Anderson Cooper Captured By Green Goblin, Saved By Spider-Man In New Year's Special

by Jeremy Gordon

Ready for the goofiest three minutes of your morning? Okay, here you go: on CNN's New Year's Eve special, newscaster Anderson Cooper was "kidnapped" by the Green Goblin, locked up inside of an empty theater and forced to listen to the Goblin's plans for world domination. Yes, really.

"I'm going to turn you into the freak newscaster, so that you can enter my newly incorporated WWFN: Worldwide Freak Network," the Goblin snarls with campy abandon. "You're gonna be bigger than Blitzer."

The camera lingers on Cooper's face for a second as he contemplates the offer: "Bigger than Wolf Blitzer?"

It's not quite the Green Goblin most Spider-Man fans are used to, no, but the Goblin of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," the on-again-off-again Broadway musical that ditched Spidey's sleek realism in favor of something more ridiculous. Look at, uh, everything the Goblin's wearing, or the gossamer trails of fake web that Spidey dispatches to save the day. The web-swinging looks pretty swell, at least. (Spoiler warning: Spider-Man wins.)

Upon being "rescued," Cooper dissolved into a pile of giggles upon reflecting with co-host Kathy Griffin. "Okay, I'm trying to follow the storyline," Griffin asks. "Are you, have you been abducted by Goblin?" "I don't know," is his baffled response. Happy New Year's, everyone. It could've been worse. Much worse!

"Thanks" to Comics Alliance for pointing this out.

What do you think of Anderson Cooper's rendezvous with the Green Goblin? Who's scarier, the Goblin or Kathy Griffin? Sound off in the comments section below and hit us up on Twitter!