Kerry Parnell: Funny man James Corden’s ‘abuse’ of waiter not so amusing
Comedian James Corden was left with egg on his face after allegedly ‘abusing’ a waiter over an omelette. Never trust anyone who is rude to service staff, writes Kerry Parnell.
Opinion
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Never trust anyone who is rude to waiters, as your granny always says. Or to anyone in any kind of service role, when it comes to it.
There’s nothing worse than being in someone’s company who starts berating a waiter. It’s unnecessary, embarrassing and just wrong.
There are ways to complain – and being boorish and dismissive is not one of them.
However, when a waiter is rude to you, it’s simply delicious. This week, funny man James Corden wasn’t laughing when he found himself in the headlines after being barred from a top restaurant for his rudeness. Keith McNally, owner of New York eatery Balthazar, slammed The Late Late Show host for being an “abusive customer”.
He called the Gavin And Stacey star, “a hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny cretin of a man” on social media, saying he’d been rude after his wife’s egg-yolk omelette had a bit of eggwhite mixed in with it. Quelle horreur. McNally then banned him from the restaurant.
“It did not make me laugh,” he wrote on Instagram.
It made plenty of others laugh, however, and started an inevitable social media pile-on onto James and his poor behaviour. So much so, he immediately apologised.
“James Corden just called me and apologised profusely … All is Forgiven,” McNally later stated.
I’m not here to rub salt into his wound. He’s been served his just desserts and learned being rude to waiters is a recipe for disaster. Hopefully he’ll be a bit more civilised going forward, realise it’s no yolk making a scene over an egg-based meal and learn from the ensuing scramble to get his reputation back.
It’s a shame James and his wife were eating in a French restaurant in New York – he’d have had a different reception if he’d tried that in Paris. I was there recently and part of the joy of my trip to the French capital was the Gallic frankness, OK, rudeness, of waitstaff. It was brilliant.
Our dining experience started with the maitre d’, who let us into the restaurant we had booked, without asking for our booking, but inexplicably declared, “Non Monsieur!” to the man behind us, who slunk off down the street, protesting.
Then the waiter asked, “Do you speak French?” and when I panicked and said no, for fear they were going to test my schoolgirl French beyond, “une baguette, s’il vous plait” and “ou est la piscine?” they said, “Well, it is good that I do, then.”
Suitably chastised, I listened while they translated the menu for me from “langoustines”, to “langoustines” and “le tigre” to “the tiger” (I didn’t dare ask). Feeling confident, I ordered a glass of wine, only be crossly told, “that is red”. I wanted red.
I can only imagine what would have happened if I’d ordered an egg-yolk-anything and made a fuss – they’d have cracked. Next time James Corden goes out to eat, perhaps he should take his on-screen other-half Nessa.
She wouldn’t mince her words. As the legendary Gavin and Stacey character said: “I won’t lie, you’re not everyone’s cup of tea.”
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