Mayor Eric Garcetti used the “F-bomb” in declaring it a big day for Los Angeles, bringing 19,000 hockey fans to their feet, lighting up the Twitterverse and, oh yeah, leaving some folks scratching their heads and wondering just what the heck the normally soft-spoken politician was thinking.
Having shed his pinstriped suit for a hockey jersey, Garcetti stepped in front of the television cameras and a full house at Staples Centre, where the Los Angeles Kings had won ice hockey’s Stanley Cup championship just three days before.
“There are two rules in politics,” Garcetti told those celebrating the victory. “They say never ever be pictured with a drink in your hand. And never ever swear.
Then he added dramatically: “But this is a big f***ing day. Way to go, guys.”
Within minutes, Garcetti’s remarks were trending on Twitter and appearing uncensored on YouTube, just as Fox Sports West was apologising for letting them get on the air.
There are two rules in politics. They say never ever be pictured with a drink in your hand. And never ever swear. But this is a big f***ing day. Way to go, guys
Mayor Eric Garcetti
“He said that?” Thomas Hollihan, an expert on political discourse, civil society and contemporary rhetorical criticism at the University of Southern California, asked incredulously.
This was, after all, not some drunken musician accepting an award somewhere. Nor was it a celebrity caught up in a silly dispute captured by the cameras for TMZ. This was the mayor of the second-largest US city, gleefully shouting it to the masses.
“When you’re an elected official, people have a higher expectation for your speech, your conduct … than they would if you’re an entertainer,” said Hollihan.
He added that he hoped Garcetti, whose public persona was normally about as mild as his city’s weather, was not trying to boost his hipness cred.
Although the F-word’s shock value is declining, Hollihan said, it was never smart for a politician to toss it around in public, even in front of a crowd of screaming hockey fans.
“The little old ladies in the valley are going to hear this too,” he said, referring to the city’s more conservative San Fernando Valley, where Garcetti grew up. “As are the church people in neighbourhoods where they are not hockey fans, but they care a lot about conduct and character.”
But where putting the word out over the airwaves once would have prompted a federal inquiry, that’s not so much the case anymore. When David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox let it slip last year during a televised event honouring first-responders to the Boston Marathon bombings, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission himself tweeted that it was no big deal.
And when, thanks to a bank of microphones, the world heard Vice President Joe Biden whisper to President Barack Obama, “This is a big f***ing deal,” as Obama was about to sign the Affordable Health Care Act, the slip was quickly forgotten.
Mayor Garcetti’s official Twitter account did repeat much of what he said – with the hashtag BFD.
Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live later on Monday, he said: “I got a little ahead of myself. But you’ve got to remember, we didn’t win at lawn bowling, we won in hockey.” The mayor added, “Kids out there, do not say what your mayor said today.”
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