By now, seemingly every pop culture pundit worth their weight in punchlines has latched onto the high comedic value of David Caruso's effusive stylings on CSI: Miami. In particular, The Soup's Joel McHale has taken extreme delight in (and created a cottage industry from) Caruso's patented "I'm going to hastily remove my sunglasses while I deliver this one-liner" maneuver. But until we read this insider's account of Caruso's excruciating acting process on Popbitch, the TV viewer in us always just kind of naively assumed that these moments happened semi-serendipitously. But boy oh boy, were we ever wrong:

David Caruso asks [the show's director] when there will be a close up of [his] sunglasses - in every scene.

Here's the full, unedited text of the Popbitch item (typos/Anglo-isms theirs):

Just back from LA and was staying with a friend who's in Jericho. One of the scriptwriters for the show used to work on CSI: Miami and apparently David Caruso r4eally is the arse he appears. A new director was setting up a shot and as he was laying out the scene suggested that Caruso should walk through a door, into a room and pick up a bottle of something and open it etc. The producers took the tyro to one side and pointed out that "David gets a bit lost in props". Reasonably pointing out that it was quite a simple manoeuvre he was told that there was only a limited amount of time for the shoot and David didn't have the time to work out the meaning of the props. Gradually the action was whittled down to him just walking through the door and giving his line. To this the young director is once again taken to one side and it is explained to him that "David isn't very good with thresholds". He also asks when, in the scene, there will be a close up of the sunglasses - in every scene.



While we would never begrudge a star a chance to indulge themselves and their adoring audience with a trademark move or catchphrase, nothing about David Caruso's demeanor or any evidence from the item above indicates to us that he's the type of guy who is in on the joke. Either way, we're just thankful that his painstaking dedication to his craft allows us all to continue 'avin a laff at his expense, Extras style.