Do You Remember When Gaybo Dropped The F-Word On TV? – EVOKE
You didn’t need to know Mike Murphy or the late Gay Byrne to know that their friendship was the real deal, it showed every time they appeared on screen together and sometimes with hilarious results.
Both men were fond of having a laugh and shared the same Devilish sense of humour but cheeky Mike may have gone one step too far in a prank that has since become the stuff of TV legend.
We are of course, referring to his infamous The Live Mike skit which proves the old theory that your closest friends are the ones that really know how to push your buttons.
Thankfully for us every second of poor Gaybo’s frustration was caught on camera for all eternity.
Imagine the scene, it’s 1982 and you’re trying to film an important TV segment in front of Trinity College but an irritating ‘tourist’ keeps ruining your shot.
The clip shows Mike, in disguise, as the ‘French Man’ coming up to Gay outside the Dublin university as he is filming a piece to camera.
Just as Gaybo makes his address to the camera, the rather annoying man won’t allow him to go through with his piece, and it is very evident that the Late Late presenter is becoming more and more annoyed.
It all culminates when the man comes up right behind Gay, at which point he turns around and says ‘do you understand the expression to f**k off?’
Mike could barely hold it together and he was the only one. Every household in the country was gleefully shocked to see the usually composed Gay lose his cool.
The host was known for his impeccable manners so to see him swear at all, let alone on the telly was jarring but in the funniest way.
Mike quickly admitted his true identity to Gay, promoting him to call him a fool for which he swiftly apologised and despite the pair had a great laugh about it.
He spoke about the hilarious encounter on Today with Dáithí Ó Sé and Sinead Kennedy, saying: ‘My reaction at the end of it was pretty awful, really. Because I was actually so stunned that Gay had said ‘F off’!”
‘He never cursed,’ Mike Murphy laughed. ‘He never cursed in real life, and to actually curse on television… And I just stood there like an idiot because I couldn’t believe, “Gay’s after cursing at me – on television!”‘
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‘It certainly got a [response]. Ah, look it – it is quite famous. Gay, poor Gay. God, we were great friends, as you know.’
‘We were out somewhere about three or four years ago, and some person came up and they were talking to the two of us and saying, “Ah, the two of you, Trinity College’ etc etc”.’
‘As we walked away, he said to me, “I sincerely hope that’s not all I’m going to be remembered for when I go!” But it wasn’t.’
Well, it’s definitely not all he’s remembered for, but it’s up there with one of our favourite moments.