Eric Garcetti’s F-bomb: Scripted move steals spotlight from Kings

Four years ago, after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, Vice President Joe Biden leaned into the president and whispered “This is a big [effing] deal.”

The remark was caught by a microphone. Some were offended that the veep had dropped the F-bomb, but plenty of people just chalked it up to Biden being Biden. It was an authentic moment, and spontaneous.

But Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti dropping the F-bomb on live television?

Please. That was the very definition of calculated. Not to mention juvenile.

And not even particularly funny, because the message of the joke was: Hey, everybody, look at me! I’m a rule breaker!

If you have to tell people you’re a rule breaker, you just broke the first rule of rule breaking. You are not cool. You are a dweeb.

In case you missed it, Garcetti appeared at Monday’s rally for the Kings at Staples Center. Holding a bottle of Bud Light and wearing a Kings jersey, he told the crowd, “There are two rules in politics. They say never ever be pictured with a drink in your hand, and never swear. But this is a big [effing] day.”

Later, on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Garcetti explained, “We didn’t win at lawn bowling, we won at hockey.” He added, “Kids, don’t say what your mayor said today.”

Yeah, right. Do as I say, not as I do? Great parenting technique.

Garcetti, unfortunately, is one of those guys who seems bland no matter what he does. He’s got a fascinating personal biography, but it’s the kind of bio that accrues to the children of privilege -- smart, ambitious kids whose wealthy parents can afford to fly them around the world so they can begin building their resumes as soon as they finish kindergarten.

Sure, Garcetti’s been to the North Pole with Selma Hayek to study climate change, as my colleague Steve Lopez reported last year, but he’s so buttoned up, so reluctant to share himself, so worried he’ll do something that will mar his future campaign for governor, senator or president that even his spontaneous outbursts are carefully planned.

But let’s call his “joke” what it was: a publicity stunt by a politician who is so calculated and ambitious that he can’t even drop the F-bomb in public without a script. You know he stood in front of his mirror with that Bud Light.

By using language we would not accept from our children — even at a raucus hockey celebration — Garcetti also managed to draw attention away from the people who really deserved it: the Los Angeles Kings, who brought the Stanley Cup back to the city.

So, good going, Mayor Garcetti. You’re a real bad boy.

We’ll save the question of whether you really drink Bud Light for another day.

Twitter: @robinabcarian