Jesse Watters, the Fox News host known for making up rules about what is and is not “manly,” sucked on a pacifier Friday while downplaying young adults’ stress.
On The Five, Watters reacted to the apparent trend of those in their teens and twenties resorting to the infant item to help manage stress levels. TikTok videos show users in China adopting the unconventional approach, with some reporting that it helps reduce the urge to smoke and provides a “sense of safety from childhood,” the South China Morning Post reported.
Watters and co-host Greg Gutfeld didn’t see the need.
“Real stress is when they draft you and they send you to a jungle in Vietnam and you have to kill [Viet Cong] with a new gun you’ve never shot,” Watters said dismissively as Gutfeld approved. “And then some guy hands you some dope and the next thing you’re hooked on the juice and you’re going to Cambodia trying to score your own stash. They send you back and then they spit on your face.”
Co-host Harold Ford Jr. then suggested that the animated Watters could benefit from the oral device to calm down in that moment.
Taking that advice, Watters grabbed one of several pacifiers on a tray and popped it in. “I feel better,” the 47-year-old joked in a muffled voice.
Gutfeld took a harsher approach toward the trend.
“I go back to the first time we applied the word ‘stressful’ to humans. Remember, ‘stressful’ was about tension applied to a material object; that was ‘stressed.’ Suddenly we decided this thing existed: emotional strain,” he lamented, arguing that that has been used as a crutch.
“Stress is just anxiety, which is a fear of inconvenience. If you need a pacifier because you’re being inconvenienced—‘Oh, I’ve got a final the next day’—I don’t want you around me. I hope you choke on it,” said Gutfeld, who opted not to test out a pacifier.
Pacifiers can present a choking risk for adults and infants alike if they’re the incorrect size—in case that was Gutfeld’s holdup. Thumbs, on the other hand, don’t.
