‘That did not come out right’: Project hosts cringe over very rude gaffe

“That did NOT come out right.” The news headlines took a surprisingly rude turn during last night’s Sunday Project, leaving the hosts squirming.

Ah, the wonders of live television.

An unfortunate choice of words from comedian Tommy Little in the opening segment of last night’s The Sunday Project left his fellow panellists cringing — and begging for the funnyman to change the subject.

Little’s rather rude gaffe came after a news item about an Aussie daredevil who just became the first person to fly around the Sydney Opera House using a jetpack.

Little couldn’t hide his enthusiasm after incredible footage of daredevil David Mayman had played on screen.

“It’s a real line in the sand — I care about the environment, but if someone told me, ‘Hey, you can all have jetpacks, but the world will end in a couple of years’, I’d be like, ‘I’m wearing a jetpack’.” Little explained.

“I’m not even hearing the end of that sentence ’cos I’m jetpacking off on you!”

The panel paused for a second before host Sarah Harris groaned and buried her head in her hands.

Hamish McDonald looks like he just got it.

“Ohh … that did not come out right,” she said.

“Why, ’cos I said I’m jetpacking off on you? It does sound like a weird move,” laughed Little.

Sarah couldn't keep a straight face.

By now, panellist Susie Youssef had intervened, valiantly trying to get the conversation back to the news headlines.

“You don’t want to hear more about me jetpacking off on you? Guys, it’s not a real thing! I don’t know why you’re all …” Little said in mock exasperation.

Tommy, you know what you did.

It’s not the first time comedian Little’s cheeky sense of humour has left his Project colleagues blushing — just last month, a quip about his “small c**k” left live TV veteran Lisa Wilkinson red-faced and momentarily speechless.

“I’m done,” she said, after burying her face in her hands. “How good’s live TV? I know Tommy Little well, WHY did I do that? Next time, stop me before I kill again!” she said after she’d recovered.

The Project celebrated 10 years on television last Friday — and sole remaining original cast member Carrie Bickmore told news.com.au recently those live TV gaffes made for some of her favourite moments on the show. Asked to nominate her favourite episode from the past decade, Bickmore immediately picked a show where just about everything went wrong.

“About five minutes before we went to air — it was Fitzy, Waleed, Pete and I — they said, ‘We’ve lost everything. We’ve got no autocue, no packages to roll, we’ve got nothing’. We looked at each other and I said, ‘Let’s act out the news’.

“I picked up my sheet and went through the news headlines — I had to be careful not to pick ones where there was no joy in them — and we started acting them out. It was completely random, no prep, flying by the seat of our pants. It wasn’t a slick performance, but it was live TV at its best.”