Gilbert Gottfried fired by Aflac over Quake Jokes

Originally Posted By SpokkerJones

It's actually a very surprising story.

<a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/03/gilbert-gottfried-fired-aflac-tsunami-jokes.html?cid=6a00d8341c630a53ef014e86b79622970d" target="_blank">http://latimesblogs.latimes.co...9622970d</a>

Why? Aflac did not seem to care that Gilbert was making 9/11 jokes so soon after that tragedy happened. The company did not seem to care that Gilbert was hurling racial slurs every which way on the Howard Stern Show.

If a company is going to enter into a contract with someone, they should get to know their work. Or, we could infer that Aflac doesn't give two damns about 9/11 and racial slurs.

One thing I always find funny when someone is fired for being "insensitive" is that corporations have fought in court for the ability to donate to political campaigns as a first amendment issue, yet they keep their employees on a tight leash. It seems that corporations have more freedom than people.

The first amendment is essentially a protection against government tyranny, but at this point I'm more concerned about corporate tyranny. Fear of termination already has a chilling effect on speech, and it's not necessarily about cracking edgy jokes.

If we value the first amendment, why don't we value it in our personal lives? It seems that everybody wants to shut everybody else up these days. It seems that some people have a full-time job looking for things to be offended about.

There is a lot of power in being offended.

 

Originally Posted By Labuda

A bit surprising, but not so much when you realize that Aflac is the insurance owned by one in four households in Japan. I read that in an AP article on my Wii this morning. 25% of the country uses their insurance, and he was apparently making tasteless jokes.

So, I don't blame them. I just hope whoever they get to replace him over here (he's not their voice in Japan - the voice there is a nicer, more mellifluous one, apparently) is able to make that cute duckie sound just as cute as he does now.

 

Originally Posted By SpokkerJones

"but not so much when you realize that Aflac is the insurance owned by one in four households in Japan."

It's pretty much irrelevant. 9/11 jokes and racial slurs didn't matter all these years. It's like this, make fun of whoever you want, just don't offend the Japanese. I'm not sure why one culture should be above all others.

 

Originally Posted By SpokkerJones

I don’t know about you, but I am more offended by the US media over this tragedy. Watching Fox News, I got the feeling that Megan Kelley was just going, "Oh, look at this. Lookit this! Lookit all the wreckage! Gather ’round people! Check out all this wreckage omigod!!!" She's no Anderson Cooper.

Then we have a habit of making everything about us. I was watching KTLA and they had cameras pointed at the water in Newport Beach for two hours. It was disgusting to see these brain dead reporters worried about a little surge when Japanese American viewers with ties to Japan could have used information about what was going on in Japan.

Then all the newspapers and blogs are asking, "Could an earthquake destroy San Onofre?" Well, maybe, but way to sensationalize things you jerks. Maybe research the difference between subduction zones and transverse faults and figure out that an 8.9 is not likely in Southern California before scaring everybody.

And then you have people spreading hysteria about the nuclear fallout spreading to California. KABC was asking listeners, and I’m not making this up, if they were going to evacuate California because of this.

But few people see a problem with this. They want Gilbert Gottfried fired.

 

Originally Posted By mawnck

>>Aflac is the insurance owned by one in four households in Japan.<<

A fact that, if I were an insurance company, I would be trying to keep quiet right about now.

Agree with previous posters. Sounded like Gilbert Gottfried being Gilbert Gottfried to me. Hey ... do you suppose we could get him fired from Tiki Under New Management as well?

And +1 for #4.

 

Originally Posted By ecdc

Love #4. Are we really that self-involved? I guess so - you can't turn on the local news without hearing "Could this happen to you? We'll tell you at 11!" Now it's, "Could an earthquake like this happen here?"

 

Originally Posted By SpokkerJones

"Could an earthquake like this happen here?"

And if we are talking about Southern California, the answer is no. We have a different kind of earthquake here.

 

Originally Posted By SpokkerJones

Turns out that he isn't even the voice of the duck in Japan.

 

Originally Posted By ADMIN

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Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan

>>Are we really that self-involved? I guess so - you can't turn on the local news without hearing "Could this happen to you? We'll tell you at 11!" Now it's, "Could an earthquake like this happen here?"<<

This is the direct result of years and years of focus groups telling broadcast news and newspapers that readers want more local news. Which means (to those analyzing focus group responses) that whenever possible, no matter how much of a stretch it is, every attempt must be made to localize a story any which way they can.

It isn't enough to report on an international tragedy, it must be made "relevant" here. And that's why it all often seems so dumbed-down compared to other media abroad.

 

Originally Posted By Longhorn12

>If Aflac didn't fire him before, I don't know why they would fire him now. <

They already own his voice (via soundclips) and you can only say AFLAAAAAAC so many times. They probably no longer needed him and this was a convenient way to get rid of him.

 

Originally Posted By mawnck

>>They already own his voice (via soundclips)<<

Not likely, actually. Gottfried's contract would be for broadcasts over a fixed time period.

 

Originally Posted By SpokkerJones

Even if they could use his voice after firing him, they aren't going to because he said naughty things that they made more widespread than it would have been. They are planning to hire another voice actor.

 

Originally Posted By Dabob2

<Aflac is the insurance owned by one in four households in Japan>

The other little stat the paper had is that Japan constitutes 3/4 of Aflac's business. They really can't afford to lose that, obviously.

It seems more of a stretch if GG wasn't the voice of the duck IN Japan, but perhaps Mr. X can weigh in here, as he understands Japanese culture probably better than the rest of us here: if the Japanese got wind of GG making light of this tragedy (in which so many people lost loved ones or their homes, etc.), and they found out he was employed by Aflac, would that hurt Aflac in Japan? Not saying it should or shouldn't - I'm asking would it? Would it be considered beyond the pale in Japan?

 

Originally Posted By SpokkerJones

Gottfried was not the spokesperson for Aflac even in the US. He was simply a voice actor hired to provide the voice over.

Gilbert Gottfried was also the parrot in Aladdin and does voices on other children's shows. You have to be able to separate his dirty joke act from his voice over work. They are two different things.

After 9/11, there were plenty of Japanese people posting that we deserved it on the famous 2ch image board. There are plenty of Japanese fans of dark humor. Let's get over ourselves here.

 

Originally Posted By ecdc

I'm just fed up with fake outrage. Yeah, I hear jokes or comments or whatever that I think are in bad taste and I don't love. But they're jokes - maybe not funny ones, but that's what they are.

We are a culture of outrage and we spend so much time wringing our hands over right and wrong behavior. We've glorified it and we wallow in it - from the benign to the truly horrible. This girl who was gang raped in Texas--it's an appalling, tragic story. But is it "news" in the sense that knowing it makes us better citizens and more informed people? No - and I'm guilty of clicking as much as the next person. These kinds of stories are what drive us now, as if we wait for the next horrific thing that can top the last.

Joseph Conrad was right, it's the fascination with the abomination.

 

Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan

>>we spend so much time wringing our hands over right and wrong behavior<<

I think in general we could probably spend a whole lot more time thinking about right and wrong behavior, both on an individual basis and as a country.

But to your larger point...

>>Yeah, I hear jokes or comments or whatever that I think are in bad taste and I don't love. But they're jokes - maybe not funny ones, but that's what they are<<

... yes, I agree and think things like this get blown out of all proportion. It's an easy thing to get worked up about, easy to take a side on and it's one of those tailor-made for talk radio sort of issues.

Comics like Gilbert Gottfried (It's hard not to type that as Gott Fired) always work on the edgy, cross-the-line side of things. They're nightclub comics, an environment where people go for the funny, even when it might be cruel. It's R-rated stuff, not for the timid or oversensitive.

But in a Twitter world, when someone has a lucrative voiceover gig, it probably makes sense to at least know when you might be putting the company in a bad light. I'm sure he's thinking "I've said WAY worse stuff than this on any given night, and THIS is what gets me fired?"

 

Originally Posted By ecdc

>>I think in general we could probably spend a whole lot more time thinking about right and wrong behavior, both on an individual basis and as a country.<<

You're right, of course. When I say right and wrong behavior, I mean other people's behavior that doesn't really affect anyone. What a comic says, what an athlete does, etc. It's just the wrong priorities.

 

Originally Posted By SpokkerJones

It's a lot easier for media outlets to weigh the very serious issue of Gilbert Gottfried's Twitter feed than to adequately explain to the American public what's going on on Wall Street, how our civil liberties are being trampled on by overly aggressive security measures or how our budget woes won't be solved by only cutting discretionary spending (hint: the war might have something to do with debt and deficits).

Gosh, looking at the backlash you'd think words do more harm than earthquakes and tsunamis.

 

Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan

>>When I say right and wrong behavior, I mean other people's behavior that doesn't really affect anyone. What a comic says, what an athlete does, etc. It's just the wrong priorities.<<

Totally agree.