A chair breaking during a live television appearance has turned into a social media feud between commentator Cenk Uygur and conservative media figure Ben Shapiro, drawing in references to Gaza and the Armenian genocide along the way.
The incident began when Uygur, co-founder of The Young Turks, appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored to defend his nephew, Hasan Piker. During the exchange, Uygur’s chair broke while he was speaking with former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, who was also on the program.
Video of the moment circulated widely online, with one post captioning it, “Ronna McDaniel steamrolled Cenk Uygur and then his chair broke. Amazing. She literally put him in his place.”
Uygur later addressed the broken chair on social media with a joke referencing Israel. “Why did my chair break during @PiersUncensored? Obviously … Israel. To be fair, they were promised that chair 3,000 years ago,” he wrote.
Shapiro Responds
Ben Shapiro responded to Uygur’s post with a personal jab: “It’s not the Jews’ fault you’re fat, bud.”
Uygur fired back, writing, “Ben, who just doesn’t get the joke. I think he’s attacking me because he’s resentful he needs an ottoman to step on to the chairs he sits in. He’s as tiny as his audience.”
Shapiro replied, “The only Ottoman in this conversation is too fat to sit in a regular chair without genociding it.”
The exchange then shifted from insults to a more serious dispute over genocide. Uygur responded, “Well, you would know a thing or two about genocides, since your entire show is dedicated to supporting one. And trying to force America to pay for it.”
Shapiro countered by invoking the Armenian genocide, writing, “No, there was no genocide in Gaza. There was, however, a genocide against Armenians, which you spent decades denying.”
Uygur’s Comparison
Uygur then acknowledged the Armenian genocide as real but drew a direct comparison to the war in Gaza, writing: “Armenian Genocide is real and nearly identical to Gaza Genocide. The Turks also said they were doing self-defense, that they were just moving them for their safety, that they didn’t have intent because they didn’t kill them all and that they were hiding behind their civilians.”
The back-and-forth remained confined to social media, with neither figure offering further public comment on the exchange.
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