In a stunt for CBS Radio’s 92.3’s Now NYC’s Rollin’ Radio program, morning man Nick Cannon pretended to attach 50 balloons to co-host Sarah Lee’s Pomeranian Charlie Roo on 11/10. Shortly after the incident, Cannon claimed that Charlie Roo had “flown away and was missing.”
But it was just a hoax. Although Rollin’s website said the prank went “a little too far” and pleaded to fans to “help find” Charlie Roo, Cannon released a video explaining that Lee’s puppy was perfectly fine.
“I won a bet with Sarah Lee, and I’m about to play the meanest joke on her ever,” Cannon, 31, explained in a clip shot prior to the incident. “This whole time I’ve been acting like I don’t like dogs, but I really love dogs. I’m a dog person… But I’m pretending that I want to float Charlie Roo with balloons!”
“I’m not really gonna float a dog,” Mariah Carey’s hubby clarified. “I’m gonna float a stuffed animal that looks just like Charlie Roo. If you happen to find the fake Charlie Roo, attached to it, there’ll be some Katy Perry tickets.”
Cannon then tied a small stuffed animal in a pink coat to 50 balloons and videotaped the incident. He then went along with the joke on Twitter, telling fans: “I think I might be getting fired. Radio gone seriously wrong… People are acting like I’m [Michael] Vick. I apologize. Now get over it.”
See the video here
Even before Cannon released a video confirming the incident was a joke and no dogs were endangered, PETA suspected the America’s Got Talent host was kidding around. “If bad taste were a crime, we’d be going to jail with Nick,” the animal rights’ organization said in a statement. “But joking about killing a dog, a kid, an old person — anyone — isn’t cool when there’s always the danger that some numbskull will do it for real…Had it been true, Nick would have PETA to worry about. And that’s far worse than going to Rikers Island [prison].”
