Now that the world has spent about a year shouldering the unique burdens of isolated living in the pandemic era, references to streaming platforms like Netflix are a pretty safe bet in conversation.
The especially fertile ground for quotes and callbacks is no surprise. With all this time stuck at home, countless people have gobbled up shows and movies left and right.
And the other night, MSNBC's Chris Hayes took a confident Netflix reference beyond conversation and straight into a nationally televised news report.
Specifically, Hayes, who hosts All In With Chris Hayes every weekday evening, compared Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz to an absurd, hot dog suit-wearing character in Netflix's hit sketch comedy series I Think You Should Leave.
Hayes made the reference while criticizing Cruz' wildly hypocritical comments made during yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, where FBI Director Chris Wray gave testimony regarding the events of the January 6 Capitol Riot, the ongoing threat of domestic terrorism in the United States, and the total lack of any evidence suggesting voter fraud occurred in the presidential election.
Cruz, who along with Donald Trump and Josh Hawley, pushed the lie the presidential election was stolen, has been accused by many of inciting the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
But the Senator's sober--and unnecessarily vague--claims that "the riot couldn't have come out of nowhere" in yesterday's hearings showed a noticeable tone shift.
For Hayes, that unrealistic change of heart recalled the Netflix sketch, in which a hot dog car smashes through the front window of a store, leaving fearful customers to question where the driver went. The camera then pans to a guy-played by the show's creator, Tim Robinson--wearing a very incriminating hot dog suit, and loudly pretending to be just as puzzled as the other customers.
The side by side comparison during Hayes' show made a compelling case.
Hayes closed the segment by agreeing with Cruz's claims the riot didn't come out of nowhere.
"No, no, senator, it didn't come out of nowhere. We're all trying to figure out who did this."
"It came from the encouragement and incitement of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz himself, among others, who spread the big election lie that the election was stolen, and then set Jan. 6 as the big day of the challenge, and then basically showed up to today's hearing in a hot dog suit asking Christopher Wray how it all happened."
A bunch of people on Twitter agreed with Hayes completely.
They enjoyed having even more fun with the comparison.
So in case you were at all worried viewing the entire world through a haze of Netflix references and online memes wasn't a good way to go about life, that approach just got at least a nudge of legitimacy.
