Aflac Fires Gilbert Gottfried for his Japanese Tsunami Jokes

Yesterday, the multi-national insurance giant Aflac fired the voice of its duck mascot, the company’s commercial spokescreature for over a decade, Gilbert Gottfried. It seems that Gilbert letting loose with a cavalcade of jokes about the disasters taking place in Japan wasn’t the wisest of moves given that, randomly enough, Aflac does 75% of its business in the Land of the Rising Sun. (Of course, over there, the company is called “Afrac.” Bada to the bing.) Here are some of the more creative lines that came out of Gilbert’s filthy little piehole:









While they’re not the greatest jokes ever told, give Gilbert credit for having the balls to utter them. As soon as the the earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit Japan, my Twitter account was flooded (pardon the aquatic disaster pun) with #PrayforJapan tweets, as well as several sanctimonious bastards saying things along the lines of “If any of you make jokes about Japan, I will unfollow you immediately.” (Which, of course, I perceived as a challenge because I’m mature like that.) Look, we all feel bad about Japan. Do you really think Gilbert Gottfried bears the country any sort of malice? I mean it’s not like his grandfather died in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Everyone knows there aren’t any Jews in the military.


To all the people who tweeted about Japan, your sentiments are sweet, but please, don’t act like you’re on any sort of moral high ground compared to Gilbert. All both of you did was eat the service’s bandwidth, perhaps dooming a person who needed to tweet their location with the last of their laptop’s battery to instead see the fail whale pop up on their screen. Words are cheap. If you actually give a shit, donate to the Red Cross by clicking here. (I gave them cash, and now I feel entitled to make any damn joke I please. It’s the same reason I donate to the NAACP, GLAAD and the Hispanic College Fund.)


As for Aflac, it’s their prerogative to fire Gilbert, though I think they’re overreacting since people in Japan are probably busying themselves by trying to, well, not die, rather than reading his words. (Total aside – “prerogative” is one of the five favorite words of dumb athletes trying to sound intelligent.) A few people out there have taken the stance of “It’s Gilbert we’re talking about. He’s always been a provocateur. Aflac shouldn’t act like this is something new.” And, while I agree, business is business. If Aflac thinks that Gilbert has become a liability, they’re free to ditch him. I just hope they get a new voice that’s as unique and recognizable as Gilbert’s. Since they’re going for broke trying to please the Japanese, might I suggest George Takei?

Tagged as: Gilbert Gottfried,  Japan.