Michael Becker/FOXWell, Simon Cowell certainly wouldn't have found this funny.
Comedian Jerry Lewis took to the stage during the Television Critics Association press tour and, instead of dishing about his Encore special The Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis, he spent his time dissing American Idol.
So what's Jerry's connection between Ryan Seacrest and the Hamburglar?
They're both nasty by-products of McDonald's!
"The kids who are on American Idol, they're all McDonald's wipeouts," Jerry bitched. "They've all been dumped. They've worked there and now they're doing that. And of course they all play a guitar, which takes the place of music."
And the Idol juggernaut isn't the only reality franchise taking fire from Lewis. Jerry also sniped at The Biggest Loser, saying:
"Proctor & Gamble says, 'Are you nuts? You want me to spend $1.6 million for that variety show when I can get the fat lady to lose weight for $62,000. Let's go with that one. We'll call it reality,' And that's what they've done…Who cares?"
Uh, only like millions of viewers who tune in to each series weekly. But that's beside the point to Lewis.
"The industry has destroyed itself," Jerry ranted, later explaining: "We don't have the soul in our industry that we had when I was working. And the soul has been desperately deteriorated, only because you got a guy that's running a network whose aunt died and left him some stock."
But the fact that he isn't a fan of the reality TV craze doesn't mean Jerry is totally giving up on the boob tube.
"I love the industry," he gushed. "I don't allow people in my family to use the term 'TV' around the house. It's television. It's a miracle…. When I watch it, I want it to grab me. I want it to be like I ran home and I made sure to be there before Law & Order went on."
But the question is, did he mean Law & Order: SVU or Criminal Intent? Or maybe Trial By Jury?
Oh well, we'll just have to agree to disagree. We still love our reality TV—sorry, Jerry, we mean reality television.