The Today Show’s ‘Boston Accent’ Segment Will Make You Cringe

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It’s not hard to determine which part of the “Boston accent” segment on this morning’s Today Show is most absurd. NBC trucked its perky morning team on up to Boston to broadcast the outside Quincy Market Friday morning, so there’s a solid few hours for you to sift through in which they investigate various Boston cliches. For those who can’t or won’t be doing that, this clip on the Boston accent will probably give you a good enough sense of what the show was like. It’s not just the simple fact that they devoted a five minute clip to the way people speak here, as if the rest of the country missed the memo. Nor is it that they talk about Boston like it’s an exotic destination, despite living 200 miles away. No, no, it’s surely that co-hosts Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie are just laughably bad at attempting the accent near the end of the segment. Yep, that’s what wins us over. There are degrees of failure, though. Matt Lauer is just so-so when he tries to say, “Will Bobby Orr be at the weird party? That’d be bizarre.” But he’s really just Julianne Moore-level bad. Savannah Guthrie, on the other hand, deserves a Daytime Emmy for her swing-and-miss when she tries to say, “Can we get some pizza in the North End? I’m starving.” It’s just… really bad. Like … you will need to take a break, maybe walk around for a bit, to recover. We guess that’s why Lauer makes the big bucks.