Comedian Pete Holmes admits that he deserved to be shot for how he unknowingly treated President Barack Obama’s daughter, Malia, at a recent stand-up gig. He went on Conan O’Brien’s late night show to tell the tale.
Holmes was performing at The Comedy Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts where Malia is a student at Havard University.
He says that while he was waiting to perform, he noticed to young women in the front row talking amongst themselves the whole time.
“I was watching the show before I went on — I went on last — and there were these two… young women in the front, that the whole show, they were whispering,” he said.
He explained that for a comic, this sort of thing is “worse than heckling.
“So, nobody’s mentioning it, and then I go on last,” he continued. “I tell a joke, they’re whispering, giggling, and I’m just like ‘what’s going on? I can see you!’ They were in the front row… Like, the spotlight was on them!”
Holmes says he asked the women to please be quiet several times, but the whispering continued. That’s when he finally lost it and yelled, “Shut the f–k up!” at them.
“At a certain point, I take the curtain, and I go ‘I don’t care, enjoy the show however you want, I just don’t want to see you,'” Holmes said. “And I cover them with the curtain. I thought this would get a big laugh! Nothing. The whole audience turns on me. I’m like, ‘what is going on?'”
PopCulture.com details what happened next:
Finally, Holmes said he learned of the two whisperers identities after the show.
“It was Malia!” he bellowed.
“Who let you put a curtain around President Obama’s daughter?” O’Brien asked incredulously. “Why weren’t you shot?”
“I should have been shot!” Holmes agreed. “I’ve never gotten off stage and been like ‘why wasn’t I shot?'”
Holmes imagined that the Secret Service did not intervene because they approved of his bluntness. He did an impression of them kicking back and saying “I like this guy” elsewhere in the theater.
Most commenters online seem to be siding with Holmes on this one.
“Good for him. Regardless of who her ‘daddy’ is, that is no way to behave, and he did ask her multiple times to shut the hell up. Ultimately, I have nothing to say but bravo, good sir,'” one said.
“Bad manners are bad manners no matter who your father is. Well done Pete for calling her out,” another wrote.
“You know you are being rude if Pete Holmes calls you out. He is like the nicest guy in comedy,” a third person noted.
