Matt Lauer mocked workplace sexual harassment in a cringeworthy 'Today' show segment in 2012
- Ex-NBC host Matt Lauer once jokingly pretended he was a victim of sexual harassment in a 2012 sketch.
- The network fired Lauer on Wednesday after receiving a complaint of "inappropriate sexual behavior."
Matt Lauer once mocked sexual harassment in the workplace in a farcical sketch on the "Today" show in 2012. The video resurfaced after the network received a complaint of "inappropriate sexual behavior" and fired him on Wednesday.
The four-minute segment, which The Daily Show posted on Twitter after the news broke, featured Lauer pretending to report his colleague Willie Geist for swatting Lauer's backside with a handful of folded-up papers.
In a mock interview set to dramatic music, "national investigative correspondent" Jeff Rossen introduced Lauer as "the owner of that derriere, breaking his silence." Lauer then recounted the pretend incident in a solemn tone.
"I was standing by the doorway in the vestibule, and Willie came out, and I just said, 'Hi, hi Willie, how are you?' And I thought that would be the end of it. He reached out, and, you know," Lauer said, trailing off in faux-anguish.
When Rossen questioned Lauer over whether he had somehow provoked the behavior - an apparent nod to modern outrage over instances of victim-blaming - Lauer said he had done nothing out of the ordinary.
"That's impossible. I didn't do anything differently; I wasn't wearing a different cologne. It just, it just - this was uninitiated," Lauer said.
Lauer went on to jokingly mourn that Geist had not called or written him since the incident, citing "the abandonment" as the worst part of the encounter.
The video in the "investigation" showed Lauer returning Geist's pat by swatting his colleague on the rear.
The sketch later cut to a cameo with the actor Dustin Hoffman, who asked, "Did Willie swat him with his willy?" to the raucous laughter of Lauer, Geist, and fellow anchors Al Roker and Savannah Guthrie on the "Today" stage.
Hoffman himself has faced his own allegations of sexual harassment and groping in recent weeks. The actor apologized in a statement, saying, "I have the utmost respect for women … I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am."
The "Today" sketch isn't the only clip to resurface on Wednesday in light of the complaint against Lauer. TMZ posted a 2012 interview with Katie Couric, in which she told Bravo's Andy Cohen that Lauer "pinches me on the a- a lot."
A visibly shaken Guthrie read a statement from NBC News chairman Andy Lack on the show Wednesday morning. In it, he said the network had "reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident."