Robby Hoffman's Celiac Disease Jokes Spark Internet Backlash

When comedian Robby Hoffman sat down with Alex Cooper on the May 20, 2026 episode of Call Her Daddy, a lighthearted rapid-fire segment about hot-button topics took an unexpectedly serious turn—and not in the way either of them anticipated.

The conversation centered on gluten intolerance and celiac disease, and Hoffman’s skepticism about whether the condition was genuinely widespread or simply a modern trend didn’t land well with listeners. She questioned whether people with gluten sensitivities were truly affected or just following a fad, drawing a comparison to peanut allergies from her childhood.“Everybody is suddenly celiac,”Hoffman said, suggesting the spike in diagnoses was more about cultural trends than actual health issues. She even joked about needing to see visible symptoms—referencing Will Smith’s face swelling in the 2005 film Hitch—before she’d believe someone had a real problem.

Cooper chimed in with her own observation that gluten intolerance“does feel kinda recent,”a comment that seemed to validate Hoffman’s dismissive framing. But what might’ve played as edgy humor in the studio landed differently online, where people living with celiac disease pushed back hard.

The backlash centered on a fundamental misunderstanding at the heart of the segment: celiac disease is an autoimmune condition, not a preference or a trend. According to the Mayo Clinic, it’s a legitimate medical issue where the immune system reacts to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. For those with celiac disease, eating gluten triggers a real physical response in the small intestines, with symptoms ranging from diarrhea and fatigue to weight loss and anemia. Serious complications can develop if left untreated. The condition isn’t new—improved testing and awareness have simply made diagnosis more common, not the disease itself.

Social media users pointed out that Hoffman and Cooper seemed to conflate intolerance with allergy, and that attributing rising diagnoses to trendiness ignored the obvious fact: better diagnostic methods catch conditions that were previously undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. One X user captured the frustration perfectly, noting that many things we think are recent are actually just better understood now because of advances in how we manage and identify them.

Hoffman did attempt to clarify that she was“only joking,”but the damage was done. The exchange highlighted a broader pattern where health conditions affecting quality of life get dismissed as fashionable complaints, leaving people who genuinely manage these conditions frustrated and unseen. Us Weekly reached out to both Cooper and Hoffman’s representatives for additional comment.