In 1964, Mason allegedly gave
Ed Sullivan the finger on a live
telecast of Sullivan's weekly
variety show. Sullivan terminated Mason's $45,000.00 contract on the spot. Mason denied that he made the obscene gesture, insisting that he flashed numerous
fingers and that the gesture was misinterpreted. He later retaliated against Sullivan by filing (but later dropping) a
libel suit. A year and a half later, Mason again appeared on Sullivan's show, where Sullivan publicly apologized to Mason. Mason dropped the lawsuit shortly after. That was Mason's last appearance on Sullivan's show.
A
video recording of the incident shows Mason talking through his comedy set and then looking to his right (viewers' left), toward Sullivan, commenting on the fact that Sullivan was giving him finger-signals. Sullivan may have been trying to tell Mason to wrap up his segment; regardless, Mason continued commenting, talking toward Sullivan instead of the
audience and
thumbed his nose at him with his
middle finger slightly separated from the others. The action left Sullivan with the impression that Mason had given him
the finger on
live TV. From Jackie Mason's viewpoint, Ed Sullivan's finger signals caught the attention of the audience which distracted them from paying attention to his stand-up routine. As soon as Jackie realized that he was losing not only his audience at the studio but also millions watching him live T.V. he did some quick thinking and began to improvise his stand-up, using his own fingers to make jokes about Mr. Sullivan holding up fingers to signal the number of minutes Jackie Mason had left for his routine. When watching the slow motion replays of this incident it is clear that Jackie Mason's finger movements did not include giving the finger to Ed Sullivan.
After Mason left the stage, the
TV camera then cut to Sullivan, who was looking agitated over what had just transpired; his arms were folded tightly and he was staring downward.
