One week in 1968, Jerry Lewis was guest-hosting The Tonight Show and he caused a ruckus. There had recently been some item in the news about an incident of racial segregation in Mississippi, and Mr. Lewis made a remark that went roughly like this: "I was just taking a cross-country flight and I fulfilled a lifelong dream by going to the bathroom over Mississippi."
Obviously not a great joke…and the next day, Lewis found himself the target of protests. Mississippi officials denounced him, the NBC affiliate in Mississippi announced it would not air The Tonight Show for the rest of the week, and movie theaters down there yanked his most recent film. (Appropriately enough, it was a movie called The Big Mouth.)
Our embedded clip is the first four or so minutes from the program the following night. Jerry comes out, sings a song and then does a quick apology for the offending jibe. As I recall, he was slammed a bit more in the following week but the storm blew over and was forgotten. There still, however, are some folks who haven't forgiven him for The Big Mouth. Here's the clip…
