Fox News hosts go viral for ‘scripted’ blunder amid comparisons to Abbott & Costello

Laura Ingraham segment invites comparisons to Saturday Night Live

An awkward encounter between two Fox News hosts has led to accusations that the exchange was scripted.

On Monday night Richard Arroyo discussed a storyline in the latest season of You, a Netflix show, and told Laura Ingraham that a baby caught measles from an unvaccinated family.

An apparently confused Ingraham asked “Wait wait wait, when did I mention measles?”. It appeared that she had misunderstood the meaning of You, and you.

The encounter continued on for more than a minute, during which time Ingraham told an apparently frustrated Arroyo: “I’ve never had measles”.

The 70-second clip was shared widely on social media after being broadcast, with many mocking Ingraham for her inability to understand what Arroyo was talking about.

Many Twitter users likened the encounter to Lou Costello and Bud Abbott’s celebrated routine Who’s on First?

The sketch involved the duo asking “who” – the meaning of which was confusing, and alternated between “who” as a name, and “who” as a question.

“Good lord,” tweetedThe Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona of Ingraham and Arroyo. “This tired Abbott & Costello bit goes on for what feels like forever!”

“Abbott & Costello, but make it aggrieved and disinformation-y,” tweeted another journalist, Matt Fuller, who appeared to reference the discussion comparing measles and Covid before the clip descended into chaos.

Many meanwhile compared Ingraham’s so-called “performance” with Saturday Night Live, which often satirises Fox News.

“SNL could not write a better sketch. Ladies and Gentlemen, Laura Ingraham,” tweeted a TV writer and actress, Caroline Renard.

“This is hilarious and seems like an SNL sketch,” wrote another Twitter user from Minnesota. “Ingraham demonstrates that she doesn’t think there are any other people who matter other than herself.”

Some argued that Fox News had staged the clip, although there was disagreement. At least one Twitter user wrote that they were “Waiting for Fox News to try convince their scrawny audience that this was scripted and she was just kidding”.

MSNBC anchor Medhi Hasan however cautioned that the clip was a true blunder and tweeted: “This is one of the funniest things I have ever seen on live TV. Part of me refuses to believe it’s real and it must be a ‘bit’ but…no…this happened”.

On Tuesday, Arroyo himself tweeted that he agreed the clip was “amazing”, and that his “favourite part was that only regular viewers realised it was totally scripted.” Although that remains to be confirmed.

Millions of social media users have since viewed the exchange.