Johnny Carson's Practical Joke on Joan Rivers - Margaret Thatcher Impressionist (about 1983)

tribution those of you who've seen Joan Rivers realize that she does some rather unusual material about the royal family of Great Britain matter of fact the Queen of England is one of my best friends she here how stress in a crap we New England she knows they Joan you're cleaning a go how do you do she goes toughest it I said this one's putting me on so was a joke I went well the weekend a bunch of dogs godless we call their names Queenie Prince in Dukes they were chosen you ever wonder what would happen if Joan Rivers happen to come face-to-face and had a confrontation with the Prime Minister of England Margaret Thatcher who after a few social amenities would start to ask Miss rivers about her material regarding the royal family now how do we bring that about well first we had to swear about 50 to 60 people of secrecy which we did then I had to lie to Joan Rivers now Joan's a very good friend of mine and I felt guilty for about 10 seconds because I realized how funny this could be so I called Joan we've known each other for 17 years and I said Joan would you mind coming to a small dinner for me up in Las Vegas it's very small you won't have to perform it'll take two hours of your time will fly open a private jet and you'll be back in two hours we arranged for Joan will be brought to this VIP lounge at the Los Angeles Airport however it didn't look like this on that particular day and we had to redecorate the room we had walls built to conceal four hidden cameras we had a control room we had lighting we had microphones we wanted to make it appear perfectly normal okay now keep in mind that Joanne agreed to come here we invited some friends to come with her to make it look perfectly legitimate and of course Joan's husband Edgar Rosenberg who also did not know what was going to take place we enlisted the aid of a well-known British actress Janet Brown who was portrayed Margaret Thatcher on a number of occasions we flew her from London to Los Angeles and spend a week preparing her for this practical joke also we enlisted the aid of a highly respected newscaster here in California John shubik to give the impression that he had just conducted an interview with Margaret Thatcher miss Thatcher by the way said she was on her way to the ranch in Santa Barbara to meet with President Reagan by a stroke of good fortune that particular weekend President Reagan happened to be at the ranch you follow this so far Joan Rivers is now coming to the TWA lounge she thinks she's flying to Las Vegas for a private dinner in my honor and all of a sudden she is in a circumstance and that is the key element to any complicated practical joke the victim must not have time to analyze what is going on the confrontation is there Joan is there and she has introduced starts to ask material and here is what happened this is the Prime Minister with your president I do feel that our sense of humor is vastly different from the American type of humor I do be I really do think so I sometimes wonder I have heard you see I have heard from some of my age but you have difficulty understanding the English language someone said to me this other month whenever you hear English people they seem to be saying what is it four four four yes I might show this I do that with Americans too so it's not just English please follow me because the English upper-class accent it's a beautiful I see you do understand what I'm saying perfectly fine you find the American sense of humor is such that how should i said that they do not mind being insulted do fine do you think this point you see someone else from my entourage was explaining to me but you do like to in your material talk about our voice find really rather difficult to accept well I talk about just you understand yeah I talk about behind way nice work well give up in a humorous way when I say and I speak about our own I speak a laugh about our own people I mean I do my royal family I don't whether some of the remarks I believe a very insulting I do find this very difficult to to understand because as you know our royal family our queen particularly it's very very highly thought of oh I should help do you find that feeling for her I'm surprised indeed well I think possibly I would not have known but someone told me amongst my own it's just my husband's English so I I do all the matter I see you find this kind of thing goes down well with us oh yes I think being rude but you see I simply must stress miss rivers the relationships between Britain and America we know events but we help some of the things I teach Italy about Princess Anne and Prince Charlie please charge me or like and we're very hairs oh yes you see this is the kind of thing but really an artist of your standing because I have heard of this kind of things should take place and be seen on television but if I find it deeply distressing I can't only talk about my feelings and the royal family things you see to the queen bee Allegiance you must understand I really can't state this too strongly America and Britain are the strongest of Ally absolutely absolutely and and you have nothing else to say to me and as I feel so deeply about this may I just give you this letter which I think was I really I would like to see you know the letter she's handing Joan is from me here Joan you've been had well the the deed is done and that was the combination of our practical joke now you probably got a question like I do did y'all know about it how does she feel was she angry what was going through her mind all those things let's find out I died Johnny cuz it was it was the real thing you know I really haven't talked to you about this just yes we did this no no and I just I mean you feel like a fool I mean here's the Prime Minister of England oh please she's sitting down next to me and I know what I said about the royal family here and little do I know that she knew I mean and you start apologizing why I'm really me and I know me me yeah and she was she just wouldn't let go she was she was wonderful did you have any idea was a prime minister or it wasn't too frightened when she try to make the cameraman know she walked in with the press yeah everybody in the aides and sat down and she looked right and I'm little things I mean like she was wearing stockings with leg warmers oh but then we just do that could be a beauty you know she shops in Moscow little strange wig yeah so I really believe I have embarrassment because you you suddenly represent your country I don't where you tried to cop out a couple of times a couple of times whole life yeah you didn't mean this sure I just say you'd never do it again never never talk about it this is if they have arrested me the spy I tell them everybody oh I wasn't gonna stand up right now let me ask you one question yeah we've known each other for what 16 seven 17 years and in a way I felt guilty doing this because I said before I left the guilt cuz I know it's gonna be funny are you mad at me let me ask ya oh my whole career do you well come on seventeen years I'm on your show I have such warmth and affection why should I be angry that you maybe get up and get my hair done and drive an hour to the airport to have dinner with you and it's dead be metaphor language

Channel: ENTERTAINMENT BUFF

Views: 943,086

Rating: 4.7039247 out of 5

Keywords: practical, joke, Margaret, Thatcher, British, Royal, Family, Edgar, Rosenberg, Janet, Brown, Joan Rivers (Musical Artist), Johnny Carson (TV Program Creator), Margaret Thatcher (Military Commander), Practical Joke, Comedy, Funny, Hilarious

Id: BainzD2lKmk

Length: 11min 11sec (671 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 07 2011

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

That was fucking hilarious.