Monday, December 30All That Matters

Craig Ferguson NOT making Britney Spears jokes in 2007

40 Comments

  • Strange to hear people laugh when he’s trying to be serious.

    Edit: didn’t mean strange as in “fuck those audience members”. Meant strange as in “huh that’s awkward”

  • Ferguson’s talk show was honestly ahead of its time. If he had come of age as a media personality in the era of YouTube, I think he would have built a massive, massive audience. His ability to speak directly to his viewers, straight from the heart in a candid, composed fashion, and all while alternating between levity and light-heartedness, is just unparalleled.

  • He has a new game show in the US called “The Hustler“. Kinda like To Tell The Truth, a lot of interaction and banter, so he’s totally at home with it. Seen one episode so far and will def watch more.

  • I remember watching this the night it aired. It was so impactful. I had a family member going through rehab at the time. Plus it was just so refreshing to hear a voice of compassion at the time. Craig’s show was absolutely one of my favorites.

  • I love watching this. My sister has struggled with alcoholism for a long time now and there’s good days and bad… and I’ve found that watching this video gives me hope for on both good days AND bad. He truly let the world see him honestly, and it warms my heart that someone I respect can discuss and joke about their own vulnerabilities and others.

  • Aristotle said the “Golden Mean” of “Wit” requires one be funny in a way that is not at the expense of others, especially not at the expense of vulnerable people. A joke at the expense of vulnerable people is “mean spirited.”

  • I’m a newly recovered alcoholic and only one year sober, but just wanted to thank you for posting this. I only grow more and more admiration for this man when he speaks of his own battles. What a champ.

  • I was in a bar back then waiting for my friend to get off work, and next to me was sitting none other than Norm Macdonald. He was waiting for his ‘stupid friend to find the damn place’. The tv had Brittney after she had just shaved her head. He said in his quirky voice

    “Ya know, if they dont leave that girl alone she’s gonna kill herself ya know.” and some of the bar patrons groaned and he was like “Hey hey hey, I’m not saying I want her to kill herself, just that she might if they dont leave her alone!” I think he really felt for her the way Craig did.

    I always thought that was decent of him.

  • There’s a youtube comment on this video that is just as emotional as the vid itself:

    > This video has an interesting epilogue: Ferguson himself isn’t sure if Britney Spears ever saw this, but apparently when he asked if he could use the song Oops I Did it Again for a stand-up special, he got the rights for free.

  • This was relevant then and it is now and it will always be.

    I love Craig, I am from Jordan and I never visited or lived in the US, but ever since I found about the show I made sure I watched it every day, and even though I like the concept of night shows, I never regularly watched a show after this show sadly ended.

  • The fact that Britney has now spent at least a decade and a half of her life in this absolute Hell goes so, so far beyond all forms of shitty “poor little rich girl” classism.

    She’s a human being that’s lost so, so many years, and she’ll lose more in the future. That is heartbreaking.

  • That line when he was talking about his past and said “I was there, well, I was present” was powerful. I mean the crowd thought it was funny, but he basically said he wasn’t in control and that wasn’t good. I felt for him and her through this entire monologue.

  • It really highlights to me how things have changed since then. Now we’re gradually normalizing talking about mental health and so on, but back then it was so unusual to actually say the things he did.

  • My dad drank all his youth up until I think 34. He was the bad kind of drinker. Emotionally abusive when drunk-drunk. Terror inducing behaviour drunk.
    It marred my otherwise lovely carefree childhood of living in the countryside before the times of always online internet and and and. I to this day do not drink a drop. I’m pretty sure I can manage one drink or two but why bother and risk it? I am an addictive person so it is risky.

    Anyhow what the fucking media did back then to Britney is a disgrace. Every of the fucking paparazi news channels showing her shaved head everywhere or the pictures of her not wearing panties.

  • I feel like 2007 was a bit of a sea change regarding Britney.

    Not sure if it started with Craig or what. But a lot of people started to realize that this is how you kill someone. This is how you push someone to kill themselves.

    South Park did their episode calling it out. Etc.

    Then we all moved on to Miley Cyrus and almost made her kill herself too.

    One pop idol at a time.

    I guess it’s a bit of an improvement that we stop short of killing them. But it’s messed up how these poor people get their every action torn apart by the media, by people all pver the world who’ve never met them. And not even the kinds of stuff any of us has a right to judge them for. Racist tweets, sure. Going out drinking with friends at 25 and things getting our of hand? Leave em alone.

  • After hearing all the fucked up stuff Britney has had to go through with her dad, she doesn’t have an addiction problem. She was burnt out and has a shitty “father.” Ffs, she has an IUD that she’s legally not allowed to remove. How any judge can let this conservatorship keep going and sleep at night is mind boggling.

  • I remember when Charlie Sheen had his public meltdown, Craig Ferguson was similarly empathetic. He said he couldn’t watch someone suffering like that and enjoy the entertainment value.

    It didn’t seem to many that Charlie Sheen was suffering, but he was. His marriage had just broken down and he went from spending every night with his baby twins to not seeing them much at all.

    He’s rich and famous, but he’s still a real person with real emotions. He went on a bender, had massive arguments at work which caused him to lose his very lucrative job, and put out increasingly insane videos about ‘winning’.

    Craig Ferguson saw through all that and just saw a man in pain and turning to all the wrong things to try to cope.

    He’s very insightful when things like that happen, and it’s nice to see a comedian being so kind and sensitive to others feelings.

  • Really thought the title was implying he recently said he never made fun of her and this was proof he did. Did not expect him to be calling out his own audience and telling a real story about his life. As someone struggling with addiction right now, this seriously helped (and made me a little teary)

    Never should’ve questioned Ferguson. The man is a class act through and through.

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