You’ll probably recall, earlier this week, that Fox News’ pundit Bill O’Reilly took umbrage at President Barack Obama’s appearance on for a variety of reasons, most notably the fact that “Abe Lincoln would not have done it.”
That, uh, rationale made rather excellent fodder for the folks at “The Colbert Report,” who lampooned O’Reilly’s outrage and pointed out that “Abe Lincoln would never have done a viral web video … the most that president ever did was sit for a daguerreotype meme.”
And while we can all sit here and laugh, it bears mention that we here at MTV News have done some actual reporting on the matter … and what we’ve uncovered may shock you: turns out, Bill O’Reilly is spreading false information in an attempt to make Barack Obama look bad (gasp!). Because Abraham Lincoln has definitely appeared on “Between Two Ferns.” And we’ve got the proof.
Working with a team of historians, forensic technicians and film preservation experts, we’ve found three carefully preserved frames taken from Lincoln’s December 1863 appearance on “Between Two Ferns with Zacharias Galifianakis,” originally broadcast on the Humorous Or Perish zoetrope.
The president showed up that day to rally support amongst young Americans for the 13th Amendment, and though the move was derided by his critics — some of whom argued that “John Quincy Adams would not have done it” — it ultimately proved successful, as the Amendment was adopted two years later. Zacharias, unaware that he was taking part in history, spent most of the time talking about vampires.
Don’t believe us? Take a trip back through time with these never-before-seen images, coming soon to a Smithsonian near you.
Galifianakis welcomes Lincoln — whom he referred to as Dave-raham — to the show:
Lincoln angers Galifianakis when he points out that the third installment of “The Katzenjammer” film franchise “didn’t really work out very well.”
Seconds after this question, Lincoln would abruptly end the interview.
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