Suffice to say, Fox News doesn’t have the best reputation right now. This summer, the outlet lost its longtime chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, who stepped down from his post after being slapped with a lawsuit claiming that he sexually harassed former host Gretchen Carlson.
Not long afterward, one of his replacements, Bill Shine, was also named in a sexual harassment suit filed by another former host, Andrea Tantaros. Of course, not every high-profile employee at Fox is a ruthless creep; some are just a bit too smarmy and relentless, like co-host of The Five, Greg Gutfeld, who dedicated some of his air time this week to trashing the Red Hot Chili Peppers because he prefers Faith No More.
Gutfeld first attacked RHCP after Flea, the group’s stalwart bassist, adorably hosted a jam session with beloved gorilla Koko a few days ago. Commenting on the incident, which was actually a beautiful moment of interspecies friendship that also demonstrated the bonding powers of music, Gutfeld took the opportunity on air to express his negative opinion of the band.
“As most musicians know, [Koko the Gorilla] is a vast improvement over the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the worst band on the planet…The ape is better than Anthony Kiedis. By the way, the ape is 45, which is half the age of Anthony Kiedis. Red Hot Chili Peppers, poor man’s Faith No More, don’t ever forget it.”
(FYI: Kiedis is 53 — a mere two years older than Gutfeld.)
After Red Hot Chili Peppers fans rushed to the band’s defense, Gutfeld went on Twitter and tried to trick people into thinking he was going to issue an apology.
My apology to @ChiliPeppers coming up in minutes
— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) August 24, 2016
Instead, he doubled down on his previous statement and bashed the group even more:
“Two days ago I said that Red Hot Chili Peppers were the worst band on the planet..I received a lot of flack from fans all over the world. What I meant to say was the Red Hot Chili Peppers [are] the worst band in the universe; I’d like to apologize for that confusion.”
He then went on to praise Faith No More again and express his belief that you can’t be a fan of both groups. To each their own (even though some of us happen to enjoy both bands), but how can you really be that brutal toward people who are raising awareness and funding for gorilla conservation efforts?
https://twitter.com/flea333/status/767521960762966017
In case you need to watch the video of Koko playing bass guitar, here it is again:
(via Consequence of Sound)
