Olympic athletes will reportedly be forced to use “anti-sex” cardboard beds at the 2024 Paris games this summer to deter them from participating in too many “extracurricular activities,” as Today‘s Hoda Kotb put it. During Wednesday’s (May 15) broadcast, Kotb and her co-host, Jenna Bush Hager, awkwardly tried to discuss the ethics of this “anti-sex” set-up while keeping the conversation as PG as possible for daytime television.
“So they have cardboard beds, um, are making their way in Paris,” Kotb announced.
Bush Hager was just as hesitant to proceed as she commented, “I wonder, you know, why they’re called anti-sex beds? Because… you can’t [have sex] on that?”
Kotb questioned whether they’re called “anti-sex” beds because they “can’t take the motions, maybe it’ll crack under the pressure.” She then asked, “But also, how is a body builder supposed to be sleeping on that tiny little bed?”
Bush Hager replied, “I don’t think it’s that it breaks. I mean, I don’t know the details, somebody else will have to do some research, but I think it’s just not as appealing as a waterbed.”
She later noted that she’s not one to yuck anyone’s yum – especially not an Olympic athlete’s. “I don’t know, I’m not gonna judge anybody for having a little romance,” Bush Hager replied. “I get that [the Olympic officials are] trying to prevent widespread situations.”
According to the New York Post, the mattresses and cardboard frames are 100% recyclable to promote sustainability and reduce the Olympics’ environmental impact.
As the outlet notes, the rumors of Olympic-level debauchery are not entirely unfounded. Olympic athletes have been openly discussing this for years. A table tennis player once reflected on his experience at the 1992 games in Barcelona, saying, “I got laid more often in those two and a half weeks than in the rest of my life.”
On Today, Kotb tried to defend the athletes’ rights to participating in “extracurricular activities.”
“If you worked really really hard for this, I mean you’re going to perform [for] 30 seconds, one minute, two minutes,” she began saying. But her choice of words caused her co-host to guffaw with laughter.
“I mean as an athlete! I mean in a sporting event!” Kotb clarified.
“It usually takes longer than one minute but not much longer, like two Mumford & Sons songs,” Bush Hager interjected. She then appeared to hint that she was speaking from personal experience as she gestured towards herself, which Kotb pointed out was “TMI.”
“No, I meant as an athlete…,” Kotb continued. “You’ve come all this way for the moment , and I kind of think maybe you just want to focus on the moment.”
By the end of the conversation, Bush Hager was over discussing the morality of having sex at the Olympic games. “I think you’re young, and you’re in love, and you got a cardboard bed and you’re in Paris, you do you! You perform in whichever way you like to perform!” she declared.
Kotb immediately shut down the segment, saying, “Okay, stop,” before she segued into the next topic of discussion.
Today with Hoda & Jenna airs on weekdays at 10/9c on NBC.
