When the going gets tough, some people (think former “Rehab Addict” trainer Nicole Curtis) just keep digging.
Sometimes, um, dig farts?
“Fart digger” is what Curtis told “The Breakfast Club” he was trying to say in a two-year-old video that surfaced of him using the N-word and immediately asking his cameraman to delete the footage. Or maybe it was “fart knocker.” He said both are phrases he uses in his work and that he messed up while the camera was running.
Of course, Curtis wrote on Instagram. after the show that “Everyone advised against this, to be honest. 💯no one thought this was a good idea for me.” And based on how their time on “The Breakfast Club” went, not everyone was wrong.
Curtis' show and its two spinoffs were removed “from all HGTV platforms,” the network said, after that video surfaced a month ago. “Rehab Addict” ran for eight full seasons from 2010 to 2018 and was in the middle of an apparently shortened ninth season spread over two years when it was pulled. At the time, Curtis apologized to fans on social media and thanked them for their support.
Back to Tuesday on the radio, DJ Envy asked him, “What's wrong with you and the farts?” as Curtis mentioned the use of “fart finder” and “fart puncher” as acceptable swear words for HGTV.
“Are there guys here?… Guys talk about farts all the time,” Curtis said. “Okay, again, I can't say bad words on my show. Okay, so yeah, I made up these crazy words.”
“If you said 'fart catcher' the amount of times you said it, I feel like you should have posted it a million times,” DJ Envy said, “because it sounds like it's something you've said before because it came out so well.”
Then he and Charlamagne tha God started verbally harassing Curtis, saying that “fart catcher” made it seem like she was playing around all day with a certain body part that, like opinions, everyone has. “That's a little unpleasant,” one of them said.
Curtis seemed to tense up amid the gentle attack.
“I have no rhyme or reason for the words I make up,” he said. “I talk nonsense all the time… I edit my shows and say, 'Damn, just finish what the fuck you're saying,' because I got excited about this and that and left on the spur of the moment. I'm not scripted.”
“So, were you trying to say something else at that time?” Charlemagne asked.
“Absolutely!” Curtis responded.
“Why do you say 'fart catcher' and 'fart knocker' together?” Jess Hilarious said. “What I can say is that I understand you…”
“No, you don't,” Charlamagne said, cutting her off.
“Let me finish,” Jess said before using the N-word, prompting light laughter and an explosion of cross-talk around the table.
“I'm right in the middle here, again, see,” Curtis said to no one in particular, placing his palms together above his head.
Jess said she understood why Curtis said he apologized to his kids first, “because some of them are in school… and they might have black friends and if they see their friend's mom use the term… they might be bullied for it. They might have to pay that price.”
Curtis, who is the mother of two children, ages 28 and 10, said she apologized to them because, well, “they live in Detroit… I don't even know, can I say I'm in the neighborhood?”
“So your best friends are black and you live in the 'hood. I want you to live your truth,” Charlamagne said as Curtis insisted, “I live in Detroit. I'm a Detroiter.”
“So, I'm trying to figure this out,” Charlamagne continued. “Wait. What are you trying to prove here when you keep saying you're from Detroit and you're surrounded by rappers and your best friends are black and… what are you saying?”
Loren LoRosa chimed in and told Curtis, the self-proclaimed historic preservation expert, “I think it's a learning moment for you because we don't have the privilege of not understanding what we're saying, why we're saying it. So even right now, it may not mean anything by saying, 'I live in Detroit.' But even if you weren't caught saying the N-word in this video, it would still seem very privileged and very unbalanced because it's different for us and that's what we're dealing with.” to have in a conversation here.”
Charlamagne then asked Curtis if he thought privilege makes people think they can “say anything.” Curtis said yes and started talking about “the R word,” prompting Charlamagne to ask, “What is that R word you keep referring to?”
In the middle of the talk, Jess Hilarious finally said the R word out loud, so the conversation could move forward.
“Like saying 'black fart,'” Charlamagne said, “and then coming on a black radio show and trying to explain yourself about it. That…”
“…it's r—,” DJ Envy said, finishing the thought.
“Did you know?” -Curtis said-. “You know what? You're right. You're right. You're right. I came here, I came here to have an open conversation and I didn't need to.”
Things didn't end there. Charlamagne kept playing, Curtis kept talking, and a couple of heads just exploded, including the “Rehab Addict” host.
In that Instagram post that appeared after the show, which included a photo of Curtis with LoRosa taken by Jess Hilarious, the HGTV castoff explained that “everyone” had advised her not to come to the show, but she “came up and asked if they wanted to have the conversation.”
“This is what happens in life when we stay in our own echo chambers: we get stuck,” he continued. “Thank you to Loren for answering my call. I realize you are getting criticism for giving me time from your followers, I think it's time for us all to get out of our comfort zones and have these conversations.
“Thank[s] for Jess: This photo is, seriously, two moms talking about life, kids, and struggles. God bless you.”
