Over the weekend, we watched Red Hot Chili Peppers’ own Flea give Koko the Gorilla private bass lessons. While most considered the clip a fun, cute, and harmless gesture, the cultural mavens over at Fox News saw it as an opportunity to trash talk the alt-rockers, as Alternative Nation points out.

“As most musicians know, this is a vast improvement over the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the worst band on the planet,” dissed Greg Gutfeld, co-host of the network’s program The Five.



Fellow co-host Eric Bolling responded, saying, “The producers said you should do this story, and I said no, Gutfeld is going to say the ape is better than Flea.”

Gutfeld jumped in again to resume his slamming of the Peppers. “The ape is better than Anthony Kiedis. By the way, the ape is 45, which is half the age of Anthony Kiedis. Red Hot Chili Peppers, poor man’s Faith No More, don’t ever forget it.” Yikes. Sounds like someone got axed from the guest list.

This is hardly the first time Fox News has taken it upon itself to knock otherwise critically acclaimed musicians. Previously, the network hated on Beyoncé’s Super Bowl halftime performance and said that Kendrick Lamar “has done more damage to young African Americans than racism.”

Update: Watch video of Gutfeld’s comments below.

Revisit the Flea and Koko video below.