Live With Kelly and Mark executive producer Michael Gelman is weighing in on Howie Mandel’s unforgettable interview with Kelly Ripa.
After Mandel issued an apology to Ripa, 55, following their viral interaction about looking good at 70, Gelman, 64, decided to have some fun with all the online chatter.
“During these divided times, one thing we can all agree upon is that you do look great … for your age,” Gelman wrote in the comments of Mandel’s apology video on Instagram on Saturday, March 28.
When one follower replied, “It was actually meant to be a joke! He looks great 👏🏻,” Gelman acknowledged that everyone seems to have an opinion about the innocent back-and-forth.
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“Everyone is a critic,” he replied to the user.
The fun began during the March 23 episode of Live With Kelly and Mark when Mandel jokingly took issue with Ripa’s compliment that “it doesn’t make any sense” that he just turned 70.
“What do you mean it doesn’t make any sense?” Mandel asked. “I look great. That doesn’t mean anything to me. … It’s like saying you’re smart for a stupid person. ‘Oh, you look smart! You seem smart!’ I don’t look good.”
The exchange sparked headlines online and even resulted in Mandel (playfully) issuing an apology online.
“I have been debating for 48 hours whether I should make this post or not, and I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing. Philosophically, I don’t believe that somebody who’s a comedian needs to apologize for a joke,” Mandel said in a March 28 Instagram video. “It is a joke. It is meant as a joke, and it’s not meant to offend. You can not like it and, in all my years in the business, I haven’t ever publicly kind of apologized for [a joke].”
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The America’s Got Talent judge continued, “I don’t know how to say this, but not only do I want to say I’m sorry to Kelly, but this is the hardest part. You’re right. You’re absolutely right, and I’m sorry I didn’t see it that way. … I look great for my age. I really do. I look fantastic, and I just have to embrace the fact that I look this good.”
Gelman isn’t the only person to take notice of Mandel’s apology. Several stars reacted to the video with their own jokes.
“I’m sorry you look so good😂,” Terry Crews wrote in the comments section. Tom Bergeron added, “🤣 That was the smoothest pivot to self-love I’ve ever seen…apart from my own morning conversations to my mirror 👏🏼.”
