Poor Neil

That cute little 'ol thang

We've all heard of the Neil Patrick Harris kerfluffle by now ... on last Friday's Live With Regis and Kelly, NPH said the word "tranny" not once, but twice.  Here's how the web-zine On Top described it:

During a segment with Science Bob, Harris and host Kelly Ripa inhaled sulfur hexafluoride, refereed to as “helium's evil twin” by the scientist.

Harris received big laughs from the studio audience when he delivered the line, “It puts the lotion in the basket,” a reference to the transgender villain Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.

“I've never sounded more like a tranny in my life,” Harris said after his voice retilurned to normal. “We can sound like trannies all the time. That would sound hilarious.”

Yes.  Hilarious.  To sound like trans-women desperately trying to make their voices right, so they don't get beat up or worse, is a barrel of laughs.  Or to associate the psychopath from Silence with the transgendered one more time ...

Anyway, NPH is a cute little thing, and he apologized in a cute little way -- in a tweet, natch -- saying

“Truly sorry for saying the word 'tranny' on Live this week. Twice! Should have been more thoughtful. Didn't at all mean to offend.”

 And I, for one, am willing to accept his apology -- he's so cute -- even though it was clearly premeditated, as the lead-in of Buffalo Bill shows.

But the good side to all of this is the headline

"Even Neil Patrick Harris can’t say ‘tranny’ — a teachable moment"

 Poor Neil.