Craig Ferguson Praised for Refusing to Joke About Britney Spears Back in 2007

Nearly 14 years after delivering a monologue about Britney Spears‘ troubles and why he refused to joke about them, former talk show host Craig Ferguson is being praised by fans on social media.

Days after Britney shaved her head in 2007, Craig went on his show and explained why he would not be making any jokes at her expense.

“Tonight, no Britney Spears jokes, and here’s why…I’m not doing them,” Craig said in his monologue. He even mentioned in the monologue that we should be making fun of people like the Trumps, many years before he even ran for president.

“The kind of weekend she had, she was checking in and out of rehab, she was shaving her head, getting tattoos, that’s what she was doing this weekend. This Sunday, I was 15 years sober. So I looked at her weekend, and I looked at my own weekend, and I thought, ‘You know, I’d rather have my weekend.’ But what she’s going through reminds me of what I was doing. It’s an anniversary, you start to think about it, and it reminds me of where I was 15 years ago, when I was living like that,” he continued.

Craig said he didn’t know if Britney was an alcoholic, but he could see that she “clearly” needed help.

“It looks to me a little bit that Britney Spears has a similar problem going on with alcohol,” he said. “This woman has two kids. She’s 25 years old. She’s a baby herself. She’s a baby, you know. And the thing is, you can embarrass somebody to death. It is embarrassing to admit you’re an alcoholic.”

Click inside to read what Craig Ferguson said about the moment in a 2019 interview…

Back in 2019, Craig looked back at that moment while speaking to the Los Angeles Times.

“Everyone had seen the news, and I think they expected me to do what my job was, which was to make fun of the news,” Craig said while discussing how his audience was uncomfortable.

He continued, “I wanted to put myself in the position of what Ms. Spears had been in that weekend, [to show] that I understood, that I identified with her discomfort. And I because I had done that, other people identified with me too. It feels odd to talk about, because I don’t want to aggrandize myself. I didn’t mean to do it. It just felt right at the time. But it has definitely stuck. Once every couple of weeks somebody says something to me about it, still. How long ago was it, 12 years? It’s a long time.”

Keep reading to see reactions on Twitter.