Ernie Anastos tells weatherman to 'Keep f---ing that chicken' on the air on Fox

Updated Thursday, September 17th 2009, 2:03 PM
Did he just say that?

WNYW/Ch. 5 anchor Ernie Anastos left people saying just that to each other Wednesday night when he dropped an F-bomb.

The mother of all swear words came out in an exchange with weatherman Nick Gregory.

"I guess it takes a tough man to make a tender forecast," Anastos said to Gregory, perhaps, playing off of the old Frank Perdue commercials.

"I guess that's me," Gregory responded.

Then, as both men laugh, as Anastos appears to say, "Keep f---ing that chicken."

The clip was quickly posted on Youtube.com, and by Thursday morning had gone viral, popping up on Facebook pages, and a bevy of other online sites.

Fact is, more people probably saw the video clip than the original moment. Some people viewing the clip wondered if Anastos meant to say plucking, but, it came out wrong.

Either way, the tape sure sounds like he's saying the f-word.

Whether he said it, meant to say it, or it was another word uttered that came out sounding like the f-bomb, matters little at this point.

What is funnier is the reaction of co-anchor Dari Alexander, whose eyes bug out and she grimaces a bit, sort of confirming she just heard the f-bomb.

This isn't the first time viewers have heard the f-bomb on local television, either. A year ago, Sue Simmons used the word in on-air, thinking the mics were off.