Boris Johnson has bumbled through the questions of the British press with floppy-haired ease in the last couple of decades, but the US media hasn't yet been swayed by his foppish charm.
Today, newly-appointed Foreign Secretary Johnson and US Secretary of State John Kerry faced the press from the country that gave us Woodward and Bernstein and they were merciless.
Johnson was repeatedly asked about those comments about Barack Obama ('part-Kenyan President's ancestral dislike of the British empire') and possible future president Hillary Clinton ("like the sadistic nurse in a mental hospital"... "Lady Macbeth").
"Do you take these comments back?" he was asked at the Foreign Office.
"Or do you want to take them into your new job as some sort of indicator of the type of diplomacy you will practice?"
What was his reply?
There was bumbling. There was fumbling. There was talk of a "rich thesaurus of things that I've said" that "through what alchemy I do not know" have been "misconstrued".
Brit abroad and managing editor and foreign editor at ABC John Williams summed up the feeling in the room.
"In 150 year history, few more embarrassing pressers at FCO as @StateDept pool tears into #BorisJohnson. Mortifying."
It looks like Cher's not the only one with strong opinions about Johnson's appointment then.
