Hoda Kotb is looking out for her girl Jenna Bush Hager — and doesn’t want another profane on-air slip-up.
The near expletive arrived on Thursday’s Today With Hoda & Jenna after the co-hosts pulled up a clip from a recent podcast appearance of Tom Holland‘s. In the clip, Holland dished on he and his girlfriend Zendaya‘s holiday plans, revealing that they will be in the U.S. spending time with her family.
“I think what we’d like to start doing is rather than spending it with each family each year, is bring the families together,” he said on the Dish podcast.
Both Kotb and Bush Hager weighed in on this proposal, with the former claiming, “That means that something’s happening.” Bush Hager agreed that “that’s some pressure,” and eventually blurted out, “It’s like Meet the Fockers.”
“You don’t meet the Fockers —,” Bush Hager continued, until Kotb interjected, “Ok, stop saying that!”
Bush Hager replied, “Well, that’s the title of the film.”
Kotb warned her, “I know, but you’re walking right on the hairy edge.”
Nonetheless, the two recalled the 2004 rom-com’s memorable moment of Jinxy the cat flushing the toilet.
“Remember? Did you love that movie so much?” Kotb asked, which Bush Hager confirmed.
“You don’t bring them together…,” Bush Hager added, prompting Kotb to fill in, “Unless it’s happening.”
This moment arrives a month after Kotb accidentally allowed Cher to drop the F-bomb on The Today Show. While joining Bush Hager for their third-hour broadcast later that morning, Kotb admitted she “was scared,” though Bush Hager insisted that she “had told her to” do so.
Kotb fired back, “No I didn’t! I didn’t mean that. I said, ‘You can say it. We can bleep it.’ But what I meant, like, bleep like right in the moment. I didn’t mean, ‘say it!’”
As for Holland and Zendaya, Bush Hager and Kotb teased that they similarly “hoped” and “predicted” that the same was happening for Benny Blanco and Selena Gomez ahead of their engagement announcement last week.
“We kind of feel like, you know, we had a hand in that,” Bush Hager said.
Kotb agreed, “We did. We love them both.”
Bush Hager concluded that “now it’s time for Zendaya and Tom.”
“It’s probably all happening. We’ll re-run this clip,” Kotb teased.
Today with Hoda & Jenna airs on weekdays at 10/9c on NBC.