IMO, Silverman had less of a chance of getting away with this at a TED talk because she's really not that clever. Her schtick is: cute innocent jewish girl + naughty words = hilarity.

I cringed when the article compared her use of the word 'retard' to Colbert's routine where he calls Palin a 'fucking retard'. Here's the difference: Colbert spent about 10 minutes building up to the slur. The political allusions, the searing sarcasm, and the final shockingly unsubtle slur was brilliant. And made me cry from laughing.

Silverman, OTOH, has reached the level of humor that I got bored with in 7th grade. If her routine actually had some intelligence to it, she probably could have gotten away with much worse.