Famecrawler
Gilbert Gottfried Fired as Aflac Duck for Tweets Mocking Japan Earthquake
Aflac fired comedian Gilbert Gottfried as the voice of its Aflac duck today because of Gottfried’s mean Tweets mocking the earthquake in Japan! This weekend, comedian Gottfried tweeted a dozen jokes on Twitter making fun of the earthquake.
Japan is Aflac’s most important market, with almost 75 percent of its business coming from that country.
Gilbert Gottfried has been the voice of the duck in Aflac’s popular TV ads, quacking “Af-LAC!” in Gottfried’s abrasive voice.
The comedian’s mean spirited jokes about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan brought about a strong negative reaction on Twitter but it also cost Gottfried a pretty sweet gig!
According to Reuters, the insurance company said Gottfried’s comments “were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac.”
The comedian has not apologized for his jokes on Twitter. A few of the tweets that cost Gottfried his job with Aflac included:
“I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, ‘They’ll be another one floating by any minute now.’”
“Japan is really advanced. They don’t go to the beach. The beach comes to them.”
“Japan called me. They said “maybe those jokes are a hit in the US, but over here, they’re all sinking.”
Photo: Aflac
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2 Comments
stonemason89 commented on Mar 14 11 at 8:40 pmLooks like everything isn’t ducky for this guy anymore…
Eva commented on Mar 15 11 at 12:39 amAw, too bad. Tasteless Jokes no more!
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