Gilbert Gottfried Fired As Aflac Duck After Japanese Tsunami Tweets

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Gilbert Gottfried Fired As Aflac Duck After Japanese Tsunami Tweets

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/gilbert-gottfried-fired-aflac_n_835692.html



Comedian Gilbert Gottfried sent out a slate of offensive twitter missives about the tragic Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and instead of drawing laughs, it cost him his job. The longtime voice of the iconic Aflac Duck, Gottfried was fired by the insurance company on Monday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"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," the company, which does 75% of its business in Japan, said in a statement. "There is no place for anything but compassion and concern during these difficult times."

Gottfried's tweets certainly didn't show compassion. Buzzfeed compiled screen captures of the tweets, which were later deleted from the comedian's feed.

[NYC_SKP]

1. They were very insensitive and stupid tweets, I saw a couple of them. Jack ass.

Him and 50 cent.

FFS.

x(

[marmar]

2. Not only is he obnoxious and unfunny, he's an asshole.

nt

[otohara]

3. Kudo's to Aflac

now if only Clear Channel, Premier Radio, Rupert Murdoch, etal....would fire the pigs they employ.

A girl can dream.

[marmar]

6. Rupert Murdoch?

If his employees are pigs, then he's some kind of hogzilla beast.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gCayFzinbX8/RleLESn6H2I/AAAAAAAAAbI/hYbwJbT3UuQ/s400/Hogzilla+2.jpg

[Evolve_Already]

28. Is it necessary to share this photo?

Come on, show some respect to non-hunting DU'ers.

[tpsbmam]

29. +1 And welcome to DU, EA!

:thumbsup: :hi:

[AsahinaKimi]

39. I agree !

100%

頑張れ日本!!

[Thegonagle]

4. I never did care much for Gilbert Gottfried. I knew he was a jerk,

but I didn't know he was the voice of the Aflac duck. But now I understand why I didn't like that duck.

[originalpckelly]

5. Holy shit! Did you read some of those things?

OMG! I cannot believe what he wrote, how could someone make fun of people floating by in a tsunami?

That's just picking on the people, not their government, for a terrible response. That'd be the only kind of appropriate humor now.

[slay]

17. It's dark humor - it offends a lot of people

it's meant to. He's not trying to be mean - but it is a style of comedy that most people don't like.

[blueamy66]

35. The problem is, GG

has absolutely NO STYLE.

[eShirl]

37. maybe twitter isn't the best method of delivery either

[blondeatlast]

7. Good for AFLAC, nt

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. An appropriate action by them to inappropriate, insensitive, poorly timed attempts at humor by him

Good for them!

[JohnnyRingo]

9. Maybe they can pick up Pee Wee Herman as a replacement

Either him or Lisa Lampanelli should be safe enough.

I swear, one has to wonder if AFLAC ever saw a Comedy Central roast before they made him their quacksman. They're a freakin' insurance company, they're supposed to be good at assessing risk.

[oberliner]

10. He also made a 9/11 joke a few weeks after that tragedy

It was at a Hugh Hefner roast.

[jmowreader]

19. That roast was the genesis of the Aristocrats movie

He told the 9/11 joke and almost got lynched, so he cracked the Aristocrats joke...and one thing led to another.

I always thought Gilbert Gottfried was about as funny as Stage 4 liver cancer, but that's just me.

[Generic Brad]

20. And AFLAC hired him after the Aristocrats joke

They should have known what they were getting when they offered him a contract.

[oberliner]

32. That's right

Forgot about how that sparked the whole Aristocrats thing.

What is weird is that he is a pretty filthy comedian, yet he does a ton of children's voice over work in cartoons and whatnot.

[jmowreader]

51. Apparently kids like his voice

I remember he was the parrot Iago in "Aladdin," and I thought his voice was just about unbearable. SOMEONE thought it was good for the role, though.

[deutsey]

11. I don't understand what would make anyone post such things

One stupid, tasteless post maybe...even then, I question the depth of one's conscience, but we all have bad judgment sometimes, but to repeatedly make callous, asinine comments?

:evilfrown:

[slay]

12. Gilbert Gottfried told the infamous joke "The Aristocrats" at the Hugh Hefner roast

Gilbert is one of those people who feels there is no line comedy should be afraid to cross. That means jokes that are going to offend a LOT of people. It's what he does. Did anyone really expect otherwise from someone like him? I'm not going to condemn him for it - seems everyone else it doing a good enough job of that. Anyone who knows about Gilbert as a hard core comedian would not be surprised by this one bit. Not excusing it - but he is who he is.

[titaniumsalute]

43. I agree

Yes I have a sick sense of humor. No I didn't find the Japanese "humor" he tweeted very funny but it is what he does. I do find many things he does funny as I think we all need to laugh at ourselves in general.

Why is Aflac hiring someone like Gottfried for their voiceover work and then are very offended when he does what he does for a living?

[eShirl]

46. Maybe an Aflac exec said, "Hey, who did the voice of that bird in Disney's Aladdin? Get him."

[progressoid]

13. Pathetic.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-10-worst-gilbert-gottfried-tsunami-jokes

[Fuzz]

21. Some of those are funny.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

25. Nope. None of them are funny.

And their unfunniness is not just because they are tasteless and cruel. They just aren't funny, in any universe.

[Fuzz]

27. On that we disagree, which is fine.

Again I'll say, nothing is sacred and clever is clever.

[octothorpe]

42. I'm with you on that. He was trying too hard or something.

Like, none of those came to him naturally, it's as if he was sitting there thinking of stupid shit to say... Dark humor doesn't bother me, but this stuff was just stupid and unfunny.

[slampoet]

31. Sorry but these as pretty lame jokes, and one of them is stolen from Yakov Shmirnov.

[Fuzz]

14. Certainly the company has a right to fire him, but I don't think anything is sacred.

[DefenseLawyer]

15. He's a comic

Sometimes you hit, sometimes you miss, sometimes you shock and offend but are funny, sometimes you just bomb. The only thing I know for sure is that his lame jokes didn't kill anyone in Japan. I have no beef about his employer firing him, but stupid jokes are never going to make me lose any sleep.

[Mimosa]

18. Defense lawyer ITA

Gottfried didn't mean to be stupid and offensive but he managed. That's old style '1950s' comedy. No modern businesses can keep anybody who is insensitive on board. Gottfried had gotten fired by AFLAC a few years ago but they took him back. I hope he has savings.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[EFerrari]

38. Comedians are used to being fired for all kinds of goofy reasons

like pissing off the club owner's 12 year old nephew. At least this time, he got fired for something he actually did.

[Johonny]

41. I agree

He's also annoying. That's his act. You hire the guy as your spokesman you get his act.

[fascisthunter]

16. He is a Lack Luster Annoying Goofball with very little Talent

I never understood what people saw in this man as a performer. Now I see his character off stage is consistent with his character on stage.

As someone else stated, "He Gilbert, you see any jobs float by?"

[MadMaddie]

22. Never thought he was funny

I did like the Aflac duck though..

[BlackHoleSon]

24. Anyone who has ever listened to him on Howard Stern

knows that he is probably the most offensive comic, well ... ever.
I would assume that subset of people would have included the people who hired him to be the voice of their damn duck!

[lapislzi]

30. More offensive than Andrew Dice Clay?

You know, I was never offended by the likes of Lenny Bruce or Sam Kinison, but Dice Clay makes my skin crawl. As does Gottfried. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[deutsey]

36. I like Lenny Bruce a lot, but as you imply some considered him offensive

He even went on with a scheduled show on the night of JFK's assassination, when a lot of other acts cancelled. He opened his show by walking out on stage, standing there quietly a moment, and said: "Poor Vaughn Meader" (Meader was a JFK impersonator/humorist who had developed a highly profitable album lampooning Kennedy during his first term).

By today's standards, what he said wasn't offensive, but going on with the show under those circumstances would probably still raise some eyebrows today

Humor is very subjective, but I think there are some comedians interested in some kind of catharsis through doing "offensive" humor and those who want to exploit it for shock value that feeds into the audience's prejudices. The former heals the psyche, the latter injures it.

But there's a very fine line between the two that's often hard to discern.

[cbdo2007]

33. True, these jokes are not nearly as offensive as the ones he says on Stern.

And they don't fire him for all of those jokes.

I'm guessing there are a lot of Japanese people on the board or something at Aflac? I don't know their story.

[slay]

45. Dracula Gottfried on Howard Stern - Part 1 of 4 (youtube audio link)

From 1995. Good stuff. Love Howard and Gilbert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzA4pX6qnDg

[NashVegas]

26. Dark Humor Is Some Peoples' Way of Coping With Tragedy

I can easily imagine many of these flying around, say, a newspaper's editorial office.

But you don't print them in the paper.

Still, if GG hadn't posted them, someone else would have - and that's the problem with Twitter and FB for professional media - if you don't post it, someone else will, and opportunities come their way.

[WI_DEM]

34. I've never found him funny anyway.

[eShirl]

40. these tweets are all completely in line with his persona

for whatever that's worth

[slay]

44. You are absolutely correct. Anyone who is familiar with his comedy

knows this IS Gilbert. He has ALWAYS joked about tragedy. Even 9/11. Nothing is off limits to Gilbert - which is the way most all hard core comedians are.

[cbdo2007]

49. Yes, I think this is a big set-up by Gottfried and Aflac to get publicity.

They were probably looking to part ways anyways and this gives them both the perfect excuse and gets them both good publicity.

[NoGOPZone]

47. In his own words, "You fool!" nt

[Whisp]

48. I despised those stupid ads anyway. good.

hope they don't get another voice for that fowl attempt at humor.

[Travelman]

50. Hell, I had no idea that's who it was doing the duck's voice

Oh well. If he got fired for being an asshole, then so be it.