Hey, it's Christine from Storyworthy. Today on the show, journalist Joel Stein talks about his

buddy Robert Goulet and publishing a mean joke about journalist Maureen Dout and then trying to make up for it.

So I was going out to Vegas and I went to Robert Goulet's house.

We actually became really quite good friends.

So he had me sit down and he read me that day as Maureen Dowd columns.

He thought it was so great from the New York Times.

And he reads it to me in this booming Robert Goulet performance. And I later wrote a column about

meeting Robert Goulet in which I made a very mean joke about Maureen Dowd.

Find out what the joke was and how Joel tried to make up for it today on Storyworthy.

Stick around.

Hi, I'm Joel Stein, and you are listening to Storyworthy.

Welcome to Storyworthy. My name is Christine Blackburn, and I'm coming to you from Los Angeles, California.

Whether you're a longtime fan of the show or a new fan, welcome to Storyworthy.

I hope you guys enjoyed the show last week, which was...

What was it? Story Smash, the Storytelling Game Show. In fact, the one that you judged, Joel. Oh, yeah, that was the best one. It was so good. It just went up last week, so it was you and Jimmy Pardo. And Larry King. No. And Eleanor Carrigan. Oh, God. That's embarrassing. I thought were so great. Honestly, the three of you as a panel for our expert judges. Because every month we sort of mix it up. And the three of you really, really did a great job. Really? Do you think we should like do something together? Well, I don't know. Take it on the road. Anything can happen. I hadn't considered it. They haven't called me. Well, listen, you guys, go back and listen to Story Smash last week, because honestly, it is a funny, tight one-hour game show. Especially that show, like I said, particularly is damn funny. So thank you again for doing it. And now you guys at home get a double shot of Joel Stein. That's too much.

Because you're here. And I'm so excited to talk with you because I hadn't met you before Story

Smash and you're so very subtle. That means not funny. People say subtle and dry. What they mean is

not funny. Which is fine. I'm not supposed to be in public. I'm a writer. Okay. On Story Smash, okay, we're live on stage. You're sitting and right in front of you, there's a clock facing the audience. And then we're going to the judge's panel and I say, so, you know, tell me what you guys thought. And you say, okay, the clock is right below you, and you say, I'm so impressed by how

everyone can keep to the time. It's like they know the time.

So I, but that's not funny. I just, I was stupid. I said a lot of stupid things. I didn't,

I didn't understand that they were able to prep the topics beforehand. I was confused

why everyone had a story ready to go on each topic. I felt like these were magicians because I didn't know about the technology. Well, there was a clock sitting there. It was darn funny and you were great. So I'm super happy to meet you and I'm super glad you came today. And your story today you brought to the table is called mishaps. Miss Haps. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not a storyteller as you're soon going to learn. It's okay. It's okay. Miss Haps, I mean, everybody has them, first of all. Sure. And so you're not alone. It's a hap that's gone badly. We all have haps. Do you really think that's the structure of the word? No, I don't.

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