Andy Cohen confronts Paul W. Downs over savage Hacks joke about him as co-star reveals she tried to stop it

Andy Cohen caused hilarity after slamming Paul W. Downs in an awkward live confrontation over a savage joke on Hacks.

The show follows the professional relationship between comedian Deborah Vance and her comedy writer Ava Daniels as they try to navigate the comedy industry.

Hacks has proven popular, with the HBO Max show running for five seasons, and creator and actor Downs and actor Meg Stalter had gone on Watch What Happens Live hosted by Cohen on Tuesday, where they discussed the show and its future, including the potential for a spin-off.

But during their appearance host Cohen drew attention to one particular gag in the show's fifth season, saying: “Paul, as co-creator and showrunner, you were in charge at Hacks. So, I have a question about this particular moment in season 5.”

This was of course a gag that was made at the expense of Cohen himself.

It sees the character Vance, played by Jean Smart, speaking to her writer, played by Hannah Einbinder, about reality TV shows.

In the excerpt, she says: “The problem with reality shows is you cannot control the narrative.

The pair appeared on What Happens Live to talk about the show (Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty Images)

"I mean, that’s why I’ve turned down Andy Cohen more than every twink on Fire Island.”

The camera then cut back to the studio, where Cohen was sitting with a look of shock on his face, his jaw on the floor as he stared down the camera and the audience laughed at the awkwardness.

Downs, smiling, began to try and answer the awkward question, beginning 'I, I, I...'.

Stalter quickly said: “I told him not to put it in," prompting a laugh from Cohen before she added: "I said, ‘Use someone else’s name'."

Downs then went on to suggest that the moment was in fact improvised by Smart, shifting the blame for the awkward moment onto her.

“I have to tell you something: Jean Smart is an improviser,” he said, as Cohen laughed and nodded, jokingly saying 'yeah...' as Downs explained.

“She’s an improviser," Downs continued. "She improvises like crazy. We can never rein her in. I don’t know why she did that.”

The pair figuratively fell over themselves explaining the savage joke (Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty Images)

Smart has won four Emmys for her performance in the show, which follows the efforts of the comedian to revitalise her act.

Cohen did seem to find the response funny, and went on to ask the pair about the potential for Hacks to even have its own spinoff due to the level of its success.

This could potentially focus on the characters of Jimmy and Kayla, who was his former assistant and was played by Stalter.

She explained that although they are interested in expanding on the characters' story more, they are 'not going to'.

Downs went into a little more detail as to why they have made that decision, explaining that they want to leave the show be.

“I can say this... I think we would love to do it, but we also want to leave the show as it is," he said. "It was hard to land the plane and now that we have landed the plane, it’s like, let’s leave it at that.”