Out Of Their Cotton Picking Minds

Antenna TV has been showing old episodes of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.  If nothing else, they're fascinating time capsules, giving us a glimpse of celebrities of the day--some of whom got bigger, some of whom remained big, some of whom are all but forgotten.  Then there's his monologue, where he makes jokes that were once timely but are now dated.  Usually--I saw an episode from the mid-80s and he was cracking wise about Donald Trump.

Recently I saw an episode with Red Buttons.  Buttons was famous for his "Never got a dinner" routine at roasts.  It went like this:

Some of the most famous people in history never got a dinner!

Queen Elizabeth, who said, "Not now, I'm on the throne." Never got a dinner!

Jack the Ripper’s mother, who said to Jack, "How come I never see you with the same girl twice?" Never got a dinner!

Sophia Loren, whose new baby asked her, "Is all that for me?" Never got a dinner!

And so on.

Anyway, he adapted the bit for the show, saying these are people who have never got on Carson.  Then he did a bunch of jokes including one that started

Joseph Cotten, who said, "You know how I got my name?...

Then his lips moved but there was no sound until he said "never got on Carson."

So I wondered what could be so offensive that the whole sentence had to be removed.  It was easy enough to find.  Here's the entire line:

Joseph Cotten, who said, You know how I got my name? Sammy Davis picked it for me. Never got a dinner!

Really?  Is it that big a deal?