Film & Television

When Michele Bachmann was introduced on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to an offensive song snippet played by the Late Night Band, but few realized it at the time.Jimmy Fallon issued an apology via Twitter for the Late Night Band's playing of the song "Lyin' A-s Bi---" when Michele Bachmann walked out to greet Fallon during a Tuesday morning taping of the show. It wasn't until a New York Democratic politician asked NBC to issue an apology that Fallon acknowledged the inside joke. For his part, at least his Tweet sounded sincere, but it's pretty clear that Jimmy was just doing what he had to do to calm the executives at NBC. There's no doubt he was aware of what his band was going to play as Bachmann walked out - and there's some possibility it was his idea.

But, as any good comedian should, Fallon thought it better to ask for forgiveness as opposed to permission when executing his joke. Of course, the intro song was offensive and pointed squarely at the often-controversial Bachmann. But that was the entire point. Now Fallon got to air his inside joke - and he gets the added press of the story "breaking" in the mainstream media.

Bachmann appeared to be unaware of the song as she sat to speak with Fallon - and no one acknowledged it during the taping of the segment. In addition to Fallon's apology, the Roots' bandleader Questlove also offered an apology, saying: "The performance was a tongue-in-cheek and spur of the moment decision. The show was not aware of it and I feel bad if her feelings were hurt. That was not my intention."

All of that should be enough to push past the issue, and there's little doubt that aspiring politicians will continue to soak up air time on late night talk shows whenever they have the opportunity to do so.

View the original article here