Gilbert Gottfried Is An Ass
I am not sure if Gilbert Gottfried does any work now except as the voice of the duck in the Aflac commercials, but now that is gone. Gilbert was rightfully fired yesterday by the company because of a dozen Tweets which made fun of the Japanese and their situation. How can anyone find anything funny about what seems like an entire country imploding? Nuclear explosion, tens of thousands of people dying and Gilbert drops jokes like this:
I am glad he got fired. Who thinks this stuff is funny? Has anyone even seen an apology from him? When he can't find any work I bet he apologizes in a hurry.
Loser. I've never liked this guy anyway.
ReplyDeleteI'm with RQ. Not funny to begin with, and now just an a*hole in my book.
ReplyDeleteHe wont apologize anyway. For him, its about jokes that offend people. No matter what.
ReplyDeleteEnty,
ReplyDeleteDo you recall that it was three weeks after 9/11 in a Friar's Roast (target: nominally Hugh Hefner) held in NYC that Gottfried told a joke about how difficult it was to book a direct flight out of the city because planes had to "stop off" at the Empire State Building.
People yelled, "Too soon!"
And that was when Gottfried revived the fabled joke about The Aristocrats... which led to an invaluable film which explored how more than a few variations on that could be told.
And the audience went into the relief of hysterical laughter.
Yes, he made a mistake. (Yes, I live in Manhattan.) But if he hadn't told that second, infinitely uglier yet more wonderful joke, a lot would have been lost.
What he said now was even more horrible, it's true. But he has a particular history of doing well when a second chance.
He needs to go away.
ReplyDeleteI think he jokes were funny as shit.
ReplyDeleteNo filter.....dangerous.
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely a time & place. Nothing is off limits for a comedian, and I understand that. But when you have thousands missing & everyone is trying to comprehend what just happened, now is not the time and even if it's on Twitter - not the place. Everyone has short term memories if it leads to them making a profit, so someone will likely take a chance on him again. But for now I think Aflac made the right choice.
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ReplyDeleteI don't care. I live in NYC and watched as the towers fell. It was traumatic. I also lost someone very dear to me in the towers...so no. There are and will never be a joke about the Trade Center that I will find even remotely amuzing. Not even now. There is no humor that comes out of this kind of pain. Gilbert made a mistake then and should have learned from his first lesson. No excuses...he's a jerk and an a-hole and I'm glad he was fired. He and 50 cent should hang out together. They're both losers.
ReplyDeleteTasteless, most definitly.
ReplyDeleteAflac's prompt response, great.
Does he need to be neailed to a cross, no.
No one's going to comment on EatMy's picture? OK. I'm not going there either.
ReplyDeleteJust too soon.
ReplyDeletethis is his shtick and he can't stop himself. He is also a total cheapskate. He told Howard Stern he bought lawn furniture for his apt becuase it was cheaper.
ReplyDeleteHe did delete the tweets but I don't think he really cares either way.
I have never liked this creep. Annoying piece of shit.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there was really anything funny about it because this is a disaster of whole earth proportions. I get he's a comedien, but I can't understand why he would pick on Japan, when there are some funny things he could have said about Japan without mentioning the Tsunami.
ReplyDeleteLooserdude...it's a troll. Just ignore him/her. They're just looking for attention. Enty will eventually delete them.
ReplyDeleteOk, I thought they were hilarious. I really can't be alone in this.
ReplyDeleteYes, way too soon and just reflects on him as a person and not as a comic, imo on this matter. Aflac did the right thing.
ReplyDeleteOk, now for the photo of EatMy, all I can say is Wow!!
He has always been tasteless and there will always be an audience for that type of humor. What surprises me is that Aflac hired him in the first place. I'm shocked that he gets so much Disney work. He is not a clean comic by any stretch of the imagination.
ReplyDeleteIt's tasteless, but tasteless is what he does. All his jokes are too soon and inappropriate. Sometimes, I find myself laughing at "too soon and inappropriate", I have to admit this. These weren't very funny though. Aflac did the right thing.
ReplyDeletehis whole shtick is gross, over-the-top 'humor.' i can get into that---kinison was my hero. but this guy's not even funny, IMO. who cares if he got fired? they have every right to fire him. you can say what you want in this country and the GOVERNMENT can't censor you---but a private employer most certainly can.
ReplyDeleteGood for Afflac. Gilbert, go talk to the guy from Seinfeld and see how having diarrhea of the mouth helped him.
ReplyDeleteHe's apologized according to the article on TMZ.
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ReplyDeleteI haven't read all of his tweets and I am not going to take the time. The one posted here is so unfunny it almost doesn't offend me.
ReplyDeleteMy sister had some business dealings with his wife. She is a very nice person but he is a total ass.
even if he did issue an apology, it wouldn't matter. it's not forgivable.
ReplyDeleteYeah. An apology doesn't really mean shit, at this point.
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised that he gets work, because his voice is so distinctive -- that's probably why he's been hired by Disney, and Aflac, too. And his schtick is to be squawky and offensive, sure, but it's just waaaaaay too soon to even attempt a joke. He has to understand how for every person who laughs, at least twenty more will be offended.
It honestly seems as if a new celebrity says something asinine on Twitter every. single. day.
You guys are way over the top. You can be compassionate, care deeply about people and still make the joke. It requires some degree of emotional intelligence and not a knee jerk reaction. There are far worse people in the world then GG.
ReplyDeleteAs far as firing him- He was the first with a 9/11 joke, first with Greg Giraldo joke- Aflac knew exactly what they were getting when they hired him.
Sorry retailprophet. What's as jaw-dropping as the "jokes" themselves is that he was the celebrity voice/representative of an INSURANCE company. And not just any insurance company, the biggest individual insurer in Japan. And he was making horrible jokes about the Japanese victims of a natural disaster when his company insurers massive numbers of them. What a P.R. fricken NIGHTMARE. It would be like, I don't know, Alex Trebek, who is Colonial Penn Life Insurance's celebrity spokesman, making fun of the senior citizens who were killed in that bus crash after coming home from a casino. Or I don't know. But it wasn't JUST that the jokes were in bad taste anyway.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a person can make jokes and at the same time be compassionate and care about people. But, imo, you are in no way a compassionate or caring person if you can make cruel and thoughtless jokes like he did at a time like this.
ReplyDeleteI have never found Gottfried remotely funny.
ReplyDeleteI think that dark humor soon after a tragedy can be appropriate, as part of the way we cope, but these jokes are just tacky.
ReplyDeleteHere's something really funny for him: Gilbert GottFired!
ReplyDeleteBet he doesn't see the funny side of that!
He didn't even tell it correctly.
ReplyDelete(not that I'm condoning the joke, but at least get it right)
"My friend just got dumped by his Japanese girlfriend, but like they say, 'there's plenty more in the sea'"
His punchline didn't even make sense as that's not a well-knows saying/cliche.
I think this goes more to the power and misuse of Twitter. You just can't spout out everything in your mind no matter if you find it amusing or not - no matter how dark it was or not.
ReplyDeleteThat guy saved alot of souls that day when he told the Aristocrats joke at that event two weeks after 9/11.
I am fairly sure none of you even knew he was the Aflac duck's voice. And I do think Aflac overreacted a bit - but then if 70% of your buisness is in Japan then you can do what you want to do as a business.
And if I had that gig - i would keep my Twitter trap shut.
@Rock - agree that Twitter is just one PR disaster after another waiting to happen. Get some popcorn.
ReplyDeleteHowever, anyone who knows what Gottfried's voice sounds like knows he was the Aflac voice. Come ON.
All this being said, I kind of want to watch The Aristocrats again. Sarah Silverman and Bob Saget's versions were my fave :)
Agree with RocketQueen & Mango.
ReplyDeleteCompletely tasteless.
I don't condone his actions but what is different about Gilbert now vs. Who Aflac signed to do the VoiceOver? Why is it wrong now but ok all along up until this point? How is this different than his comedy gigs? I don't personally like him but Aflac got a heck of a lot of free advertising for firing him, no?
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