Don Lemon shows N-word on CNN; Internet mocks him mercilessly

Don Lemon, the 49-year-old CNN anchor known for ruffling just about everyone's feathers, didn't disappoint on Monday night when he managed to make himself the focal point in a very important discussion about race and history in America.

Following a day of national discussion over the presence of the Confederate flag and President Barack Obama's use of the N-word on Marc Maron's "WTF" podcast, Lemon juxtaposed the two issues during a live CNN Tonight broadcast. First, he held up a Confederate flag and asked, "Does this offend you? It's a Confederate flag."

Next, he picked up a sign with the N-word in all caps and, again, inquired to viewers, "Does this offend you? This word…."

Yes, an uncensored version of the racially inflammatory word historically used to demean black people was aired on CNN. And Twitter was not happy.

Lemon, a former NBC10 Philadelphia anchor was also lambasted on the Web after he decided to wear a jean jacket while covering news about the Amtrak Train 188 crash in May.

While questions about Lemon's sanity and pay grade graced the social media site, the real gems emerged when the Internet took the N-word sign and Lemon's provided #DoesThisOffendYou hashtag, and used Photoshop to create pure comedy: