Oh, snap! Billy Eichner ignited a Twitter war with Ross Mathews on Friday, June 17, after he accused the E! personality of ripping off his Billy on the Street bit in a Capital One commercial.
“Yet another Billy on the street ripoff,” the Emmy nominated comedian, 37, tweeted along with a link to Ross’ Capital One commercial. “I usually ignore but this one is SHAMELESS and PATHETIC. (And not funny).”
He then called out the Hello Ross host directly, tweeting: “Hey @CapitalOne & @helloross – don’t steal from my f–king show. This is stolen intellectual property. F–K YOU. #GoodbyeRoss.”
After getting wind of Eichner’s accusations, Ross, 36, then replied: “@billyeichner Are you serious? I’ve been doing man on the street interviews since 2001. I’ve never even seen your stuff. Bless your heart.”
Naturally, Eichner didn’t back down. “.@helloross Perhaps u didn’t but ur new friends @CapitalOne certainly did as they reached out to my agents about this campaign. HAPPY PRIDE,” he clapped back.
The Billy on the Street host has acted in similar commercials for Verizon. During a 2014 campaign for the company, he ran around city streets with his assistant Todd asking people which network they preferred. In Ross’ defense, the red carpet host regularly performed man on the street bits as “Ross the Intern” during his time on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He’s also hit the pavement on E! News.
“@billyeichner accuses me of stealing man on the street segments from him, but I started doing it on TV 15 years ago. Do the math,” Mathews tweeted on Friday, referring to his time on The Tonight Show.
Their feud finally started to dwindle down after Mathews attempted to take the high road, tweeting that after googling Eichner he found that he was funny but wished he was “nice, too.”
“Life is short and I will not be getting into a Twitter feud with ROSS THE INTERN of all people,” Eichner concluded as Mathews responded: “No feud. Just responding to you. I came before you. I agree you’re funnier, but you’re also a d–k. ❤️, Mr. Mathews.”
Capital One has yet to weigh in on the drama.
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