Rosie O'Donnell's not the only one whose sense of humor is lost on View viewers.
In the wake of his seemingly inebriated appearance on the chatfest last month, Danny DeVito is now claiming the whole thing was a big joke.
Get it?
Though his sit-down was supposed to be geared toward promoting his new movie, Deck the Halls, DeVito spent the time rambling about everything from his sex life to his distaste for President Bush.
Apparently, it wasn't the alcohol talking.
"I was trying to be funny," the actor said Monday on CNBC's Conversations with Michael Eisner.
He admitted he was groggy, having taken a quick nap in his car, shortly before the appearance, after a late night out with George Clooney. But drunk? Not so much, though he can see how people might have misconstrued his humor.
"I said, 'I think it was the seventh Limoncello that got me,' " DeVito explained. "I was joking! That was a joke.
"And somebody just said, 'He's drunk,' somebody random on the show. I don't know who it was," he said.
The actor said he left the studio after his interview and got on a plane. He said he had no idea that the sit-down would generate so much attention.
DeVito also used the "not drunk, just groggy" defense on Barbara Walters, when he called her to smooth things over after the appearance, the talk-show host said last week.
Amid laughter from her co-Viewers and the audience, O'Donnell made it clear she wasn't buying that version of events.
"Danny, I love ya," she said. "It's all right that you were drunk."
O'Donnell said the incident had been blown out of proportion by the media and to illustrate her point, offered her perspective on the global impact of DeVito's appearance.
"The fact is that it's news all over the world," she said. "You know, you can imagine in China, it's like, 'Ching-chong, ching-chong. Danny DeVito. Ching-chong, ching-chong-chong. Drunk. The View. Ching-chong.' "
Cue the controversy. Following the remark, outraged leaders in the Chinese-American community lashed out at O'Donnell for making a mockery of the Chinese language.
"The 'ching-chong' bit is not a trivial matter. It really hits a raw nerve for many people in the community—many like myself, who grew up with these kinds of taunts. We all know that it never ends at the taunts," New York City Councilman John C. Liu said in an interview with Fox News on Monday.
Liu also wrote a letter to Walters, asking what she planned to do to "hold [her]self and those who host the program accountable for such offensive remarks?"
The answer is, apparently, nothing. In response to the controversy, O'Donnell's rep, Cindi Berger, issued an unapologetic statement to the New York Daily News, claiming her client was just joking around.
"I certainly hope that one day, they will be able to grasp her humor," Berger said.
O'Donnell addressed the matter on her Website Friday, writing: "It was not my intent to mock." On Sunday, she added another entry, writing, "I do many accents and probably will continue to. My mom-in-law impression offends some Southerners. What can u do? I come in peace."