Asked about the promotion of the world-famous gaffe-prone Tory into the role of Britain's chief diplomat, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner's eyes lit up in undisguised mirth.

Toner listened to the reporter with something akin to a 1000-watt smile on his lips.

He then suppressed any further signs of glee before saying the US "looked forward" to working with Johnson in his new job.

You can imagine what went through Toner's mind.

While leading the ultimately successful campaign for Britain to leave the EU, Johnson compared the European Union to a project of Adolf Hitler.

But that was just one in a string of insults, quips, retorts and off-the-cuff comments that delight commentators, make diplomats cringe and have elevated Johnson into a position as one of the world's most recognisable verbal blunderers..

Johnson in 2005 infuriated Beijing by saying "Chinese cultural influence is virtually nil, and unlikely to increase."

He called then-US president George W. Bush "a cross-eyed Texan warmonger".

And more recently he has insulted US President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Johnson even compared Tory politics to "Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing" - only to apologise later.

But Toner was firm on Johnson.

"We're always going to be able to work with the British, no matter who is occupying the role of foreign secretary because of our deep abiding special relationship with the United Kingdom," he said.

"This is something that, frankly, goes beyond - a relationship that goes beyond personalities. And it is an absolutely critical period in, certainly England's [sic] history but also in the US-UK relationship, so absolutely we're committed to working productively going forward."

HISTORY OF BORIS JOHNSON GAFFES

What Turkish President did with a goat

In May this year, Johnson won £1000 ($1700) for a limerick about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan having sex with a goat, which was published by The Spectator magazine in Britain.

"There was a young fellow from Ankara

"Who was a terrific wankerer

"Till he sowed his wild oats

"With the help of a goat

"But he didn't even stop to thankera'"

Why EU is like Hitler

In an interview with Britain's Telegraph in May, Johnson likened the European Union to Nazi rule.

"Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically," he said.

"The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods."

The remarks were criticised widely during the Brexit campaign. Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb weighed in on Twitter, saying: "What is happening in the cradle of common sense and civilization? This is an outrageous comparison by @borisjohnson."

Why Obama removed Churchill bust

Writing for Britain's The Sun in April, Johnson attributed the removal of a "bust of Winston Churchill" from the Oval Office in the White House as a possible "symbol of the part-Kenyan President's ancestral dislike of the British empire".

His comments were labelled insensitive and racist. Churchill's grandson Sir Nicholas Soames labelled the comments "desperate" and "deeply offensive".

Britain invented all sports

At the Beijing Olympics, Johnson claimed "virtually every single one of our international sports were invented or codified by the British".

He said "ping-pong was invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th century and it was called Wiff-waff", and the "French looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to have dinner".

Clinton a "sadistic nurse"

Writing for the Telegraph during the US presidential nominations in 2007, Johnson said Hillary Clinton had "dyed blonde hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital" and "all-round purse-lipped political correctness".

Last year, on the British television network ITV News, he said he was sure Clinton would interpret the comments in the "light hearted spirit in which it was intended".

PNG's "orgies of cannibalism"

Johnson had to add Papua New Guinea to his self-proclaimed "global itinerary of apologies" after writing in the Telegraph, "For 10 years, we in the Tory Party have become used to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing."

In his apology Johnson said he meant "no insult to the people of Papua New Guinea", who he was sure "lead lives of blameless bourgeois domesticity in common with the rest of us".

Piccaninnies and watermelon smiles

In a column about then prime minister Tony Blair's return from the Congo in 2002, Johnson made a string of inflammatory racial references. He wrote in the Telegraph that that "the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies" and diplomatic visits to the Congo mean "tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smile".

Johnson apologised for the article six years later during the London mayoral contest, which he won.

What the EU is good for

Not all of Johnson's statements toward the Europe Union were pro-sovereignty. While debating agricultural subsidies in a pub in 1996, he reportedly said he was "rather pro-European" and that he certainly wants "a European community where one can go off and scoff croissants, drink delicious coffee, learn foreign languages and generally make love to foreign women".

With Emily Smith