Gilbert Gottfried Fired for Tasteless Tweets

Comedians, in particular, seem to have a hard time on where to draw the line on what is funny and what is in poor taste but it doesn’t always get them fired. Gilbert Gottfried has managed that very feat with a series of “tasteless” tweets about epic devastation in Japan.

“Japan called me. They said ‘maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they’re all sinking.'”

“I was talking to my Japanese real estate agent. I said ‘is there a school in this area.’ She said ‘not now, but just wait.'”

“Japan is really advanced. They don’t go to the beach. The beach comes to them.”

“I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, “They’ll be another one floating by any minute now,”

“‘What does every Japanese person have in their apartment? Flood lights.”

Aflac does a huge amount of business in Japan — it’s the number one insurer over there, and they reacted swiftly to Gilbert’s gaffe.

“Gilbert’s recent comments about the crisis in Japan were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac,” Michael Zuna, a senior VP and chief marketing officer, said in a statement Monday. “Aflac Japan — and, by extension, Japan itself — is part of the Aflac family, and there is no place for anything but compassion and concern during these difficult times.”

We’ve have always liked Gilbert, who just turned 56 two weeks ago, but we’ve got to agree that it’s irresponsible behavior that shows a distinct lack of common sense. To state the obvious, death and disaster just isn’t fodder for comedy so how hard can it be, with all the other stuff in the world to crack jokes about that is funny, to not joke about a tragic topic?

Gottfried was the voice of the Aflac duck, at least for U.S. audiences, since 2000.