Fox News was criticized after the network compared Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's new haircut to the one Jim Carrey sported in the classic comedyDumb and Dumber.
In Dumb and Dumber, Carrey played Lloyd Christmas, who along with his friend Harry played by Jeff Daniels set out on a cross-country road trip to return a briefcase a woman left in an airport terminal. The haircut Carrey has in the film is quite distinctive, and it was what came to mind for Fox News when it reported on a haircut Trudeau debuted while visiting Quebec.
Fox News went so far as to make a side-by-side comparison of the haircuts during a segment featuring network personality Harris Faulkner.
You can see it below.
\u201chttps://t.co/8nKI6Zkc43\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1658163245
Was it news?
Not at all.
The fact Fox was actually using time to mock Trudeau's haircut is especially striking because the network has come under fire for not focusing on important national and global stories.
The network was recently criticized for deciding not to carry live coverage of the House Select Committee's hearings into the January 6 insurrection.
Instead, it announced it would carry the hearings on the lower-rated Fox Business while hosts like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson would be able to proceed as usual, offering highly slanted, inaccurate or downright misleading commentary.
Fox was swiftly attacked online and many accused the network of using its platform to bully people openly.
\u201cOnly Fox would be this stupid. Such a sad delivery of news. They are in such a dither, they have to pick on someone's hair cut.\u201d— Georgia Garrison (@Georgia Garrison) 1658192559
\u201cThis is news to @FoxNews -- too incompetent to cover real news since 1996 ...\u201d— John J. Mesh (@John J. Mesh) 1658184366
\u201cDon't they have anything better to do?\u201d— Jason Montgomery (@Jason Montgomery) 1658173550
\u201cThis is what they're talking about. Very serious news network, absolutely. \ud83d\ude44\ud83d\ude44\u201d— Holly M Bryan #EndGunViolence (@Holly M Bryan #EndGunViolence) 1658176612
\u201cFox News: We'll find any reason to insult anyone left of us! No matter how inconsequential! \n\nYes, the left did it to Tr**p too but there were far more legit reasons, plus the schmuck touted himself like he was the second coming, so that kind of hubris deserves ribbing.\u201d— Writrzblok (@Writrzblok) 1658177824
\u201cCheck out the level of journalism of @FoxNews\u201d— Nida \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf0 (@Nida \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf0) 1658180067
\u201c.@FoxNews... hard-hitting journalism. https://t.co/UGEgQm8ifZ\u201d— Michael Trombley (@Michael Trombley) 1658167193
\u201cHard-hitting News!\u201d— Decoding Fox News (@Decoding Fox News) 1658167608
\u201cLOL Fox. Always laser focused on the important stuff.\u201d— Crawf (@Crawf) 1658167104
Carrey later reprised the role of Lloyd Christmas in the 2014 sequel Dumb and Dumber To, which also featured Daniels but failed to replicate the first film's success at the box office.
The actor, who recently starred in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and ended a critically acclaimed run on the HBO show Kidding, spends much of his time these days writing and creating art that he often shares with his sizeable Twitter following.
He has shared misigivings about the film industry as well as the nature of celebrity — which he explored in his novel Memoirs and Misinformation — and expressed a desire to retire relatively soon.