Former CBBC presenter Lauren Layfield has reacted to a viral clip showing the AEW commentary team recreating her now iconic ‘innocent men’ moment alongside British children’s TV icon Hacker T Dog.
CBBC’s ‘Innocent Men’ Goes International During AEW Dynamite
Speaking during the triple threat match between Ruby Soho, Britt Baker and Toni Storm, during the February 15th 2023 edition AEW Dynamite, lead AEW commentator Excalibur would reference the now iconic viral clip of Lauren Layfield corpsing during a live broadcast of British children’s TV show CBBC following a bizarre rant from co-host Hacker T Dog.
“Tony Schiavone [laughing], we are all just normal men…we are all just innocent men.”
The clip, originally uploaded by Maffew Gregg of Bothchamania, shows co-hosts Taz and Tony Schiavone struggling to contain there laugher [possibly out of blind confusion] before Taz would declare that he is anything but an innocent man.
Excalibur busting out the WE'RE JUST NORMAL MEN, JUST INNOCENT MEN pic.twitter.com/jn04RYzHTb
— forever botchamania (@Maffewgregg) February 16, 2023
The original CBBC clip comes from a 2016 broadcast of the show which sees then host Lauren Layfield struggling to keep a straight face as co-host, and puppet, Hacker T Dog [played by Phil Fletcher] goes on a bizarre monologue about being ‘just normal men’.
The official clip has over one million views on Twitter, however across multiple unofficial uploads the clip has closer to nine million views leading to ‘innocent men’ becoming an integral part of Twitter meme culture in 2023.
Over the past seven years many fan theories have come to the surface regarding the origins of the meme and what exactly puppeteer Phil Fletcher was referencing during the clip. However, in April 2022 all rumours were put to bed when Fletcher appeared on ‘Spray Social Monday’ and revealed that he had simply watched a trailer prior to going live during which two men were interrogated in a police station. Fletcher continued stating that he simply imitated the trailer to try make Layfield laugh live on air – something he was very successful with indeed.
Layfield, who would depart from her role as CBBC presenter in 2020, would take to social media to react to Excalibur’s incredible parody of the meme stating “we’ve gone international, gang.”
We’ve gone international, gang https://t.co/qq6sUtAmeS
— Lauren Layfield (@LaurenLayfield) February 18, 2023
It was announced in May 2022 that CBBC alongside BBC Four would stop airing live on BBC and move to a solely online platform in the latest stream of BBC cost cutting measure.
CBBC would launch in 2002 alongside sister channel CBeebies and would run for over twenty years featuring such iconic British TV shows as Blue Peter, Tracy Beaker, ChuckleVision, The Basil Brush Show, Arthur and more.
This is not the first time in 2023 that a beloved children’s TV character has transitioned into the world of professional wrestling, earlier in February the iconic Mr. Blobby would make his professional wrestling debut appearing in the Riot Cabaret 90’s icon Royal Rumble match taking on the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ginger Spice and The Backstreet Boys.