Matt Lauer probably wishes he could "misremember" this moment from the 40th Anniversary of SNL on Sunday.
During his the red carpet portion of the night, Lauer and co-host Savannah Guthrie were having a quick, lighthearted chat with Jim Carrey and Tina Fey about their memories from the show.
Then things got awkward.
"Can I ask you a question, you guys?" Carrey asked. "Where are you hiding Brian Williams? Where is he?"
Williams was temporarily suspended this past week from hosting the "NBC Nightly News" after he was caught lying about being shot down in a helicopter during the Iraq war… among other things.
"I just want to say something in his defense," he added, while Fey silently stood next to him. "If the helicopter in front of me gets hit, I'm taking the story."
But Carey wasn't the only one to bring up the elephant in the room.
Jerry Seinfeld mocked the news anchor in his bit later on in the night.
"You know there are so many things about 'Saturday Night Live' that people don't know," he said. "Like for example, I just found out that one of the original cast members in 1975 was Brian Williams. I didn't — I don't know if that's true. But I never heard that. It doesn't sound true. It might not be, it might not be."
brian williams
Remember that time Brian Williams was shot down in a helicopter in Iraq?
Well now neither does Williams, and he is apologizing publicly for the erroneous story which he has been telling for years after being called out by some of the troops who actually were in the attack.
Sorry dude, I don't remember you being on my aircraft, said Lance Reynolds on Facebook. I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened.
He brought up the story in a news segment Friday about a tribute to a retired soldier at a New York Rangers game.
But crew members told the military news site Stars & Stripes that this never happened, and Williams issued a retraction.
I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago, Williams said on NBC Nightly News Wednesday. I want to apologize.
The soldiers of the 159th Aviation Regiments Chinook which was actually shot down claim Williams was in a helicopter that arrived an hour later.
I don't know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another. Williams said.
He later elaborated and apologized further in a Facebook comment:
You are absolutely right and I was wrong. In fact, I spent much of the weekend thinking I'd gone crazy. I feel terrible about making this mistake, especially since I found my OWN WRITING about the incident from back in '08, and I was indeed on the Chinook behind the bird that took the RPG in the tail housing just above the ramp.
Now people on Twitter have started a hashtag to shame him called #BrianWilliamsMisremembers, in which he claims he was part of some other major historical events.
Apple takes most of the flak for this marketing strategy, but the truth is that companies have been doing it practically since the concept of "companies" was invented. Economists even have a dedicated term for it.
Brian, I think you made the wrong career choice being a news anchor!
