Back in 1995, KRIV reporter Isiah Carey was working for Channel 4 in Arkansas. He was assigned to cover a story in a small rural town about 50 miles outside Little Rock. He taped an introduction to his report in a country field.
If you've seen Carey's work on Channel 26, you know he has a rich, deep voice and calm, smooth manner.
Then a bug flew into his mouth.
Carey threw a fit and unleashed a torrent of profanity that pretty much guarantees he'll never work for the Arkansas Office of Tourism. His voice hit some high notes that would make the Vienna Boys Choir envious. The video never aired, of course. It stayed unseen in Channel 4's treasure chest of bloopers until 2008, when it popped up on www.youtube.com and Jimmy Kimmel played it on his late-night talk show.
Ten MILLION YouTube viewers later … Carey will get his "Web Redemption" tonight on Tosh.0, the Comedy Central show where video fails get a "do-over." Tosh.0 is the funniest, meanest, dirtiest, most irreverent thing on TV. Well, basic cable, anyway. Watch this show and at least 10 times you'll think, "How does Comedy Central let Tosh say that?"
I've got to give Carey credit for going on Tosh.0 and re-living what has to be his most embarrassing professional moment. I know I wouldn't do it. I've made some huge mistakes in the paper. I'm not on a street corner shouting "extra, extra, read all about it!"
Then again, Tosh.0 has only 2.5 million viewers. That's nothing compared to Carey's YouTube audience.
If you haven't seen this classic blooper, here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUS6nKpddec.
You've been warned about the bad language. Big points to Carey for playing along with the joke on Tosh.0.
• Today's trivia: In 1976, whom did President Gerald Ford promote to the rank of General of the Armies of the United States? To that point, only World War I hero Gen. John J. (Black Jack) Pershing held that position.
• We all love Jim Deshaies, the color analyst on Astros TV games. He's intelligent and funny and doesn't take himself seriously. And, most important, he was a major league pitcher who can relate that experience to fans — unlike a certain former basketball star who says, "The key to the Rockets victory tonight is scoring more points than the other team." Thanks, Glide.
So this is nitpicking on Deshaies. Saturday, he was describing a player and said that defense was his "forte" - which he pronounced "for-tay."
Although the word is more commonly pronounced "for-tay," and it's now considered acceptable, the original, and I believe correct, pronunciation is "fort"" - one syllable.
If you don't believe me, here's a blonde in a bikini explaining the history of the word "forte" and the right way to say it: www.hotforwords.com/2008/10/09/forte-pronunciation/. She agrees with me.
Further proof:
A few years ago, Mattress Mack hosted the year-ending Masters Cup tennis tournament at the Westside Tennis Club. The top eight players in the world came to Houston to decide the so-called champion of champions.
It was such a big event for Houston that Mack bought time on KCOH Radio and brought in legendary tennis announcer Bud Collins to call the play-by-play. Mack asked (and by asked, I mean ordered) me to be Collins' sidekick on the air.
It was one of the best weeks of my life. I got to sit in a tiny, stuffy broadcast booth with Collins and talk about tennis for eight hours a day. I was in awe of Collins' broadcasting talent and knowledge of the sport. Plus he was a genuinely nice person. His first name is Arthur, by the way.
Andy Roddick was scheduled to play Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals, and I said something like, "There's no mystery to Andy's game. His forte is firing serves at 140 mph. I think he'll blast Lleyton off the court today."
I pronounced "forte" correctly.
Collins was amazed by this linguistic miracle and spent the next five minutes congratulating me on my monosyllabic accomplishment. Then (we had a lot of time to kill), he went on a rant about other words that are mispronounced - I remember that "grovel" was a particular irritant.
"It rhymes with 'shovel.' People think it doesn't sound as nice as 'grah-vel," but it's correct," he said.
He gave listeners (and by listeners, I mean me) a lecture about "champing at the bit, not chomping at the bit," and "your old stamping grounds, not your old stomping grounds."
He said, "People don't honor the English language as they should."
By the time Collins was done with his elocution lesson, the match had started and Hewitt was on his way to crushing Roddick, 6-3, 6-2.
• Sure it's all fun and games - and then somebody loses an eye, and it's not so funny.
My idea: I watch the Nancy Grace show on HLN and count how many times she says "tot mom" or a graphic has the words "tot mom." The show is one hour. I put the Vegas over/under line at 30 times.
Have you watched this show lately? Grace devotes the whole program to the trial of Casey Anthony, the Florida woman accused of murdering her 3-year-old daughter Caylee. Grace is practically wringing her hands like Cruella de Vil over the prospect of Anthony getting the death penalty.
The Wicked Witch of the West called the show and told Grace to lighten up.
Grace came up with the "tot mom" nickname for Anthony and drives it home like an Ice Road Trucker. I've had friends call and laugh, "Nancy Grace was just on Good Morning America and said 'tot mom' five times!"
So I grabbed a 2-liter Diet Pepsi, put a yellow legal pad by my side and watched Nancy Grace.
The "over" got the money - it was a first-round knockout. I watched only one segment, about 12 minutes, and counted 33 times that Grace said "tot mom" or a graphic contained "tot mom." I couldn't watch another minute … at the rate of 2½ "tot moms" per minute.
First, tot is a word that people rarely say. You read it in newspapers because it's only three letters, and "t" takes up little space in one-column headlines. How's that for Journalism 101?
Plus "tot mom" is catchy and sensational when used in connection with the murder of a child.
Her "guests," the lawyers who are supposed to present the case for Anthony, are shouted down with cries of "tot mom is lying!"
I used to think that Don Imus was the creepiest person on television. Or maybe Klee Irwin, host of the Dual Action colon cleanser infomercial - the guy with the Snidely Whiplash mustache.
Grace has Imus and Snidley beat easy. She's awful. She isn't journalism. She isn't court reporting.
And she isn't "seeking justice for Caylee." That's the job of prosecutors in the courtroom. Grace is just selling "tot mom" hysteria.
She's practically lighting a torch and rounding up the villagers. CNN should be ashamed.
• Trivia answer: President Ford appointed George Washington to the position of General of the Armies in 1976 as part of our bicentennial celebration.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий