Aflac axes Gottfried for tasteless Japan tweets

Gilbert Gottfried attends the Beach Bunny Swimwear Spring 2011 fashion show on Sept. 11, 2010, in New York. / File,AP Photo/Charles Sykes

COLUMBUS, Georgia - Aflac Inc. said Monday it has fired Gilbert Gottfried, the abrasive voice of the insurer's quacking duck in the U.S., after the comedian posted a string of mocking jokes about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on Twitter over the weekend.

The tasteless tweets are particularly problematic for Aflac because it does 75 percent of its business in Japan. One in four homes in Japan buys health insurance from Aflac. The insurer's CEO, Daniel Amos, flew to Japan on Sunday to show support for the company's employees and agents.

The company said in a statement Monday that Gottfried's jokes do not represent the feelings of the company, which previously announced it would donate 100 million yen ($1.2 million) to the International Red Cross to help with disaster assistance.

"There is no place for anything but compassion and concern during these difficult times," Chief Marketing Officer Michael Zuna said.

The tweets in question were removed from Gottfried's Twitter feed Monday after Aflac announced it would stop working with the comedian. On Saturday, Gottfried tweeted: "I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, 'They'll be another one floating by any minute now."

Gottfried has voiced the duck in numerous Aflac commercials since 2000. His career includes a run as a cast member on "Saturday Night Live" and a role as the voice of the parrot in Disney's "Aladdin." He has also recorded a 50-minute show of dirty jokes.

The insurer said it will start a casting search for his replacement. The company also noted that Gottfried is not the voice of the duck in Japan. Aflac's mascot in has a softer, sweeter voice in Japanese commercials.

Aflac is gearing up for an influx of claims in the wake of the disaster, though it expects only a minimal financial impact to total results. The company, which has been doing business in Japan since 1974, said less than 5 percent of Aflac Japan's new sales and in-force premiums come from the hard-hit Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures there.

[NamVet65]

Only an unfeeling idiot would joke about a tragedy of this magnitude. The Japanese are honorable, hard working, respectful human beings. Gilbert is lacking in any values that normal people have. Drop him into an active volcano and be done with him.

[Adler315]

Gilbert Gottfried richly deserved to get fired, and once Howard Stern and Joan Rivers - both, of course, highly regarded in their own right as arbiters of taste, both revered for their devotion to humanitarian causes and for their great philanthropic work - publicly came to his defense for having made those outrageously offensive and appallingly crude remarks, that was just the Kiss of Death for Gottfried. Howard Stern and Joan Rivers are, respectively, the male and female embodiments of Bad Taste. They are trash.

[PUUEOMOON]

I am Japanese. i just read the so called joke that this man, i guess, thought was very funny. i guess he feels that Japanese are less than human, so he can laugh about the death of Japanese people.i just wonder how he would feel if his family was the one floating by and someone said that about them? than he would really have something to laugh about, wouldn't he. i bet you that anyone from japan wouldn't say anything like that about the death of others. most of them would cry for you. sorry that we are not more callus like him. then that stupid joke would be warranted. in japan most would not say anything about what he said, they would be polite enough to keep what they feel to themselves. but hey, i have the American way. i will open my mouth wide. to me only fools make fun of other peoples sorrow. and now, i know one.

[andynarwhal]

oh gawd, Iago.

[hamiltongrad]

What an idiot. CBS could we have some equal outrage for the slicing up murder of an infant by a so called "Militant" Palestinean ? 5 innocent people were killed, including 3 children and the infant. What kind of people would do this, and then celebrate ? What kind of world do we have that ignores such barabarians. In many ways this killing of an infant is worse than what has happen in Japan. At least the suffering there is not created by man. God Bless all the people in Japan, and all those who suffer because of the sub human barbarians who live among us.

[RenaeMe1972]

Please post a link to a reliable source for the story you mentioned. I would be interested in reading it.

As to GG, he seems to forget that tragedy + time = OK to make fun, not tragedy = OK to make fun. Thought he might have learned this after not allowing more time after 9/11, but I guess not. Personally, I overall love GG's humor; but I agree, he tried WAY too soon on this topic.

In the end, I'm sure his pocketbook isn't suffering too much. I've yet to read a news story about his excesses, so I'm sure he has a pretty penny in the bank. Maybe she'll be his next girlfriend (ba bum bum).

[hamiltongrad]

JUST look up jpost.com

[pragmatist1]

This guy never had any sense of style or humor. He was crude, vulgar and sophomoric. I hope Aflac finds someone soon to replace him, so they can stop running commercials using his voice or at least substitute it with the replacement's voice-over; this will strip him of any residuals and hit him in his wallet.

[usunus]

"The company said in a statement Monday that Gottfried's jokes do not represent the feelings of the company....... ".It is good to hear that companies too have feelings these days.

[RenaeMe1972]

Well, you know, corporations are people now.

[RedWings_ninety_one]

Amendment 1 people

[RedWings_ninety_one]

There is no need for insults...

[rf35]

Yes and since he chose to exercise it unwisely, Aflac was apparently within its rights under their contract to fire him.

[bundye]

Too bad. There's a time to speak and a time to be silent!!!!

[Henri_Rochard]

What's the quote: Sometimes it's better to remain silent and have people think you're a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

[mrz190]

Wow, I guess I'm just slow, but I thought it was a talking duck. 'Course I wouldn't buy or not buy a product because of a duck or lizard anyway. Next, you'll be telling me Rock Hudson wasn't really a lady's man. Oh, my!