I don’t know who I feel sorrier for on press tours, the actors, who have to answer the same boring questions a thousand times, or the entertainment reporters, who don’t feel like they’ve done their jobs unless they ask the same boring questions that have already been asked a thousand times. Okay, that’s a lie, I definitely feel worse for the actors, but only because entertainment reporters all seem like such tumbling, tumbling dickweeds. Proving why he’s a national treasure, Samuel L. Jackson had a novel response to Fox Houston’s Jake Hamilton when asked about 
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He was actually talking about Jackie Brown there, but who could tell? Anyway, Jackson refused to answer Hamilton’s question until Hamilton actually said the word “n**ger,” not the sanitized “the n-word.” Transcript follows, video below.
HAMILTON: There’s been a lot of controversy surrounding the use of the N-Word in this movie and-
JACKSON: No, nobody, none- The word would be…?
HAMILTON: (*sigh*) Oh, I can’t say it.
JACKSON: Why not?
HAMILTON: I don’t like to say it.
JACKSON: Have you ever said it?
HAMILTON: No, sir.
JACKSON: Try it.
HAMILTON: I don’t like to say it.
JACKSON: TRY IT.
HAMILTON: Really? Seriously?
JACKSON: We’re not gonna have this conversation unless you say it.
HAMILTON: …
(starts at 13:54)
JACKSON: You wanna move on to another question?
HAMILTON: Okay. Awesome.
JACKSON: (*laughs*)
HAMILTON: I… I don’t like to say it.
JACKSON: Oh come on!
HAMILTON: Will you say it?
JACKSON: [turning serious] No, f*ck no. That’s not the same thing.
HAMILTON: Why do you want me–
JACKSON: They’re gonna bleep it when you say it. On your show–
HAMILTON: I know, but–
JACKSON: SAY IT!
HAMILTON: I can’t, I- If I say it, this portion won’t make it to air.
JACKSON: Okay, forget it.
HAMILTON: Okay, I’ll skip it. Sorry, guys. It was a good question.
JACKSON: No it wasn’t.
HAMILTON: It was a great question.
JACKSON: It wasn’t a great question if you can’t say the word.
Okay, Jake, fine, so you can’t say the word. That doesn’t mean you can’t still paint it on a flag and shoot it out of a gun while you unicycle. Come on, dork, entertain me. They’re not paying you to be Cronkite.
[hat tip: THR]
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Nagger?
[www.youtube.com]
“Oh, Naggers, of course… naggers”
Nesbian?* Nerdlinger? Nerf Herder? Nachtmusik?
*I am going to use this joke every time.
Samuel L. Jackson ain’t care.
Ni?
He said,”The sheriff’s near.”
Has anyone ever seen Jake and Vince in the same place at the same time?
Also, dude lives in Houston and has never uttered the word n_gger, ha!
Neanderthal? Noob?
Those n-words be acting all crazy.
… and shit.
TRY IT lol
I don’t see what the big deal is… why won’t he say the N word? NINJA! Jesus! Juggalos say it all the time, and those guys are so white you’d think they were wearing tremclad spray paint on their faces
This kind of stuff always brings me back to Luis C.K. who said something along the lines of “If you say ‘the n-word’ you’re an asshole because all you’re doing is making someone ELSE think the word ‘nigger’.”
Probably shouldn’t quote something I’m paraphrasing, but I’m too lazy to Google at the moment…
Pretty close.
“Everybody – everybody has different words that offend them, different things that they hear that they get offended by – I’m – to me, the thing that offends me the most, is every time that I hear the “N” word. Not “nigger” by the way. I mean the “N” word, literally whenever a white lady on CNN with nice hair says: “The ‘N’ word.” That’s just white people getting away with saying nigger, that’s all that is. They found a way to say nigger. “N word.” It’s bullshit cause when you say the “N word” you put the word nigger in the listeners head. That’s what saying a word is. You say the N word and I go oh she means nigger. Your making me say it in my head. Why don’t you fuckin say it instead and take responsibility, with the shitty words you wanna say. Just say it, don’t hide behind the first letter like a faggot just say it, say nigger you stupid cunt. I don’t know I don’t care. Somebody will kick my ass.”
Fuck yes. CK was the first thing that came to my mind as well.
I thought the best part was Jackson’s deadpan “No it wasn’t” when the interviewer kind of tried to push it back by saying, “It was a good question.”
Amen. What kind of douchecanoe tells people “Sorry everyone, my question was too good for this.”?
BS put the blame back squarely where it deserves; on Spike Lee who has single handedly made this an issue.
I clicked the link for his 97 interview but all I got was a recipe for a delicious Skillet meal
I think that the interviewer was right not to say the Nigger word, insofar as it is in no way career enhancing for a clip of him saying it to exist.
There was a radio show where Patrice O’Neal (RIP funny man) said the word “kike” was derived from the German/Yiddish word “kikel,” meaning “circle,” that Jews once used regularly for one reason or another. CK responded that the word “nigger” originated this one time when somebody was acting like a nigger.
well i think that reporter is in a no win situation. but honestly, he should have known better than to be a meek fumbling super white guy and ask Samuel L. Jackson of all people a question like that. so he deserved what he got. but no, caving in and saying “ok mr. jackson, nigger!” would not have done him any favors and he did the only thing he could do and just moved on in shame
and that CK moment can be found on youtube and it’s one of the funniest things i’ve ever heard, made all the more better by patrice losing his shit with laughter when he said that.
I think if Samuel L. Jackson says it’s okay for me to say it, then imma do it.
Thing is, that guy seems like a very good interviewer. Most of those were not hack questions. Also, Foxx didn’t seem to be fond of saying “nigger” either, even when it was central to what he was talking about.
“NIGGER” MOTHERFUCKER, DO YOU SPEAK IT?
You made me spit out my beer. Well done.
Funny- Sam Jackson channeling Sam Kineson.
“Say it!!! Saaaaay ittttttttt!!!!! Awwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
All right. I’ll say it. ‘Cause Truman was too much of a *pussy wimp* to let MacArthur go in there…..
If there was a show called “Samuel L. Jackson Makes White People Nervous” I would never leave the house
I would continue never leaving the house.
Whatever. Nigger. Nigger, nigger, nigger. Can we just talk about if the movie sucks or not now? I’m so bored of “talking” about shit.
Necronomican Ex-Mortis! **Starts running as the Undead appear.**
Sammy L makes everything more interesting.
Like most non-Southern white people, I only say “nigger” when I am singing along to hip hop music. Which I think is fine as it’s like literary license, like you are reading Huck Fin or something (people saying “N-Word” when reading aloud from “Huck Fin” or other literature is a pet peeve of mine. We all see the word as it’s written right there, just fucking say it!). Saying the “n-word” is just childish in such contexts I think, and it actually gives the word more power than it deserves. It’s just a word, afterall, and like most words its meaning depends mostly on the context within which its used.
Which I think is Jackson’s point here. If this guy wants to ask a serious question about Jackson’s feelings on the word “nigger” then why can’t he say the word like an adult? Why’s he have to pussyfoot around it like a child? If you were discussing the word’s meaning in a linguistics class you wouldn’t say “n-word” would you? So why do news reporters always have to say “n-word” like they are a bunch of 8 year olds?
Grow up and have the balls to own what’s coming out of your mouths.
That last sentence gave me the weirdest boner
Let’s watch the white reporter wade into the old racial minefield and laugh as he struggles to follow the shifting PC Pop Culture Rules we all had a hand in writing. Because there is no risk in a white entertainment reporter saying nigger. None.
Yeah, just in further defense of the reporter Jaime utters “nigger” under his breath but nearly inaudibly if he finished the word at all and later refers to it as “the n word.” So with Jaime being as comfortable with it as he claims to be – however comfortable that may be – he still doesn’t take it lightly.
Being who I am, I would only say it in front of him if I surrounded it with ” you mean that horribly hateful word …” or the like.
Enjoyed the interviews! looking forward to Django Unchained for sure.
No shit I said said it in front of a high school class when I was debating my teacher. He called Bush supporters “crackers”, and I not being anywhere near old enough to care about political parties said that that was basically the same thing as calling black people niggers. Whether that’s accurate or not, I don’t know or care-I was 18. The fact is I totally threw down the N-bomb for the first and what I still assume will be the last time ever (in a high school mind you) and totally got away with it.
Looks like the n-word is the 800 pound gorilla in the room.
(*tap dances – in blackface*)
[www.youtube.com]
I admit it. I’m a racist… a buggy racist. #AmishMafia
Tarantino would be wearing Wu Wear. NOT EVEN WU TANG WEARS WU WEAR!
“Necktie, nectar, nickel, noodle. It’s an N-word, it’s definitely an N-word…” – Ash
Should have had Michael Richards conduct the interview.
Should’ve had a V8
Never in my life I will hear of a guy who is so chicken-hearted like “Mr.” Hamilton. Lady Hamilton is not a man. He is just a nothing, the biggest wimp on earth.
I totally thought that Hamilton was Vince at first until he refused to say the N word
Okay, THAT’s funny.
No one person or group “owns” any word. If someone takes offense to a certain word then it is their problem, not yours.
using the term “n-word” does give the word more power Nas wanted to release his “untitled” album with the title “NIGGER” to reduce the power of the word and well you can see what happened it dropped and was called “untitled”