“Yeah, but it’s cable right?”
So CNN has issued an apology for Kathy Griffin’s performance on New Year’s Eve, when the deliberately provocative comedian apparently dropped the F-bomb, during her playful efforts to flirt with obscenity, without technically violating CNN’s policy against certain verboten words.
Griffin was added to the New Year’s coverage team for entertainment purposes, and entertaining she was, even though she had been threatened by CNN’s legal department with summary dismissal, if she uttered any of the words made famous in the classic George Carlin routine.
So, Griffin kept slipping in double entendres all night, such as references to the “big BALL drop”, and “Courtney COX’s” new TV show, or her preference for certain dog breeds, like “Shih Tzu.”
But this was the exchange that apparently ran afoul of CNN’s standards and practices:
ANDERSON COOPER: Oh of course, I did. My favorite moment was when here, when balloon boy, Falcon, said, who the hell is Wolf? Do you remember that?
KATHY GRIFFIN: What? Falcon?
ANDERSON COOPER: It’s Falcon Heene.
KATHY GRIFFIN: Falcon? How do you say it?
ANDERSON COOPER: Terrible. Really terrible.
On the video, it apparently sounds like Kathy is saying f***ing instead of Falcon. “Just add me to the list of ‘serious reporters’ who had trouble pronouncing the name ‘Falcon,’ ” she says in a statement, reported by The Washington Post.
Kathy, of course was just recycling Carlin’s trenchant observation that many “dirty” words can be said on TV, so long as the context is changed. “You can say ‘Roberto Clemente has two balls on him,’ but you can’t say ‘I think he hurt his balls on that play,’” Carlin joked in his famous routine.
So, I think Kathy Griffin would have been okay, if she could just have just worked in a reference to Norfolk, Virginia. Which reminds me of a supposed Norfolk High School cheer:
“We are the girls from Norfolk,
We don’t drink,
We don’t smoke,
Norfolk! Norfolk!”
The also reminds me of a story, which I concede may be apocryphal, of a time when Adrian Cronauer once appeared on CNN’s 1990s-era midday talk show, “Sonia Live.” Host Sonia Friedman was interviewing the real-life Air Force DJ, about the way Robin Williams portrayed him in the movie “Good Morning, Vietnam.”
“Did you really say, ‘Good Morning, Vietnam?’” Sonia is said to have asked Cronauer.
“Yes,” he replied.
“And what do you think the troops were thinking when they heard that?“
“I think they were thinking, ‘F*** You,” Cronauer reputedly answered, without the asterisks.
“Uh, you do know this is a live show,” a flustered Sonia stammered.
“Yeah, but it’s cable right?” pointed out Cronauer.
Right. It’s cable. You can say almost anything. Notably, CNN did not apologize for any of the other sexual references made by Kathy Griffin, but curiously it still hasn’t posted any video highlights of the big night on its web page.
But thanks to technology reputedly invented by Al Gore, you can watch the clips on YouTube.
Tags: Adrian Cronaur, CNN, F-bomb, George Carlin, Kathy Griffin
