The hosts of the Fox News program Outnumbered were widely mocked online after they complained the new package of all-female M&M's candy will help China take over "the entire world."
How the hosts managed to link candy to a very complicated foreign policy relationship and its implications is still not entirely clear but their complaints came after Mars, the company which produces M&M's, announced it would produce packs “spotlighting dynamic female M&M’S characters.”
The new packs of candy "celebrate women everywhere who are flipping the status quo," Mars said in a press release, noting that the packaging "will feature Purple, Brown and Green on inspirational packaging."
But that proved too much for the Fox hosts, who were quick to point out the dangers of celebrating female empowerment.
You can hear what they said in the video below.
Host Harris Faulkner suggested the packaging is offensive to independent women everywhere:
"When you look at the package, the women are upside down and I understand 'flipped' but thank you very much, we stand on our own. We don't need to be shown on a package looking crazy upside down."
Guest host Martha MacCallum agreed and somehow managed to bring the United States-China relationship into the mix:
“If this is what you need for validation, an M&M in a color that you think is associated with feminism, then I’m worried about you."
“I think this is the kind of thing that makes China say, ‘Oh good, keep focusing on that, keep focusing on giving people their own color M&M’s while we take over all the mineral deposits in the entire world.”
The segment immediately prompted social media users to mock the hosts for pushing an absurd fantasy.
Fox News' coverage of the new M&M's comes as its hosts largely ignored the attempted right-wing coup in Brazil over the weekend when supporters of conservative Jair Bolsonaro stormed the Brazilian legislature on the false premise their recent presidential election was stolen.
Rolling Stone conducted a review of Fox News transcripts and found "Fox News did not mention the riot for several hours, between 9:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.," choosing instead to focus on manufactured outrage in the hours and days that have followed.
