Celebs Who Can't Stand Sean Hannity

It might be a tad early to determine the legacy of Fox News personality Sean Hannity; after all, the media veteran is only 60 years old. Chances are, he's not likely to be mentioned in the same breath as TV public affairs pioneers like Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow. Weeknights in primetime at his Fox News post, Hannity gives his take on current events running counter to his conservative sensibilities. It's no wonder why vanguard Morley Safer of "60 Minutes" fame once called Hannity a "junkyard dog" (via mrcNewsBusters).

He's utilized those scrappy canine traits to great effect, garnering a frothing pack of devotees who revel in his evisceration of left-leaning luminaries like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer, while championing right-wing personalities like Ted Cruz, Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Trump. But Hannity's cozying with Trump during the presidential years not only propelled his ratings sky-high; it's also prompted Congress investigators to ascertain his role in the infamous January 6 Capitol Hill riot.

That alleged complicity hasn't cut into Hannity's audience size, that Forbes reported was as large as 5.2 million in 2021. Still, he's also made tons of enemies beyond the usual suspects in Washington, D.C., and New York, where Hannity's show is broadcast. Those detractors include several Hollywood celebs and various TV personalities who provide Hannity with even more nefarious labels that would make Safer's description sound like a nursery rhyme. 

Despite his talents as an actor, Alec Baldwin has had a very troubled past and a hotheaded temper that's helped unleash his contempt for conservative politicians and media figures. Telling USA Today that he "thought Trump was someone who was completely disqualified to be the president" is one of his kinder (and more printable) remarks. So it stands to reason that Baldwin, who frequently satirized the former president on "Saturday Night Live," would be especially antagonistic toward Sean Hannity, a die-hard Trump supporter. 

Baldwin has no love for the Fox News personality, dismissing him as "an untalented idiot" in 2019 while speaking with Howard Stern. And when Hannity ambushed the actor on "The Brian Whitman Show" on WABC Radio in 2006, Baldwin angrily called him "a no-talent former construction worker hack" before walking off the show. Meanwhile, Hannity has had a field day with Baldwin on air, conjoining his support for the Democrats with his public episodes of misbehavior, dubbing him everything from a "left-wing lunatic" to a "very angry man, becoming more and more unhinged." 

On the set of the film "Rust" in 2021, Alec Baldwin accidentally and fatally shot 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins (via People). Hannity has taken a special interest in the ongoing case, hosting episodes with perspectives from lawyers and firearms experts. But he stopped short of pushing for criminal charges. "I don't think he purposely set out to kill this woman, and I don't even like the guy," Hannity said on his program.

Anyone who regularly watches ABC's weekday talk show "The View" would recognize that Joy Behar, the co-host who's logged the most mileage on the show, has no patience for Republicans. Her frequent jabs with former co-host Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Senator John McCain, are a testament to that sentiment. Those feelings extend toward right-leaning media figures like Sean Hannity, whom Behar once tweeted was "like the guy you don't want to go on a second date with, so he just bad mouths you to his friends."

On one episode of "The View," Behar didn't hold back on her opinion of Hannity's employer. "He works on Fox News," Whoopi Goldberg reminded viewers, and Behar sarcastically chimed in, "There's an oxymoron, isn't there? Fox News, it's like George Bush library." 

Hannity's not likely to call her up for a night on the town, either. Instead, he's focused on ridiculing Behar for controversial statements (like when she declared anti-fascist organization Antifa "a thing that doesn't exist") by insulting her with his "Joyless Behar" moniker that he also used when the co-host cracked a joke on "The View" related to former Vice President Mike Pence's adherence to Christianity. 

Jim Carrey's been one of the most outrageous comic actors to leap into the mainstream, but for the most part, he has kept his politics personal. That all changed during the Trump administration, when he gravitated toward visual arts to highlight everything he found despicable about right-wing headline seekers, from Donald Trump to political strategist Steve Bannon. "I'm doing cartoons because I can't just watch this nightmare unfold," said Carrey at a 2018 Television Critics Association media conference covered by Fox News.

The actor-artist dedicated some of his crudest work to pillorying Sean Hannity, starting with a piece displaying him in a grappling match with Alex Jones of "Info Wars." "If u believe wrestling is real u may even believe Fox news, Info Wars and the robotic drones on Sinclair Broadcasting," tweeted Carrey in 2018. "But wrestling doesn't harm viewers. Performers like Sean Hannity and Alex Jones should join the WWE where their hyperbole will do less damage to the culture." He didn't stop there, adding another portraying the Fox News personality as an undersea life form almost two weeks later. "Sean Manatee: Some endangered species aren't worth saving," Carrey wrote in his caption.

But in 2021, roughly a month after President Joe Biden officially took office, Carrey announced he was stepping away from his controversial art. "...something tells me it's time to rest my social media gavel and reclaim a little neurological bandwidth," he typed onto a piece of art.

When Stephen Colbert succeeded David Letterman as the host of "The Late Show" in 2015, the former Comedy Central personality spent part of that first season finding his footing. No doubt he hit his stride after Donald Trump threw his hat into the presidential ring, turning Colbert's opening monologue into a nightly "BLOTUS" bash-a-thon. But the funnyman also saved some airtime for Sean Hannity.

After showing footage of Hannity complaining that the FBI raided the office of Michael Cohen (Trump's lawyer), Colbert shot back, noting that the barrister also represented the lamenting Fox News star. "What else haven't you been telling us?" asked Colbert. "That you share a barber with the LEGO man?" Colbert also roasted Hannity over his possible involvement in the Capitol Hill riots a year after the event. Prior to the riots, Hannity allegedly wrote that he was "very worried about the next 48 hours." Colbert was ready with a quip: "He either had advance knowledge of the plot, or he had just eaten three Taco Bell Burrito Supremes," the host said. "Either way, he knew the next 48 hours was going to bring chaos." 

Hannity's been less vocal about the CBS talk show host. But on his radio show, he accused Colbert of "pushing his left-wing, radical agenda" (via Media Matters For America) adding, "Nobody wants to hear that from him at, you know, 11:30 at night."

As a CNN anchor, Anderson Cooper seldom takes a shot at the competition. But in 2018, he couldn't resist a dig at Sean Hannity when word got out that he was a client of lawyer Michael Cohen, who was convicted for campaign fund violations while working for Donald Trump. "So it would seem the president and Sean Hannity share more than dinners and frequent phone calls and a mutual love of Fox News programming," remarked Cooper on CNN. "They also share an attorney." 

He's never vocalized his thoughts about Hannity, but you might have caught Cooper's eyeballs roll back a little when his name came up, especially when covering Fox News' cushy relationship with Trump. "The President says, 'We have a lot of great people at Fox,' not even trying to hide that he thinks they all work for him, that they're all just part of the party," retorted Cooper before mocking Trump with, "We've got Hannity!" 

Hannity has never questioned Cooper's credibility, but he has tackled the anchor's Vanderbilt lineage, especially in January after Cooper said on air that participants in the Capitol Hill altercation likely dined at the Olive Garden and slept at a Marriott hotel after a hard day of rioting (via the New York Post). "I happen to love the Olive Garden, but I guess a Vanderbilt wouldn't know that," snorted Hannity. He added, "Anderson Cooper thinks that accusing someone of eating at an Olive Garden or staying at a Holiday Inn is a low insult; that's probably why people hate CNN so much."

There's an unwritten rule among news channels pushing a partisan agenda that on-air personalities shouldn't disagree with each other in front of the cameras. Case in point was the time when Fox News personality Megyn Kelly accused Sean Hannity of lobbing softball questions at presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016. 

One night on "The Kelly File," she directed a dig at her colleague, saying, "Donald Trump, with all due respect to my friend at 10:00, will go on 'Hannity' and pretty much only 'Hannity' and will not venture out to the 'unsafe spaces' these days, which doesn't exactly expand the tent" (via CNN). Later that night, Hannity took to Twitter, accusing Kelly of supporting Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton (via Politico). But Kelly's hardly been nice to Clinton; she accused the former Head of State of ignoring warnings of an impending terrorist attack at a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed four Americans in 2012. She also took Clinton to task over allegedly hiding classified emails. 

Considering how rudely Trump had treated Kelly, who had moderated a political debate, there might have been some justification for Kelly to swing left in her op-eds, a temptation she obviously resisted. A few days later, both Hannity and Kelly made up, crowning their reconciliation in a tweet she posted with a pic of the once-warring duo and the accompanying text: "We're Irish. It's complicated."

Jimmy Kimmel has lampooned scores of celebs on his late-night talk show on ABC, but his lengthy feud with Sean Hannity has become a blood sport in itself, worthy of a UFC showdown between the two.

It started in 2018, when Kimmel mocked former first lady Melania Trump for her Slovenian accent. The shot ignited Hannity's rage; he called Kimmel a "despicable disgrace" (as replayed on "Jimmy Kimmel Live"). That, in turn, led to a barrage of clashes on Twitter between the two until Kimmel apologized, also on Twitter. While Hannity accepted, he's continually offered to keep the comedian in check by daring him to resume the altercation. "I have a lot to bring out," Hannity said on his show in 2019. "I was just ready, on the verge of unloading it all." 

The two were at it again when Kimmel commented on an interview between Hannity and Caitlyn Jenner, who told the Fox News host that one of her airplane hangar buddies couldn't stand to see homeless people in the streets. "Is it transphobic to call a trans person an ignorant a-hole?" Kimmel asked. With both barrels loaded, Hannity blasted Kimmel by showing footage of the comedian imitating NBA great Karl Malone (in blackface) and enticing women to grope him during his "Man Show" days (via the Daily Mail). "You talk about my show," concluded Hannity, "I'll hit you back 50 times harder." 

This isn't over.

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It's not certain how much Sean Hannity drives Seth MacFarlane nuts, but the creator of the animated Fox series "Family Guy" has incubated a few shots of his own to get under the Fox News star's skin. One "Family Guy" episode featured lead character Peter Griffin lounging with his pals Cleveland, Quagmire, and Swanson at The Drunken Clam as they described Hannity's scowling mug. "Who does he look like?" asked Quagmire. The answers came fast and furious from Cleveland ("I'm seeing Mr. Doubtfire."), Griffin ("High-sodium Superman?"), and Swanson ("He looks like an angry face drawn on a thumb.") before the insults drifted dangerously close to NSFW territory. 

Another episode caricatured Hannity as the new owner of a habitat Peter built for him. "As you can see, we've made everything white like you requested," said Peter. "... On the walls, I painted some of your famous quotes. There's the one where you compared the homosexual lifestyle to playing in the sewer. And there's the one where you defended Roy Moore." Interestingly, Hannity never commented on the cartoons.

On a more serious note, MacFarlane has admitted to some discomfort with having a show on a network that's a corporate cousin to Fox News, especially with outrageous comments on COVID vaccinations from the likes of Tucker Carlson (via The Guardian). In response to one broadcast, MacFarlane tweeted, "Tucker Carlson's latest opinion piece once again makes me wish 'Family Guy' was on any other network." 

One of the biggest draws of "Late Night With Seth Meyers" is the time dedicated to the news of the day, a staple the "Saturday Night Live" alumnus took with him after anchoring the hilarious "Weekend Update" segments until 2014. But on one show in 2021, Meyers blasted Hannity for kicking off with a video of President Joe Biden tripping on the stairs up to Air Force One. "My God, get your priorities straight," chided an annoyed Meyers, pointing out that Hannity also downplayed more newsworthy items, namely, a tragic shooting in Boulder, Colorado, and the pandemic's claiming of half a million lives at the time. 

The next day, a livid Hannity metaphorically stuck to his Second Amendment rights to shoot back. "You're just another limousine liberal socialist hypocritical a**hole who does nothing but spew anti-GOP hate and has virtually nothing positive or productive to add to any political dialogue," he bellowed (via HuffPost). Hannity went on, adding, "And you're not funny, ever." 

Meyers evidently loves satirizing Hannity's fawning of Trump, especially after a 2019 Trump rally that saw Hannity marveling at how it resembled a "tailgating party." After rolling the Fox News clip, Meyers responded, "Ugh, what a suck-up," then continued mocking Hannity. "You're so funny, sir. I wish I could tailgate with you, sir. Do you like my new haircut, sir?" All of which might have turned Hannity's face redder than the Republican Party's primary color.

Actor turned activist Alyssa Milano has long been a fierce opponent of Fox News, suggesting at one point that public affairs channels spell out the difference between news and opinion content. "Right now, it's too easy to go, 'You know what? That's just an alternate fact,'" she said on the "Meidas Touch" podcast. As for her take on Sean Hannity, she's never been particularly clear, although in 2017 she felt compelled to tweet the link to a list of the op-ed star's advertisers, presumably hoping her followers would boycott those products.

Hannity hasn't commented directly on Milano's perspectives, although one segment on his radio show hinted at a rather creepy element. In 2019, guest Bill O'Reilly revealed a fantasy about standing in line behind Milano at a Subway sandwich outlet and a discussion he'd want to have with her. "I would turn to her and say, 'Exactly what lies are haunting you? What lies that President Trump has told are disturbing you?' I'd like to know," said O'Reilly. "...I would buy her Subway sandwich if she had an answer to that" (via Media Matters For America).

Hannity had a good laugh over that comment from O'Reilly, who was fired from Fox News two years earlier in light of sexual harassment allegations against him. But it's not likely Milano, who tweeted (via People) about her own horrific sexual assault experiences, would have found that funny. 

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When it comes to Fox News targets, HBO's "Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver especially loves to take aim at Tucker Carlson, at one time calling him a "performatively outraged wedge salad." But while he hasn't dedicated as much screen time to Sean Hannity, it's obvious Oliver's got his phaser set on snicker and pointed in his direction. Take the one where a Hannity coal rally speech shifted Oliver into WTF mode. "In the course of his speech, he referenced God, quoted Reagan, and engaged in sexual harassment," exclaimed the astounded Brit. "That man really is Fox News!" 

In a July 2020 episode, Oliver attacked the Fox star for exaggerating the violence in Portland, Oregon, during a BLM rally, pointing out text scrolling beside Hannity's head. "In fact, graffiti is listed 12 times in a row there under the headline 'Violence in Portland,' which is a huge overstatement," retorted Oliver (via the Daily Beast). "And at that point, it would have been just as accurate if that heading had said 'Cannibalism in Portland' or 'Texas Chainsaw Massacres in Portland' or '9/11s in Portland.'" 

Hannity didn't strike back at Oliver on his show, choosing to comment on Sirius XM's "Jim Norton & Sam Roberts" show. "I don't expect John Oliver to know facts or truth," he said. 

Throughout his extensive broadcasting career, Geraldo Rivera has endured at least three incredibly unpleasant situations. First, there was the embarrassment over opening Al Capone's empty bank live on national TV in 1986. Second was the broken nose he suffered in a white supremacist riot during his daytime talk show two years later. And third would most likely be sharing airtime with Sean Hannity at Fox News.

Normally, media colleagues who share a paycheck signature wouldn't tar and feather each other in public. But then, Rivera skews further left than some folks in front of the camera. One of his biggest confrontations concerned Hannity's text to Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's former chief of staff, on the day of the Capitol Hill riots. "I beg you, Sean, to remember the frame of mind you were in when you wrote that text on January 6," Rivera said on Fox News (via CNN). He added, "Remember the frustration you had at our beloved 45th President." That's when Trump stalwart Hannity shot back, triggering some lengthy, inaudible crosstalk.

Equally contentious was Rivera's take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which started a verbal donnybrook between the two. "There are dozens of Palestinian children dead! ... I demand a ceasefire!" exclaimed Rivera about one attack in 2021 (via The Young Turks). Angrily shot back Hannity, "I demand that Israel win the war!" The men have certainly sparred on other issues. How those two live to fight again is anyone's guess.

During his 16 years on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," comedian Jon Stewart loved to chisel at Fox News' fire-and-brimstone dispatches to point out inaccuracies or falsehoods committed in the name of partisanship. In 2009, he caught Hannity red-handed using recycled footage (as recounted on MSNBC) to embellish the size of a taxpayer march in Washington, D.C., an accusation that the Fox News host later confessed was true. 

A year into retirement, Stewart couldn't resist taking an extended shot at Hannity, whom he lovingly called "Lumpy." As a guest on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" in 2016, he called out Hannity for labeling President Obama as "divisive" and elitist. Pointing out that Donald Trump (a presidential candidate at the time) proudly brandished those specific traits, Stewart aimed his barrel at Hannity and friends. "You just want that person to give you your country back, because you feel that you're this country's rightful owners," he said. "There's only one problem with that. This country isn't yours." 

The next day, Hannity shot back at Stewart on his nationally-syndicated radio program, calling the former "Daily Show" host idiotic and saying his head was wedged up Obama's posterior (via Esquire). "I know you're a rich liberal," Hannity added. "Are you donating money to those families, the 46 million American families on food stamps, Jon?" According to Celebrity Net Worth, Hannity's assets reach an estimated $250 million, more than twice the value of Stewart's estate.