Unprepared and oblivious, Fox & Friends co-hosts Gretchen Carlson and Dave Briggs thoroughly embarrassed themselves this morning in their interview with country music superstar Hank Williams, Jr. Even worse, they did not even seem to fully realize it.
As Gretchen introduced the Hank Williams “Bocephus Bailout Package” segment, she said, “He’s calling it the Bocephus (short”o” and schwa “e”)? Is that what it is? I’m going to have to ask him? Is it Bocephus (long “o” and schwa “e”)?” Dave guffawed, “I’m not sure: I saw it on his guitar.” Incredulous and a mite miffed, Williams shook his head, smiled, crossed his arms, and literally bit his tongue.
Iterating both of Gretchen’s pronunciations to Williams, Dave asked, “What is it? Bocephus [or] Bocephus? I know it’s your nickname.” Williams decided to be more charitable than colleague Trace Adkins who called Brian Kilmeade an “idiot” when he made a similar goofy gaffe.* Still shaking his head and crossing his arms, Williams good-naturedly scoffed, “Hey, ya’ll, my goodness! It ain’t either one! It’s Bo(long “o”)ce(long “e)phus.”
Consequently, abashed and wide-eyed, Gretchen grimaced: Then she apologetically and accurately echoed, “Bocephus.” Likewise, a sheepish Dave grinned and repeated, “Bocephus.”
Later in the program, after Williams sang “Red, White & Pink-Slip Blues,” Dave applauded, “Good stuff, Bocephus!” Gretchen chuckled, “We’re never going to forget that!” Williams riposted, “Neither am I.”
Gretchen, Dave: Idiots? Nah. But, please, a little more prep, guys!
F&F (4/15/09) – @7:23 a.m. ET
*https://jakeho.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/trace-adkins-kilmeade-suc-an-idiot/
Tags: Bocephus, Bocephus Bailout Package, Brian Kilmeade, Dave Briggs, David Briggs, FNC, Fox & Friends, Fox and Friends, Fox News, Gretchen Carlson, Hank Williams, Trace Adkins
Carpe Diem 
April 15, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Idiots? Yes!
What an embarrassing jaunt into journalistic sub-mediocrity. Who is responsible for briefing the “talent?” Gretch and Dave you blew it big time. Perhaps you should spend a little more time prepping for the segments and a little less time prepping your smoothies. Sheesh!
April 15, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Must be a “southern” thing… I would certainly have gotten that wrong. Of course, I don’t have a research staff looking things up for me before I go on tellys nation-wide.
April 15, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Man, I tell you what: You sure can tell that neither Gretch nor Dave hailed from my old hometown. Hank Jr. was a national celebrity there and when he came to Jackson (MS) to do a show (about once every 2 years), just about the entire town cleared out and went to the concert, including the police force. A bank robber would have had a field day.
Ol’ Hank’s music was best appreciated via a cassette tape in the stereo of a pickup truck whilst drinking Budweiser in the company of one’s friends hanging out on Friday & Saturday nights “on front street”, or down at the local creek, or in the gravel driveway of somebody’s house. In the words of the immortal Bocephus:
“I can plow a field all day long;
I can catch catfish from dusk to dawn;
I got a shotgun, a rifle and a 4 wheel drive;
And a country boy can survive!”
April 16, 2009 at 10:54 am
I am 77 years old and was doing my 20 minutes on the elliptical at Gold’s Gym with TV attached. I was shocked that neither of these two knew the name, Bocephus. Now I was in high school in the early 1940s and knew that Bocephus was the name of Alexander the Great’s horse. So the reason Gretchen and Dave didn’t know that is they were in high school in the late 1980s and mid-1990s when ancient history was no longer important. So that’s their excuse on that. But for God’s sake even I, a minor fan of country music, knew that Bocephus was HW, Jr.’s nickname given to him by his father. Pile on top of that the fact that both of them have laptops in front of them on the set and it would have taken about 30 seconds to do a google search for “Bocephus.”
Yes, this was, to steal a comment from another commenter, mediocrity!
April 16, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Hank Jr. is certainly pleased that his daddy didn’t call him “Kaw-liga”. (reference to a famous Hank Sr. song about a ‘cigar store wooden Indian’)
April 17, 2009 at 4:50 pm
An inciting, insightful allusion, hgb3.