On tsunami's and Gottfried

Of course, everyone knows that Japan is going through a period of serious crisis right now. There was the initial 9.0 earthquake just off the coast, which would have been a big deal on it's own, but it didn't cause anything like the damage seen in Haiti last year or in New Zealand less than a month ago. Japan is well built for earthquakes. The secondary disaster is what caused the majority of the damage. The tsunami arrived in some towns within 20 minutes of the initial tremblor. There is a tertiary disaster at the Fukushima number 1 nuclear power station. * While really shitty and worrisome, it isn't going to be another Chernobyl.

As I said, the worst of the three is clearly the tsunami. As of this writing, more than 3500 people have been confirmed dead, with more than 7500 unaccounted for, and with everything as much of a mess as it is, those numbers are still probably low. Some officials have been quoted as saying the death toll may reach 10,000. Some of the victims were literally swept away to sea, with their bodies floating back to shore yesterday.

Which brings us to Gilbert Gottfried.

Wait, what?

Gilbert Gottfried, the comedian who is known to tread in places where others aren't willing to go, the guy who made a joke about the September 11th attacks three weeks after they happened apparently made some jokes on Twitter about the tsunami very soon after they happened. I've seen three jokes, and one might be funny at a different time, two I just found to be tasteless at any time, one (to paraphrase Gottfried) about how a new girlfriend will float by any minute. As I said, tasteless, but by no means the worst joke I've ever heard.

Gottfried is famously the voice of the duck used in the Aflac insurance commercials. One of Aflac's largest markets is, guess where? That's right. Japan. So, ol' Gilbert got canned as the voice of the duck.** Was Aflac acting on moral principles? Maybe. But I'd just as soon bet that it was for business reasons. Why would they want to associate themselves with a comedian, who was in a way an employee, who has just said something that many many current and potential customers will find deeply offensive. I remind you, several thousand bodies have been found floating in the ocean in the last few days. What Gottfried tweeted was extremely insensitive. I know that some people deal with tragedy by using humor, and I'm willing to give Gottfried the benefit of the doubt and say that's what he was doing. Fine. But, Gilbert, come on, man. You're a comedian. What's one of the most important things in comedy? Timing. His timing on this really sucked.

Of course, reading some of the comments on the news blogs, some commenters are sticking up for Gottfried, saying stuff like "First Amendment" and that Aflac shouldn't have fired him for the comments.

Of course, it is his right to say crass and insensitive things. He isn't being arrested for this. He's been fired. Companies usually do have the right to fire employees who are doing things that are potentially damaging to their business. Should Gottfried have been fired, or simply reprimanded? I don't know. That's not really my concern. But one thing I will say is this. Gottfried, because he is a well known comedian, is a public figure. If he didn't want to be in the public lime-light, well, he wouldn't be a professional comedian. And as a public figure, his words are more closely watched, and are up for debate in the public sphere. His words are different than mine. They carry more weight than the words of some nearly anonymous English teacher sitting in Hokkaido. And as such, I think it's right that we should criticize him. No, this isn't about having thin skin. This is about respect for the thousands who didn't survive, and the hundreds of thousands who did but witnessed up close and personal the disaster. Yes, it's Gottfried's right to say those tasteless things. But, dammit, it's might right say that he sounded like an asshole for putting them out for the world to see.

Do I think Gottfried is a mean, crass person? I have no idea. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. Maybe this is just him testing, seeing how far he can push the envelope. And if that's the case, Gilbert, man, test the envelope amongst a small group of friends who know you better than I do.


* Why the news insists on calling it the Fukushima dai-ichi power station is beyond me. Dai-ichi literally just means "number one," in a counting way, not in a ranking way.
**Yes, the duck appears in Japanese commercials. No, they don't use Gottfried's voice.