It has been said you can judge a society by how it treats its 79-year-old comedic legends who are caught doing something that every normal human being does on a regular basis.
Ok, it probably hasn't been said, but it damn sure should have been.
Fred Willard appeared on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" on Thursday to talk about his new show "Trust Us With Your Life," but there was, of course, an issue he had to address first. And he did so with charm, grace and humility.
Though it must be said that the incident is something no one other than Willard should know or care about (and most of the internet agrees with us on that) the slightly uncomfortable but good-spirited chat between Willard and Fallon was a clear effort to put the issue to rest and let the actor move on with his career and life.
Towards the end of the conversation, Willard commented on being "in the wrong place at the wrong time," but we would argue that if the elements of the story as it has been reported are true, wasn't this both the right place and the right time?
Either way, we hope this is the end of it. But we would be remiss if we didn't point out that PBS, who fired Willard from "Market Warriors" immediately following the incident, should be ashamed. It pains us to say that, given PBS has lately been responsible for some of our favorite new viral videos. But you don't fire Fred Willard for allegedly doing something so ubiquitous there was an entire "Seinfeld" episode about it 20 years ago. You just don't.
Show your support for Fred by tweeting with the hashtag #fredwillardnationaltreasure or writing a blog or Tumblr post with "Fred Willard National Treasure" in the title.