The View just gave us the best Whoopi Goldberg bell moment since The Great Meghan McCain Bell Infraction of 2019 — and neither Goldberg nor her bell were even present. Let us explain.
Friday morning’s episode of the talk show launched with an impassioned message from cohost Sara Haines, who became so engrossed in her own point (in reaction to Charlamagne tha God recently calling out media coverage as too soft on Donald Trump) that she knocked over a bowl of mints at the Hot Topics table, mistaking it for Goldberg’s legendary ringing device.
“The worst thing I think the media does do, though, is reduce or minimize the danger of Donald Trump by mocking him,” Haines observed, prompting Joy Behar to ask, “Who’s mocking him?”
Sara Haines slams hand to the Hot Topics table on ‘The View’.
ABC
Ana Navarro jumped in, telling Haines, “Me, I mock him constantly, thank you very much. Like I always say, if we’re going to talk about Kamala being Black, can we talk about Donald Trump being orange?”
Haines attempted to continue with her point, stressing that “it’s not normalizing him, we’re minimizing him by laughing at the jokes” at Trump’s expense. “We got completely played in 2016,” she continued. “The media absolutely played into his hand in 2016 by running a campaign for him.”
Behar then cut in again, asking, “That’s the point, isn’t it?” Haines temporarily broke as she tried to finish, exclaiming, “You guys, is anyone listening to me? Seriously!” She then slammed her hand down on a bowl of mints sitting in front of Behar, admitting that she thought it was Goldberg’s bell — which the Oscar-winning actress (who has Fridays off) typically uses to quiet commotion when the Hot Topics banter gets too intense.
“Whoopi’s bell isn’t here!” Alyssa Farah Griffin said, as Haines explained herself: “Oh, shoot, I thought that was the bell. Went for the bell and got a Tic Tac instead!”
Behar laughed the moment off, joking, “We need some Ativan over here!” instead of candy.
As Navarro elaborated on her own thoughts, Haines’ microphone hilariously picked up the clinking sound of mints going back into the bowl.
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The Mint Bowl Massacre of 2024 follows The Hot Topics Table Flood of 2023, which also involved Haines, Goldberg, and a mysterious influx of water from an unknown source, which led to the pair spending several moments attempting to clean up the spillage — all while a fart noise of unknown origin clapped through the soundscape.
The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on ABC. Watch Haines slam her hand to the Hot Topics table in the video above.