James Corden is a British-born late night talk show host who's beloved by those who
watch him on TV every night. On more than one occasion, however, the funnyman has let
his affable mask slip. Here's a look at some of Corden's most eyebrow-raising moments.
James Corden boldly went where few have gone before in 2010 when he got into an on-stage
spat with Patrick Stewart. The drama happened when the Star Trek legend stepped up to the
podium to help present a category at London's Glamour Awards. Stewart soon let Corden know
he wasn't impressed by his hosting, telling Corden:
"When the presenters are up here and when the recipients are receiving their rewards,
don't stand at the back of the stage with your hands in your pockets looking around
as though you wished you were anywhere but here."
A shocked-looking Corden initially seemed apologetic for apparently looking so disengaged.
But he soon tried to put Stewart in his place, remarking that the actor should just present
the award without criticizing Corden's job at hosting. After the respected thespian added
he could see Corden's belly from where he was sitting, the host replied,
"You could see my belly? We can all see you dying right now."
Of course, as the master of ceremonies, Corden managed to get several other digs in at the
sometime-Captain Picard over the rest of the evening. Stewart later admitted he was embarrassed
by his conduct on the night and in 2016, The Sun reported he made amends with his one-time
foe on stage at Channel 4's Comedy Gala.
The 2008 BAFTA TV Awards should have been an evening of celebration for James Corden.
After all, he'd won Best Comedy Performance for his turn as Smithy in Gavin and Stacey,
and the same sitcom had been given the Audience Award. But apparently this wasn't enough for
Corden.
While accepting the Audience Award on stage, Corden wondered aloud why the hit BBC show
hadn't even been nominated in the Best Scripted Comedy category. It's fair to say that he
didn't receive the answer he may have been expecting. Instead of the audience whooping
in agreement, they greeted his ungracious query with a deafening silence. To his credit,
Corden later admitted that he'd acted like a, quote, "prat" in front of his peers. In
his 2011 memoir, May I Have Your Attention Please?, the comedian wrote,
"Rather than using my speech to thank everyone who'd helped on the show, I'd ruined the moment
and belittled myself in the process."
Luckily for Corden, the BAFTAs didn't hold a grudge and nominated him several times in
the mid-2010s for the BBC comedy The Wrong Mans.
James Corden shouldn't expect to be invited back to soap opera Hollyoaks if his career
ever takes a downturn — although the man himself has said he'd rather die than accept
such an offer, anyway. After all, Corden has done nothing but slam the long-running British
series ever since he guested as janitor Wayne back in 2000. In an interview with Esquire
magazine, Corden said,
"[Hollyoaks] just breeds [...] people walking around with this chicken-in-a-basket fame,
talking about going to LA, you know."
Corden's comments didn't go unnoticed by Hollyoaks cast member Ricky Whittle, who told What's
On TV,
"Good luck to him, I hope he doesn't bump into us on a night out! It's very childish
that he's slating the place where he came from, the place that made him, especially
when no one he's talking about is here any more."
Corden, who also criticized Hollyoaks in his 2011 memoir May I Have Your Attention Please?,
was later made to look slightly foolish by several graduates of the soap who went on
to land plum Hollywood roles on shows like Game of Thrones and movies like Pitch Perfect
3.
While being interviewed on James Corden's late night talk show in 2015, actor Lake Bell
mentioned that she'd once lived in Sidcup, England as a student. After responding, quote,
"That is not pleasant," to the news of his guest's unlikely former hometown, Corden added,
"Sidcup sounds like somewhere you go for afternoon tea ... you leave by the afternoon, because
you don't want to be there when it is dark."
Bell agreed, adding that when she arrived to Sidcup, there was a car commercial on local
TV that depicted the town as the, quote, "armpit of England." Unsurprisingly, the Sidcup masses
weren't too happy about being made fun of on American TV, and soon took to Twitter to
voice their displeasure. A disgruntled longtime resident, councillor June Slaughter, told
the Daily Mail,
"I cannot imagine why Sidcup would be described in such a way and wonder whether he has ever
been here. I think people would be extremely upset if they were told of his comments because
we take a lot of pride in our town."
James Corden and Matthew Horne had provided comedy gold as two of the stars of sitcom
Gavin and Stacey. It was less so, however, when the pair teamed up again for a BBC sketch
show dismissed by many critics as one of the worst TV series of the 2000s. That said, one
of the duo's many, many humorless skits poked fun at a fellow British funnyman that would
eventually become Corden's nemesis.
Yes, in 2008's imaginatively-titled Horne and Corden, the latter repeatedly mocked Ricky
Gervais while emulating his most popular character, The Office's David Brent. Gervais told Radio
Andy in 2017 that he'd taken no offense at this form of, quote, "friendly teasing." But
he may well have felt differently about the next jibe at his expense.
After being appointed as host of the 2011 BRIT Awards, Corden told Mirror that he wasn't
interested in following in the footsteps of the man who'd hosted the Golden Globes just
a month earlier. Corden said to the outlet:
"I'm not going to go down the Ricky Gervais road [...] I want to host the Brits with as
much warmth and sensitivity as possible."
Gervais has since taken several potshots at Corden in retaliation.
In September 2017, James Corden went viral for all the wrong reasons when he was pictured
planting a kiss on Donald Trump's former press secretary Sean Spicer backstage at the Emmy
Awards. Many critics believed that this cheeky display of affection was helping to normalize
a figure who, as The New Yorker put it, quote, "will be remembered for his lies."
"This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and
around the globe."
After suffering a similar backlash to the one Jimmy Fallon received for messing up Trump's
hair, Corden addressed the issue on his show. But he didn't exactly take things seriously,
telling the audience,
"I know you think that's a picture of me kissing Sean Spicer, but in the spirit of Sean Spicer,
no it isn't."
Corden's punchline-heavy approach then continued with this remark:
"I've been reading a lot of harsh comments on Twitter today and I hear you loud and clear;
truly I do. So much so that I'm starting to regret that "Carpool Karaoke" that we've taped
with Steve Bannon. Feels like a mistake today."
The funnyman's light-hearted response over the controversy did little to calm his many
detractors.
It seems unlikely that Pierce Brosnan will ever be invited onto The Late Late Show with
James Corden. While interviewing Khloé Kardashian during the "Spill Your Guts" segment on his
CBS vehicle in 2017, the comedian happened to mention he apparently had a less-than-pleasant
run-in with a famous face during a U2 gig. When Kardashian pressed further about the
person's identity, Corden revealed that it was the former James Bond.
Corden went on to recall the time he stood next to Brosnan at a U2 concert. Corden said
the Mamma Mia! star left halfway through the show with his friends, leaving their spot
in the audience empty for a while. Corden recalled how he and his wife then moved into
the empty area where Brosnan had been standing, only to have the actor show up a short time
later. Corden then revealed what happened next:
"This arm went on here and just pushed me out the way. And I was… I looked at him
like that, and he didn't even glance at me. He just moved back into his area and looked
at me like that."
Kardashian tried to come to the Tomorrow Never Dies star's defense, suggesting that he may
not have been in the most sober state of mind at the time. But the host wasn't having any
of it, responding that Brosnan was clearly being rude to him.
The sheer, unadulterated awfulness of the big screen Cats may have been one of the most
unifying things in late 2019. And even the actors who appeared in the film couldn't resist
taking a jab at one of the biggest Hollywood flops in recent memory.
James Corden, who portrayed Bustopher Jones in Tom Hooper's bizarre take on the hit musical,
first stuck the knife in while appearing on Zoe Ball's BBC Radio 2 breakfast show. When
Ball asked about the Andrew Lloyd Webber adaptation, the funnyman replied that he hadn't seen it
and, quote, "heard it's terrible."
A few months later, he poked fun at the movie again when he joined co-star Rebel Wilson
in full cat costume to present an award at the Oscars. Corden joked to the audience:
"As cast members of the motion picture Cats, nobody more than us understands the importance
of good visual effects."
Understandably, the team behind those visual effects weren't too happy at being mocked
on such a grand stage. Following Corden and Wilson's routine, Moving Pictures Company's
Yves McCrae tweeted,
"Hey guys I haven't watched all of the Oscars but I assume these two were really classy
and thanked me for working 80 hour weeks right up until I was laid off and the studio closed,
right?"
Here's one example of when James Corden's snark appeared entirely justified. In September
2019, Bill Maher controversially claimed on his Real Time show that fat-shaming needed
to stage a comeback. Being a plus-size man, the Cats star understandably didn't appreciate
his fellow talk show host's call to arms. On his own late night hit, Corden fought back
against Maher by saying:
“Fat-shaming never went anywhere. I mean, ask literally any fat person. We are reminded
of it all the time."
As well as opening up about his own personal struggles, Corden also managed to get a few
digs in against the fat-shaming movement's apparent new spokesman, by saying:
"We're not all as lucky as Bill Maher, you know? We don't all have a sense of superiority
that burns 35,000 calories a day."
After suggesting that Maher's intentions were well-meaning, he concluded the surprisingly
heartfelt segment with this:
"Please hear me when I say this: When you're encouraging people to think about what goes
into their mouths, just think a little harder about what comes out of yours."
James Corden was accused of essentially disrespecting an entire community with his portrayal of
gay Broadway actor Barry Glickman in Ryan Murphy's star-studded The Prom. Eyebrows had
already been raised with the casting of Corden — who has been married to Julia Carey since
2012 — with critics arguing that the role should have gone to someone within the LGBTQ
community.
And Corden didn't help matters with a performance that was described as stereotypical. In fact,
the comedian suffered possibly the biggest backlash of his career due to the Netflix
original which sees a bunch of musical theater has-beens attempt to boost their profile by
jumping on a charitable bandwagon.
Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson argued that straight-identifying men should no longer be allowed to play gay
until, quote, "the sins of The Prom are properly atoned for." Erik Anderson of AwardsWatch
was even more scathing, tweeting,
"The main, and huge, drawback is James Corden. His performance is gross and offensive, the
worst gayface in a long, long time. It's horrifically bad."
IndieWire's Zach Sharf, meanwhile, also took to Twitter to declare:
"The Prom shouts about tolerance but has James Corden leaning into effeminate gay stereotypes
every chance he gets. Someone make it make sense?"
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Nicki Swift videos about your
favorite celebs are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so
you don't miss a single one.