No, not that F word. The other one. The one that's a derogatory word for a gay person.
Check out the video at Breitbart. In the 18th hour of his annual MDA Telethon, Lewis walks about the stage and the audience making comments on various people, and at one point stops and talks about the cameraman and his family (supposedly). He says "your family has come to see you...you remember Bart, your oldest son...Jesse, the illiterate f****t..." The audience laughs and moans a bit, but I'm trying to figure out exactly what Lewis says here. Does he actually say that word, or does he start to say "fatty" or something similar? You make the call.
Whatever he says, it's an odd piece of video for sure. I guess that what happens when you're up for 18 hours.
UPDATE: Video is embedded after the jump.
UPDATE #2: He admits he did use the word, and has apologized.















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-03-2007 @ 10:07PM
Scott said...
Sounds to me like he said it, for sure. So does that mean that in another few hours, he'll start using the N word, too? What a jerk.
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9-03-2007 @ 10:13PM
Margie said...
Jerry Lewis is so over, , Every year he has the same old people on , Has beens, Tony Orlando , Jack Jones, People who you never see any place else , whose career ended 25 years ago , Maybe it is time for a new younger person who can bring in some fresh entertainment , Instead of these old timers,,whose career ended years ago
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9-03-2007 @ 10:24PM
nick said...
Sounds like he said it, and I think he has some explaining to do, less he wants to henceforth be known as a bigot.
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9-03-2007 @ 10:44PM
Allen said...
Sounded like "fatty" to me.
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9-03-2007 @ 11:21PM
justin_stacy said...
clearly fatty....
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9-04-2007 @ 12:01AM
Ralph said...
I clearly heard him use that word. Judging by some of the gasps in the audience,they did also.
Let's remember that within the first hour of the program Lewis joked about a group of Japanese performers suggesting that Benihana (restaurants) don't have anyone working right now.
Sounds like Mr. Lewis needs to extend his compassion and sensitivity beyond the disabled population.
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9-03-2007 @ 11:44PM
Oreo said...
To me it sounded like "Fattet".
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9-03-2007 @ 11:58PM
bubbalove said...
It sounded like fatty to me, which while not as hateful a slur as the other, it's still in poor taste... He obviously saw it was a bit/joke going in the wrong direction so he quit and quickly changed the subject...
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9-03-2007 @ 11:59PM
J8675309 said...
Sounds to me like he said "fat..." was going to keep going, and then stopped himself.
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9-03-2007 @ 11:59PM
J8675309 said...
Sounds to me like he said "fat..." was going to keep going, and then stopped himself.
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9-04-2007 @ 12:32AM
Tele-Toby said...
Well, if he didn't say it, maybe he'll find out about the post here and seize on your suggestion as the word he'll claim he used.
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9-04-2007 @ 1:05AM
Gary said...
whether he said "faggot" or "fatty", Rosie Odonnell will probably get on his case for it.
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9-04-2007 @ 1:08AM
Rodney said...
Why are we so worried about what somebody might have said? Who cares what he said? Can't we just get over it? Good god, we've turned being offended into an art form.
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9-04-2007 @ 1:40AM
Daniel W. said...
here is what he said slowed down:
(it repeats 10 times and gets slower each time)
tinyurl.com/2otaa3
There is definitely a G sound, but there is no T sound on the end, making it sound like like "fagee."
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9-04-2007 @ 2:35AM
Media Glutton said...
He's clearly saying the beginning of "faggot" but stops himself. Definitely requires a mea culpa unless he wants to be known as a homophobe.
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9-04-2007 @ 2:56AM
Christina said...
That's a tough call. If you play it over and over it becomes one of those things where if you listen for the word 'faggot' you'll hear it, but if you listen for 'fatty' you'll hear that. Neither would be a funny joke and so he stopped himself. Also I don't think he was making fun of the cameraman but that he was just ranting and trying to make jokes w/ inanimate objects ('Fred' jokes for example). Either way, he'll have some explaining to do and I hope he does it seriously and sincerely because a sputtering old man's explanation tends to have no cred.
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9-04-2007 @ 3:53AM
edd said...
At the risk of annoying the PC brigade, who cares? I mean, make that mistake in a half-hour live show and you deserve to be hounded for being a jackass.
But it's 18 hours of TV and during banter the word slips out. I'm not a homophobe but I think, if this gets bigger, it's a waste of space.
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9-04-2007 @ 3:55AM
Chris Sansbury said...
I was listening for "fuckwit" but definitely hear "faggot".
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9-04-2007 @ 4:28AM
Mark said...
Yipee kay yay, the PC police strike again. 30+ years of the man's work for muscular dystrophy, all gone because he may or may not have said "faggot".
Just let it rest. Yes, if he said it, it was wrong. He's an old fart, and that's what old farts do, because they grew up in an environment where it was perfectly fine for most folks to use these kinds of terms.
It's not acceptable any more, and that's a good thing.
But cut the man some slack. This political correctness has gone too far.
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9-04-2007 @ 6:48AM
Scott said...
I love this idea that some people here have of it being okay because it "slipped out" after so many hours onstage. For people who don't normally use those words, no lack of sleep or stress situation would cause them to say them. It's a matter of saying "what comes naturally", and clearly calling people the f-word comes very naturally for Lewis.
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