Comedian James Corden has sparked controversy after a traffic-stopping song and dance for his latest movie fuelled a fiery response online.

In Los Angeles on Friday (local time), Corden joined his Cinderella co-stars Camila Cabello, Billy Porter, and Idina Menzel in a bizarre promotional stunt for the musical feature film.

Dressed as their characters and backed by a flash mob, the actors performed J-Lo’s Let’s Get Loud in the middle of the road.

The raucous escapade was badly received online, with footage of Corden thrusting in a mouse costume soon going viral.

Tweet from @VicBergerIV

Host of The Late Late Show show since 2015, Corden is perhaps best known for the show’s segment Carpool Karaoke. 

Singing in the car with some of the biggest names in the music industry, his guest list resembles a who’s who of music royalty.

The British actor’s passenger seat has been graced with the likes of Madonna, Bruno Mars, Lagy Gaga, Britney Spears, Selena Gomez, Adele and Mariah Carey.

And when he’s not driving celebrities around Los Angeles with the windows down, he’s stopping traffic to perform songs with them.

Crosswalk the Musical is a staple of the show, which involved some big names on busy streets. Zac Efron, Kristen Bell and Will Smith have all taken part.

It’s a basic formula. A heavily costumed Corden, his celebrity guest and a flash mob fill a pedestrian crossing with props and scenery to perform songs in front of stopped traffic.

“This is not the best way to do a musical, or cross the street,” Efron said in his 2017 appearance alongside Hugh Jackman and Zendaya.

Over the years the stunt has been on the receiving end of lighthearted ribbing, with the internet pointing out it could be preventing people from getting to work on time.

But using the format to promo Cinderella has sparked a storm of spiteful comments from his internet haters.

Tweet from @Partylemmons

One user replied to a video of Corden’s routine with a sign that read: “Stop casting James Corden in everything”.

Others responded with “this is the worst thing I’ve ever seen” and called for another lockdown to avoid a repeat.

“We need to stop messing around and have another lockdown. The risk is simply too high of getting caught in a James Corden flash mob,” one Twitter user wrote.

Tweet from @MNateShyamalan

Another brought an old philosophical problem into the discussion.

“James Corden is singing in the middle of an intersection is like the easiest trolley problem ever,” they wrote.

Things get dark fast out there in the Twitterverse – and this thinly veiled threat of violence is just the tip of the iceberg.

Tweet from @thegoblinpoet

Others blamed the Biden administration for somehow being responsible and called for the Brit to be deported. But that line of thinking has been shot down by @Slade, editor in chief of The Recount.

“Stop blaming Biden for this. This isn’t partisan. Three presidential administrations have failed us on James Corden,” Slade wrote.

Tweet from @Slade

It’s not the first time donning a furry costume to sing a tune has led to Corden being roasted to a crisp.

He also starred in the notoriously terrible film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s award-winning musical Cats. 

As reported by The New Daily in March 2020, the movie was honoured as the very worst cinema has to offer at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards.

It won in six categories, including worst supporting actor for Corden, making it the most terrible film overall for 2019.

Perhaps in an attempt to redeem himself, or perhaps not, in 2020 Corden appeared in another movie adaptation of a Broadway musical.

It was a questionable choice. Heterosexual Corden was slammed for playing a gay character in Netflix musical The Prom, with some queer viewers calling it an “offensive” performance.

Overall, Corden is no stranger to public shaming.

He was publicly ridiculed by actor Patrick Stewart at the Glamour Awards in 2010, in a cringe-worthy clash between the two.

In 2017 in the wake of the #Metoo movement, Corden was forced to apologise to Harvey Weinstein’s victims who were unimpressed by jokes he made at their expense.

But in the words of Taylor Swift, who has not yet agreed to get in the car for a sing-a-long with Corden, the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.

And with 6 million followers on Instagram and a net worth of $US70 million according to Film Daily, he’ll probably just keep shaking it off.