Chris Kamara goes viral once again after a hilarious 20 second video resurfaces of his filthy George Best joke from back in 2019.
Kammy left viewers in stitches when appearing live on James Martin’s ITV breakfast show a few years back, but the moment has again been uploaded to social media.
In the clip, Chris Kamara is watching on in the studio with the chef’s assistant talking to the then-Sky Sports pundit about George Best and a meal in his name that featured no alcohol.
But he replies: “Everyone remembers how he used to drop the shoulder and stick it in from any angle.
“Great footballer as well, weren’t he.”
Christ alive Kammy 😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/MNHBTdOMlK
— 8Sav72 (@jonmikesav8) August 7, 2020
All that James Martin can do is burst out laughing as Kammy joined in, everyone in the studio in leaving stitches.
And the laughter continued for several seconds as the chefs tried to plate up in a professional manner.
This is the third time the clip, which was originally aired on November the 16th 2019, had re-emerged. The second time saw it gain more than 500,000 views within a matter of hours, helped on when Kamara himself spoke about it as it popped back into his memory.
He replied to the video, writing via his Twitter channel: “Did I really say that on Saturday morning tele?!”
Did I really say that on Saturday morning tele 😂🤣
— Chris Kamara (@chris_kammy) August 9, 2020
Fans reacted as Chris Kamara goes viral after hilarious video resurfaces of his filthy George Best joke…
@Ash_1973: Funny as fuck @chris_kammy
@StevenBMedia: This is why the nation loves @chris_kammy
@Adamwest71: Perfect @chris_kammy 😂😂😂
@leavy: You gotta love @chris_kammy 😆
@jonmikesav8: You owe me a bowl of honey nut cornflakes as I spat them all over our floor 😂😂👍🏼
@TheBoob1987: You’re a great entertainer, Kammy. 😂😂😂👍🏻
@GeniusDarts5: Outstanding for daytime TV 😂😂
@jfidlin: Unbelievable Jeff 😭😭😭😭😭
@mcilroy_4: What a guy, makes me smile everytime I see him 😍
@sdbwfc: Got to love that
@Ronald452603211: Still brilliant 🤣🤣🤣👍🏻🍺
@Ewan_Valentine: He’s a national treasure
@AdamDrakulic: Kammy kills it everytime 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
@RichardLadd_1: This is exactly my humour
@tadams695: Quality Kammy
@laineemacreadie: Can’t not love him man 🤣🤣
Fast forward to present day and he has since given an update on leaving Soccer Saturday after 24 years and deals with a debilitating speech disorder.
He said to the Guardian a few weeks ago: “Today is a good day and, thankfully, I’ve consistently had good days lately.
“It’s coming together,” he says on his battle. “I’ve been throwing the kitchen sink at it so I have oxygen chamber treatment, a speech therapist, a normal therapist and microcurrents going through my body. I do Zing exercises, which is mainly for stroke [victims]. We don’t know what’s working, but one of those actually is so I’ll keep doing it until I’m 100% back.”
When asked if he has had darker doubts, Kamara says: “Of course. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have loads. I went for walks during the pandemic and came back and said to my wife: ‘I’m quitting. I can’t do this any more.’ On shows like The Chase, where I couldn’t talk easily, I’m watching a shadow of myself. It’s an emotional rollercoaster. But thankfully we’re just about to come in on that rollercoaster and get out smiling.”
Kamara first realised he was in trouble when he had an interview on The One Show in December 2020 and struggled to speak. His wife, Ann, said he must have a test for dementia and Alzheimer’s but the brain scans were clear. It was only when Kamara saw a specialist in Leeds that apraxia was confirmed and he remembered that “the specialist said: ‘It won’t get any better, it’ll only get worse. We’ll contain it as much as possible.’ But we’ve had so much improvement that, if it continues, it’ll be back to normal.
“I’ve had such a great life I wouldn’t change anything. Playing for 22 years, managing and coaching for two years, 24 years on TV. It’s been brilliant. The worst illness is dementia or Alzheimer’s because you won’t know your family when you’re dying. But with apraxia I’m one of those who says: ‘Que sera…’”
On if his progress is encouraging, he says: “Absolutely. Hopefully a full recovery is on the agenda. Let’s not forget it’s just a few months since I went public. I had professors, neurologists, all sorts coming forward. The help has been amazing and it’s working.”
Talk then turned to Kamara’s trademark sayings on Soccer Saturday – from the much loved “Unbelievable, Jeff!” to his typically honest “I don’t know what happened, Jeff.”
“Once Jeff did that tribute for me I knew that was it,” Kamara says. “I’m officially at Sky until the end of the season but I won’t be doing another game. It was a great tribute and then Jeff had that tear in his eye and his bottom lip went and mine did too. You couldn’t top that now. I would ruin that by coming back for an encore. My two sons came over to watch it and they had tears in their eyes, in between laughing.”
Kamara made his Soccer Saturday debut in “the 1998-99 season with Rodney Marsh, George Best and Clive Allen. People were thinking: ‘What’s he doing with those megastars?’ But I was always able to get on with people. Then, in 1999-2000, the producer said: ‘Instead of people watching people watching telly, we’d like to send you to a ground.’ That’s how Kamara-cam started.
“My first game was Oxford versus Walsall. We got there about 12 o’clock and set up as Jeff was crossing to me for team news about 2:20. Two o’clock comes, we’re set up and the cameraman from Central TV came and said: ‘You’re in my spot.’ I said: ‘But Sky have got the rights to the Football League now.’ He wasn’t having it: ‘I’ve been here 29 years. That’s my spot.’ I then got word that they’re coming to me early at 2:05.””
Kamara spoke on how the cameraman kept trying to walk in front of him to ruin his commentary. “I never heard from the producer for a week,” Kamara recalled. “It seemed all over. I got to Saturday morning and I’m thinking I messed it up. I’m watching Soccer AM and they show that clip of me holding off the cameraman. People loved it and on the Monday I got a call from the producer. He said: ‘We had a busy show last week so I didn’t need you, but you’re on from this week.’ It lasted 24 years.”
Kammy said that all the work and different shows he does doesn’t make him feel worn down by fame. “Not at all. Of course people say: ‘Unbelievable, Jeff!’ every single day. My wife gets annoyed occasionally when we’re in a restaurant, but I don’t mind. I’m a people person. They say never meet your heroes but I met Elton John and it’s not true with him. What a diamond fellow. I hope it’s the same for me. I hope no one will ever say: ‘I met that Chris Kamara and he was a knobhead.’”
“People have been so kind,” he says on him opening up about his apraxia. “ITV had the opportunity to use someone else but they said: ‘Kammy, we just want you even if you’re 50%.’ I want people to watch a program where I’m at my best so I’m worried my performance isn’t going to be up to scratch. They keep saying: ‘Don’t worry. You’re fine as you are.’ I must have done something right for that to happen.”
