Time is Prime for a parody

Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon are two people one should never take seriously, particularly when playing hosts for Amazon Prime’s live coverage of the Rose Parade, which was streamed on the network on Monday.

The pair were in character as eccentric hosts Cord Hosenbeck and Tish Cattigan, with Tim Meadows (as himself ) hilariously reporting on the scene from the street.

In what was seemingly a clear parody of typical parade coverage, Ferrell and Shannon, as Hosenbeck and Cattigan, poked fun at everything from the floats to the people congregated along the parade route – but not all viewers caught the joke.

Evidently, Ferrell in a bald cap was not enough of a tip-off.

The show has an average three-star rating on Amazon, despite 40 per cent of its reviews being one star. Many assumed Hosenbeck and Cattigan were real anchors who were really bad at their jobs.

On Amazon’s comment section, one reviewer said, “The inane conversation, the totally inappropriate comments about the floats and officials, and the extremely poor coverage of the actual parade were very disappointing. I guess I was expecting something like HGTV’s coverage… watching this live stream we missed several of the more interesting floats because the commentators were babbling about nonsense… never again will I watch the parade on Amazon… very, very, very disappointed!” Another reviewer wrote, “I love the Rose Parade, but this was the worse hosting that I have ever seen. I turned it off. Cord got too personal and was rude and even cut one of the co-hosts off and dug into an old girlfriend. He should be fired! I tuned in to watch the parade not listen to someone’s rudeness and personal garbage.”