I'll be honest, I didn't see either of these moments live, but clips from both of them are going viral all over social media.
The first is from CNN's "New Year's Eve Live" hosted by Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper. I don't typically watch New Year's Eve specials like this — for some reason, I find them depressing — but even if I did, this wouldn't be my first choice.
At some point during the program, I guess they were reading questions from people. Cooper asked actress and comedian Amy Sedaris, "Where is the best place to meet a man in 2026?"
"Where's a good place to meet a man?" Sedaris repeated. "I'd say in a ladies' room," she answered without giving it a second thought. It was actually pretty funny, but no one on set seemed to so much as giggle, and Sedaris awkwardly tried to come up with other answers.
Q: "Where's the best place to meet a man in 2026?"
— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) January 1, 2026
Amy Sedaris: "I would say the ladies room."pic.twitter.com/VYZk2XM4pK
The other came from ESPN's Scott Van Pelt. I did watch football last night, but I didn't stick around for SportsCenter. I guess at midnight, ESPN cut to people ringing in the new year in New York City and showed several couples kissing.
"Yeah… Live makeouts on SportsCenter. Get into it!" Van Pelt said as they showed a man and woman, well, making out.
Then the shot cut to two dudes kissing, and Van Pelt was quite visibly repulsed.
"Ohhhhhhh, what do we got?" he said in disgust before catching himself and correcting his response with a smirk. "We got love in the air!"
NEW: ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt visibly disgusted after two men making out popped up on his screen during New Year’s coverage.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 1, 2026
“Yeah… Live makeouts on Sports Center. Get into it,” he said in response to the normal couples.
“Ohhhhhhhh! What are we….” he said in response to the gay… pic.twitter.com/gkPFmJA9ng
I don't really know much about either of these two people aside from what I've seen on TV, but what I can tell you is that these were natural human reactions to unnatural things. At least, they were for those of us who don't have to force ourselves to pretend every day.
Van Pelt is totally allowed to be grossed out by two men kissing — except he works at ESPN, where woke rules. Sedaris is a comedian and is allowed to make a joke about men who think they're women — except she's a Hollywood gal who was on CNN, where, again, woke is king. Not playing by these rules can cost you your livelihood and get you canceled.
Thankfully, the good people of the United States are tired of this and have been for quite sometime. It's one reason why so many, especially young men, voted for Donald Trump in 2024. Last September, the Economist wrote a pretty extensive article based on a lot of in-depth analysis that suggested "America is becoming less woke." Even the New York Times suggested last year that identify politics is "losing its grip on the country."
But this shouldn't come as a surprise. It's actually science. Human beings aren't built to monitor their every word and emotion. Being "woke" in today's world is a performance that eventually wears us all down. The result is a 59-year-old sportscaster who just wants to talk about football, but accidentally puts his job on the line because he has a human reaction and a 64-year-old comedian who does what's she's always done — makes a joke that the majority of the country would laugh at — but that's not cool with the thought police.
It's not good for the people who we're coddling either, because, let's face it, that's all we're doing by tip-toeing around everyone's feelings. It's probably a no-brainer, but research shows that people who are constantly shielded from offense and discomfort go on to be anxious, weak, and less resilient. It's one reason why many young people aren't developing emotionally or intellectually, and it explains a lot of the behavior we see from the "there are more than two genders" crowd.
People fall in line, usually out of fear of backlash or of what others will think of them. It's has something to do with a phenomenon called pluralistic ignorance. It's when people go along with something because they believe the majority agrees, when in reality, most people don't.
"Pluralistic ignorance can have dangerous consequences, as it can lead to people remaining silent in the face of injustice or engaging in risky behaviors. These can manifest in environments ranging from the classroom to entire political systems," according to Simply Psychology.
This is why we saw those little cracks in the façade on New Year's Eve. These two weren't being rude or hateful — they were just being human. While it might have made some people uncomfortable, it was actually healthy for a nation trying to heal from years of forced woke ideology.
