# Tempest in a teapot: Johnny Carson's big mouth

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tempest-in-a-teapot-johnny-carsons-big-mouth/53067>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 4, 2001, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tempest-in-a-teapot-johnny-carsons-big-mouth/53067 "2001-02-04T01:04:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2001, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tempest-in-a-teapot-johnny-carsons-big-mouth/53067/1 "2001-02-04T01:04:14Z")

</div>

From [http://www.snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com) :

> [@](#):
>
> On Feb. 1 host Johnny Carson opened the show with what he called a retraction. He recalled that some time previously his writers had manufactured a gag about an Iraqi announcer called “Baghdad Betty” telling soldiers their womenfolk were being romanced at home by “Tom Selleck, Tom Cruise and Homer Simpson.”  
> The story spread, Carson said, and soon it was being retold, even on wire services, as fact, with one change-- Homer Simpson, the father in The Simpsons animated cartoon series, was replaced by Bart Simpson, his 9-year-old son.  
> Said Carson: “It was a joke. We made it up. There is no ‘Baghdad Betty’.”  
> Another legend bites the dust.  
> War is hell. And sometimes the joke’s on us.

Acknowledgement to the Mikkelsons and the Urban Legend website for this one.  
Isn’t this an indiscreet thing for Carson to do? I don’t recall that the U. S. Military asked him to butt in. It sounds like another illustration of the maxim from the book of James, “Well, the tongue is a fire…”  
Any agreement?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PlanMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2bfe46/32.png) [@PlanMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlanMan)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2001, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tempest-in-a-teapot-johnny-carsons-big-mouth/53067/2 "2001-02-04T01:27:21Z")

</div>

Johnny said this on Feb.1? Has the signal been bouncing around the ether for (how many?) years?

Oh, checked Snopes, was way back in 1991.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2001, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tempest-in-a-teapot-johnny-carsons-big-mouth/53067/3 "2001-02-04T03:42:21Z")

</div>

Indiscreet to tell a joke that makes fun of the intelligence of one’s enemies? I would think it would be generally standard practice among all nations in any war.

_BTW, at the bottom of each **snopes** page is a note indicating the URL for a direct link to that page. The URL for this story is_  
[http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/radio/baghdad.htm](http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/radio/baghdad.htm)