Al Roker and Hoda Kotb Have a ‘Lady and the Tramp’ Moment Live on ‘Today’

Al Roker and Hoda Kotb shared a much-needed lighthearted moment on NBC’s Today Show Wednesday morning. They got to recreate the iconic scene from Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, but with a gooey PayDay bar replacing spaghetti. It was all thanks to a Twitter poll.

During a segment on Americans’ snacking habits, the Today Show anchors had a table covered in popular snacks, including pretzels and crackers. There was also a PayDay bar, which Roker picked up. The other anchors egged him on to take a bite. As candy bar fans know, PayDay bars are simply caramel nougat bars covered in salted peanuts. Carson Daly reminded Roker that it may be difficult to do the weather after eating it!

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“America, do you want this? Go on our Today Twitter. Do you want to see me eat the PayDay?” Roker said.

The Today social media team really did post a poll, which was a bad idea. Of course, everyone wanted to see Roker eat the PayDay on live TV. After sharing the poll results, Roker did just that, but with the help of Kotb. Just as Lady and the Tramp did with their spaghetti in the Disney movie, Kotb and Roker took a bite from opposite ends of the bar. “And there’s the meme,” Craig Robinson said.

The happy moment came after a difficult few months for the Today Show. Roker missed several weeks last fall after he was hospitalized for blood clots. He finally returned to the show in early January, revealing that he needed surgery for bleeding ulcers and had his gallbladder and part of his colon removed.

Kotb missed two weeks last month. When she returned to the show earlier this month, she told viewers that her daughter, Hope Catherine, 3, had health complications and was rushed to the intensive care unit at a hospital. “I’m so grateful she’s home, she is back home. I was waiting for that day to come, and we are watching her closely,” Kotb told co-anchor Savannah Guthrie on March 6. Kotb, who is also mom to Haley Joy, 6, did not share details of Hope’s medical emergency.

“You know what I realized too, Savannah? It’s like, when your child is ill, the amount of gratitude you can have for people who helped you out,” Kotb said. “So I’m grateful for the doctors at Weill Cornell who were amazing and the nurses. And I’m grateful for my family and I’m grateful to friends like you who were there every single day. So I want to say thank you for that. I love you.”