Al Michaels fires off a truly awful Harvey Weinstein zinger, apologizes almost instantly

By Clayton Purdom  |  October 16, 2017 | 4:14pm
Aux Features Al Michaels

Let the comedy world take due note: Harvey Weinstein jokes are not exactly panning out. As horrific allegations of decades of sexual assault continue to unveil a vast system of corruption and complicit silence surrounding the Hollywood mogul, a few brave funnymen have stepped forward to offer some yucks around the matter, as if that’s all that we needed here. First came James Corden, whose handful of Leno-style “ripped from the headlines” softballs netted widespread condemnation, and then yesterday longtime NFL broadcaster Al Michaels unleashed this little zinger during the ol’ pigskin contest:

You know Michaels had this firecracker ready to rip all week by his delivery, which somehow seemed to imply that Weinstein, like the New York Football Giants, was ready to bounce back after a series of unfortunate misadventures. This thread of comedic insight was all received about as well as a light-hearted giggle intended to humanize an alleged serial rapist would be expected to be received, but just one Giants field goal later and Michaels was back to apologize:

Comedy is, of course, a time-honored medium for healing wounds, understanding transgressions, and forcing us to address the ugliest unspoken aspects of our culture, but perhaps this is one Al might leave to the professionals.

 
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