Get some humor, Carolla
I didn't lose any sleep over it that night.
What I learned from this little incident in the middle of the Television Critics Association press tour is:
— My memory sometimes fails me.
— Carolla hates critics in general (and me specifically).
— And, if I may be so bold, at least at that particular moment in time I had a better sense of humor than a guy who's supposed to be a comedian.
Carolla was making his second appearance before critics in three days. He'd already talked to us about his upcoming Comedy Central show "Too Late With Adam Carolla"; he returned to talk about "The Adam Carolla Project," a TLC "reality" show in which Carolla (a former carpenter) and some of his buddies rebuild his childhood home with an eye toward selling it for, he hopes, a profit.
I thought the clip they showed critics made it look both interesting and amusing. But I wasn't quite buying the whole angle that Carolla was taking a financial risk by doing this.
"Isn't the financial risk you're taking somewhat mitigated by whatever it is you're getting paid to do this (show)?" I asked.
"So is there any financial risk?" I asked.
"What the hell do you think, genius?" Carolla replied. "Of course."
That was just before he called me "weisenheimer." Which I probably deserved, at least from his perspective. But my thought was that what looked like an otherwise entertaining "reality" show would be undermined by the whole financial-risk aspect.
He took it as an attack. Which I wasn't smart enough to pick up on immediately.
Carolla went on to explain that he wasn't being paid a lot to do the "Project" — that it was just something he really wanted to do. And I took him at his word.
Then I made a big mistake. I was flat out wrong. My memory failed me as I mentioned a failed sitcom I falsely believed Carolla had done years earlier. I confused him with someone else. Which I acknowledged.
"You don't work in the research department of the newspaper, do you?" Carolla threw at me — which I totally deserved.
At this point, I was still thinking this was all friendly banter. I was laughing at everything Carolla was saying. I responded with the absolute truth, "No. After 15 years you all run together." Which I meant totally as self-deprecation.
Apparently, it wasn't taken that way. And, to be fair, I can understand why.
"Listen, why don't you just go to the bar, write whatever (expletive) you're going to write," Carolla said. "Just write the (expletive) you're going to write. Just write the show sucks and I'm using my own money and just go write it now and leave me alone, would you?"
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