Billy Eichner has sarcastically criticised The Masked Singer’s decision to feature Rudy Giuliani, which reportedly led to two judges walking off the show.
On Wednesday (2 February), it was revealed that the former New York mayor and adviser to Donald Trump was unmasked during the recording of the seventh season’s premiere in the US.
Following the reveal, it’s been claimed that judges Robin Thicke and Ken Jeong left their seats in protest, leaving behind Nicole Scherzinger and Jenny McCarthy, who are said to have “bantered” with the controversial figure.
The show is now being derided for including Giuliani, who is a highly polarising figure.
Giuliani initially rose to national prominence as the mayor of New York, earning praise for his actions in the wake of 9/11. He was controversially a staunch defender of Donald Trump’s claim that the 2020 US presidential election result was a “big lie”, and that it had been stolen from him.
More recently, Giuliani, 77, was criticised for selling signed 9/11 T-shirts for $911 (£677) on the website of WABC Radio, where he regularly hosts his own show.
The description on the page of the autographed shirts states that “Rudy Giuliani will personally autograph the 9/11 T-shirt”, adding that a “portion of proceeds go to the WABC Radio Foundation, a 501c3 charity”.
One such critic of Giuliani’s Masked Singer appearance was film and TV star Eichner, who tweeted: “Whoopi suspended for two weeks and Giuliani on The Masked Singer. Everything makes sense. I feel safe. I feel protected. I feel loved.”
Eichner, best known for his comedy series Billy on the Street, was referring to the controversy surrounding Sister Act star Whoopi Goldberg, who has been suspended from The View for two weeks following her remarks about the Holocaust.
Goldberg, who has since issued two apologies, said on Monday’s (31 January) episode of the US talk show: “The minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley. Let’s talk about it for what it is. It’s how people treat each other. That’s the problem.”
She also suggested during an appearance on The Late Show With Steven Colbert that the Second World War was simply “two sides fighting”, a severely inaccurate claim that was “eloquently” picked apart by David Baddiel on Wednesday’s episode of Good Morning Britain (2 February).
“This was not two sides fighting; this was an ethnic group being marked out to be destroyed by a military industrial machine,” Baddiel said.
