Madonna on Late Show with David Letterman

Madonna made an appearance on Late Show with David Letterman on March 31, 1994. The appearance was noted for an extremely controversial series of statements and antics by Madonna, which included many expletives. In particular, Madonna said the word "fuck" fourteen times during the course of the interview. This made the episode the most censored in American network television talk-show history while at the same time garnering Letterman some of the best ratings he ever received.

Madonna's language and behavior—which was provocative, seemingly spontaneous at times, full of double entendres, and ended with a playful refusal to leave the set—caused a large public controversy. The Federal Communications Commission received numerous complaints about the language used on the show, echoing Letterman's (sarcastic) remark that she had to stop using the bad language "because people don't want that in their own homes at 11:30 at night".

This was not Madonna's first or last appearance with Letterman. She was a guest on Late Night with David Letterman in 1988 with comedian Sandra Bernhard. This was, however, her first appearance since Letterman moved from NBC to CBS in 1993.

When Madonna was a guest on the March 31, 1994 edition of The Late Show, it marked her first appearance on American television that year. Letterman introduced Madonna right before she entered the set in this manner:

Our first guest tonight is one of the biggest stars in the world, and in the past 10 years she has sold over 80 million albums, starred in countless films and slept with some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry.

Paul Shaffer responded "she's your guest!...Come on, she's your guest!" to which Letterman responded, "everything's fine, just relax, will ya?" Madonna then entered the stage to the sound of her 1983 hit "Holiday", clutching a pair of her underwear, which she asked Letterman to smell during the interview. "Wait a minute, aren't you gonna smell them?" she said, to which Letterman replied "I'll take care of that later," and Madonna complained to the audience "I gave him my underpants and he won't smell them!" This sketch made the headlines of the tabloids. The sketch was satirized in 2001 in the Italian late night show Satyricon, where guest Anna Falchi actually took off her red panties on stage, and the host went all the way to smell them, which caused scandal in Italy.

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