Back when the only things “cancelled” were network TV shows and print magazine subscriptions, Whoopi Goldberg nearly derailed her career by telling a joke in 2004.
The onstage rant about then-President George W. Bush was given at a New York City fundraiser for then-Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The joke was never scripted, but it was described Led by an article in the New York Post the next day:
“Whoopi Goldberg delivered an X-rated rant full of sexual assault against President Bush at a Radio City gala last night, which raised $7.5 million for the newly minted Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards,” wrote Deborah Orrin. “While waving a bottle of wine, he fired a stream of obscene sex words in Bush’s name into a rift about female genitalia, claiming he had refused to clear his stuff to Team Carey.”
This was more than enough for the morality police of early August.
According to The New York Times Magazine, “Goldberg’s career turned dark. Slimfast, the diet-in-a-can brand for which Goldberg had been a spokesperson, left him. Friends stopped associating with him publicly. given. He was kicked out of the Democratic National Convention.”
And for the next 18 years, the actual content of the joke will remain in the dark — until now. In his research for a recent interview with Goldberg, The magazine got a transcript,
And here it is:
“When Bush comes to push, don’t shout. Vote for Kerry. And that’s why I’m here tonight. Because I love Bush. But someone’s defaming Bush. Somebody slandered Bush’s name.” Somebody has started a war, some one has deliberately misled the country, some one has tried to amend the constitution, all in the name of jharkhook. The bush that I know and cherish is ever Won’t do such things. My bush is smarter than him. And if my bush is smarter than him, you can understand how dumb I think the other bush is. Vote your heart and mind, and bush where it is Keep it
For Goldberg, who has seen his share of controversies as host of “The View”—including a recent suspension from the ABC show for his comments about the Holocaust—and elsewhere, it was a perfect finding. .
“You know why they couldn’t print what I said?” Goldberg told NYTM. “Because I didn’t say anything bad.”
Welcome to 2022, Whoopi. The names haven’t changed either.
