Martha Stewart Reveals Obscene Nickname for Matt Lauer

Since NBC fired Matt Lauer from the Today show last week, more and more awkward on-air moments from the past have been resurfacing. What the executives probably never dreamed off was the rediscovery of the raunchy jokes made at The Friar’s Club roast of Lauer in 2008. Cameras and recorder were banned from the event, but journalists from The Village Voice wrote down the choicest jabs. The article is now being recirculated, as retrospective evidence of Lauer’s predatory behavior.

Among the roasters was Martha Stewart, the TV personality known for home-making tips and advice. Once she got on stage, even Stewart felt she had to say something about Lauer’s promiscuity.

“I hear NBC executives call Matt the ‘Cock of the Rock,’” Stewart reportedly said at the 2008 roast. In their article at the time, The Village Voice admitted that Stewart “looked pretty out of place at the Friar’s Roast.” However, if Martha Stewart herself was making lewd jokes at this event, that can only mean the more flippant guests were even worse.

Many NBC executives have been taking pains to suggest that they didn’t know about Lauer’s misconduct in the workplace before last week. Yet many of those same executives were on the guest list for the roast in 2008. Even if they believed that all the jokes made about their star host on stage that night were completely false, they should still have been cause for concern. If not, the roast likely wouldn’t have been such a private affair. After all, they say “a lot of truth is said in jest,” and in Lauer’s case, it seems that the jokes his friends made about him came pretty close.