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Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers' hilarious attack on writer for chauvinist tweet

Technically Incorrect: Sports Illustrated writer Andy Benoit tweets that women's sports aren't worth watching. Really?

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


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They rather enjoyed this. Late Night With Seth Meyers/YouTube; screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

For some people, saying something silly on Twitter bears no consequences.

It might not even get noticed.

But if you're a Sports Illustrated writer, I suggest that tweeting "Women's sports in general not worth watching" combines a certain myopia with a certain nohope-ia.

Sadly, for reasons that he tried subsequently to explain (unsuccessfully, perhaps), NFL writer Andy Benoit offered this tweet in response to editor Mark Mravic.

Mravic had tweeted about an excellent England goal against Norway in the Women's World Cup. (And believe me, if you've watched England's men for the last, say, 30 years, you know you won't find too many goals better.) He'd added the words: 'And here some people (ahem, @Andy_Benoit) argue that women's soccer isn't worth watching."

Benoit clearly felt he needed to respond to this flaming slur on his character. Or, well, confirm it.

You'd think, then, that after his own tweet had been emitted, Benoit might have expected a little verbal expectoration to come his way.

What he surely didn't expect was really, really mocking verbal expectoration from Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers. They decided to revive their SNL "Really" feature, in order to suggest that Benoit is a really, really, poor specimen of manhood.

Resuscitating the skit on Meyers' "Late Night" NBC show, they sat and sliced and diced Benoit's views as if he were a cuttlefish ready to be served at Tokyo's Tsukiji market at 6 a.m.

"I guess I'm not surprised you work at Sports Illustrated," said Poehler. "You guys put out a swimsuit issue every year dedicated entirely to women who aren't in sports -- unless you think that it's a sport to cover both boobs with one arm."

This was just the beginning. I'll leave you to enjoy the rest, as it's quite some entertainment.

For his part, Benoit explained himself on, where else, Twitter. He said, "My sincere apologies for last night's senseless tweets. I got carried away responding to playful ribbing...."

Playful ribbing about sexist views of women's sports?

He offered a continuation tweet that read: "...and, in my stupidity, overcompensated by saying something ignorant and extreme. 100% mistake on my part, for which I'm deeply sorry."

He might have felt slightly more sorry if he saw his Wikipedia page. As I began writing this item, the page started with: "Andrew 'Andy' Benoit (born May 27, 1986 in Boise, Idaho) is a misogynist specializing in the National Football League and is a founder of NFLTouchdown.com." (It's since been changed back to a more expected lead-in.)

Benoit couldn't leave it there when he saw how "Late Night" had mocked him. He tweeted: "Very well played, @sethmeyers and @smrtgrls. http://bit.ly/1FCEaDK Really. I deserved that. Sticking to football now!"

Some might muse that this may always have been Benoit's problem -- that he stuck to football. I'm surprised he hasn't blamed a concussion.

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Yes, really. screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET