Al Roker Slams Haters Criticizing His ‘Today’ Show Halloween Costume After Co-Star Megyn Kelly’s Blackface Controversy

Leave Al Roker alone, people! The 64-year-old Today star is hitting back at haters who are criticizing his Doc Brown from Back to the Future Halloween costume after his NBC co-star Megyn Kelly‘s blackface controversy.

Because Doc, famously played by Christopher Lloyd, is a white character, many people took to social media to question why it’s ok for Al to dress up like a caucasian person while Megyn, 47, was condemned last week for saying she didn’t understand why blackface Halloween costumes are “racist.”

“I’m going to say this one last time, but the folks who get it, understand and the ones who DON’T, won’t,” Al tweeted on Wednesday, Oct. 31 to explain why his costume wasn’t an example of whiteface. “I can be Doc Brown, and I wear the outfit and wig and not change my skin color if you’re white, you can be President Obama if you want. Just don’t color your skin!”

“Happy Halloween!!” he added in a subsequent tweet. As he continued to get tons of messages hating on his Back to the Future costume, Al decided to reply to many people and further explain the situation. When one person, for example, wrote, “I’ve seen people today color their skin green, purple, [etc.] for [a Halloween] costume. So this is now wrong? Guess I don’t get it!” Al replied, “Yes, you are offending all the green and purple people walking around. Seriously?”

“[Al], you are a piece of work. I think in light of the [Megyn] situation you could have made a better Halloween costume choice. Really…” another person wrote to which Al perfectly responded, “Bless your heart. Have a great day.” Thankfully, some people understood why Al’s costume was far from “hypocritical” and applauded the TV star for trying to explain the outfit on social media. “Waiting for my next flight here in LAX and reading your responses to some grumpy folks — thanks for the great chuckle this morning! Bless YOUR heart with cheers [and] love from me!”

Days before Al’s Halloween costume angered the internet, NBC confirmed that Megyn is on her way out at Today after defending blackface Halloween costumes on her third-hour show last week. “But what is racist? You do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween… when I was a kid, that was OK as long as you were dressing up as a character… I can’t keep up with the number of people we’re offending just by being, like, normal people,” Megyn said at the time.

Later that day, Megyn issued an apology to her “friends and teammates” via email. “When we had the roundtable discussion earlier today about the controversy of making your face look like a different race as part of a Halloween costume, I suggested that this seemed okay if done as part of this holiday where people have the chance to make themselves look like others,” she wrote. “I realize now that such behavior is indeed wrong, and I am sorry. The history of blackface in our culture is abhorrent; the wounds too deep. I’ve never been a [politically correct] kind of person — but I understand that we do need to be more sensitive in this day and age. Particularly on race and ethnicity issues which, far from being healed, have been exacerbated in our politics over the past year.”

Despite her apology, Megyn did not return to Today and is now reportedly working on cutting ties with NBC.

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