By now, everyone has heard that Gilbert Gottfried was fired from his Aflac voiceover gig due to his tweets on the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami. Were his jokes in poor taste? Yes, of course they were. That’s what Gilbert Gottfried does- he’s been doing this for 30+ years. Here is a quick list of topics that Aflac thinks are fine to joke about, since he made similar jokes about each of these topics without getting fired:
- Attempted suicide by stabbing oneself repeatedly
- Drug overdoses leaving three small children without a father
- Hurricane Katrina
- 9/11
- The Holocaust
- Any and every racial stereotype ever conceived
- Bela Lugosi
So, by Aflac’s actions, we can assume that they find each of those topics appropriate for jokes, but NOT the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Look, I understand that most of your business is done in Japan, but here are a few things to consider- you knew who Gilbert Gottfried was when you hired him, yet you did so anyway. He’s made inappropriate jokes about anything and everything since then with no public repercussions. If you have a problem with this type of humor, you should have never hired him in the first place.
Also, anyone following Gilbert Gottfried on Twitter likely appreciates this type of humor. Those who are offended were never his intended audience- it was through other media sources where those who were offended learned of these comments.
So if you don’t like Gilbert Gottfried, ignore him, and don’t hire him to represent your company. But if you do, then don’t be surprised when he does exactly what he’s always done- make me laugh my ass off.