Metro

Late night shows dig into de Blasio’s ‘Forkgate’

“Forkgate” is sticking to Mayor de Blasio like a slice of cheap mozzarella.
Late night funnymen Jon Stewart and Jimmy Fallon ripped the Italian-American mayor on TV Monday night for using a knife and fork to eat pizza last Friday at a State Island restaurant.
“You are supposed to be the champion of middle class. Two weeks into your term and we catch you eating pizza a la Trump?” Stewart said on “The Daily Show,” while showing images of de Blasio and Donald Trump eating pizza with a fork.
Stewart then hammered de Blasio for defending himself by saying he picked up the habit in his “ancestral homeland” of Italy, where most people use forks when eating pizza.
“I get it, you’re Italian. You’re just respecting your native land’s customs. One thing though, were you elected the mayor of Italy? No! Look out the window of the pizzeria, do you see the Sistine Chapel or a Leaning Tower of Pisa? No!” Stewart said.

“You see several junkyards and a tanning salon,” Stewart cracked. “You know why? Cause you’re in f—ing Staten Island, the island that isn’t shaped like a boot, it just smells like one.”

Stewart also mocked de Blasio’s other reason for using utensils — the smoked mozzarella and sausage pizza at Goodfella’s in Dongan Hills “had a lot on it” and might slop all over him if he picked up a slice with his hands.
“You of all people are worried about holding your pizza? You and your [King] Kong hands?” Stewart said of the hulking, 6-foot, 5-inch de Blasio. “You know that big wood thing they use to slide pizza into the oven? That thing was built off of one of your hands.”
Fallon also piled on over “Forkgate,” as wags quickly dubbed the embarrassing incident.

“That’s right, Bill de Blasio’s first scandal in office is eating pizza with a knife and fork,” Fallon said. “When he heard that Chris Christie was like, “Wanna trade scandals?”
Even actor Patrick Stewart got into the act on Twitter.
“Ouch! Even I’VE learned the NY fold… MT“@NYMag: The horror: Mayor De Blasio eats pizza with a fork and knife,” he tweeted.

And Goodfellas co-owner Scott Cosentino – whose brother and partner Marc is a retired NYPD cop – placed the offending utensil in an evidence bag labeled “The Fork,” and plans to auction it off for charity
“It’s a great thing, we got it up here in the evidence bag, on display, and we’re going to have a charity auction to help the Staten Island,” Cosentino told The Post.
The charity auction – yet to be scheduled – will benefit Project Hospitality, a Staten Island charity that provides food and shelter for the homeless and those with HIV/AIDS.
“We’re hoping the mayor joins us so we can work together to make Staten Island a better place,” he said.