Mariah Carey’s New Year’s Eve performance in New York City will be among the most memorable from the Hollywood starlet, but for all the wrong reasons.

And while she’s handed out pink slips to some of her team for the stage fiasco, her former husband and entertainment mogul Nick Cannon joked that there’s possibly someone (or, something) deserving of the pointed finger of blame, too.  

Sitting down with Ellen DeGeneres for her popular Ellen talk show, Cannon spent a nice chunk of time chatting about daddy-duty adventures with his twin couplet, Moroccan and Monroe. After segueing into his and Mimi’s successful co-parenting relationship, Cannon revealed his rather unpopular opinion on the New Year’s Eve blunder as well.

“You know me, I’m a conspiracy theorist,” he joked. “I think the government did that. They set her up. That was a distraction. They just put her out there.”

He added that those sort of technical difficulties happen on a regular basis for most performers, and even recalled that he’s had similar experiences during his judge duties for America’s Got Talent.

“Anyone who knows about performing and having inner-ear stuff, things can go wrong on live television,” he explained. “I screw up on America’s Got Talent all the time. So when there’s people in your ear saying things and stuff, I think [Mariah] got a little flustered. But being the diva that she is, she said, ‘I’m just gonna walk around and pose.’”

Well, we guess that explains it.

Check out Cannon’s interpretation of the stage setback below.