James Corden's CFDA Speech Targeted Fashion's Worst Assholes

By Ellie Shechet | June 2, 2015 | 3:15pm

Entertainment

I’ve been iffy about Late Late Show host James Corden for a while now, mostly due to his disastrous performance as host to Glamour’s 2014 Women of the Year Awards, in which he told a series of lightly misogynistic jokes that culminated in his telling Hillary Clinton that she was his “weird crush.” However! Judging from the transcript of his speech at last night’s CFDA Awards (and not the video above, which was heavily edited by the CFDA to eliminate anything even vaguely critical), he’s improved his game.

Corden threw a series of excellent barbs at some of the most hated men in the industry—most notably Terry Richardson and Harvey Weinstein—as well as various others. Here’s a sampling:

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“Asking me to host the CFDAs is like asking Terry Richardson to host your daughter’s birthday party.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, what a diverse crowd we have tonight. White gay men from all different areas of Manhattan have traveled to be here tonight to celebrate the best and the brightest fashion designers of the past 12 months.”

“2015 saw the firing of Michael Jeffries of Abercrombie and Fitch. Abercrombie and Fitch’s [CEO] Michael Jeffries once said, “Of course my brand excludes people. It’s for cool people.” Now, as I stand in a room in front of the coolest people on the planet, I can see not one person wearing Abercrombie & Fitch. Which I guess makes him supercool, and we’re all nerds. Mike Jeffries is here tonight; he’s winning the Swarovski Prick of the Year Award.”

“Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West are here tonight. We would like to congratulate you on your news today. There you are. Look at you, you beautiful bastards. Did you all know this? They’re having another baby. Amazing news. Kris Jenner said she can’t wait to meet her newest cast member, I mean grandchild. Your daughter North West famously threw a tantrum while sat side stage at a runway show this year. Kanye was not happy. He told her after the show that the West family only throws tantrums onstage.”

“Pharrell has basically spent the last year looking like Abraham Lincoln joined Run-DMC and still looked amazing. You’re just cool. You’re the absolute coolest. You make everyone around you cool. You even did what we thought was impossible—you made Robin Thicke cool for a summer. And I don’t think any of us realize how you did that. I mean, Marvin Gaye helped, but still, that is impressive. Robin Thicke is here tonight—I’m joking.”

“The truth is, without fashion, we would all be naked, and if you’re standing next to either me or Harvey Weinstein later, you’re going to be thankful that that isn’t the case.”

For the full transcript, head over to The Cut.

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