Uncomfortable Things Celebs Actually Said On Live TV

Live TV has given us some of the most talked about moments in history — from O.J. Simpson's anxiety-inducing low-speed car chase to the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas. It's graced us with Janet Jackson's major wardrobe malfunction, the result of a Super Bowl halftime show gone wrong, and marked the unification of Germany through the demolition of the Berlin Wall. Despite all these culturally significant moments, live TV has given us more than a few uncomfortable moments that networks would probably rather forget.

If you want to know a celebrity's darkest, most sinister thoughts, get them into a heated talk show debate (The View usually does the trick, though Today has its moments). When things are rolling live, Hollywood finally takes off its thick layer of perfectly applied makeup and gets real — too real. Though you can thank Nipplegate for NBC's five-second delay, live TV can get a whole lot worse than an accidental Saturday Night Live curse word slip.

From Raven-Symoné's racist workplace policy to Joaquin Phoenix's legendary Letterman interview, these live TV moments are so uncomfortable you can't help but watch. And while some things are better left unsaid, these celebs said it anyway.

The cast of Fashion Police can't stay out of trouble. That entire organization might need racial sensitivity training if we're judging by the headlines. First, Giuliana Rancic made the infamous "patchouli" and "weed" statement about Zendaya's locks. Then, Kelly Osbourne, who ended up leaving the show in protest, made a similar mistake a few months later.

In an August 2015 episode of The View (because there's always something with The View), Osbourne shared a very interesting stance on American immigration policy. The lavender-haired starlet asked, "If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilets, Donald Trump?" Latina co-host Rosie Perez, who must have taken a temporary reprieve from her toilet-cleaning duties to host the show, threw Osbourne some pretty fierce side-eye. Her subsequent back-peddling was as awkward as TV gets, especially considering Osbourne's harsh treatment of Rancic when she made her flub.

The truth is that Donald Trump's businesses probably wouldn't be functioning without immigrants. According to CNN, he's hired 1,256 foreign workers over the last 15 years, but suggesting that low-skilled jobs like housekeeping are relegated exclusively to Latinxs plays into damaging stereotypes. Osbourne eventually apologized on Extra, where she asked not to be "pulled into this political nightmare." Too late, baby girl.

Remember when Raven-Symoné was a fresh-faced Disney channel darling without a single harmful opinion? At the very least, all of her potential misguided ideas were meticulously vetted in advance by the harsh, unforgiving eye of the Mouse. It's was simpler times. If only real-life Raven could've seen into the future — she'd have been horrified.

Since Raven-Symoné joined The View as a full-time co-host in 2015, she's caused quite the controversy (that's how they get ratings, right?). She's frequently come under fire for her views on race. She told Oprah that she doesn't identify as "African American" and is a "colorless person" (which allegedly caused one writer to "nearly [fall] off [her] d**n couch"). She also argued that Harriet Tubman didn't deserve to grace a $20 bill for her contributions to society. Things got even worse when her self-proclaimed colorblindness was miraculously cured. 

The former Disney star admitted on live TV that she supports workplace discrimination if someone's name happens to be too ethnic-sounding for her tastes. "I'm not about to hire you if your name is Watermelondrea," she told her View co-hosts. "It's just not going to happen. I'm not going to hire you."

The actress faced enough backlash to eventually issue a public apology where she admitted to being the victim of workplace discrimination on numerous fronts. It takes one to know one?

Kanye West, an African American man who regularly dons a Make America Great Again Hat and gets social media nods from a president that called African nations "s**thole countries," loves to stir the pot. So much so that he even visited the TMZ offices in 2018 to publicly proclaim that slavery was a choice. (You know it's bad when you go to TMZ for publicity before they come to you.)

But 2005 was a much simpler time. Yes, we were grappling with the intense devastation in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, but at least Kanye West stood for something good. In a Red Cross telethon, the rapper tried to raise money for Katrina victims rather than lining the pockets of billionaire politicians who may or may not have been conspiring with foreign dictators. Of course, because it's Kanye, he still had to cross the line. In the middle of the telethon, the rapper famously gave a deadpan stare to the camera and firmly announced, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Next to him, a bewildered Mike Myers was left speechless until the camera operator had the sense to cut.

West later apologized to George W. Bush because he "didn't have the grounds to call him racist." Man, dragon energy is really hard to tame.

If you're live on TV, it's never a great idea to joke about gender dysphoria — especially if the person you're ragging on hasn't yet come forward with their struggle. This didn't stop Jamie Foxx, though, who left the nation up in arms after making an off-color joke about Caitlyn Jenner's transition.

Foxx was hosting the 2015 iHeartRadio awards and opted for a roast-like monologue that took aim at Suge Knight for his hit-and-run murder charges. Okay. What came next was a whole lot worse.

"We got some groundbreaking performances here, too, tonight. We got Bruce Jenner, who will be here doing some musical performances. He's doing a his-and-her duet all by himself," he said. "Look, I'm just busting your balls while I still can."

At the time, Caitlyn had yet to make her stunning Vanity Fair debut and the only evidence of her lifelong struggle with gender dysphoria was tabloid rumors and a new hairstyle. At best, Foxx was insensitive. At worst, his gender reassignment joke was blatantly transphobic. Either way, he didn't just receive the unyielding wrath of the Internet. The Kardashian clan also joined in. Both Kanye West and Khloé Kardashian allegedly expressed their extreme disappointment in Foxx's low blow, which he insisted was not transphobic.

If Jimmy Kimmel can apologize for the same thing, why was it so hard for Foxx?

Laurence Fishburne is a sci-fi superstar who has been in The Matrix, Passengers, and Event Horizon. Samuel L. Jackson is an action legend who starred in Pulp Fiction and The Hateful Eight. One taught us the difference between red and blue pills, while the other got those motherf*****g snakes off the motherf*****g plane. They are not the same dude, and they look virtually nothing alike.

KTLA news reporter Sam Rubin learned this the hard way when he asked Samuel L. Jackson about his Super Bowl commercial. The only problem was that Samuel L. Jackson never had a Super Bowl commercial — Laurence Fishburne did. Since the entire thing played out on live television, we got to experience the embarrassment secondhand.

"You're as crazy as the people on Twitter. I'm not Laurence Fishburne!" Jackson quipped. "We don't all look alike. We may be all black and famous, but we all don't look alike. You're busted."

The following Monday, Rubin apologized, admitting it was an embarrassing "amateur mistake."

Later that year, Fishburne lamented to The Guardian about how he's been confused with Jackson for the last 25 years. As for the live TV snafu, he didn't take offense but thought it was pretty funny that Jackson called him out.

Things got really uncomfortable for Rashida Jones on the 2015 SAG Awards red carpet, but she handled the situation with her signature brand of sarcastic comedy. Jones, the daughter of record producer Quincy Jones, was attending the ceremony to present an award with fellow comedian Andy Samberg. Before the show, she was called over for an interview by TNT's Danielle Demski. The questions started pretty typically with Jones being asked about her designer gown, but things quickly took a rather unfortunate turn. Demski commented on Jones' tan, which just so happens to be the biracial actress' normal skin color.

"You look like you've just come off an island or something. You're very tan — very tropical," Demski said.

Jones kept her reply short and quippy, saying, "You know, I'm ethnic." Demski laughed off her ill-advised remark, but Jones' uncomfortable smile said it all. It was a cringey moment for all parties involved, including the fans who had to sit through it.

For Taylor Swift's ex-boyfriends, having a pop radio hit written about their biggest faults is just the cost of doing business. It happened to Drew, who was the reason for the teardrops on her guitar, and it happened to Harry Styles. It's no secret that the One Direction star inspired quite a few of Swift's biggest hits from both Red and 1989, but, in case you weren't sure, she was going to tell you.

Before the star became notoriously private about her relationships (who even is Joe Alwyn?), she publicly called out Styles on live TV. In 2013, Swift was accepting an MTV Video Music Award for "I Knew You Were Trouble" when she went completely off the rails and announced, "I also want to thank the person who inspired this song, who knows exactly who he is, because now I got one of these." The moment might have been a little less awkward if the One Directioner hadn't been sitting right there with cameras panning to his reaction (those camera operators certainly deserve a Moon Man of their own).

Styles was later asked about the incident on Extra. He claimed to "like a joke as much as the next guy," but you could tell he was visibly uncomfortable with the question.

Tara Reid's appearance on Discovery Channel's Shark After Dark was more than just a lesson in biology — it was a lesson on why you should never show up to a live taping drunk, even if it's Shark Week. No one can absolutely certify without a doubt that Reid had sipped on a little too much of the sauce, but her performance played out pretty similarly to SNL's "Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With at a Party." We can take a guess as to why.

During the show, which is a Shark Week staple for fans, the Sharknado star let viewers know she did a whole lot of research to appear smart on the subject. Girl was not going to have an American Pie-worthy blonde moment here. Unfortunately, her rant about whale sharks was almost entirely unintelligible and got pretty awkward once host Josh Wolf began to egg her on.

"I think, well how does a whale and shark have sex? ... Because whales are mammals, and sharks are animals. They have nothing to do with each other," she said. "So basically, the dolphins have sex with each other, but the sharks don't. So I thought, then how is it such a thing?"

Tara, it's totally okay. We know you're not a biologist. Sharknado isn't based on science either, and, if it was, we'd probably be drinking on live TV too.

If there's one thing we can count on, it's that David Blaine is infinitely puzzling. As it turns out, Blaine is equally as baffling when he's not performing tricks. Eamonn Holmes may have been voted best UK breakfast TV presenter, but his talents were no match for the magician's 2001 GMTV interview.

Holmes has cited the live TV interview as his most awkward ever. It was so famously uncomfortable that it may have Joaquin Phoenix's disastrous 2010 Letterman interview completely beat. Performance art is a real thing, guys! Blaine, who was promoting his special Frozen In Time, was essentially mute during the entirety of the segment, though his creepy stare said volumes. What exactly were the volumes it spoke? No one really knew, and Holmes never got that information out of him. The TV host eventually got so fed up that he asked Blaine, "Is this part of the show? The sort of moody persona and the stare and the eyes, that's just you? The eye in the hand, what it that?" Blaine proceeded to flash his hand, which had an eye drawn on the palm. He claimed — in a very muffled, monotone voice — that it was "protection from death." Creepy!