“Bean Dad”, the viral controversy of the day, has ensnared “Jeopardy!” champ Ken Jennings.
On Sunday, musician John Roderick became the subject of ridicule and controversy after posting a lengthy thread describing his attempt to have his nine-year-old daughter learn how to work a can opener on her own in order to cook up some beans.
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According to his account, Roderick’s daughter spent six hours trying to figure out how to use the can opener before finally getting it to work.
Jennings, who co-hosts the podcast “Omnibus” with Roderick, took to Twitter on Sunday to defend him, explaining that the story was “heightened-for-effect” and adding that Roderick is “a loving and attentive dad.”
If this reassures anyone, I personally know John to be (a) a loving and attentive dad who (b) tells heightened-for-effect stories about his own irascibility on like ten podcasts a week. This site is so dumb.
— Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) January 3, 2021
Since going viral, Roderick has deactivated his account. In the midst of the attention, users dug up a number of old tweets featuring anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks.
Turns at Bean Dad was even worse than we thought. Several yikes. pic.twitter.com/8rCBR9l7jo
— Dylan (@dyllyp) January 3, 2021
Okay I’ve just been sent some of the greatest hits of Bean Dad and I’m thinking, parenting aside – maybe he’s not that good of a dude? Just throwing that out there. pic.twitter.com/umvvBqvWoc
— Heath Miller (@veryheathmiller) January 3, 2021
Asked about the tweets in question, Jennings continued to defend his co-host.
If we're word-searching through old tweets now, it's pretty easy to find what he actually thinks about anti-Semitism. On our show he's always the pro-Israel one!
— Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) January 3, 2021
yeah, fair enough. how about: there’s no axis where any anti-Semitic screenshot represents any actual opinion I’ve ever heard from him
— Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) January 3, 2021
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Last month, Jennings apologized for old tweets of his own that some had found offensive, acknowledging that he had written “unartful and insensitive things.”
The podcast “My Brother, My Brother & Me”, which features a theme song written by Roderick, announced in the wake of the controversy that they will be searching for new theme music going forward.
We appreciate John letting us use one of his songs as the theme for MBMBaM for nearly a decade, but his response to today’s situation is emblematic of a pattern of behavior that is antithetical to the energy we try to bring to the things we do, and so it’s time for us to move on.
— MBMBaM (@MBMBaM) January 3, 2021