Insurance company Aflac Inc. has severed all ties with comedian Gilbert Gottfried, the voice of the company’s duck mascot, after he made a series of very insensitive remarks on Twitter in the aftermath of the tragedy that struck Japan.
Just a couple of days ago, Gilbert took to his
Twitter to tweet some jokes about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Aflac, the biggest insurance company in the US but also one of the biggest in Japan, didn’t appreciate the unsavory jokes and decided to let the comedian go,
The Hollywood Reporter informs.
In fact, Aflac has 75 percent of its business located in Japan but, even if it didn’t, it would have still condemned the comedian’s words.
“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,” Aflac Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Michael Zuna says in a statement.
“There is no place for anything but compassion and concern during these difficult times,” Zuna adds.
Right now, a “nationwide casting call” is underway to find out the man who will voice the Aflac duck next, the same report says.
On the same note, as a sign of good will, Aflac has announced it will donate $100 million to victims of the natural disaster in Japan, urging others to do the same as well.
Since the scandal began, Gottfried has deleted the incriminatory tweets, but
TMZ has screenshots of it. Other websites also have made screenshots of them.
“Japan is really advanced. They don’t go to the beach. The beach comes to them,” Gottfried wrote in one tweet.
“I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, ‘They’ll be another one floating by any minute now’. [sic],” he added later.
And these are just two instances of the kind of humor Gottfried displayed on Twitter as regards the tragedy in Japan, other reports suggest.
As of now, the comedian has not apologized for his words but, as noted above, he did delete the tweets.
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