Craig Ferguson, who hosted The Late Late Show between 2005 and 2014, has said he was “convinced” he would be “fired” for refusing to make fun of Britney Spears’ shaved head in 2007.
The comedian decided against mocking the singer after she made international headlines in February 2007 for shaving her head at a hair salon in California, despite the show’s writers having written up jokes for him at Spears’ expense.
“I was convinced at the time that I was going to get fired for it,” he told the SiriusXM show Volume West.
“I went in to work Monday morning, and everybody had the jokes written up. And I was like, ‘No. I'm not doing it.’ And I didn't. I was genuinely upset, and I went with my gut… It just struck me as the right thing to do in the moment.”
Ferguson insisted that he “didn't have an agenda” and “wasn't setting forth a manifesto”, but added that, as a recovering alcoholic himself, the news of Spears’ behaviour hit close to home for him.
“When I saw what happened to her that weekend, that happened to coincide with my own 15 years of sobriety that same weekend,” he said. “And I thought, ‘I don't know what I want to do on the show, but I'm f***ing sure I don't want to do this.’”
Instead, Ferguson went onstage and shared his own stories of addiction and recovery.
“The thing is, you can embarrass somebody to death,” he explained that night.
“I'm starting to feel uncomfortable about making fun of these people. Funny comedy should have a certain amount of joy in it. It should be about us attacking the powerful people, attacking the politicians and the Trumps and the blowhards… We shouldn't be attacking the vulnerable people.”
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