Anthony Anderson is addressing an old interview with Lindsay Lohan that’s going viral this week for all of the wrong reasons.
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Back in 2003, Anderson, known now of course for his work on “Black-ish,” was a popular stand-up comedian and TV star. In the clip, Anderson, 33, is a guest host on “The Sharon Osbourne Show,” which featured Lohan, 17, as a guest promoting her film, “Freaky Friday.”
Anderson makes consistent comments about Lohan’s age in the uncomfortable video, and how she had “grown up a whole lot” since she starred in “The Parent Trap,” as he put his hand on her knee.
He goes on to bring up her and Raven-Symoné, both popular teen stars at the time, saying that they were both beautiful. When asked if she had any plans on bringing “gentlemen” to her new home, she replied “no.”
“Hmm, she’s single but looking!” Anderson then responded to her, to which Lohan replied, “But I’m illegal for people that are old.” Then, Anderson made his comments that have gone viral all these years later.
“Well, you know, some men like ’em young,” he said to her. “We ain’t gonna mention no names, but, you know, I’m one of ’em.” Naturally, those comments have not aged well, and in light of Lohan promoting the “Freaky Friday” sequel, “Freaky Friday,” the clip is making the rounds.
The internet was flooded with reactions to the clip, with some fans going so far to say that they were “grossed out” by the interview. One user wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, “just saw an interview of Anthony Anderson saying “he likes them young” to an underage Lindsey Lohan. What a sick man!”
Another wrote in a separate post, “I watched the weirdest video of Anthony Anderson interviewing Lindsey Lohan and I am grossed out.”
In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, he reacted to the interview and the backlash. “This interview was clearly intended as comedy. He regrets if the humor was in poor taste and maintains the utmost respect for Lindsay,” a spokesperson told the outlet via email on behalf of Anderson. “Any implication to the contrary is both inaccurate and potentially defamatory.”
Moments like these, when old jokes come back to haunt comedians, are becoming increasingly common. Times are completely different now than they were in 2003, and comments like these, which were seen as par for the course in the comedy world then, simply do not fly anymore.
Anderson is not the first comedian to be taken to task for jokes that have not aged well (remember Kevin Hart’s homophobic jokes that received massive backlash?) and certainly won’t be the last.
Eddie Murphy has also come out and spoken about his old jokes in the past that have not aged well, as we reported. Back in 2019, he told CBS, “Some of it, I cringe when I watch. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I said that.” Especially in a digital age where old clips are discovered by a simple search, we continue to reevaluate what used to fly as “funny,” reckoning with our past as we make space for a more inclusive space in the comedy world.
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