In June 2009, Late Show host David Letterman faced criticism after making a sexually suggestive joke about one of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s daughters during a monologue about Palin’s visit to New York. The joke referred to Palin’s daughter being “knocked up” by New York Yankees player Alex Rodriguez during a Yankees game. Letterman later said he thought the joke referred to Palin’s older daughter Bristol, who was 18 and had recently become a mother. However, Palin had attended the game with her 14-year-old daughter Willow, and Palin, her family, and many critics interpreted the joke as targeting a minor. Palin condemned the remark as sexually perverted and argued that children of public figures should not be used for sexual jokes.
The controversy grew because the joke combined several sensitive issues: sexual humor about a politician’s child, confusion over which Palin daughter had attended the game, and the broader question of whether late-night comedy had crossed a line. Letterman first tried to explain that he had not meant the joke to refer to Willow, but criticism continued. On June 15, 2009, he issued a fuller on-air apology. In that statement, Letterman admitted the joke was coarse and indefensible, said his intent mattered less than the public perception of the joke, accepted blame for the misunderstanding, and apologized to Bristol, Willow, Governor Palin, the Palin family, and everyone offended by the remark. His response used defeasibility by explaining his misunderstanding, good intentions by insisting he never meant to joke about a 14-year-old, and mortification by directly apologizing and promising to do better.
Key Apologia Strategies:
Defeasibility, Good Intentions, Mortification
Video
Transcript
Late Show On-Air Apology:
I’ve been thinking about this situation with Governor Palin and her family now for about a week. It was a week ago tonight, and maybe you know about it, maybe you don’t know about it, but there was a joke that I told, and I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke. There’s no getting around it. But I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter. And before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. But the joke really in and of itself can’t be defended.
The next day, people are outraged. They’re angry at me because they said, “How could you make a lousy joke like that about the 14-year-old girl who was at the ballgame?” And I had honestly no idea that the 14-year-old girl, I had no idea that anybody was at the ballgame except the Governor, and I was told at the time that she was there with Rudy Giuliani, and I really should have made the joke about Rudy, but I didn’t. And now people are getting angry, and they’re saying, “Well, how can you say something like that about a 14-year-old girl? And does that make you feel good to make these horrible jokes about a kid who’s completely innocent, minding her own business?”
And it turns out she was at the ballgame. I had no idea she was there. So she’s now at the ballgame, and people think that I made the joke about her. But still I’m wondering what can I do to help people understand that I would never make a joke like this. I’ve never made jokes like this as long as we’ve been on the air, 30 long years, and you can’t really be doing jokes like that. And I understand, of course, why people are upset. I would be upset myself.
And then I was watching the Jim Lehrer NewsHour, and this commentator, the columnist Mark Shields, is talking about how I had made this indefensible joke about the 14-year-old girl, and I thought, “Oh boy, now I’m beginning to understand what the problem is here.” It’s the perception rather than the intent. It doesn’t make any difference what the intent was. It’s the perception. And as they say about jokes, if you have to explain the joke, it’s not a very good joke.
And certainly, my responsibility, I take full blame for that. I told a bad joke. I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception. And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke. It is not your fault that it was misunderstood; it is my fault that it was misunderstood. So I would like to apologize especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow. I would also like to apologize to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I am sorry about it, and I will try to do better in the future. Thank you very much.
Sources
Compton, J., & Miller, B. (2011). Image repair in late night comedy: Letterman and the Palin joke controversy. Public Relations Review, 37(4), 415-421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.08.002
