Joy, a Podcast. Hosted by Craig Ferguson - 130 - Was A Kennedy Ever Eaten By A Shark?

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

This week Craig’s TV watching habits opened the floodgates to a bigger question. There’s a new CNN docu-series about the tragic death of JFK Jr. called “American Prince” and while watching it, Craig somehow got the notion in his head that at some point in history and of all the tragic deaths surrounding The Kennedy family one of them happened to be eaten by a shark. The JFK Jr. story has been on Craig’s mind himself, not just because the show he’s watching but he too has a pilot’s license and is an avid fan of aviation. Have a question for Craig? Drop him an email at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, send him a message on social media, or drop a comment below. _______________________________________________ Craig is also on the road. Dates and tickets can be found here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thecraigfergusonshow.com/tour ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠_________________________________________________ FIND CRAIG: Website - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thecraigfergusonshow.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/craigyferg⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@craigy_ferg⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.x.com/craigyferg⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/thecraigfergusonshow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ABOUT THE JOY PODCAST: Storied late-night talk host Craig Ferguson brings his Joy Podcast to you. Joy is a free association improvised broadcast with a quick witted smart ass. Craig answers your questions in his own way. No guests. No Bullshit (actually that’s bullshit. It’s all bullshit.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. This is me, Craig Ferguson. Come see me live in your region on my Pants on Fire comedy stand-up tour. For the full list of dates and tickets, go to the Craig Ferguson Show.com. VIP meet-and-grit packages are available as well. Come say hi and have a laugh. Ah, ha, ha. Hello, everyone.

Welcome to The Joy Podcast. My name is Craig Ferguson. I am your host of the Joy Podcast today and every day. And I'm also your guest for the Joy podcast today and every day. Today is a sunny day in Balimori. Balimori is not, of course, where I am. It's the name of a children's TV show in Scotland that my kids used to watch when we were in Scotland. And they would say, what's the weather like in Balimori today and today?

They would say it was a sunny day. Oh, you know how kids' programs work. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is this. it's a beautiful nice day here today and that's very pleasant to be around because it's been a bit grim up north. I'm up north, northeast

in New England. Oh, New England. Now, I've been watching, because I've been snowed in a bit, I've been watching the love story on the Huluos with my wife. Now, Hulu is a division of Disney. Nam. It used to be ABC. They're all on Dubai. I don't know. Warners or something now are Ford.

Anyway, the story, the love story show is about... It's not the old love story movie. I'm not talking about that. Love story movie was made the 1970s. It was one of two movies that actually were commissioned by the late Robert Evans, who I worked with at some point. Robert Evans was a sort of B-movie actor. the head of Paramount Studios, who saved the studios by commissioning two films that year. He commissioned a movie, because Paramount Studios was going to be sold to the graveyard next door.

They wanted to extend the graveyard. The graveyard, which is still there, but also Paramount Studios is still there. And Parliament Studios was going out of business, and they let Robert Evans run the studio for a little bit. I think it was 74. And he commissioned two films. he commissioned a film called Love Story and he commissioned a film called The Godfather.

Both of those films did pretty well. So, and he saved the studios and he wrote a book called The Kid Stays in the Picture, which is the best audiobook you will ever hear, by the way. If you're kind of like, I'm not sure about audiobooks

or I don't know if I want an audiobook, the audiobook of Robert Evans of autobiography, The Kid Stays in the Picture is fantastic. because Evans had a great voice. And I worked with him a little bit. He had a sweetheart deal at Paramount Studios. And back of the day, in the 1990s, I think,

or maybe the early 2000s, I had a three-picture writing deal at Paramount. I was working on the Drew Carey show, but I was also working as a writer because I had written some movies that had done some pretty well, and I had what's called a three-pitcher deal. And what it meant was Paramount would pay me a bunch of money,

and I would write three different. movie scripts for them, which I did. I wrote, I actually wrote more, I can row about six, but none of the movies were made because that's what happens most of the time in Sweetheart deals in Hollywood. You know what I mean? You see like people saying, oh, I've got a huge deal, they've got a huge deal at Netflix,

and then they don't make anything or they do a reality show or something. That's usually what happens is you make a deal, they give you a bunch of money, and then you submit a lot of things or you do a lot of work, and they don't make most of it. And that's kind of how the business model works, I, for one, I'm okay with it. I mean, there's got to be a better way of doing it, but I don't know what it is.

Anyway, at Paramount in the late 90s or early 2000s, I can't really remember when. Robert Evans had a sweet heart deal because he had saved the studio back in the day that he had become, how the studio was over, taken over. I think it was being run by Sherry Lansing at the time was the woman who was run in the studio

who had a couple of meetings with. It was a bit scary, but very nice. She was married. the William Freakin, Billy Freakin, who directed the, a bunch of movies. I think he did the French Connection and I think he did the Exorcist. I think. I'm not sure. Anyway, but I had a sweetheart deal or a sweetheart deal. I didn't have a sweetheart deal.

I had a three-pitcher deal. A sweetheart deal is a different deal. A sweetheart deal is what Robert Evans had at Parliament. and Robert Evans had a sweet art deal at Paramount because he had saved the studio and a sweet art deal means they gave him a studio they gave him an office, a suite of offices and an assistant and they paid his bills

and they paid a bit of a bit of money every year and basically they just kind of kept them solving and I gave him somewhere to go during the day and Robert Evans was a legendary figure in Hollywood a bit of a scary man in many ways and the first time I had the visit him, I had to go and visit him at his house, the house in the Hollywood Hills. And I went to visit him and he, when I came back, somebody at Paramount, I can't remember it was, the executive

I was working with at Paramount said, was the fountain on? I said, yeah, the fountain was on, because when you went, the fountain was on. He said, oh, you must like you then, because he would only turn the fountain on if he thought you were important. The fountain was on for me. I never went back a second time. I suspect later on the fountain would have been turned off. But I had a meeting with him because he had an idea for a movie which we never wrote.

And I never went any further than a couple of discussions. But basically he had found an old story or an old newspaper clipping or something from the New York Times years and years ago that basically it was

a story that for some reason, some old Scottish family might own the island of Manhattan and he wanted to write a movie about they claim the island and all that. You know, I kind of one of these movies that were done at the time like Saving Grace was just

what I wrote or the Phil Monti or, you know, those kind of things. Like sort of kind of quasi-ealing comedies, British comedies that were kind of popular in the 1950s and then kind of had a resurgence in the 1990s

the band of an hell of Ellen and come down a mountain and a bunch of other films. Anyway, Robert Evans, yes. So Robert Evans commissioned a film in the 1970s when he was running Pyramid Studios, and the film was called Love Story. That's not the love story I want to talk to you about. That love story, that movie was a shlocky Ryan O'Neill

and, oh man, an actress whose name escapes. He's super famous. And I, for some reason, that's my fault. Anyway, I'm sure you will know what it is, and I look forward to your comments. But the, what was the name? I never write. Anyway, he commissioned that movie called Love Story.

And Love Story, it was like the, it was a kind of tragic love story about two people who fell in love and it didn't work out. And in the byline, that's kind of tagline for the movie, it was very famous. It was love means never having to say you're sorry,

which of course, anyone who's been in a relationship in their life knows that that is the opposite of what's true. Love, particularly if you're in a relationship, means pretty much I'm going to say sorry a lot, even when it's not your fault. And in fact, especially when it's not your fault. Just say sorry. Anyway, that's not the love story I'm talking about.

The love story I'm talking about is on Hulu and it is a retell or a telling of the story of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, who tragically died in an airplane crash in 1999. And it is the story of their relationship. And I have to say, it's, it's, look, it wasn't my idea to watch it. I think you know what I'm saying. It wasn't, I didn't say, let's watch that, we're snowed in. But, um, but we watch it. me and someone I'm in a relationship with who I say I'm sorry to a lot even when it's not my fault so

especially when it's not my fault whenever it's convenient I sometimes just throw a sorry in there just walking by just walking by sorry anyway the although it may not know sound insincere or you're being trouble then you have to apologize for that and as a very much more complicated piece of business anyway the upshot is a terrible tragic story of JFK Jr. and

Carolyn Beset and her sister as well and was also killed in that playing grass she's not in the story that much so far that I've seen anyway

the she so we were watching this this thing and I was thinking Costa Kennedy's my goodness what

because the episode I just watched Jackie Onassis Kennedy Onassis, as JFK Jr's mom, JFK's widow, Jacqueline

Beauvier. Anyway, she dies in the episode and it was very sad. I was thinking of the tragedy of the Kennedy family. And that, for some reason, I go into an argument with the person I was watched it with, who I say sorry to her long. I said, you know, it's terrible, the tragedy of the Kennedys. I believe one of them was eaten by a shark.

And she said, don't they, well, it's never been a Kennedy eaten by a shark. Now, I was in my mind, I was convinced that a Kennedy had been eaten by a shark. And I still, you know, I had to go on Google and was a Kennedy ever eaten by a shark? No is the answer. Then I went out of the AI bit of Google And I go, and I have a bit of an argument with AI. I was like, was it a Kennedy eaten by a shark? And the AI was like, no, no.

I mean, there was somebody called Kennedy because sadly it by a shark, but no relation to the famous Kennedys. And I was like, that I'm sure I heard about Kennedy getting eaten by a shark. Anyway, I would like to start a rumor that there was a Kennedy by a shark, even though it didn't happen. Because I lost an argument with someone who then lorded it

over me, and now I have to watch the rest of this series about JFK Jr. and Carolyn Beset and their airplane. I think it was interesting about that, though.

The plane crash that they were in, he was piloting the plane. And that was in 1999. Now, when I learned, I got my pilot's license in 2008 during the writer's strike in California because I was on strike. So I didn't have anything to do. I couldn't work. And the deal that the writers, the WGA, the Writers Guild had at the time, was if you remember you, you shouldn't be writing at all.

I was like, oh, okay. So I learned to fly little airplanes. And of course, it's very much on your mind when you fly. little airplanes about well you know a lot about crashes in little airplanes and difficult so anyway I was talking to my flight instructor about that about the JFK flight accident and

it was basically what it seems to be a lot with small airplanes it's a continued flight into IFR so instrument flying condition IFC has been flying conditions by someone who wasn't really qualified

to be in those conditions and that's a that happens quite a lot I mean it was a bunch of things it was a I look I haven't read the NTSB thing on it but and I certainly know what deserves that but there was a lot of mistakes made along the way

and so what they do in aviation when you're left as they tell try to teach you how to not make these mistakes so part of the flying instructor because he went into what's called a graveyard spiral for all base reasons and so to recreate that

during a flying lesson there was they put on gogles on me so you can't see right you're flying the plane you can't see just like you couldn't see outside so you can see your instruments but you can't see outside the windows and then he said, all right, we're going to put these goggles on,

so you can't see the instruments, and you can't see the outside of the plane, and all I want you to do is fly the plane straight and level by just feeling flying the plane straight and level. So you think, well, I could probably do that. You can feel when it's straight and level. Well, here's the news. You can't.

You can't feel how it's flying straight and level. You think you can, but what I'm says is it goes into this weird spiral, which is hard to get out of. So obviously, if you're in a situation like that, but you can't fly the plane by looking out the windows, you have to rely on the instruments. That's why instrument-rated pilots learn how to fly by using the instruments with no visual reference outside,

which is a continuation of a pilot fly. The first pilot lessons you get is just flying, looking out the window with the single-engine, visual flight rule, single-engine pilot. Then the next type of up is instrument flying rules, IFR license, which is a harder license, because you're flying using only the instruments in the plane. And when I learned to fly, GPS was in its infancy. I wonder what it's, I mean, GPS systems are amazing.

I learned to fly on little round dials that you would knock sometimes. I don't know why. I just liked it because it felt like I was in a movie that I would knock sometimes knock the dial. It doesn't have. The dials work fine. Anyway, I learned around dials. I had a long dials.

And I'm glad of that because I think I think it's cooler. Anyway, it was on my mind while I was letting it fly. Everybody talks about it. And I haven't thought about it for a long time. And I haven't flown a little airplane for a long time. I feel like I'm on to again. I want to get back to fly little airplanes,

which is going to be a source of some interest to the people around here. But let me say this. It was also fed by the... I was in Hagerstown and then Maryland? Is Hagerstown in Maryland or Pennsylvania? I think it's Maryland. Anyway, I was in Hagerstown. and they have a I was a little early I was doing a show there

and I was a little bit early and so I looked at the Havestown Aviation Museum because I happened to know that there's a pretty good one now and indeed there is I hadn't been to it but I'd heard about it I went to and it's called an A10 Warthog which anyone who's into planes knows is the very distinctive military planes

amazing airplane. So I went to look at that. And they had a DC3, which is the classic giant old vintage tail dragger kind of, it was a beautiful air. You know the type of I mean. If you saw a DC3, you go, oh yeah, like in movies, when people ever have to like escape in adventures, they use a DC3

because they're a fabulous plane. They look amazing. So they had one of those, which was very nice. But when I walked in, this is one of the I mean, they had a bunch of different places. A lot of lovely, amazing airplanes. If you're ever in Hagerstown or even nearby, go to the aviation museum, it's really good. But when I walked in, the lady behind the counter just out of nowhere.

I said, I walked in, she didn't know me, I didn't know her. She said, oh, senior discount. And I was like, wow, but I am also Scottish. So I said, yeah. And I looked at it and it said, senior discount over the age of 55, which I am, there's no derided it. I'm a fair bit over the age of 50. So I got a senior discount, and she said,

with your senior discount, you get 10% off at the cafe. And so I took the 10% voucher. And I got some fries at the cafe as well. So that was my exciting adventure in Hagerstown, Pennsylvania. why am I telling you about this? Well, it's my check-in, really, isn't it? I'm checking in throughout the week. I've been on the road a bit, and I'm a bit tired.

And that's beginning to, I was going to say I's beginning to wind down a bit, but it's not yet. But soon, I will be dialing it back a little bit. I have some live dates and some TV work and stuff to do until the summer. And then I'm taking the summer off. I'll tell you why that's important because if I take the summer off and it's the summer and I'm in New England, why? What can you do with your summer?

You can get current on your flying license. You could maybe do that, couldn't you? I happen to know there's a little flight school nearby. And look, flying is, first of all, it sounds like it's super expensive. It's not cheap, but it's about as expensive as joining a golf club or something. I mean, it's not like you have to buy a plane. You rent planes and fly schools and stuff. So it's not like I'm flying around and big giant jets and anything.

You know, you go and you get like a Cessna 172 or something, and that's why I learned to fly it and fly it around. and it's a lot of fun. It's really a beautiful thing to do. And I only go into it because I was frightened of it. Isn't that funny? I only got into flying because I was frightened of it.

And I've told the story many times of how Kurt Russell got me into it and you can find that story everywhere and I wouldn't bore you with it again today. And it's not an important story. I just assume you've heard it before. And if you haven't, you can find it somewhere else. I've told it on multiple podcasts, probably this one as well.

I've done a lot of podcasts recently. And I'm okay with that. I did Tom Papa's podcast. The nice thing about doing Tom's podcast is that he gets you a loaf of bread. I mean, it's called Breaking Bread with Tom Podcast. Tom Papa, Tom Podcast. You know what? Be good if his name was Tom Podcast.

Then, you know, be well suited to be like, you know, if your name's John comedian and you're a comedian. Anyway, why isn't there? a John comedian. I suppose there's a Mr. Comedy or something. Anyway, when you do Tom Pappas' podcast, because it's a podcast that's called Breaking Bread, you sit down and you talk,

and Tom likes to bake bread and he's good at it, and he bakes you a little bit of bread. And I have to say, it's delicious. Which leads me on to something else that's been happening this week, which is, because of me to know it in, the person that makes me watch the love story show on Hulu

also is into baking bread and because of being snowed in she has been baking bread to see it's fantastic I love it and it's I think I might have gained a bit of weight I gain weight so easily

and as I get older it seems to be getting easier and easier to gain weight or maybe I just like eating more I do like to eat and I find it difficult not to, I've got a sweet tooth

so if I have bread it's always nice to have chocolate on it I don't do that I have done that but I don't do that often I guess that's just what a cake is anyway isn't it it's like a sort of bready thing with chocolate anyway Mrs Baker

who's not her real name her real name is Mrs. Frederick well that's not real name Anyway, Mrs. Ferguson has been baking this week because we've been slowed in. We've been watching shows on Hulu and eating baked goods. And whilst it's been great, it's making me fantasize about learning to fly again, which I think is probably a counterweight. Learning to fly again, learning to re-learning to fly.

I haven't flown for a while. think, you know, people say is it like riding their bike and it most certainly is not. They say in aviation, and it's a very useful word, current, are you current? At the moment, I am not current. Current would be

you know, I'd be you know, I would have to go up a few times. First of all, I have to get my medical done again, which is, hopefully that'd be okay. And then once your medical is done, I have to go and take some, do some

take off in landings with an instructor. They have to do that at night to get the nighttime currency. And then what I'd like to do is get my instrument rating. My instrument rating. Now your instrument rating is

what I was telling you about earlier that learning to fly the plane and I mean look you use the instruments all the time anyway but learning to fly the plane in IMC conditions and instrument meteorological conditions which means that you can fly the plane in clouds basically

and in situations where you're not able to reference the ground now obviously uh you know there's lots of there's lots of rules about that also for stuff like landing you need to see the ground that's when they call it minimums there are you know minimums of how you will get to the uh You have to see the ground to land on it. I think it's like 500 feet, 400 feet, something like that. Depends on the airport and where you are. Clearly, I have a lot of book studying to do to get back into aviation. But the reason why I like aviation,

why I like aviation as a pilot, is because it is the opposite. One of the reasons I like it. It's the opposite of show business. It's the opposite of it. It's not about. your opinion or your taste it's about you know if you do it this way this is what will happen if you do it this way this is what will happen so if you do it correctly

it'll work out fine and if you don't do it correctly it might not and I feel like it's it's a very very scientific and I enjoy that sometimes I don't enjoy all the time but I enjoy the kind of the logical nature of it I think everyone inside them my dear friends everyone has a Kirk and a Spock right and I think my

my Kirk is quite happy there eat bread and sweeties and be snowed in and watch TV although that doesn't sound like Kirk at all but my Spock wants to that logic and emotion. I mean, maybe this is a bad

analogy. We always say this, we have two kids. Megan and I have two kids. We have the Kirk and a Spock. And you've got to have the Spock first. The oldest one is the Spock. Because if you have the Kirk first,

you wouldn't have Spock. Anyway, that being said, I am, I'm intrigued to... You know what it is? I'm watching this... I'm watching this love story thing

and I kind of... It's kind of bumming me out because I know how it ends and it doesn't end well. But what's interesting about the programme itself is it's just the show itself. It's just before... And it's set at a time,

just before smartphones came in. People had Blackberries and they were texting and all that. But it was just... just before the rise of the machines, the skyne of, you know, the smartphones, the Twitters and the apps. Because I'm just thinking, people then, you know, they would go out, and you see it portrayed in the show.

People go out and they go to bars and they meet people and they look up or they don't hook up or they have interactions and stuff. And of course, all of that would be dating apps. That would all be dating apps. Which I think has probably changed the great, you know, predates me, but, or I predate it, but I think it's probably changed a great deal of interaction for people at that stage in their life. I'm not sure I would like it.

And I have no opinion to cast on it because I've never been part of it. But I, I, maybe it's better actually maybe you can screen people and stuff like that it's possible it could be better like most technology it's it's not the technology

it's how you use it like mostly everything like you know if you use a hammer to you know hammer a nail and build a house that's a good use of a hammer if you use a hammer to bob someone on the head then that's perhaps a less good use of a hammer

depending on, you know, it's, you know, what I'm saying. It's not the tool. It's the person using the tool, I guess, is what it is. The technology in itself is not bad, which brings me to, full circle, my argument with AI this week about, was a Kennedy ever eaten by a shark? Which, as turns out, no. Although, as I argued with the, as I argued with the AI, I mean, look, we were slowed in.

As I argued with the AI, but are you sure? It started to give me the statistical likelihood of a Kennedy being eaten by shark. And the good news and the bad news from the Kennedy family is this, that your chances of being eaten by a shark are pretty low, but they are no lower than anyone else who is not a Kennedy. So, you know, that's the news from AI. I don't know why they have absolute nonsense you get into when you're a little bit stir-crazy.

I don't know what it is. I am... Anyway, I was a little stir-crazy this week. It's clearing it up and get outside. Beautiful day. So I'm going to go and do that. I hope you guys have a wonderful week. I'll check in with you next week

and another riveting episode of the Joy podcast hosted by me guested by me and people say me but by people I mean me says to me

Greg we ever have a guest on the Joy podcast again and the answer is yeah I think so I think it will I just don't want to make it dependent on the I realized that this week when I was doing a lot or the last couple of weeks I was doing a lot of podcasts

some of them are great you know I'm really I haven't done one that I thought wasn't good I enjoy doing it but the amount of them is there's a lot of them you know there's a lot you could fill your week doing being a guest on podcasts and which is

quite a nice way to fill a week but I feel like there's plenty of people doing it in the man night I would need to do that much If you want to see me interviewing people There's tons of that So, I'm around on the internet

You know, and you can look at that And But I will I will have a guest again And perhaps my guest next time will be you Right in Send me your application Maybe I should just only interview people

Who want to be interviewed on this show For a reason When that doesn't sound Does it? All right. We'll figure it out. Take care. I'll see you next week.