Gilbert Gottfried Backpedals

Comedian, Joan Rivers, came out in support of Gilbert Gottfried saying he shouldn’t have gotten that Aflac pink slip:

“Oh come on people-this is just outrageous! Gilbert Gottfried was FIRED from Aflac for making jokes about the tsunami in Japan,” she tweeted.

She followed that up with “That’s what comedians do!!! We react to tragedy by making jokes to help people in tough times feel better through laughter.”

On the Joy Behar show, comedian, Judy Gold sort of seconded that: “you know I think that he’s a comic and this is how comics think and I think, among us, if a bunch of us were sitting a round a table and he told these jokes, we might say: ‘oh that’s awful but it’s funny,’ but you don’t tweet it …”

Joy and her panel pretty much were in agreement that it being in writing is what made it offensive. It’s okay, in other words, to make sick jokes and laugh at other people’s misery as long as it’s not in writing.

Joy Behar also said that she was sure that Gilbert Gottfried was genuinely sorry.

As for Gottfried, he did a complete 180 and apologized with two tweets:

“I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my attempt at humor regarding the tragedy in Japan,” and “I meant no disrespect, and my thoughts are with the victims and their families.”

If you’ve been following his facebook or twitter page, you’ve got to feel that it’s a de rigeur apology.

Yesterday, he had this on twitter and on facebook via twitter:

“Been reading your tweets. More than a few of you have said, “F*ck ’em if they can’t take a joke.” Yup, those are true Gilbert Gottfried fans.”

That’s been taken down, too.

If he is genuinely sorry, he’s probably only sorry it got him fired.