Gilbert Gottfried Fired
 

Now he is the voice of the Aflac duck and they do 75% of their business in Japan. He made some jokes on Twitter, he lost his job as the voice. I think Gilbert is great myself. When you hire a standup comic to be your voice for something you can't be surprised when he does his job. Sure it is their choice to fire him, I just don't see the point.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrend...ntsunamitweets

justa a little overkill.

Expecting a little compassion and sensitivity doesn't seem like too much to me. Any comedian worthwhile can gleam humor without being offensive. Sometimes political correctness goes too far but in this case, mocking the victims of this terrible event is way over the line.

Nonsense, there is no line. He is a comedian. He is consistent...You allow yourself to be offended, there is nothing saying you have to be offended.

Being a "comedian" doesn't give one the right to make fun of people's suffering, if that was your mother/sister/wife/daughter floating face down in the muddy waters of a savaged nation perhaps you'd have a little more insight. It's not me who is offended, rather those victimized by these tragic events.

It is you who is offended though. You are putting how other people should feel in your terms. You aren't other people. A comedian should be able to make fun of anything and everything no matter who it offends.

Obviously we disagree...further discussion is fruitless so I'll leave it at that, we have each presented our opinions.

You suck so much ass that your name should be a.sshole sucker.

I'm not saying he's wrong for creating those jokes. It's not something he can just turn off. Most of his creations aren't going to be seen as appropriate. His firing was inevitable. He is an artist that offends people. An insurance company wants to appear to be looking like they're helping people. Those are very different goals. At some point, this was gunna be seen as an inappropriate partnership. This (trying to find humor in a deadly tragedy that cost his employer a shyt load of money) was that time.

Oddly, no official reaction as of yet from the Aflac duck.

Don't think they hired him to make fun of their insurance clients who died in a terrible natural disaster.

Wasn't he hired before 9/11? Where was the feigned outrage then?

Really, he's a comedian?? It's offensive that anyone considers him a comedian!! I didn't even know he was still working in the business. I guess they are right when they say "a sucker is born every minute". Whoever hires him fits the bill.

Oh yeah he's not a comedian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W4RmZ-C8cU

Say he's not a comedian after that 7 minute clinic.

He is one of the single best guests that Stern ever has. He is brilliant.

You really are dreadful. At least consistent.

Didn't realize he was the duck. It's easily his best work.

As for his tweets, I'm not offended, but I'm not laughing, either. They just aren't very funny.

What nonsense. Dreadful? How? I like Gottfried as a comic myself. He made terrible jokes about dead Japanese, people who were the clients of his employer. Yeah, he deserved to fired.

You think he was "doing his job" to make fun of them? - and you call me dreadful? BWAAAHAAAAA

http://www.slate.com/id/2288387


In Defense of Gilbert "Aflac Duck" Gottfried
Purveyors of dark, bleak humor deserve our thanks, not our condemnation in times like these.
By Jack Shafer
Posted Tuesday, March 15, 2011, at 5:35 PM ET

If you didn't make an immediate connection between Japan's nuclear disasters and Godzilla, the mutant product of atomic radiation and the star of dozens of films, you're a better man than I.



good reading. i'll be back in a few, gotta follow the link in the article to see exactly what got him fired.

Don't expect Riot to understand this. Tough for bleeding hearts

one of my coworkers believes that god was punishing the bad japanese people. i asked if she thought pat robertson was right when he said new orleans was hit by a hurricane as punishment. she said yes. i told her i'd think she was onto something if detroit or chicago was nailed by a hurricane, rather than a city right on the gulf of mexico. she didn't get my sarcasm. wonder if she's a wnba fan...

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/n...ory?id=6215398


and i thought only sarah palin sounded dumb when she tweets.

Doesn't your 75% number you cited tell us the point? If they didn't do a lot of their business there, I highly doubt they would have fired him over those remarks.
I can't say I'm at all surprised that he was fired. Why would a company risk alienating their customers just to demonstrate support for the guy who does the voice of their mascot? Might they have lost customers by not firing him? Seems like the answer might be yes. Will firing him cost them any customers? I doubt it. Seems like a simple business calculation, no?

No denying. But then again everything is a business decision these days. Like sending Uncle Mo in a workout race written for him.

He made them far more in the time he worked for them than any 7-14 day Harvey Levin smear campaign.

What he said is NOTHING compared to the f.ucking they're going to give to a few unfortunate policyholders in Japan.

But their policyholders in Japan will feel better knowing he has been fired. They will also feel better knowing that an American wrote on facebook that his heart is broken for the people in Japan.