NEW YORK — There's "clap back," where celebrities go after haters on social media, and then there's "clap back" Kim Kardashian West-style, where one of the biggest names in the game takes on a 19-year-old, actress Chloe Grace Moretz.
As Twitter shade goes, there's been far worse, but like most things Kardashian, this round scored thousands and thousands of clicks.
It started Monday night with a nude, in-the-mirror selfie — black censor bars in all the right places — that Kardashian West pushed out, noting later it was an old shot. The not-so-new nude was enough to motivate Bette Midler to joke in a tweet:
"Kim Kardashian tweeted a nude selfie today. If Kim wants us to see a part of her we've never seen, she's gonna have to swallow the camera."
Get it? Well, Moretz did, re-tweeting Midler's joke and weighing in with a tweet or two of her own — because 140 characters were slightly not enough — as she addressed Kardashian West directly:
"I truly hope you realize how important setting goals are for young women, teaching them we have so much more to offer than just our bodies."
That's when IT happened, the IT looking just like this:
"let's all welcome @ChloeGMoretz to twitter, since no one knows who she is. your nylon cover is cute boo," Kardashian West tweeted.
Moretz's cover in Nylon magazine being a shot of her in a pretzel-like pose on a shaggy white rug, a jacket draped strategically to enhance the appearance that she, too, was nude underneath. However, the photo's caption mentions a Dior bodysuit, so — you know — whatever.
The pile-on included a mention elsewhere that Moretz might be slut-shaming Kardashian West, a claim Moretz took on thusly in more tweets:
"There's a huge difference in respecting the platform that you're given as a celebrity and 'slut shaming' something I never have done and would never do."
The crazy resonated offline among celebrity watchers. Billy Bush, co-host of NBC's "Access Hollywood Live," wondered on air Tuesday why Kardashian West bothered to go there in the first place.
"Kim needs to understand that because the way she has presented herself she's public domain. She's fodder for that sort of stuff," he said.
Others, as these things usually go, also hopped on, but they're grown people and can fend for themselves. But why Midler was singled out by the all-powerful Kardashian West, who's usually quite nice on Twitter, is up for grabs. An email to Kardashian West's publicist was not immediately answered Tuesday.
Nor was an email to Moretz's publicist seeking additional comment.
Third grade-like petty doesn't begin to cover some of the details involving Midler.
Twitter Kim made a crack about her age and mentioned that Midler once gave her a gift but now falls into the "fake friend" category, to which Twitter Bette responded:
"I never tried to fake friend you. Looks like anyone can take a selfie but not everyone can take a joke."
Speaking of funny, Kardashian West followed up hours later with yet another missive, this one aimed at speculation that her earlier tone was so off her usual norm that one of her more outspoken loved ones might have hacked her account.
"Wait I can't believe people thought Kanye or Khloe hacked my Twitter," she said. "I swear I'm funny too!!"
Other highlights:
— Twitter aficionado Piers Morgan offered to buy Kim some clothes and wisecracked about some personal debt the other half of Kimye, Kanye West, noted in a recent online rant of his own. I'll spare you his wife's response.
— And this from (thank you) Bella Thorne: "I think every woman should be allowed to make their own choices with their OWN bodies soo.."
