Kathie Lee Gifford Irks Howard Once Again

January 4, 2011

Howard said Kathie Lee Gifford had irked him again–despite his best efforts: “I want to like Kathie Lee. I don’t have anything against her. But she does horrible things!”

Howard described how Kathie Lee had asked a mother to come on the Today show with her son to describe his charitable friendship with a socially-awkward autistic student “Why does the mom need to brag about her son? About this?”

What’s worse, Kathie Lee also ushered in the autistic boy in question, just as he was finally making in-roads with his peers: “Now he’s like the poster boy for being the sad lonely kid…it’s child abuse!”

Kathie Lee then brought out an opera singer to sing a song Kathie had written about the boy’s plight–a song with horrifically offensive lyrics: “‘We see them everywhere’? Like they’re monsters?”

Howard put himself in the poor kid’s position, saying it was no wonder he cried on-camera: “I can’t believe I’m on national television and this old lady is singing about what a loser I am.” Robin laughed at the lyrics’ irony: “She’s the kind of person who’d walk past this kid every day.” Before moving on, Howard sang in his best Kathie Lee voice: “I encourage all of you to talk to an ugly kid today!”