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“Jussie!” the NBA legend hollered before midnight, laughing over a photo of Smollett. “You wasted all that damn time and money. You know what you should have did? Just went up in Liam Neeson’s neighborhood. He could have solved all your damn problems!”

With this joke, Barkley roped in yet another hot-button Hollywood story by referencing actor Neeson, who said earlier this month he had once roamed the streets to search for a black person to kill after someone close to the actor told him that an unidentified black person had raped her. (Neeson told “Good Morning America” he did seek help, and said he is not a racist.)

As Barkley was still giggling from the joke, a member from the production staff could be heard yelling something at him, perhaps in an effort to end talk of a sensitive story that remains raw for those who initially backed Smollett. Some online suggested that the person off-camera yelled, “Stop!”

You know what you should have did? Just went up in Liam Neeson's neighborhood. He could have solved all your damn problems!

The clip was widely circulated on social media, where it was the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter, shared tens of thousands times as of early Friday. Several videos of the segment each racked up hundreds of thousands of views. Barkley’s words represented an inflection point for the Smollett story, as people of varying ideologies were seemingly united on social media for contrasting reasons. Although most wanted to laugh with Barkley, whose opinions on race have sometimes met with pushback, others tagged their posts #MAGA in support of President Donald Trump and used the video as a way to pile on Smollett, his supporters and the media coverage surrounding the case.