In a time of no-holds-barred comedy, where nothing is sacred and everyone is up for ridicule, the recent stance by CBS "Late Late Show" host Craig Ferguson not to make jokes about Britney Spears shaving her head and briefly checking into a rehab center is nothing short of amazing.

Except, for Ferguson, the amazing part is the media coverage he received because of it as well as support from regular folks who sent thousands of e-mails saying, "Good job."

"I don’t want to talk about sick people like that," he said in an interview with Giuliana DePandi, E! entertainment news anchor and "The Early Show" correspondent.

"I didn’t do it for anyone else but myself. I did it because it was an act of conscience. I'm amazed that not poking fun at somebody has become a news story," the Scottish entertainer said.

Ferguson, who appears March 24 at Harrah's Lake Tahoe, became the host of "The Late, Late Show" when he took over for Craig Kilborn in January 2005. Since then, the show has set all-time viewer records in three consecutive sweeps and earned Ferguson an Emmy nomination for a show he did as a eulogy for his father, who had died the day before.

Earlier this month, Newsweek magazine published a Q&A session by Nicki Gostin with Ferguson, mostly on the subject of his refusal to make fun of Spears.

Asked if that meant he wasn't going to make fun of celebrities any more, Ferguson showed a bit of impatience.

"Oh, don't be ridiculous! It wasn't even to do with her celebrity," he said. "It was the fact that she looked like she was in an awful lot of trouble with the drink and shaving her hair and her odd, erratic behavior."

He also was asked if he did it because of his own history of alcoholism — he has been sober for 15 years.

"I'm not advocating anything for anyone else. It was really for my mental health more than anything. I just don't want to feel uncomfortable when I'm doing this stuff," he said.

In the interview with DePandi, Ferguson gave his thoughts on why he does comedy.

"For me, comedy should have a certain amount of joy in it. It should be about attacking the powerful — the politicians, the Trumps, the blowhards — going after them. We shouldn't be attacking the vulnerable," he said.

Ferguson has plenty of other things to talk about on his show — and he does. One night, he might skewer Microsoft with a joke that compares them to Apple.

"Microsoft has recently come out with combination cell phone and iron," he said, and then proceeded to demonstrate what would happen if you answered a phone that was hot metal.

Much of his comedy is visual, coming from his early days as a stand-up comedian with the stage name of Bing Hitler.

"Bing was for familiarity, and Hitler was for shock," he explained in one of many Web site biographies.

He often states in his TV monologue that he sometimes sits at home "Googling" himself. That could take up a lot of time. One a recent day, there were more than 1 million sites listed under "Craig Ferguson."

Most of them chronicle a guy who left school "mainly to drink" and to become a drummer in bands. He spent some time as a bouncer in a Glasgow, Scotland, pub, where he met Michael Boyd, the artistic director for The Tron Theatre, who persuaded Ferguson to try acting.

In 1989, Ferguson first came to the United States when he was offered a role as a teacher on "High," a TV series about high-school life that featured Gwyneth Paltrow and Zach Braff as students. The pilot episode went unsold.

Back in Scotland, he starred in the short-run comedy series "The Craig Ferguson Show," and later he hosted BBC's educational series on archaeology, "The Dirt Detective." He also starred in a popular sketch show called "The Ferguson Theory."

In 1995, he returned to Hollywood. Despite his European experience, he was pretty much an unknown and spent a lot of time auditioning for roles. One he got was a small recurring part as an unscrupulous cook in the short-lived "Maybe This Time," starring Marie Osmond and Betty White.

A year later, Ferguson was playing Nigel Wick on "The Drew Carey Show."

He's written feature films that include "The Big Tease" and "Saving Grace." He wrote, starred in and directed "I’ll Be There," which went on to win the Audience Award for Best Film at the Aspen, Dallas and Valencia film festivals. He was named Best New Director at the Napa Valley Film Festival. His acting credits in films include "Niagra Motel," "Lenny the Wonder Dog," "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," "Chain of Fools," "Born Romantic" and "The Big Tease."

Last April, his first novel, "Between The Bridge and The River," was published and ended up on the best-seller list.

All of these experiences have bolstered his interviewing skills for his CBS show. Some of his late-night guests have included Hall-of-famer quarterback Dan Marino, who threw him passes; actor Samuel L. Jackson, who talked about his early days as a stand-in for Bill Cosby during the run of "The Cosby Show"; veteran actor Peter O'Toole, who regaled Ferguson with stories from his many movies; and even California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who traded jibes with the late-night host.

One of the questions in the Newsweek interview asked if he ever got bored with asking celebrities about their latest movie.

"I don't do that," he said. "I'm not an investigative journalist. They come here for a conversation and a few laughs and then they (leave). Some people come out — big movie stars — and they're great, and some people come out I’ve never ... heard of and they think they’re God's gift."

By the way Ferguson pokes fun at himself, it's clear he doesn't include himself in that latter category. When greeting the "Late Late Show" audience, Ferguson, whose childhood nickname was "Tubby," has been known to say, "Relax, you're among friends now. The long hard day is over, and the roly-poly man is before you."

At last year's Academy of Country Music Awards show in Las Vegas, where he was one of the presenters, he wore a kilt, a cowboy hat and a T-shirt emblazoned with the U.S. flag.

But don't expect him to make jokes about the flag. In 2005, when asked by the newspaper Scotland Sunday where he thought he would be in 10 years, he replied he still would be in America.

"I love the United States. I have applied for citizenship. I want to take the oath of allegiance on TV," he said.