Joan Rivers: 'Abe Lincoln Was Gay'

On NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Friday, comedienne Joan Rivers said Abraham Lincoln was gay.

This came seconds after the 79-year-old woman said she had sex with the 16th president using a vulgar word that begins with an "F" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

JIMMY FALLON, HOST: But here's the deal, because I know that you were dating, you were living, you dated a president at one point, didn't you?

JOAN RIVERS: Yeah, yeah. You know, people look at me now and you see an older woman. I lived, trust me. I had a very, I, this is going to sound, get ready to bleep, I f—ked Abe Lincoln.

[Cheers and applause]

FALLON: That's a first. Really?

RIVERS: That man would have been alive today except he was gay and he kept it quiet.

FALLON: Oh, I didn't know that.

RIVERS: Oh, the shawl. Grow up.

FALLON: So he would be alive today?

RIVERS: He would be alive today if he had listened. I said to him "Stay in bed," and he said "No, I want to go to theater." And that was it.

Now, she's a comedienne and these were jokes. I get that.

But would it have been less funny if she said "slept with" or "had sex with?"

Why the gratuitous vulgarity on a nationally-televised broadcast network, from a 79-year-old woman no less?

This is after all one of the nation's most revered presidents.

Isn't he entitled to a little more respect?

It just seems that with each passing year, vulgarity on television is becoming the norm, no one and no thing are considered sacred, and there's just no end to it.