82-year-old national treasure—in France, but whatever, France is a nation—Jerry Lewis has gone to Australia with his new stage extravaganza. It's a throwback to the good old days of variety shows, incorporating "show tunes with a 24-piece band, excerpts from his scores of movies and television shows, and his trademark slapstick comedy." (How a very realistic-looking prop glock fits into all this we do not know.) Asked at a press conference if he had any plans to retire or take a break, the comedian joked, "A break? No, why? You got something better to do?...Don't you understand that when you croak, it's for a ve-e-e-e-ry long time." Amid hearty nods of approval, he was then asked what he thought of the sport cricket, which elicited a regrettable dropping of the dreaded pink F-bomb:
His response was, “Oh cricket is a fag’s game!” Lewis then proceeded to flounce about, using camp, effeminate gestures, pretending to hold a bat with a limp wrist, squealing in a high pitched voice “Ah! The ball is coming towards me!”
This would be the second time he's used that word in recent memory, the last being during his Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in 2007, while mocking a camera operator's son as being "an illiterate faggo." Lewis quickly issued an apology, however, saying, "Everyone who knows me understands that I hold no prejudices in this regard." We can only hope in the coming days that Lewis stays safely away from both groups, as the only thing deadlier than a ticked-off Aussie cricket player holding a slab of willow is a Mardi Gras-reveling drag queen with a knock-off purse.