Perhaps it was the potty puns or maybe the idea of a highly acclaimed, Oscar-nominated actor relieving himself in the aisle of a plane that tickled Anderson Cooper’s funny bone. Whatever the cause, the normally serious CNN anchor of “Anderson Cooper 360″ dropped his stony facade and did what the rest of us do when we hear a funny news story: he laughed.
So what caused Cooper to lose it on national television during an episode of “The Ridiculist”? It seems that famed French actor Gerard Depardieu had a wee problem on a recent flight from Paris to Dublin. As his flight was waiting to take off, the thespian was told in no uncertain terms that he could not visit the bathroom. What to do? Urinate in a nearby bottle in full view of the other passengers of course. The problem was that the too-small bottle quickly overflowed onto the carpet of the airplane, delaying the flight for two hours while the carpets were cleaned.
Cooper’s pun-laden report of the story quickly went off the deep end. As any 8-year-old will tell you, bathroom humor is funny, so it’s no surprise Cooper only made it to potty pun number 16, the “Depar-doo” comment, before totally losing it. He began giggling intermittently, eventually bursting into uncontrollable fits of belly laughter. After a full minute laugh attack, Cooper apologized, saying, “I’m sorry, this has actually never happened to me.”
Speaking of the incident the next day, Cooper noted the flurry of Tweets his on-air antics caused.
“I giggle like a 13 year old girl meeting Justin Bieber,” he explained. “I was hoping that no one would notice my giggle fit.”
Cooper is not the first broadcaster to be bitten by the on-air laughter bug.
Matt Lauer’s Double Entendre Crack Ups
Most morning show hosts yuck it up on a regular basis, although not usually during a serious story about increasing food prices. During a “Today” show money segment about the rising costs of food featuring financial editor Jean Chatzky, Lauer commented, “you say the size of the package is very important.” As Chatzky answered the innocent comment, Lauer began to titter and then double over belly laughing at the double entendre.
Eventually he had to call out Meredith Viera to finish the segment. Lauer also lost it during a cooking segment with Paula Deen in which the celeb foodie made an herbed cheese log and instructed that “you want to toast your nuts” before putting them on the outside of the log. It seems Lauer can’t take much “down under” humor.
HSN “Baby Dog” Caller Gives Host a Giggle Fit
Live television can be unpredictable, as Home Shopping Network host Colleen Lopez found out when she met her number one fan on live TV. While hocking jewelry, Lopez answered a female caller who insisted she should personally remember her from her on-air necklace purchase 10 years ago. From the beginning of her encounter with the love-sick caller, Lopez was giggling. But she went totally over the edge when the caller asked her to say hi to her baby Abby. Turns out Abby is her “baby dog.” Unable to contain herself any longer at the woman’s ridiculous comments, Lopez roared with laughter as the segment faded to music.
Balls Prove to Be a Real Hoot for Chick Hernandez
You’d think a sports anchor would be used to hearing the word “balls” bandied about, but not Comcast SportsNet’s Chick Hernandez. Hernandez couldn’t keep a straight face when his co-anchor said, “just swim for those balls,” according to Awful Announcing The hysterical sports anchor had to be rescued by a straight-faced, and ticked, off co-anchor.