Joe Biden: 'This is a big fucking deal'

Joe Biden is famous for having a mouth that out-runs his brain from time to time, and so it proved again, as the vice-president was caught exclaiming in no uncertain terms live on national television.

After introducing the president at the signing ceremony for healthcare reform legislation at the White House today, Biden turned and embraced his boss while excitedly whispering into Obama's ear: "This is a big fucking deal!" Loudly enough to be picked up by the cameras and microphones in the East Room. Fox News was the first to pick up on Biden's blooper, and repeatedly ran the clip (above). Biden can clearly be heard saying the phrase around the nine-second mark.

Biden isn't the first vice-president to resort to old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon expressions in the heat of the moment. Dick Cheney – never one to mince words – infamously told Democratic senator Patrick Leahy to "fuck yourself" on the floor of the US Senate in 2004. Even Cheney's boss, George Bush, a more circumspect speaker, was once caught on video describing New York Times journalist Adam Clymer as a "major-league asshole" in the 2000 election campaign.

Perhaps the most famous vice-presidential use of an earthy expression belongs to John Nance Garner, vice president under FDR, who once said: "The vice-presidency isn't worth a pitcher of warm piss." (The quote is usually watered down to "warm spit" in US publications.)

Still, Biden's dropping of the f-bomb plays into his off-message stereotype, a caricature endorsed and embellished by The Onion in its recent pokes at the VP:

During an unexpected visit Thursday to an organizational meeting for this year's White House Christmas party, Vice President Joe Biden winked mischievously as he offered to "handle" the eggnog supply for the upcoming annual event. "Uncle Joe's got the nog under control," said Biden, briefly flashing a metal flask protruding from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. "Old family recipe."