Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
James Oddo's Outburst: Awesome or Awful?
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 10, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 10, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
The video of City Councilman James Oddo letting the f-bombs drop on a Norwegian TV comedian is getting mixed reactions - and a fair number of chuckles - from New Yorkers, but now it turns out that he wasn't meant to be a poor sap duped into answering stupid questions about whether Barack Obama is an American citizen and "Hillary Clinton's incident with a cigar."
A spokesman for the Norwegian program "Rikers Rost" tells the Staten Island Advance that the interviewer, Pia Haraldsen, was supposed to be, well, roasted: "Creating a situation where the person being interviewed has some problems understanding what's going on because it's a tad absurd, that's where the comedy lies. I believe most people, at least in Norway, understand that this is about the ignorant, blonde stereotype's lack of knowledge." Ohhh - it was supposed to be one big blond joke. That makes so much nonsense.
Some people feel that Oddo embarrassed Staten Island - and Italian-Americans - but others were thrilled. One email Oddo got, per the Advance, read: "Your response to those liberal European d-bags was the greatest thing I have ever seen. I love how you did not take any [expletive] from them when they tried to get you to say something bad. I am a Texan and I have a lot of pride in that, but I can say don't [expletive] with a true New Yorker!"
Oddo himself told the Advance, "Obviously, do I regret demonstrating a truncated list of the vocabulary words I memorized? Yeah...I have a good sense of humor. I didn't find anything funny about these questions. The implication was we're a racist country. That's what the Obama question was. The Hillary Clinton question was beyond the pale."
The Daily News published an editorial in support of Oddo: "Ourselves, we salute the man as a genuine Stand-Up New Yorker. Our compliments...Reality TV at its absolute very finest. Oh, let's watch it again."
Tagged
barack obama
city
City Councilman
City Councilman James Oddo
clinton
comedy
daily news
hillary clinton
humor
italian
james oddo
lies
love
new yorker
new yorkers
news
News: NYC
obama
people
poll
polls
racist
reality tv
staten island
Staten Island Advance
Take Our Poll
the daily news
tv
video
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
DSNY worker arrested for killing a woman in Brooklyn while driving a garbage truck
A sanitation worker from Staten Island was charged with with failure to yield to a pedestrian for fatally striking Siobhan Lynch last week.
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Published Nov 5, 2026 at 8:18 a.m. ET
Brooklyn fire kills 6 people, injures 7 others in Sunset Park, officials said
A lithium-ion battery was found at the scene but the exact cause is unknown, officials said.
By
Brittany Kriegstein
News
Brooklyn fire kills 6 people, injures 7 others in Sunset Park, officials said
A lithium-ion battery was found at the scene but the exact cause is unknown, officials said.
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Mamdani pledged support for NYC street vendors. Now they’re facing a crackdown.
By
Liam Quigley
‘Mind-boggling’ killings show persistence of NYC’s domestic violence problem
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Bronx man wakes up to a $39K nightmare after online meetup at hotel, NYPD says
By
Charles Lane
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .