Online Petition to Save Gottfried's VO Job

Eric Hansen wants Aflac to rehire Gilbert Gottfried. His argument, according to the online petition he has started, is pretty easy to improve on.

• "Gottfried was simply enacting his first amendment rights"

So is Aflac. They're a company that can hire and fire celebrity voices for whatever reason they want. They didn't fire him for breaking the law. They fired him for saying something they didn't like AND, most likely, that they believed would bring them bad press and hurt business.

• He has "a well-established reputation as a filthy, tasteless comedian."

They hired him for his grating voice, not for his reputation. When his reputation suddenly became more problematic than his voice, they re-evaluated the balance. Whether you judge him or not, with these jokes and the attention they got, his reputation changed for a lot of people.

• "[B]y joking about this tragedy, he could have brightened the days of the victims of it."

This is almost as hard to swallow as the argument that his jokes could have made their suffering worse. So maybe it brightened the days of a few victims with a great sense of humor. That's not the point tho. This defense of humor, as a way to "brighten a day," is too easy to flip around and use to attack every comedian who makes anyone uncomfortable.

• "In short, if you didn't want to associate yourself with a tasteless comedian who makes inappropriate jokes, you had no business hiring Gilbert Gottfried in the first place."

Worst closing statement ever. You used to say you loved him! So now you have to keep him! You've basically told them they were right to fire him. As I write, 14 people have signed the petition. Aflac has not yet changed its mind.

via Punchline Magazine

Aflac Fires Gilbert Gottfried for Jokes about Japan

Gilbert Gottfried is taking some of the attention away from Alec Sulkin for tweets about Japan that offended people. And he's one-upping the story: Gottfried's jokes got him fired from his quacking gig.

Aflac released a statement, saying

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.

Some of the jokes:

Japan called me. They said ‘maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they’re all sinking.

I was talking to my Japanese real estate agent. I said ‘is there a school in this area.’ She said ‘not now, but just wait.

Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them.

Gottfried made jokes about 9/11 just a few weeks after the attack. It was at the Friars Club roast of Hugh Hefner. He started to lose the crowd, but he won them back by telling a joke about sodomy, incest, pedophilia, scat, and showbusiness. And the punchline wasn't even that great. But the crowd loved it.

link to a story about the firing.

another link to a story about the firing.

another link to yet another story about the firing.