In July 2011, humorist/commentator Martin Lewis was invited by Bill Maher to be the interview guest in the prime opening-slot of his weekly HBO show "Real Time". The segment focused on Lewis explaining the rise of Rupert Murdoch and his impact on the world's social and political landscape.
In the course of the conversation Lewis referenced the great American musical satirist Tom Lehrer. This led to Lewis and Maher spontaneously breaking into song together...
This video clip of the segment has a brief prologue that contextualizes a topical joke made by Lewis. The joke flew over Maher's head during the show. This video preamble provides the context to that joke. Explaining why the audience immediately laughed and got Lewis' joke - even though Maher "missed" the gag at the time.
In the week before the show, the reactionary Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann had made one of her characteristic gaffes on a TV appearance on Fox News. She used the widely-known Yiddish word "chutzpah" (meaning gall, brazen nerve, effrontery) but woefully mis-pronounced it.
Instead of uttering the first syllable as HOOTS - rhyming with "puts" - (with a similar beginning sound as "hooker") she said the word with a literal interpretation of the first two letters "CH" (i.e. with the same beginning sound as "cherry")
Because the word is so commonly used in US political and media circles her gaffe drew immediate responses and her lack of common knowledge (especially given that she was 55 at the time) was widely mocked in the days that followed. Prompting Lewis to jokingly reference Bachmann's ignorant mis-pronunciation during his "Real Time" appearance.
In the heat of the live show Maher blanked on the joke at the expense of Bachmann's recent gaffe and mistakenly thought that Lewis just didn't know how to pronounce the word "chutzpah"...
After the show, the recent media furor about Bachmann's mistake came back to Maher and he apologized to Lewis for having missed the gag during their on-air conversation.
The brief prologue to this video shows the original TV clip in which Bachmann mangled the word. And provides context to Lewis' jokey reference in the Bill Maher segment. …...more
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