it? “Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday.”

And while that may be true for most middle-aged straight white cis males, for everyone else, there’s the GIF of Mariah Carey responding to a question about Jennifer Lopez by saying, “I don’t know her,” smiling, and shaking her head.

It is the response to everything in need of a response. It is peak celebrity shade, it is peak GIF, it is peak Mariah Carey, and—in a way—peak Jennifer Lopez. It is 15 years of American popular culture wrapped up in a single, perfect image.

And she finally talked about it.

In an interview with The Cut about her new MAC line, writer Véronique Hyland and the elusive chanteuse had the following exchange:

Hyland: Your fans love to give you crazy presents. What’s something you’ve gotten recently from a Lamb?

Carey: Recently? I don’t know. [yawns] I’m sorry, I’m having a “sleep” moment…

Well, there was a very interesting shirt that a fan made with a quote that I said years ago that, when I said it, I really wasn’t trying to be funny. I was just being honest and everybody’s kind of blowing it out of proportion but this guy had a shirt on and it was a picture of me that he made and the quote was underneath it — and I’m going to leave you hanging as to what it was.

Hyland: Will I be able to Google what it was?

Carey: Probably, yes.

Let’s break this down:

Mariah Carey yawned before telling a story about how she was “just being honest” when she said she didn’t know Jennifer Lopez. The mere thought of telling a story about Jennifer Lopez, whom she may or may not know by now, puts Mariah Carey to sleep.