On a February night in 2007, with every late-night host in America queueing up to make the same joke about the same young pop star, this one opened his show by announcing he would not be doing that — and then spent the rest of the monologue explaining why.
The full story
On 19 February 2007 Craig Ferguson opened The Late Late Show on CBS by telling his studio audience he would not be making jokes about the young performer who had been the target of that week's coverage. CBS News reported the monologue, quoting him: 'For me, comedy should have a certain amount of joy in it. It should be about attacking the powerful — the politicians, the Trumps, the blowhards — going after them. We shouldn't be attacking the vulnerable.' He added: 'This woman has two kids. She's 25 years old. She's a baby herself.' Ferguson has since said he expected to be fired for it and described it as 'my Jerry Maguire moment'; the clip circulated widely again in 2021.
The clues we handed out
— His argument was that comedy should have joy in it, and should go after the powerful rather than the vulnerable.
— 'This woman has two kids,' he told the audience. 'She's 25 years old. She's a baby herself.'
— He expected the network to fire him for it. Years later he called it his Jerry Maguire moment.
— He is Scottish, held the 12:30 slot on CBS for a decade, and shared the studio with a robot skeleton and a pantomime horse.
— Initials: C.F.
How this case played
ALLEGEDLY* edition No. 99. Three strikes to name Craig Ferguson, with a free clue
unlocked after every miss.
Where this comes from
Every case on this site is drawn from the public record. These are the records for this one.
*A blind item you can check. Every puzzle is drawn from the public record —
court records, official rulings, and moments that unfolded on live television — and the
records are linked above. Allegedly.
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