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Joy Behar took an unexpected tumble during the opening credits of The View on Thursday morning.
The 79-year-old co-host could be seen talking and laughing with her colleague Sara Haines as the crowd applauded the beginning of the daily talk show, but as she was about to sit down on one of the show’s famous high chairs, she fell and landed on her side.
Her fellow co-hosts quickly rushed to her aid, and Haines, 44, soon pulled her back up as Whoopi Goldberg, 66, could be heard telling her to ‘Just stand.’
A stagehand then helped Behar to her seat to a round of applause, as her co-hosts tried to defend Behar’s sudden tumble.
‘These chairs move – you touch it and you’re on the ground,’ Goldberg told the audience, with Sunny Hostin adding: ‘It’s happened to all of us at one time or another.’
But Behar quickly interjected, saying that in her 25 years on the show ‘that has never happened to me.
‘Who do I sue?’ she joked, as she laughed off the experience.
One viewer joked that comedienne Behar’s fall was the first laugh she’d roused in decades
Another wondered whether regular criticism of the star had jinxed her
A third viewer feared Behar’s advancing years had put her at risk of a serious injury
But she still seemed shaken up by the time all four co-hosts finally took their seats on Thursday morning, saying: ‘I went flying.’
‘We can’t even say “Oh you can’t have another glass of wine,” it takes a glass of wine to get into the chairs,’ Whoopi joked as she sat in her seat, before asking Behar if she was OK, to which Behar replied: ‘I just missed the step as usual.’
‘Well that’s our show today,’ Whoopi joked. ‘Thank you so much.’
Viewers were quick to share their thoughts on the incident on Twitter, with one writing: ‘She’s fine, but “The View” host Joy Behar took a fall walking out on stage.
‘The good news is it was the first laugh she’s gotten in 20 years.’
Another, referring to a past Behar controversy, said: ‘Noted blackface user Joy Behar from #TheView suffers a fall.’ His tweet included a clip of a nonchalant-looking Jeremy Clarkson.
Another Twitter user berated View critics who were mocking Behar’s unexpected tumble
Others were more supportive. One Twitter users shared her fears for Behar given the host’s advancing years, writing: ‘Girl you know your bones can’t take those kinda slips at your age.’
And another even pondered whether Behar’s critics may have willed her into falling, writing: ‘Stop hating on Joy Behar look you made her fall on her face!’
The fall came following a string of controversies on the female-led talk show, with Behar stirring outrage last week as she complained that the war in Ukraine would disrupt her Italian getaway.
The long-running gabfest was discussing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine when she began to whine about her summer trip getting ruined.
Hostin started off the conversation last Thursday, laying out some of the facts regarding the warfare in eastern Europe, which saw mass evacuations of Kyiv after Vladimir Putin launched his all-out invasion on Ukraine.
‘Estimates are 50,000 Ukrainians will be dead or wounded and this is going to start a refugee crisis in Europe. We’re talking about 5 million people that are going to be displaced,’ she said. ‘It’s heartbreaking to hear what is going to happen.’
Behar then tried to bring the discussion toward western Europe, specifically, her apparent plans to travel to Italy, located about 1,500 miles from where Russian forces were bombing its neighbor.
‘I’m scared of what’s going to happen in western Europe, too,’ she said.
‘You plan a trip, you want to go there, I’ve wanted to go to Italy for four years and I haven’t been able to make it because of the pandemic and now this. It’s like, what’s gonna happen there?’
Social media quickly pounced on Behar’s apparent disregard for anyone else’s circumstances.
Broadcaster Liz Wheeler posted the video, writing: ‘I literally can’t believe Joy Behar said this.’
Ida Tavakoli added in: ‘You almost have to respect Joy Behar’s unwavering commitment toward ensuring that boomers are the most hated generation alive.’
NY Post and Fox News columnist Karol Markowicz asked: ‘Did Putin even stop to think how his invasion would affect Joy Behar’s trip to Italy?’
Sports commentator @KFCBarstool piled on: ‘The true horror of the worldwide pandemic and Russia invading Ukraine? Joy Behar hasn’t been able to take her trip to Italy. Thoughts and Prayers for Joy. We hope she makes it through this tragedy.
Social media slammed Behar’s remarks last week as being ‘tone deaf’
But Behar isn’t the only one who has found herself in hot water for comments made on the long-running show – her co-host Whoopi Goldberg was put on a two-week suspension following global backlash over comments she made about the Holocaust.
In a broadcast on January 31, Goldberg claimed on-air that the Holocaust was ‘not about race.’
She was soon placed on a two-week, unpaid suspension by ABC boss Kim Godwin, who said she wanted to put an end to a ‘culture’ where The View host and her colleague Joy Behar could ‘say and do whatever they wanted’, insiders told DailyMail.com.
Goldberg was set to lose $192,000 for the two-week suspension, sources told DailyMail.com.
But when she returned, she did not shy away from the controversy.
‘It’s not always pretty, as I said, and it’s not always as other people would like to hear, but it is an honor to sit at this table and be able to have these conversations because they’re important,’ she said last month.
