This story reminds me of a classic moment between the great Sandy Beach and Danny Neaverth when both were on WKBW in the early 70s. (I’ve related this here before but it bears repeating.)
 
They were coming back from a promotional station basketball game in Canada one night when Neaverth insisted they stop at a local Buffalo fast food restaurant. Beach was tired and just wanted to go home, but agreed.
 
It was a Friday night and the place was packed. After waiting forever, they finally got to the front of the line and that’s when Danny started doing shtick. The teenager behind the counter asked him what he wanted. He began stuttering as though he couldn’t understand her, indicating he was from a foreign country and didn’t know the language.
 
Beach stood there fuming, thinking he’d never get home, and decided he’d test his colleague’s ad lib ability. So as Neaverth kept saying, “No speaka, no unnerstand,” Beach tapped him on the shoulder, slapped him on the face and screamed in front of the whole place, “You’re in America! SPEAK ENGLISH!!!”
 
The entire diner went deadly silent. And that’s when Neaverth looked at Beach, turned back to the server and said in perfect English, “Yeah, I’ll have a hot dog, some fries and a Coke.”
 
It’s a great story and Beach tells it a lot. But can you imagine him trying that today with social media and cameras everywhere? Even though it was an in-on-the-joke situation, it would probably be a career ender today.