He's known for his acerbic wit, and general emotional destruction of students on University Challenge, but last night Jeremy Paxman was a Twitter sensation for a rather different reason.
"I like the beard. It's Fawkesian. Doublet next" tweeted Lauren Laverne, who was just one of many viewers to comment on the fact that Jeremy was presenting Newsnight with some rather noticable bum fluff.
Yes, as per Digitial Spy, the fact that the veteran broadcaster had appeared on screen with a beard for, apparently, the first time in history, certainly went down an absolute treat with viewers. "It is 1973 and I'm really digging the new album by Paxman's Beard...", Ian Rankin wrote."Paxo with a beard is like me going blonde, there are just some things that are not meant to be", Kirstie Allsopp added.
And it seems as though his BBC colleagues were delighted to get in on the action too."Right that's it. I'm working on a moustache for Thursday's newsnight", fellow presenter Emily Maitlis tweeted. We wonder if Ryan Tubridy would get as much attention if he grew a Tom Selleck tash?
In fact, his beard caused such a stir, that Paxman ended up having to release a statement about it this morning. "I have grown a beard for the last few summers, and suddenly wondered whether I really needed to shave it off to present Newsnight," he said. (We like to imagine it in his most serious voice, y'know, for the sheer fun of it.)
"Unless you're lucky enough to be Uncle Albert on Only Fools and Horses, Demis Roussos or Abu Hamza, the BBC is generally as pognophobic as the late-lamented Albanian dictator, Enver Hoxha. I may keep it or I may shave it off, but I think I'll make my own decision."
That's fine by us Jeremy, now give us our starter for ten.
