Aladdin Central Messageboard

Ash · Streetrat Joined: 19 Aug 2010 Posts: 12

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110315/ap_on_en_ot/us_aflac_fires_gottfried_8

Making fun of the Japanese earth quake victims, really?.
I'm not sure what the jokes were as I do not go on twitter. The thought of anyone mocking what the Japanese people are currently going through infuriates me.

AladdinsGenie · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:48 pm Post subject:

Now I'm curious about the Tweets. They probably wouldn't have fired him if they didn't do a majority of their business there, though.

There's a lot of tasteless comments going around about Japan right now, though. I really don't get why.

Meesh · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:45 am Post subject:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-10-worst-gilbert-gottfried-tsunami-jokes

^^There's 10 (all?) of them

Yeah, I saw that on the news last night.
I think Mashable got it right when they said

AladdinsGenie · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 12:11 pm Post subject:

I'd agree with that if there weren't thousands of people dead, missing and washed out to sea right now. Making "another girlfriend will be floating by" jokes isn't controversial, it's just plain fucked up as is what's going on over there with a tsunami, an earthquake and now a possible complete nuclear meltdown. Most of those jokes, in theory, aren't that bad, but it's just too early to be making lol dead people jokes if there's ever a time to be making them. I'm usually all in favor for comedians not toning down their acts (Ricky Gervais and the Golden Globes comes to mind), but I can't defend this one as much as I don't mind Gilbert at all. Not to say he should tone it down, but sometimes not saying anything at all or waiting for the best time also works. Not even a week after this happened is just in bad taste.

It probably won't get that much press, though, as none of the stuff going on right now isn't happening in our country. Dead people jokes are funny when it's not about Americans.

Meesh · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 4:39 pm Post subject:

I feel like, coming from Gottfried, that it was more insensitive/in poor taste. I feel that if it came from, say, Barack Obama or George Bush etc., it would be disgusting and enraging.
You could call that a double standard, but Gottfried's reputation and occupation are based around his crudeness and lack of a filter (Pokes at his "too soon" 9/11 joke), while other icons are expected to filter their comments.

That doesn't make what he said right, and it's not that I'm defending him. I think he shouldn't have said it, but his stupid filterless mouth got him in deep s***, he apologized, and it's over IMO.

As for media coverage, I say move on from GG and onto what really matters. There are more important aspects of this horrible tragedy like what is currently happening over there and how we can help.
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Calluna · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 8:22 am Post subject:

Not to make excuses for him, but Aflac should have expected this kind of thing when they hired Gilbert; he even made a joke about 9/11 soon after it happened.
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"If only I could believe you. Perhaps I can! After all... you do bear the name of a flower." -- Arbutus

Princess of Agrabah · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 1:54 pm Post subject:

I was talking about this with my family yesterday ( first civil conversation we could have about anything remotely Aladdin related Laughing

) and I have to agree with what everyone's said. It is bad taste and insensitive, but yeah...it's Gilbert.
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APK · Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 12:24 pm Post subject:

Sadly, I did like "your jokes are sinking" and "japan is really advanced." But I don't find the other ones to be funny at all. They're terrible, and morbid and not funny at all to me. But I think I'm too biased towards GG to have a valid opinion about this.

Calluna · Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:23 pm Post subject:

They should get Frank Welker to replace him. Laughing

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"If only I could believe you. Perhaps I can! After all... you do bear the name of a flower." -- Arbutus