We were still debating whether Justin Bieber’s boy-with-guitar dirge was done for a bet during the half-time World Cup extravaganza when BBC pundit Wayne Rooney was asked which bit was his favourite.

It was all “crap”, he said. Greeted with distinct awkwardness in the studio, the verdict swiftly got top-story treatment across outlets from the Sun, the Guardian, the Mirror, the Daily Mail, the London Independent and online on AOL.com and People.com.

Who’d have thought an ex-footballer’s entertainment critique could be so gripping? The clue was in the “crap” word – and that it was uttered on the BBC. It starred in every headline. The responses marvelled at the “astounding hot take”, the “brutal verdict”, the “swear word [said] live on air”. A Guardian reviewer called it “candour” of a kind that might boost the BBC in its head-to-head with ITV.

So “crap” still carries a certain edginess, apparently. Rooney was eight during the 1992 general election when then-taoiseach Albert Reynolds dismissed an opposition claim as “crap, pure crap”. His wily press secretary Seán Duignan explained it away as a slip of the tongue.

Man (30s) to appear in court charged in connection with Tramore church incident

They call it an epic, but The Odyssey was a harder watch than the woeful World Cup final

Case of former Ireland rugby international accused of stealing perfume from Brown Thomas is adjourned

Why has a clip of David Clifford, viewed........

© The Irish Times