Gilbert Gottfried: Funniest man alive

no, he's definitely not the funniest man alive, but I do find him unironically hilarious. Though maybe I'm laughing more AT him than with him. Can't tell.

Beyond that, ahhh....

... Okay, I would listen to a Gilbert Gottfried comedy record before a Colin Quinn comedy record.

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/famecrawler/2007/10/08-15/gildbert-godfried.jpg

haha

He looks like a lesbian there?

what happy lesbians!

haha xp

BLACK CHUCK TAYLORS
OH NOOOO

chaki do you consider that photo evidence for or against yr chuck bias

my chuck bias was fake tom i was just trolling. i admitted that at the end of the thread.

maybe i should be banned :(

That guy is always going to be on my good list 'cause of his years on USA Up All Night during lonely adolescent years.

for the record, i love gilbert.

and sullivan.

yes but chaki I am asking you to keep up the troll about chucks I thought it was an interesting character bit

work some Stan Smiths into it

huge stan smith fan though. but i mostly wear jack purcells.

Rod Lavers

...only come in white

http://www.zappos.com/images/A/Adidas145/70832-d.jpg

well tickle my balls..

Gilbert Gottfried on Stern show is classic though

yah he was on today.

note to self: renew Sirius subscription

USA Up All Night = yes!

This picture is really gross.

im glad he's happy

Gottfried's Andrew Dice Clay parodies really are great.

<3 gilbert gottfried

He wrote an intro to a Mad magazine compendium that includes the sentence "Now I am a parrot." So true.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/gilbert-gottfried-fired-aflac_n_835692.html

RealGilbert

Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them.
about 3 hours ago via web
What do the japanese have in common with @howardstern? They're both radio active.
about 20 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone
Japan had put out this urgent plea...." PLEASE SEND US A FEW BIlLION RUBBER DUCKIES!!!!!"
about 20 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone
Japan called me. They said "maybe those jokes are a hit in the US, but over here, they're all sinking.
about 21 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone
I fucked a girl in japan. She screamed "I feel the earth move and I'm getting wet."
about 21 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone
My book #rubberBallsAndLiquor was released in japan. It's making quite a splash.
about 21 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone
What does every Japanese person have in their apartment? Flood lights.
about 21 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone
I asked a girl in Japan to have sex with me. She said "okay, but you'll have to sleep in the wet spot."
about 22 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone
What do Japanese Jews like to eat? Hebrew National Tsunami.
about 22 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone
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."
about 22 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone
My Japanese doctor advised me to stay healthy I need 50 million gallons of water a day.
about 23 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone
I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, "They'll be another one floating by any minute now."
about 23 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone

what a horribly formed "joke"

<tiniest font ever> one of those made me laugh a little bit.

yeaaaahhhhhh... he's not gonna recover from this. and the commercials were becoming tedious anyway - i'm not going to miss him.

Those jokes are great!

very much in character

gottfried couldnt be reached for comment, but this was his reaction when he heard the news:

http://i.imgur.com/1MNGe.gif

guys, he's been saying horrible stuff for years and years. he'll be fine.

He was like the only guy making 9/11 jokes in the month of September, hes p much a hero

I think the diff w/ 9/11 is he's not Japanese, so...

Who gives a fuck. A good joke's a good joke.

also, i really don't recall his 9/11 jokes being told publicly in September '01. Did the Friars Club footage get out before The Aristocrats?

but those are 'good' BAD jokes

xp

Will they let him keep his job as a smoke detector?

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/37c91SUokMc/0.jpg

I was told this weekend that I need to see The Adventures of Ford Fairlane mainly because of GG.

haha u may have misheard me

hahaha

oh no, did I?

i mean any reason for seeing it is aok imo

:)

i hope you were watching raising hope last week!

http://twitter.com/#!/morgan_murphy/status/47632863625084928

lol

Who gives a fuck. A good joke's a good joke.

PrincessTamTam can fuck off and die now, thanks. Piece of worthless shit. Good job trollin'. Hope your family gets wiped out by a tsunami.

So sick of this ironic distance or whatever the fuck it is that tolerates people joking about tens of thousands of people dying. No excuse.

I just read about this morning. I'd love to get inside Gilbert Gottfried's mind: "My career's going well, I'm universally loved--now would be a good time to fire off some national-disaster jokes."

Who gives a fuck. A good joke's a good joke.

― ℳℴℯ　❤＼(◕‿◕✿ (Princess TamTam), Monday, March 14, 2011 9:08 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

So sick of this ironic distance or whatever the fuck it is that tolerates people joking about tens of thousands of people dying. No excuse.

― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 9:59 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

these posts are pretty much the "ilx keep it negative dickhole zing crew" vs "ilx cuddlestein era crew" defined

thank you, Jane Goodall

lol

that's DOCTOR whiney to you

omg lol

these posts are pretty much the "ilx keep it negative dickhole zing crew" vs "ilx cuddlestein era crew" defined

― i been serving humble pie since he had small faces (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 9:08 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this post is pretty much "ilx's shittiest poster" defined

I am pretty sure that guy has realized he's not universally loved by now. the jokes were stupid and distasteful but on a certain level I think it's better to just ignore people who do this rather than make it a national news story instead of making it into a game about how offended / morally superior we are.

Er replace 'instead of ' with 'and'

n/a, i'd love to come back to that with a zing, but none of your worthless jerkoff piss-dribble posts have ever made enough impact on me to register? who are you?

Someone who's been here a lot longer than you have, for a start.

Sorry guys for being too cuddly to not find this disaster funny.

guys, i'm not trying to make some value judgement on whether zing crew or cuddle crew is BETTER, I'm just saying those posts are a good visualization of two rising board trends

and everyone else is saying "whogivesashit.jpg"

sorry to take this convo away from the important, earth-shattering development that man with a CD called DIRTY JOKES may have said something offensive to people

argh, i'm trying not be be zingy, guys.

PrincessTamTam can fuck off and die now, thanks. Piece of worthless shit. Good job trollin'. Hope your family gets wiped out by a tsunami.

― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 9:56 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

So sick of this ironic distance or whatever the fuck it is that tolerates people joking about tens of thousands of people dying. No excuse.

― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 9:59 AM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yeah okay captain sanctimony. First of all, I'm not trolling. I'm just saying that these are good jokes and I don't think they need to be defended on any other grounds aside from being funny. Guess that means my mom and dad should drown to death. I do think your whole outrage act is pretty phony and that you just want to feel aggrieved about something.

You're a douchebag plain and simple. The jokes aren't funny in ANY context, let alone one where a natural disaster IS STILL GOING ON. I'm sure its hard to understand with your "irony" or whatever fucking pathetic defense you want to throw up, but I ACTUALLY AM OUTRAGED. Not phony.

I wonder what Aflac's going to do now; find a soundalike or just use old recordings? I mean that duck is the only thing they have going for them right now. Ultimately I think they made the right call although I question how many people think that Gilbert "represents" Aflac the same way that say, Tiger Woods represented Nike.

I didn't really think the jokes were funny either, but this is what he does. I did find the 9/11 jokes to be hilarious, not because they were funny, but the reaction of the horrified audience was priceless. A lot of comedians claim to be or want to be known as being offensive and edgy but it's not like you can rattle people by saying the word "fuck" anymore.

I am pretty sure that guy has realized he's not universally loved by now. the jokes were stupid and distasteful but on a certain level I think it's better to just ignore people who do this rather than make it a national news story instead of making it into a game about how offended / morally superior we are.

Are we talking about Gilbert or Whiney right now?

i hate to be all deej about it, but what the fuck did i do?

It was a joke.

:)

this thread needs to be installed with a real-time SB counter

sorry to take this convo away from the important, earth-shattering development that man with a CD called DIRTY JOKES may have said something offensive to people

The Aristocrats thing is really proof that dirty != offensive; the point was that people will laugh at the dirtiest and most grotesque jokes under the guise of "wow, this is really edgy and offensive, but we're hip and have a sense of humor so we love it", while hating the guy for having the balls to say something that was ACTUALLY offensive; I think it more pointed out the hypocrisy of the audience (in some way), although I couldn't say they had the "wrong" reaction to any of it

You're a douchebag plain and simple. The jokes aren't funny in ANY context, let alone one where a natural disaster IS STILL GOING ON. I'm sure its hard to understand with your "irony" or whatever fucking pathetic defense you want to throw up, but I ACTUALLY AM OUTRAGED. Not phony.

making a joke abt things has always been as natural & human a recation to tragedy on this scale as any really - its just another way of managing the monstrousness of the situation for ppl & its kinda gross if u cant understand/deal w/ that.

its kinda gross if u cant understand/deal w/ that

Really? This is going to be turned on me for not being okay with laughing at this? Fuck off pls.

I am pretty sure that guy has realized he's not universally loved by now. the jokes were stupid and distasteful but on a certain level I think it's better to just ignore people who do this rather than make it a national news story instead of making it into a game about how offended / morally superior we are.

on the one hand, I agree with you that if everybody just quietly went "ignoring that, kinda not amused" it'd be best but on the other hand I kinda hate that to be offended by anything ever auto-codes as "moral superiority." It's actually possible to be a shitty human being like everybody else and still say to others "try harder plz"

"you're offended by grotesque insensitivity? well la-di-da, mr. high and mighty who doesn't stink when he farts!"

There was a thread about this in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords story--basically, should life come to a halt in the wake of tragedy? To stay consistent, I believe that life should go on as normally as possible, and life encompasses distasteful jokes. But the key to me is jon's "where a natural disaster is still going on." If Gilbert Gottfried felt it absolutely necessary to make these jokes, he could have waited a bit. Maybe that would be the lame, hedging-your-bets thing to do, and not waiting is what makes him an "edgy" comic, but it'd also be a show of basic civility.

Only in the context of this place would anyone ever refer to me as cuddly.

I did find the 9/11 jokes to be hilarious, not because they were funny, but the reaction of the horrified audience was priceless. A lot of comedians claim to be or want to be known as being offensive and edgy but it's not like you can rattle people by saying the word "fuck" anymore.

― frogbs, Tuesday, March 15, 2011 10:25 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yeah, I've been wondering why he was (rightfully) lauded for those 9/11 jokes and eviscerated for this. Maybe it's because in this case he flaunted the 7 day rule, whereas I think the roast where he did his 9/11 routine was a couple weeks after the attack. Or maybe it's like you say - telling the jokes to a horrified audience lets you appreciate it in a different way than just reading the jokes off twitter.

apptly 80% of aflac's business is in japan

oh shit, really?

trufax i had no idea the aflac goose was GG until this little shitshow

xp yup heard it on npr, so it might be socialist lies, i dunno

No, it's definitely true. Him getting fired was a no-brainer.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/aflac-hunts-for-new-duck/?src=dlbksb

aero, i think the point of that post is that the "fake internet news cycle of outrage" really outweighs the actual damage these jokes could have done. Like it's good blog traffic to be "OH MAN DID YTOU SEE WHAT BIEBER SAID ABOUT BORTIONS" so places like HuffPo and Gawker act TOTALLY OUTRAGED at things that would have gotten an "oh, thats lame" 20 years ago

Jon it's fine if you're not okay with laughing at it but telling other people they deserve to die for thinking it's funny is taking it a bit too far. I don't think finding this stuff funny or not funny means anything in terms of your morals or what kind of a human being you are. Even Gandhi loved a good nigger joke.

I didn't know it was him either but it seems so obv now.

making a joke abt things has always been as natural & human a recation to tragedy on this scale as any really - its just another way of managing the monstrousness of the situation for ppl & its kinda gross if u cant understand/deal w/ that.

― «( «_«)» zzzz «(«_« )» (Lamp), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 10:33 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

otm - I was actually gonna say something like this, I know it's kind of a glib response to be like 'oh yeah well maybe this is how i deal with tragedy' - but it is how I deal with it!

I agree on the individual level but when this becomes a big story that people talk about I think there is some level of 'let's talk about a person with no social grace to highlight how much we have'.

Really? This is going to be turned on me for not being okay with laughing at this? Fuck off pls.

enh i just think its lol that youre cool wishing death on another person's parents bcuz of msg board post is cool but that making intentionally 'bad taste' jokes on twitter is some new level in superhuman callousness

woah hold the phone is that true about gandhi

Xp to aero

aero, i think the point of that post is that the "fake internet news cycle of outrage" really outweighs the actual damage these jokes could have done. Like it's good blog traffic to be "OH MAN DID YTOU SEE WHAT BIEBER SAID ABOUT BORTIONS" so places like HuffPo and Gawker act TOTALLY OUTRAGED at things that would have gotten an "oh, thats lame" 20 years ago

this is otm! but it's like - the flow of information and response is different now. it may have been saner, healthier back when, but in an age when we're getting news all day long (instead of hearing about it when we look at the TV) it'd be smarter/cooler to note that and weigh one's comedic responses accordingly

a) Lamp otm about humor as a reaction to tragedy

b) Jon it's fine if you're not okay with laughing at it but telling other people they deserve to die for thinking it's funny is taking it a bit too far. I don't think finding this stuff funny or not funny means anything in terms of your morals or what kind of a human being you are.

Agreed.

c) Jon - you often come across as really angry and quick to resort to name calling and stuff and that's never going to go over well, you know? In fact it probably works against you because ppl tend to concentrate on that rather than on whatever point you're trying to make.

d) woah hold the phone is that true about gandhi

― goole, Tuesday, March 15, 2011 10:41 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

LOL

I thought everyone knew the duck was GG

TBH everybody often seems to know stuff I don't know.

Okay, you guys are right I was 100% serious about wishing death on a troll's parents. Yep. Funny how the "lol jokes bro" applies to everyone else but me.

it's kind of difficult to claim "lol jokes bro" and "I AM FUCKING SERIOUS" at the same time

believe me, I've tried

but i thought you were REALLY OUTRAGED

Now you're just trying to play it off. Everyone saw what you said, and it clearly wasn't intended to be humorous. And if it actually was, how can you make a joke like that while chewing me out - not for making classless jokes, but for simply enjoying someone else's - with zero self-examination?

guys lets just hope this thread drops off SNA as quickly as possible, thnx

Fine guys, I'm the bad guy. You all win. Have fun with your nigger and dead baby jokes, assholes.

i think its just sad cuz until now i had no reason to be offended watching my aladdin & the king of thieves dvd

forget it, jon. it's chinatown.

to mitigate the dogpile because, given the subject matter I think it's totally understandable and unsurprising that emotions might boil over here, I think that if Gottfried's jokes had been less (for lack of a better word) lazy, I wouldn't have found them repellent

his ass still would have gotten fired tho

xp: I always find it interesting how ppl use arguments like this to take the opportunity to type the word "nigger" like they just got a hall pass or something

im more of a return of jafar guy

jon blanchard

Obviously I shouldn't have said what I did about wishing death on TamTam's family, but I was outraged that he would be defending those tasteless jokes. But, yeah, it wasn't cool of me to do so. I just don't get the idea that we all need to protect people's right to be tasteless assholes, but pile on anyone that might not like that. I mean, I know we live in an era of "lol this is the internet we say what we want get a helmet" etc etc, but goddamn I think its okay to be offended by stuff now and then.

in re: DJP's xpost I was gonna say what is it w/ppl super stoked that they "get" to drop the n-bomb when shit gets heated?

I pretty much felt awful as soon as I typed it, but it was in direct reference to that needless Gandhi ref.

Those jokes are the sorts comedy writers spit out when they're all sitting together at a table together, late at night, spitballing. With no one listening. GG's biggest mistake was not coming up with 25 more until he found a funny one, and then just tweeting that one winner.

Someone let me know when it's okay again to make fun of Whiney's Zooey Deschanel fetish again.

Let's see exactly how many posters we can call assholes either indirectly or directly on this thread. It think that should be really helpful, huh?

Can't say as I WANT anyone's parents to drown, but man, when they do, just sit back and wait for the lulz to roll in.

okay that was funnier than any of GG's tweets

gilbert gottfired

hey, TamTam is your mom Katy Perry perchance?

okay thread saved

I'm just going to go work on my new posting style where all I do is zing about the Holocaust and how crazy Muslims are so I can fit in, k guys?

Holocaust jokes! Now we're cooking!

I don't want to be called out for being cuddly, a few oven jokes should take care of that, righ?

I think it's an indication of odd priorities to bother getting outraged at ilxors when giant swaths of coastal Japan are simply gone and people are being evacuated and quarantined for radiation. I mean, OUTRAGED isn't very useful, is it?

in other words, relax, guy. Go find someone to send some money to.

Another soul lost...don't do it, jon--I'm 92% on your side.

So glad I'm the one still getting piled on here. Let the guy roll out his tasteless jokes, but fuck you for daring to be offended. God, this place.

I'm literally the only person on this thread who defended GG's jokes - at best a few other people had ambivalent 'eh they should've known what they were getting into w/Gottfried' responses. I think you just enjoy this 'one righteous guy against the world' schtick regardless of reality.

chill out watch a wheat thins vid of a little kid dressed up as iago eating crackers or something (xp)

"Chill out, relax, laugh at some dead people, be a bro."

Jon this is like the whole markers img posts thing all over again. I think being so defensive just makes ppl more likely to jump all over you. I think there are probably a lot of people on your side and some have said as much here! You're sort of asking for the pile on by keeping this up, you know?

literally one person defended gottfried

One person defended gottfried, but a whole bunch of posters itt have jumped on me for being offended about it.

no they jumped on you for being kinda a dick

jumping on you for being offended about it doesn't make any sense cause they were also offended about it

you are literally getting mad at everyone else for not being mad in 100% exactly the same manner as you and inventing positions for them so that you can yell a lot and feel sorry for yourself

it isn't really making any sense

No, I'm taking it personally because the whole vibe I seem to be getting is "chill bro, its okay to make fun of dead people".

not really gonna defend gottfried but at least i prefer his "jokes" to that family guy death toll stuff

hey jon I wrote a joke for you

what's the difference between a tsunami and gilbert gottfried?
one's a wall of water, and the other's a total asshole

jon not even GG has "made fun of dead people"

my co-worker is a friend of GG's, thinks he went too far. SO THAT'S SETTLED

Got it guys, I'm an over-senstive asshole. Point taken. YOU WIN.

Gonna go watch some videos of the tsunami and laugh at the destruction, cool?

Haha look at that mom crying over her dead daughter, that's HILARIOUS!

xp: I always find it interesting how ppl use arguments like this to take the opportunity to type the word "nigger" like they just got a hall pass or something

that hall pass is called "the internet"

I think you just enjoy this 'one righteous guy against the world' schtick regardless of reality.

From a baseball thread three months ago:

i mean really man, you get a kick out of the lone-clemenza-crying-in-the-wilderness thing--and that's ok! but drop the defensive ish.

Deja vu all over again!

who are you having this argument with?? nobody is calling you overly sensitive, just poorly sensitive.

Gonna go watch some videos of the tsunami and laugh at the destruction, cool?

I dunno the fact that you are saying this kind of make me feel like you don't really understand what the issue is here

i just had a terrible vision of gg apologising for getting carried away.

Jon, including myself, have been trying to make you feel better by explaining why ppl got on your case. If you can't see that then I don't really know what to say and the fact that you haven't dropped it and continue to post like this means that at least on some level you must enjoy feeling persecuted.

that should have said - people not "Jon" at the start there

jon, was that thread you started out of the blue a couple of weeks ago that was all "sorry for jumping all over everyone for no reason" that confused the hell out of everyone an elaborate setup for this? because if so, I can only applaud the dedication to craft

if not... I am very concerned about you

so who are they going to get to replace him? they're "casting" for a new duck but can you really replace that voice? i mean if his voice was easy to imitate is there any way he'd get the kind of work he did? he only has one voice!

WTF. I'm so glad I seem to be universally hated at this point.

GG shoulda stuck to local 7th-grade gallows humor, like Chinatown-bus passenger decapitation jokes

x-post - NOBODY SAID THEY HATED YOU

Jon can speak for himself, but I don't think he's enjoying this. I understand the distinction that everyone is making here--between the normal reaction of being personally offended by GG, and the certainty that everyone else should therefore be offended--and it's a valid one. But, just as I wasn't enjoying the baseball argument referred to above, I understand where jon's coming from: you're trying to make a point that seems as obvious as can be, and you're amazed and perplexed to find that everyone in the room sees it differently. So, issue aside, I don't think he's enjoying this.

um if that's a reference to me morbs I was not making any joke in that thread, people were literally decapitated and I found it horrifying

Iatee I don't think it was

omg everyone is so sensitive

It's OK we're all awesome and nobody's an asshole, OK?

Or maybe that should be that we're all assholes sometimes and that's OK too.

(hey Whiney, THIS is why your amateur anthropology meta-analysis shit is a bad idea, esp. in the middle of a heated argument that you have little to no previous involvement in)

You can watch this with the sound turned off and it's still funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKoq6ZdRxJc

Yeah but it's good that Jon got offended because that is really the point of these jokes. He's not an offensive comedian in the common way of "wow that's so dirty and wrong but I'm still laughing", but rather he's trying to be truly offensive, and there really SHOULD be people who detest him for this. That's the point

guys this is an inane argument but basically i think it's a) absolutely ok to be offended by GG's jokes because, you know, we are still watching an unmitigated disaster unfold that involves actual, suffering human beings and b) possible to admit that it's a completely human and basically OK thing to tell jokes in the face of that tragedy because that is literally a part of every single culture on the planet. i've been pretty stricken by some of the stories and images coming out of japan these past few days, and thought most of those GG jokes were both bad, as jokes, and as things-to-even-say---but at least one gave me rueful lols.

whoever said that those jokes were like an unedited late-night comic riff sesh was otm---they really did not ever need to see the light of day, but they did. i don't think GG is a monster, i think he's a thoughtless d-bag who lost his job and probably deserved it. i also don't think tam tam's parents should drown to death---they should die in a fire imo

Finally, our first Holocaust joke.

say what now

lol

btw I didn't even read the fucking jokes and at this point I really don't even think that's what anyone is up arms about anyway.

ENBB for someone that keeps sticking their nose into a discussion, you sure don't bother reading much of the thread that the discussion is about.

no iatee, i didnt even check any bus threads since it happened.

i'll be taking the aisle seat next time i go to DC or Philly tho.

Um actually I read the first couple and decided not to read the rest because I got bored and I've read every other single post on the thread.

I don't hate you at all have liked you as a poster. I have been trying to be helpful throughout and explain why posters seem to gang up on you when you behave/react in a certain way. If you can't see that then the problem is clearly yours and not mine.

Also, why to be a total clueless dick.

err way to be, not way

when a man walks into a lamp-post we're not laughing at his pain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdbElWMnkyY

it's really hard not to turn this into a zing fest after all the shit jon was talkin bout me during my ban

let the jury know, i'm trying to take the high road. or at the very least a higher road than i would usually take

I don't hate you at all have liked you as a poster.

Also, why to be a total clueless dick.

Lol, yeah, remind me again why I shouldn't be taking some of this personally?

bc rite now u r not only a client of the butt hurt club for men u r also the president

whoah that stern clip is o_O

Oh no, that was totally personal because on this thread you are, in fact, being a dick and needlessly singled me out.

Jesus

I mean seriously this thread is worse than the gottfriedgate thing itself. Everyone go find a corner to sit in for 15 minutes.

i wonder if whiney is really sitting on a fest's worth of zings.

xpost no one puts ENBB in a corner

hey asshole i live in a yurt, my house doesn't even HAVE a corner

x-post u got that right

Oh no, that was totally personal because on this thread you are, in fact, being a dick and needlessly singled me out.

I called you out for not even reading the thread you were commenting on, which seemed a pretty fair call to make. But feel free to keep calling me a dick.

FUN FUN FUN FUN

bergson said that comedy is ultimately about recognizing "something mechanical encrusted on the living"

the man's body failing to avoid the lamp-post reminds us that his body is a machine, and that it has failed; jokes guide us towards mental lamp-posts and when we smack into them we laugh.

the entire grand repertoire of "tasteless" jokes (challenger jokes, dead baby jokes) is no different, but provides another meta-level of smack - we know we're reading a joke, we're prepared to laugh but then our laughter runs into the lamp-post of the fact that laughing at something so grim is really not the done thing - but this very recognition of the inappropriateness of laughter itself completes the essential operation of comedy, which is that we recognize how mechanically we've been following the structure of comedy, how we are laughing at the wrong thing

if that makes any sense

kinda

man this thread

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/managainsttheworld.gif

• What is happening in Japan is really, really and awful
• Making jokes abt it is a) sometimes a coping mechanism b) sometimes someone being a total asshole c) sometimes both
• I bet if you argue enough abt this you will actually change ppl's minds, so keep doing it, ok?
• I guess I'm a pathetic spineless mushy cuddleking for finding it kinda gross to laugh at this sort of thing, but I can on some level at least *appreciate* the idea of a really fucked up joke, and these really aren't even funny. I mean, they could've been funny with more effort but when 95% of the lulz come from it being taboo w/o any real semblance of wit, it kinda falls flat.

Um actually I read the first couple and decided not to read the rest because I got bored and I've read every other single post on the thread.

It seems to me like you're the one not doing the reading.

i actually like TH's post a lot, so i say we sally forth

like stevie d's post a lot.

I actually once thought ENBB was a pretty cool poster, but now I'm starting to think she's kind of a bitch.

wtf man

when tracer first mentioned a "lamp-post" i thought he meant a post Lamp made itt

if that makes any sense

nope, not at all

okay I never would have guessed that the "Sally Forth" GIS would be NSFW

jokes are like magic tricks...if you explain why something is funny, it really stops being so

wtf man

Yup. Exactly what I thought. No one bats an eye when she repeatedly calls me a dick, but its not cool for me to call her a name.

Yup. Exactly what I thought.

http://teslastaging.com/forums/images/smilies/Gestures/userArmsCrossed.gif

bergson also says that sympathy is the natural enemy of comedy; you have to suspend your natural sympathies for the victims of the tsunami in order to laugh at these jokes - and that suspension itself is cathartic, i think (for some)

The comic, we said, appeals to the intelligence, pure and simple; laughter is incompatible with emotion. Depict some fault, however trifling, in such a way as to arouse sympathy, fear, or pity; the mischief is done, it is impossible for us to laugh.

it really is worth reading the whole thing, it's beautifully written - http://www.authorama.com/laughter-1.html

remember this thread when you get suggest banned, jon

I will. I just think its kind of hypocritical that beloved poster ENBB can call me names, but suddenly its crossing the line when I do it.

How old is that, Tracer?

Hope your family gets wiped out by a tsunami.

so who are they going to get to replace him? they're "casting" for a new duck but can you really replace that voice? i mean if his voice was easy to imitate is there any way he'd get the kind of work he did? he only has one voice!

― frogbs, Tuesday, March 15, 2011 11:35 AM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark

they should just go in a completely different direction, maybe Ben Affleck since that's who everybody references anytime Aflac comes up in conversation

if that makes any sense

nope, not at all

laughter is the recognition of an inelasticity or rigidity in something - the absent-minded professor whose brain is so inelastic that it's not alive to the memory of where he put his glasses (they're on his head); tasteless jokes make us recognize that even the structure of comedy itself is a kind of inelasticity - a clock-work mechanism of setup and punchline - that temporarily makes us un-alive to the real fact of suffering or sympathy - which is ITSELF funny, because it follows the same structure

JimD i'm thinking around 1900 or so

They should hire Fran Drescher

they should hire diane rehm

I'm not really reading into that too deeply but I guess I kind of see what you're saying, though there is a zillion ways to interpret that

thanks for the link, TH!

i know ~talking about humor~ is something that is Not Done on ILX, but i'm actually sorta fascinated by how humor functions, particularly in the midst of tragedy.

and yr totally right about suspending sympathy---the only joke i thought was actually funny was the real estate/school joke, and that's, i think, because it appealed to me a comic image like "hey school's aren't supposed to do that!" this was followed immediately by the crushing realization of what that image actually means (children may have been in that school), and it's harrowing. and, fwiw, i think that's actually something humor is actually good for---it can serve both as a means of removal or sublimation or w/e (i shall avoid the truth by laughing at it) and as a means of entry (hahahahaha oh god)

xp

that temporarily makes us un-alive to the real fact of suffering or sympathy - which is ITSELF funny, because it follows the same structure

like this

hate the Aflac spots except maybe for the one w/ Yogi Berra in the barbershop

i know ~talking about humor~ is something that is Not Done on ILX

wait what?

yeah they're not great but they are kinda cute. I think there is definitely a trend towards more obnoxious commercials like the Progressive one with the hyperactive salesman or the Miller Lite "Man Up" ads that everyone tends to hate

I will. I just think its kind of hypocritical that beloved poster ENBB can call me names, but suddenly its crossing the line when I do it.

― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 12:12 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

if only there was some difference in calling someone a "dick" vs calling someone a "bitch."

good job getting the thread back on track WGW

well i mean we actually do it all the time but p much any time ppl start talking ~about~ humor, a bunch of ppl show up and say "hey man w/e it's comedy, you either like it or you don't, there's no accounting for some tastes, etc."

which is all fine and good, but sometimes i like to unpack it, you know?

xp to some dude

nothing like a comedian's twitter huh

((Yeah. I mean thanks WGW but let's drop it. I don't think I said anything that was particularly out of order and it's not my problem if he chose to single me out and provoke me. Sorry to further derail what is now an interesting conversation.))

estelaaaaaa

does humor belong in tragedy

I was thinking of a replacement for the Afflac ads, and Good Lord, what the hell happened to this guy?

http://www.superiorpics.com/pictures2/6391_goldth72400.jpg

TH this link is awesome! I am going to try to read it at work today btwn customers

http://www.adamcarolla.com/ACPBlog/wp-content/gallery/2011-03-10-bobcat-goldthwait/08-bobcat-goldthwait.jpg

bobcat does a lot of directing and spent a few years banging nikki cox. he's doing alright.

Woah. I don't think I would have recognized him!

He seems happy. Now where's the audio of his normal voice?

Whiney is awesome in this thread.

thread just makes me wish this was gg allen not gilbert gottfriend. rip gg allen.

kids don't even say these words anymore, they just say japan

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Monday, March 14, 2011 5:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

yeah stevie it is one of my favorite pieces of writing! that version of it is annoyingly formatted though, let me try to find a better one

tracer thanks for the link, its pretty great, but sadly keeps reminding me of that king of the hill where bobby became tartuffe the spry wonder dog, don't know if anyone will know what I'm talking about

here it is all on one page - http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/etext03/laemc10.htm

at version of it is annoyingly formatted though, let me try to find a better one

― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 11:42 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

ooh find a complete one (ie 1 page) so i can instapaper it

xp :D

hugh kenners "counterfeiters" touches on many of the same points, but its more j/o lit critty than bergson's piece

wow project gutenberg have a hell of a preamble to their docs, don't they...I think I sprained my scrollfinger lol

xxpost gbx, nice analysis. The real estate one was the only one that made me laugh too and I hadn't thought through why that one was provocative and strange and the others weren't. Most of them don't stand up to the sick-joke-as-catharsis defence at all. Even back in school I felt that most disaster jokes were more about making the teller look dangerous (ooh, he went there) than any kind of communal coping mechanism. (although obviously I didn't call it a "communal coping mechanism" when I was 12)

jon, it pains me to see a seemingly OK guy steadily piss away every bit of goodwill. Calm down.

i think if you asked bergson he'd say that [sick] jokes work as a communal coping mechanism regardless of the intention of the joke-teller

just found this passage which i think has some particular bearing on jon in this thread -

Indifference is its natural environment, for laughter
has no greater foe than emotion. I do not mean that we could not
laugh at a person who inspires us with pity, for instance, or even
with affection, but in such a case we must, for the moment, put our
affection out of court and impose silence upon our pity. In a
society composed of pure intelligences there would probably be no
more tears, though perhaps there would still be laughter; whereas
highly emotional souls, in tune and unison with life, in whom every
event would be sentimentally prolonged and re-echoed, would neither
know nor understand laughter.

i don't know why that came out looking like blank verse!

just fyi:

Joan Rivers
Joan_Rivers Joan Rivers
That's what comedians do!!! We react to tragedy by making jokes to help people in tough times feel better through laughter.
4 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply
»
Joan Rivers
Joan_Rivers Joan Rivers
Oh come on people-this is just outrageous! Gilbert Gottfried was FIRED from Aflac for making jokes about the tsunami in Japan.
4 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Most of them don't stand up to the sick-joke-as-catharsis defence at all.

agreed. i think, to me, it's because they invoke "the japanese" and/or unspecified japanese people. which is crass. and also they're not really funny. whereas the floating school is easier to envision as a comic object, you know? like, i can't help but think that the absurdity of seeing boats and houses and cars all floating together is something that has struck the ppl actually there.

highly emotional souls, in tune and unison with life, in whom every event would be sentimentally prolonged and re-echoed, would neither know nor understand laughter.

kill the humorless

they should just go in a completely different direction, maybe Ben Affleck since that's who everybody references anytime Aflac comes up in conversation

― some dude, Tuesday, March 15, 2011 4:15 PM (21 minutes ago)

idk, i feel like "the town" was a far worse crime against the hearts and minds than gg jokes

you'd think Joan Rivers would understand the concept of independence in private commerce, being such a desperate old whore

To take Joan Rivers' version of the CCM theory: "We react to tragedy by making jokes to help people in tough times feel better through laughter."

I would buy this more if the joke teller had some emotional investment in the tragedy. I don't see Gottfried or the people who RT'd the jokes overcome by horror and grief and desperate to laugh again - I see them as people in another country cracking wise about a news event which doesn't affect them in the least. It feels like punching down.

lol

i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot

gottfried really brings it out in people i guess

i don't know much but i'll always remember how the world discovered that christa mcauliffe had dandruff

xpost, good thing gottfried didn't tell any jokes about the car commercial with darth vader kid in it

i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot

jon via chi wondering why there's no WHITE history month

I don't see how it's appropriate to have a child depict a man who used the Death Star to blow up entire planets of people!

jon via chi wondering why there's no WHITE history month

Where in the fuck did this come from?

in terms of emotional investment in the tragedy being made light of, the onion's 9/11 article remains a high watermark for this style of humor i think (eg "life resembles bad jerry bruckheimer film", "woman bakes american flag cake", etc)

Jon, you did introduce gendered insults into the conversation. It's fair to call you out on that.

article = issue

the jokes-as-catharsis argument mainly falls down because this particular trauma has nothing to do with him and he has no emotional tension to purge. i would also imagine that people who have been genuinely affected by this disaster would fail to be cleansed of their trauma by reading his tweets, since they are lazy unfunny shite. if you have to be that guy who gets in there first with the jokes at a time like this, you should really have the decency to put some effort in.

jon doggie you need to make yourself some chamomile tea and go for a walk

man lotta trainwrecks around here lately

xxxxxxxxpost dorian otm basically

jon is this more or less offensive to you than the jokes about kevin smith choking on a whopper

Funny about people offended by sexist terms throwing around "retarded" though.

oh i didnt realize you were actually a retarded person

you did call an actual woman a bitch tho

you didn't realize that?!

if u keep trying to reach the moral high ground you will definitely get there, kiu

keep striving, its within reach!!!!

take it somewhere else guys

gbx otm

^^^^yes

or just stop it

"its"

now i am offended

I think these jokes are meant to be unfunny. If they were funny, they wouldn't be so offensive. If the joke was funny enough to make Jon laugh I don't think he calls anyone out on it

Just trying to figure out why roxy had to start another dogpile on me when I hadn't posted itt thread for quite some time.

Gentlemen. You can't fight in here. This is the Gilbert Gottfried thread!

because there wasnt enough comment on you suddenly calling my friend a bitch for no reason imo

I realize that was out of line, but why is it okay for her to call me a dick in like three straight posts?

I think my underfloor heating is broken... I turned the thermostat up but I just saw my cat driving round on a Zamboni

^ insensitive hypocaust joke

dick is not a gendered insult you silly goose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHmXw49t_v0

Oh man, if only words could somehow be used to disparage specific genders. That would make language really powerful, huh?!

ok i had to look up hypocaust but i bet i would've lol'd and or groaned if i'd known what it was beforehand

Fuck off Whiney.

this is seriously like one second away from jon saying "but he called me a cracker"

really these pile-ups are so boring

I realize that was out of line, but why is it okay for her to call me a dick in like three straight posts?

― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 1:19 PM (1 minute ago)

do you really think the 2 are equivalent?

Jon/via/chi and roxymuzak are out of line in their choices of insults. I acknowledge upfront that roxymuzak doens't care what I think whatsoever.

NO I DON'T. Jesus. I'm not equating the two.

maybe it's just me but i think a dogpile should be.... sexier

just think of gilbert gottfried

dogpile on a shagpile

ILX etiquette explained:

"dick" = acceptable
"retarted sexist idiot" = acceptable
jokes about tsunamis = acceptable
"bitch" = whoa now cowboy, don't go there

giving u credit and deciding u r a man who doesnt own dogs xposts

spelling "retarded" wrong also acceptable

this is boring. i'm bored now.

you uh, how you say, don't get it

tbh "retarted" would probably be ok

1st GIS for sexy dogpile, lol @ guys in background

http://image48.webshots.com/48/1/8/38/364310838htWFvQ_ph.jpg

although idk "tart" is sexually charged so

jon via chi etiquette:

"bitch" = acceptable

"i don't like this car commercial" = IM SICK OF THE NEGATIVITY ON THIS BOARD WHY DONT WE BAN THIS ASSHOLE ALREADY BAW

the jokes-as-catharsis argument mainly falls down because this particular trauma has nothing to do with him and he has no emotional tension to purge. i would also imagine that people who have been genuinely affected by this disaster would fail to be cleansed of their trauma by reading his tweets, since they are lazy unfunny shite. if you have to be that guy who gets in there first with the jokes at a time like this, you should really have the decency to put some effort in.

― peligro, Tuesday, March 15, 2011 1:13 PM (3 seconds ago) Bookmark

Yeah, I mean, you're dead wrong. Look at all the people on the earthquake thread talking about how sickened/shaken (heh) they are by this, most of them having zero practical connection to the tragedy besides the ability to empathize with human suffering - this is clearly something that's traumatic to deal with even for people who aren't involved.

The stuff that the Family Guy writer said or the FB stuff about Pearl Harbor disgust me because you can tell that they reflect real beliefs on some level, but what Gottfried did was just like a pure jokemaking exercise. Maybe that's why I find it so persistently difficult to accept it as monstrous and offensive.

I called you a dick once for singling me out when I was trying to be helpful in the first place. I used the term once more when defending my position. I didn't say anything that anyone else hadn't said and I was, I think, a lot nicer about it than some and yet you chose to attack me. I'm sorry I called you a dick and admit that wasn't very nice but I only did so after you called me out for something I didn't even do and for misinterpreting what I was trying to say in the first place.

Whiney, are you still that butthurt about the star wars thread?

Also at least one other poster said you were being a dick way before I did and you didn't go apeshit on them.

I honestly didn't notice that, kind of hard to keep track of who all was dumping on me itt.

easier to just go for the 1 bitch

I know better but I can't take this ... jon whatever goodwill you had at the beginning of this thread is completely gone because you called Erica a...you know what you called her...to prove a point.

If you're going to fight your fights based around wounding words and the use of offensive language, do everyone a favor and hone your rhetoric skills first...and don't automatically assume that everyone's against you.

you've done this on the IA thread too and I'll be damned if I'll sit back and watch it happen again

yall i didnt even know gottfried was the voice of the afflac duck

Whiney, are you still that butthurt about the star wars thread?

― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 1:27 PM (6 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i'm butthurt that you and fellow worthless poster Robert Spiralli spent my 30 day ban talking shit about me when I couldn't defend myself and now that I'm back I just want you to know how very little i think about you and your crappy, hypocritical, hysterical posting style

the jokes are obv., um, joke-worthy but gottfried's timing is ridiculously insensitive. dude couldn't even wait 3days before he goes on a diahrrea-run of everything he could possibly think of. i'm perfectly willing to laugh at some of the onion's 9/11 humor - but that was 10 YEARS ago.

they're still finding thousands of bodies washing ashore atm... i just couldn't find these jokes funny remotely as o fnow.

HDU talk shit about my girl ENBB!! :( I didn't get to read the 300 or so posts after that (yet) so hopefully there is a spot where Jon comes to his senses and sees that no one was trying better to mitigate the rage than our star.

This thread inspired me to check out GG's twitter and it is incredible that for such a reaction-baiting asshole, most of his tweets are individual Thank Yous to people! Very nice IMO.

anyway, classic:
@RealGilbert
Gilbert Gottfried
.@howiemmandel Congratulate me. I discovered a way to send germs via twitter.

hahahahaha

i used to have a tiny, adorable afflac duck that my work gave me and it SCREAMED "afflac" seemingly randomly, somehow i could never get rid of it, like i would always think it was thrown out and then id find it in the closet or w/e -- would be worth BILLIONS now

lol @ germs via twitter

okay that's funny

i'm butthurt that you and fellow worthless poster Robert Spiralli spent my 30 day ban talking shit about me when I couldn't defend myself and now that I'm back I just want you to know how very little i think about you and your crappy, hypocritical, hysterical posting style

Dude, I honestly didn't say anything about you when you were gone. In fact, iirc, in that very thread I explained why I DIDN'T suggest ban you and explained that I was just hoping you would tone it down.

yall i didnt even know gottfried was the voice of the afflac duck

i didn't either!

Guys can we just end this? It's not going to be helpful to anyone and it's clearly not going anywhere. I said I was sorry for resorting to name calling out of frustration. I'm done. Let's just talk about GG now. OK?

yall i didnt even know gottfried was the voice of the afflac duck

― ☠ (roxymuzak), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 1:28 PM (37 seconds ago) Bookmark

Awesome. You can join Goole and I in the clueless club.

And Donna R.!

The stuff that the Family Guy writer said or the FB stuff about Pearl Harbor disgust me because you can tell that they reflect real beliefs on some level, but what Gottfried did was just like a pure jokemaking exercise. Maybe that's why I find it so persistently difficult to accept it as monstrous and offensive.

― ℳℴℯ　❤＼(◕‿◕✿ (Princess TamTam), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 12:26 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah this is sorta how i feel about it, too, tbh.

xp i had no idea either!

oh, sorry bout that then, jon. #olivebranch

I have never heard of Aflac in my life.

see? i got TOTALLY DUMPED on upthread for not knowing that

xp ahhaaha

I didn't know either !

yeah i mean it obv makes sense but it almost seems too good to be true!!

xpost that's otm re: family guy et al

haha thx for paving the way for us goole, it was like the Stonewall of people not knowing GG was the afflac duck voice

but if you think about it now it's so obviously him, right?

makes perfect sense in retrospect, i guess

oops x-post

i also did not know.

hmmm

i feel sorry for GG

totes, but, like, does he say anything other than "aflac"?

spirally is NOT a worthless poster, he is hilarious

did some research and i think in mn they replaced him with the voice of don pardo which is prob why several of us are confused

does the aflac duck ever say anything besides "aflac"?

xpost ha

I feel sorry for the duck

nope, just aflac afaik

god how much did GG get paid to say one fukkin word i wonder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK5UTr2xbnY

theres a thin line between using humor to deal with an immense tragedy & embracing tasteless humor to be 'edgy'

http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/090922/SNL/Gilbert-Gottfried_l.jpg

daw

also, now that I have actually read the whole damn list I also agree with the distinction between GG and the Fam Guy stuff as drawn by PTT

yeah i think hes too old too care about being edgy, i think he was just trying to make topical jokes tbh!

obviously he was trying to make tasteless jokes also, but i dont think his point was trying to be on the cutting edge

Don Pardo? Waht

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSorefCdmQ0

haha yeah whaaa? xp

i used to have a tiny, adorable afflac duck that my work gave me and it SCREAMED "afflac" seemingly randomly, somehow i could never get rid of it, like i would always think it was thrown out and then id find it in the closet or w/e -- would be worth BILLIONS now

― ☠ (roxymuzak), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 12:30 PM Bookmark

This happened: AFLAC sales guy came to our company's mailroom and sent out a flyer saying if we'd hear him out, we'd get a stuffed AFLAC duck.

So I went and listened to his spiel, and he gets ready to quote me a price, he starts asking these innocent little questions, taking out his AFLAC pencil and saying, "Now, Mr. Plains, I know you don't smoke, correct?" I say no, I don't. He checks a box and then says, "That's good. It's likely then you've never had cancer."

I could only think THIS is what they're teaching them at Dale Carnagie? I tell him, yeah, actually I have had cancer. He then basically folded up his book and I didn't get my stuffed duck.

Looked the asshole up on the Internet, and he was kicked out of the pulpit for waving a gun at an undercover officer in an interstate rest stop.

Yeah, I mean, you're dead wrong. Look at all the people on the earthquake thread talking about how sickened/shaken (heh) they are by this, most of them having zero practical connection to the tragedy besides the ability to empathize with human suffering - this is clearly something that's traumatic to deal with even for people who aren't involved.

The stuff that the Family Guy writer said or the FB stuff about Pearl Harbor disgust me because you can tell that they reflect real beliefs on some level, but what Gottfried did was just like a pure jokemaking exercise. Maybe that's why I find it so persistently difficult to accept it as monstrous and offensive.

― ℳℴℯ　❤＼(◕‿◕✿ (Princess TamTam), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 5:26 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

I guess I feel like it's kind of ludicrous for people with 'zero practical connection' to the events to claim that they are being traumatized and therefore need to laugh at crappy tasteless jokes in order to get over their non-existent ordeal. Plenty of people are going through actual trauma because of this stuff, they don't really need to be lumped in with a bunch of people sitting on their couches watching the news and claiming to be 'shaken' before getting on with their lives undisturbed.

But the main thing is that as a 'pure jokemaking exercise' the tweets really aren't very good.

yeah i guess GG didnt audience test well here so they subbed him out? ill see if i can find a localized youtube xposts

if my mind ever made the connection, i probably though 'huh they got some guy who kind of sounds like gilbert gottfried to yell 'AFLAC' into a microphone a bunch of different ways'

cos if you think about it, it's kind of a waste of money to hire gilbert actual gottfried

xp to PP damn that beats my story

Didn't know about the Family Guy writer till now. A different league of douchebaggery.

I know I've been out of MN for years but even in my youth I would have put money on "who sounds more like a duck: Gilbert Gottfried or Don Pardo?"

Maybe some out of work music teacher has been giving MN ducks voice lessons...?

if my mind ever made the connection, i probably though 'huh they got some guy who kind of sounds like gilbert gottfried to yell 'AFLAC' into a microphone a bunch of different ways'

cos if you think about it, it's kind of a waste of money to hire gilbert actual gottfried

this is exactly what i was thinking

also: JJ i thought you were kidding!!!!

Y'know, Gilbert Gottfried put this on his Twitter account. It's not like he went on Leno and pulled unsuspecting 55-to-75-year-olds into his zone of comedy. Not like he posted it on a thread about the disaster in Japan. That's a pretty tactful use of his First Amendment right.

i just had a terrible vision of gg apologising for getting carried away.

Now, if Gilbert went on someone else's show, started an apology, and then had it evolve into what he does best, that would both be inappropriate and what he does.

I mean, don't follow Paula Deen if you don't want to read about fried things.

afflac "accident insurance" was the best insurance i ever had

just covered weird shit that came up like poison ivy or spraining your ankle or w/e, and it was cheap

and i got the duck. your story is :/ PP but lol that you googled him and lol @ result

sad lol that you did not get the duck

peligro otm

Eazy, you ignore how RTing works. It's not like only people who follow GG read those jokes. Once they go viral you can't pretend you're only addressing a certain audience.

I wonder how many more people are going to lose their jobs because of some silly shit they said on Twitter before people get their heads around how it works.

you cant get rid of the duck though, it just keeps coming back. so maybe it was a blessing

rime of the aflac mariner

can we start a rumor that "aflac" actually means "schadenfreude" in like Old Church Slavonic or something

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JokbugkYEpM

Well, then get mad at or unfollow whomever you follow who RT'd one of his jokes.

I guess I feel like it's kind of ludicrous for people with 'zero practical connection' to the events to claim that they are being traumatized and therefore need to laugh at crappy tasteless jokes in order to get over their non-existent ordeal. Plenty of people are going through actual trauma because of this stuff, they don't really need to be lumped in with a bunch of people sitting on their couches watching the news and claiming to be 'shaken' before getting on with their lives undisturbed.

But the main thing is that as a 'pure jokemaking exercise' the tweets really aren't very good.

― peligro, Tuesday, March 15, 2011 1:39 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

Why is it ludicrous? And it's not about getting over an 'ordeal' it's about interfacing with the everyday miseries of the world - it's just easier for me to react to this by exchanging jokes with people than if I decided to get all handwringy over the details of this horrible tragedy. You're just twisting around this natural human reaction so you can have an opportunity to sneer at people who deal with things differently from you.

can someone link to the family guy writer thing, i dont know what it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PM3s3B473w

can someone link to the family guy writer thing, i dont know what it is

google "al3c sukl1n"

This might be the most attention Gottfried has received in his entire career! Kudos for his brand, Boo-dos for his lack of sensitivity.

sorry, "sulk1n"

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/family-guy-writer-apologises-for-japan-remarks_1207328

lol Boo-dos

I guess I feel like it's kind of ludicrous for people with 'zero practical connection' to the events to claim that they are being traumatized and therefore need to laugh at crappy tasteless jokes in order to get over their non-existent ordeal. Plenty of people are going through actual trauma because of this stuff, they don't really need to be lumped in with a bunch of people sitting on their couches watching the news and claiming to be 'shaken' before getting on with their lives undisturbed.

i think there's a kind of.. not trauma but feeling of immense sadness and powerlessness at such a brain-breakingly awful thing happening and crass jokes can offer - as gbx says - both a way out (permission to suspend these sensations for a second) and a way in (because the jokes only "work" insofar as you recognize the extreme inappropriateness of them, a recognition that requires sympathy in the first place)

after a shitstorm he posted this: Yesterday death toll = 200. Today = 10 thousand. I am sorry for my insensitive tweet. It's gone.

maybe you didnt intend it this way but when i read the princess tamtam internet character laughing at jokes making light of thousands of deaths i didnt think 'ahh hes dealing with tragedy the only way he knows how,' i thought o lord hes being 'edgy' again. where do u draw the line between everything you do being acceptable because on the inside, you really feel for people, and recognizing how people might perceive it?

Family Guy thing is worse, for my sensibilities, because the zing is about someone deserving their terrible fate--W. humor. I'd co-sign with TamTam: this kind of joke "interfacing with the everyday miseries of the world" more than proving a stance that someone deserves pain and misery.

like, i guess there are people out there who laugh maliciously at these jokes or something but surely they are the same unreachable broken minority who post about pearl harbor on facebook

xpost

the most recent aflac commercial is quite wack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHvLP6xCiAA

There's probably some neural reason why a certain joke sticks in one's craw. It's like the part of the brain that turns images/facts over and over and over spills over into the part that also remembers a joke or a lyric, and now you're singing to yourself this lyric about this awful thing.

rebecca black thread is that way

xpost I'm not talking about my reaction - I never even saw these jokes till today - I'm talking about what happens if you're a public figure on Twitter. You have no idea who's going to end up reading some throwaway joke or comment, or how it's going to rebound on you.

deej OTM. I think Tam Tam's argument is dubious. I'm not going to say people can't find inappropriate things funny (like I say, the floating school joke made me laugh) but I find it hard to take when someone justifies it as their way of processing a tragedy. This kind of joke is valid if there's pain involved, and a complexity of response - I don't believe that's happening for most people here.

Invoking Pearl Harbor is just stupid because we already retaliated for that in a major, globe-changing manner; it's the type of comment that doesn't work without body language signaling that you are making fun of people who say shit like this.

And by here I don't mean itt - I mean the people RTing Gottfried's jokes.

Tamtam, I genuinely don't intend to come across as sneery, I just feel like these are not 'everyday miseries' and that the horror the people actually involved are experiencing should be respected. I certainly mean no offence to you or anyone else, just stating my opinion

xp

i have no idea what that could be, eazy, but the "mechanistic" part of humor might explain it (still haven't read that bergson essay)---i still remember some p awful dead baby jokes from middle school and i think at least some of it is because the punchlines follow so...inevitably. rationally, even. like duh of course those of us in the truck-unloading business prefer it when a shipment of babies comes in because boy is it easier to use a pitchfork.

i mean i've even seen this...thing where if you tell a dead baby/helen keller joke in certain company you'll get these guilty, knowing nods and ppl will like say the punchline with you even as they're shaking their damn heads. mostly because lol middle school ~memories~, but also because those jokes (kinda like the GG tsunami jokes), regardless of the punchline, find their humor, their lamp-post, in the exact same "truth" every time. all HK jokes are rooted in her disabilities, every time. if you told a joke that invoked her actual personality/humanity, no one would get it.

which is why you'll also see ppl (if you hang around with such ppl, and tell such jokes) react to DB/HK jokes they haven't heard by trying to guess the punchline. like even if the joke is going to be horrible, it's hard not to go "well ok with that setup, and knowing that this is a joke about dead babies, i bet the punchline is _____" despite yourself.

kinda think this applies to everything from "crossing the road" jokes to even the most vile racist/misogynist/whatever jokes you can imagine.

how the hell does anyone not know it was goddfried? only one person has that voice

I'm betting that the punchline is "corduroy." Did I win anything??

but I find it hard to take when someone justifies it as their way of processing a tragedy. This kind of joke is valid if there's pain involved, and a complexity of response - I don't believe that's happening for most people here.

― I've been dancing since 9 and I'm tired and hungry (Dorianlynskey), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 1:56 PM (15 seconds ago) Bookmark

Pain & complexity don't make it more valid, just more interesting to you! There's probably nothing provocative to you about an American inuring themselves to the misery of others with bad jokes, and maybe there shouldn't be - but as an emotional response I don't see what's invalid about it.

I actually feel like I'm arguing a little too hard in the other direction now - probably making it sound like there's this rich inner pain experienced by anyone making an edgy joke after a disaster, when really I'm just saying that it's an easy & fun way to avoid thinking too much about stuff that bums you out. And I get why that rubs people the wrong way, as it's an equally common & valid human response to be pissed when someone is joking about something you take very seriously.

am i led to believe that Gottfried was still doing the voice up until the japan jokes? I mean it's one voice doing one word. They could've, i dunno, taped it and just replayed it for every commercial. this is the real story here

Also, the family guy thing is much much worse since it basically implies that the Japanese deserve to die for the events of two generations ago, absolutely not surprised to find out the FG writers really do think this way

am i led to believe that Gottfried was still doing the voice up until the japan jokes? I mean it's one voice doing one word. They could've, i dunno, taped it and just replayed it for every commercial. this is the real story here

― brownie, Tuesday, March 15, 2011 2:15 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

otm

I used to follow Alec Sulkin on Twitter, and honestly he seems like a pretty chill dude and this comment is sort of out of character imo

am i led to believe that Gottfried was still doing the voice up until the japan jokes? I mean it's one voice doing one word. They could've, i dunno, taped it and just replayed it for every commercial. this is the real story here

man I can't believe how short you're selling the art of the AFLAC commercials. Like, sometimes the duck is just sticking his head into a situation and interjection his opinion - so he'll say, like, "Aflac." Other times, people are hating on the duck, putting him into all kinds of drama, and he'll respond, "Aflac." This is really just the tip of the iceberg too man, lotta craft and love goes into the construction of the duck character

how the hell does anyone not know it was goddfried? only one person has that voice

― frogbs, Tuesday, March 15, 2011 6:13 PM (8 minutes ago)

idk how many markets the pardo sub was going on in and the internet is being typically difficult about tracking it down right now because everything is all about these gg tweets but i doubt it was just mn

SOURCE: The Honig Company, LLC for Gilbert Gottfried

Mar 15, 2011 13:42 ET

Statement From Gilbert Gottfried

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire - March 15, 2011) - The following statement was just released by comedian Gilbert Gottfried:
"I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my attempt at humor regarding the tragedy in Japan. I meant no disrespect, and my thoughts are with the victims and their families."

Contact:
Steve Honig
The Honig Company, LLC
818-986-4300
Email Contact

Via: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Statement-From-Gilbert-Gottfried-1411936.htm

john i don't buy this don pardo think for a second. you're pulling my leg!

thing is, the "pearl harbor" meme, as epitomized by the FG writer tweet,

"If you wanna feel better about this earthquake in Japan, google 'Pearl Harbor death toll.'"

isn't a joke, or even "jokey"! it's just smirking arms-crossed.gif snarkiness. it's only going to get a chuckle if you happen to subscribe to the same worldview as the moron asking "amirite?" after he says it. otherwise it falls totally flat. or, rather: not a single person in Japan is likely to find a comment like that even remotely funny, or recognizable as humor.

whereas i'm p sure there's nervous tension-breaking jokes being told between survivors right now (though they probably don't resemble any of GG's jokes, tbh)

aero otm re duck nuances

Mother Nature still not quite as homicidal as Harry Truman

ok now that's a tension-breaking joke

xpost OK, TamTam, I get where you're coming from now.

Coming to Broadway, 2016: Kelsey Grammer as King Lear, Gilbert Gottfried as the Fool.

mother nature's kill rate is 100%

Can we change thread title to Gilber Gottfried: MOST INSENSITIVE MAN ALIVE

THIS THREAD TITLE MUST NEVER BE CHANGED

have we talked about the effect of distance (time) at all here? like holocaust jokes are de rigeur now and people make 9/11 jokes, which means it's just a matter of time before tsunami jokes are "ok" to some degree. and it's a tricky thing, because the first people who manage to find the time when those jokes are "ok" get the benefit of being "edgy," but if you jump in too soon, you get the gottfried treatment.

some talk of the 7 day rule above

Gottfried was widely praised for making a 9/11 joke "too soon", so it's not hard to see what his reasoning might have been.

http://cdn3.iofferphoto.com/img/item/169/639/422/SwzY.jpg

GG wasn't even the first to the scene, and his jokes weren't funny at all. pretty sure I remember laughing at 9/11 pics on Photoshop Phriday the same week it happened. 4ch*n posters went to work right away, too. (the only funny picture I have seen from this was a shop'd World of Warcraft Cataclysm reference to the now famous whirlpool pic. Tried to find it to post here, but am at work so can't actually go to the site.)

I promise I'm not an insensitive dick, either. I get emotional watching this shit, but am very much in the humor as catharsis camp described up thread. Honestly, I don't even see why this type of stuff is funny to people who don't care about it.

Honestly, I don't even see why this type of stuff is funny to people who don't care about it.

To sum up what I learned on Openbook on Friday: "haha, fuckin' japs"

crucial diff between 9/11 jokes and tsunami jokes is that 9/11 jokes have always seemed, to me, to be inherently political. ime most of the ppl that react with horror to 9/11 jokes aren't all that concerned with the human tragedy of what happened---in the actual lives and stories and families of the victims---but are in general more wrapped up in what it "meant for the nation." their offense isn't grounded in their empathy or inability to suspend emotion, but in a weird sense of secular piety. like "you just don't ~say~ that!!!!"

gah

there is also a Rule of Three in comedy

i believed you the first time gbx

Was that final gah your Flight 93 of the series?

Good point though. Each time.

well also 9/11 happened "to us." It wasn't like some guy goin "you hear about some hilarious shit that went down abroad this week?" and riffed on a tragedy across the world. it was pretty clearly "we are all shellshocked, let's try not to lose sight of ourselves & let's stay funny & creative as a way of not giving those who attacked us the satisfaction of beating us down." You don't get to do that with other people's tragedies imo

dr morbius: the funniest man alive

mostly i'm thinking of a coworker that came to a halloween party at my house (in...2005?) that was disgusted, DISGUSTED, by the costumes two of my friends were wearing (a couple): tallwise stripey PJs, one with a little plane on a wire attached to his shoulder, the other with a plane exploding into her chest. this same coworker regularly dropped pearls of wisdom about 'ghettos' and poor people and in general betrayed a complete lack of compassion or curiosity about the world, so i can only assume her horror was rooted in how terrible it was that two people could just be so ~tacky~

xps

9/11 jokes were also a reaction to the kind of "this is how you're supposed to react to this tragedy" super hokey patriotism and "irony is dead now" bullshit that was kicking up pretty quickly at the time. not really anything to react against here (except for the jon via chi's of the world, I guess).

xps

I definitely do not think Gilbert's 9/11 jokes were politically motivated in any way fwiw. I think he just goes "oh, I have some jokes about planes crashing into buildings somewhere..."

Thing that never gets acknowledged is that Gilbert Gottfried cribbed that 9/11 joke off one Howard Stern made 20 years earlier after the Air Florida crash.

well sure. i mean, i've never even heard the jokes in question. just that i, personally, have always read a little political subtext into joking about 9/11. most of the few i've heard have scanned as rxns to "super hokey patriotism." probably because i ~wanted~ them to be exactly that.

xp

damn, this seemed like it was really going to end in jon/via/chi quitting ilx

not that i want the guy to quit ilx but i feel a bit cheated

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I kind of feel like part of what I appreciate in GG's stuff (definitely when I watch his 9/11 stuff, maybe with these tweets too) is that it kind of feels like the

people with 'zero practical connection' to the events

are the targets. He's not there to help them with their trauma, they're the ones he's trying to offend. You know, this idea that a disaster like this brings out an army of hand-wringers, sat in front of their tvs being all "omg I can't cope with this" and GG's aim is to say FUCK YOU, YOU'VE GOT NOTHING TO COPE WITH. I mean, the people who are directly dealing with the aftermath in Japan now are absolutely not the ones taking offence at his dumb gags, they're very unlikely to even be aware of the tweet stream of a minor comic right now.

Like I said, not entirely sure I believe in this myself, just an alternative hypothesis.

am i led to believe that Gottfried was still doing the voice up until the japan jokes? I mean it's one voice doing one word. They could've, i dunno, taped it and just replayed it for every commercial. this is the real story here

― brownie, Tuesday, March 15, 2011 2:15 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

think you're taking the implications of the firing a little too literally. like, obviously they could keep running the ads (or making new ads with the audio he recorded 10 years ago for the initial ads), but the point is they want to publicly admonish him for the jokes and cut ties from him. plus i'm pretty sure he'd still be getting paid if they'd kept him under his contract and kept running ads that probably generate automatic royalties for GG.

also iirc he says "aflac" multiple times with different inflections in some of the ads fwiw

lol I just remembered that yesterday I worked on a story for work about how "spokescharacters" are gaining popularity over celebrity endorsements because you can't have a Tiger Woods-esque scandal that will damage your business when your mascot is Poppin' Fresh (e.g.) - guess that backfired

you can't have a Tiger Woods-esque scandal that will damage your business when your mascot is Poppin' Fresh

You missed the story of the orgy with Betty Crocker and Aunt Jemima.

Poppin' Fresh did time for child endangerment

lol

"poppin fresh porn" About 52,200 results (0.09 seconds)

n/a that's bs there is soo much flo the progressive lady porn out there and it's like nobody cares about that

waht

*googles furiously*

"so much"? ew

you make it sound like a thriving subgenre

hey there's a whole insurance mascot pr0n world out there, lotta hot gottfried on flo action

Holy crap. Plenty of Rule 34 for anyone thinking about googling Erin Esurance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBPAQ6CJvTo

i think the idea is that the spokescharacter won't actively go out and embarrass your company (unless it is voiced by gilbert gottfried)

maybe the geico gecko will take over 2 and a half men

A Man and a Half and Ronald McDonald

the headline on VladTV is "Comedian Gilbert Gottfried GOES IN on Japan"

i think the idea is that the spokescharacter won't actively go out and embarrass your company (unless it is voiced by gilbert gottfried)

I understand that but this is not like Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan where he's the "face" of the company. He plays a stupid duck.

yeah in a case like this i think it's less about GG being held to a moral standard as a spokesperson endorsing the company and more about "wait, our guy said what? yeah we should stop paying him and tell everyone we're not working with him anymore, we don't want any of that to blow back on us."

this is one of those things where i understand why every actor involved did what they did and dont really begrudge them

except jon / via / chi

Disney to redub Gilbert's part in Aladdin with Mel Gibson

holocaust jokes are de rigeur now

i don't think "de rigeur" is what you meant here but stand-up would be improved in a way were this the case

yeah that would be a gas

inappropriate fart joke some dude

would be less inappropriate than the gas chamber joke i actually was making

i was joking

or did u think i was truly offended by a fart joke

i thought you were making a dad joke off of my 'edgy' joke and that it was inappropriate

now im confused

in my world of dumm jokes

the tsunami joke is king

ILE board description OTM!

wait is the estela gottfried getting carried away line a tsunami joke? #needtoknow

it was a parody gilbert gottfried tsunami joke, i had a vision of him not being able to stfu even in the middle of an apology.

ah

gottfried visions are the worst #takeitfromme

i know people do often laugh in the face of tragedy, i have done it myself, but right now i can't imagine ever laughing about what is happening in japan, it's one of the worst, saddest things i've ever heard of, and when i read his tweets they seemed so unstoppable and self-destructive and cruel.

yeah, i think with gilbert, he should have remembered that timing is everything in comedy. although, i'm sure there are plenty of other comedians who secretly thought it was hilarious. because they are evil people. bad bad people.

uh, so... who's Gilbert Gottfried anyway?

he is the funniest man alive

what, he's not famous in finland?

SarahKSilverman

The good news is hopeful doesn't mean dumb. The bad news is cynical doesn't mean smart.

what, he's not famous in finland?

hahaha :)

this thread feels like it needs nabisco to say some long otm things idk

not what dr. plax ordered, but here goes nothing:

I wasn't really offended by GG's tweeter jokes, mostly because they were so worthless & perfunctory that they hardly seemed penned, more churned out by a HackBot 7000 which of course would be insensitive to catastrophic human suffering...tbh I first thought they were a deliberate attempt by GG to get fired from his sweet-gig/thousand-little-deaths-of-the-soul AFLAC job, and now that I know that 80% of AFLAC's business is done in Japan--something GG HAD to have also known--well, there's not much room left for doubt now is there...?

that being said, I was super-livid at seeing on the real Japan thread pics of all the Joe Everydays being all "12/7/41 NEVER FORGET!!!!!" and I'm not following that thread...if JVC is in fact following this thread, then I can almost forgive JVC for wishing death & destruction on everything Tam Tam holds dear (lashing out at ENBB = a totally diff't story). I can't imagine even GG thinks that anyone's going to laugh much at his limp one-liners, whereas the ppl invoking Pearl Harbor are clearly indicting me in my refusal to forsake human compassion for some sort of deluded jingoism that conveniently forgets Hiroshima (there's something to write a paper about)...one good thing about GG's termination and the subsequent news media outrage cycle is that it has doubled as a righteous smackdown for all these shit-for-brains that have managed to completely disgrace the nation they claim to love.

But again I didn't really get that Tam Tam was laughing at Japan; the impression I got was that he was just a big GG fan, which is why I think JVC's reaction seemed ott...

i think that tam tam was prob just saying "eh i dont get the big deal and some of it was kinda funny" which is sorta my take on this as well. sorry yall.

note: i also do not hate japan or whatever.

this is a strange universe where the aflac duck is more deliberately offensive than neil hamburger.

Full disclosure: I first thought the 'school' in the real estate joke referred to a school of fish

Been thinking about Neil Hamburger, too. I mean, who would want an apology from him?

Google Image Search is mildly amusing.

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/7379/screenshot20110315at105.png

I would just like to point out – Japan has v cute Aflac ads w/a maneki neko cat & duck – they should just start using them here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d53aQ4EVCs8&feature=related

ok that was adorable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeGZ4rEX2s4&feature=related adorable

best animal friends

The ones without the maneki neko are cuets too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TVaecx29bI&NR=1

i know people do often laugh in the face of tragedy, i have done it myself, but right now i can't imagine ever laughing about what is happening in japan, it's one of the worst, saddest things i've ever heard of, and when i read his tweets they seemed so unstoppable and self-destructive and cruel.

― estela, Tuesday, March 15, 2011 7:42 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

agreed

i think that tam tam was prob just saying "eh i dont get the big deal and some of it was kinda funny" which is sorta my take on this as well. sorry yall.

note: i also do not hate japan or whatever.

― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 10:26 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think he said that the tweets were 'great!'
which jon overreacted to but, uh, i dont think they are great

The block of pictures from the google image search containing Gilbert holding a goose, the shamrock shake, tsunami destruction, and Gilbert pushing a carriage(?) is like some terrifying image-poem/nightmare.

Rebus deluxe

frogbs did not have to drop the n-bomb upthread - as he's a new poster whom I like a lot I feel it is appropriate to say so idk

No, he didn't. But anything for a chuckle round these parts.

I never understood the Aflac commercials. There was a duck, and he yelled "AFLAC". If I'd realized GG was the voice, I would have gotten it. He was always a comedian that yelled stuff. That was the joke. USA network used to GG on their cable, and he was yelling and cutting up.

NASCAR used to have that duck walk across the screen and yell "AFLAC" each episode. DW and Larry really seemed to love that duck.

I never understood the Aflac commercials. There was a duck, and he yelled "AFLAC". If I'd realized GG was the voice, I would have gotten it. He was always a comedian that yelled stuff. That was the joke.

No - the joke is that the duck dreams he is a viking.

you are so wrong

I read this in the paper this morning, so I think it's new--sorry if someone's already posted it:

In a statement, the comic said Tuesday, "I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my attempt at humor regarding the tragedy...I meant no disrespect, and my thoughts are with the victims and their families."

ILX apologies to follow.

those were his Twitter posts from yesterday

they should hire Artie Lang to be the new AFLAC duck

Iago the Parrot for the win. He was the best part about Aladdin, not that stupid blue genie.

zing

DONNA MARTIN GRADUATES

FREE NELSON MANDELA

HARVEY KEITEL FOR NEW AFLAC DUCK

SAN TE TO STFU

lol roxy

Slate's Jack Shafer defending Gottfried

http://www.slate.com/id/2288387/

Key line for me is this: Before posting, Gottfried must have thought, Who but a lover of daring comedy would follow me on Twitter? But he was wrong. The new rules have made everybody—including edgy comedians—accountable in the public sphere for the things they say "privately" in social media spaces.

VERY interesting conclusion

"If you didn't make an immediate connection between Japan's nuclear disasters and Godzilla, the mutant product of atomic radiation and the star of dozens of films, you're a better man than I."

you know i really didn't think about godzilla at all until everyone in newspapers and everywhere started talking about godzilla. but maybe godzilla isn't one of the first things i think about when i think about japan.

people get paid to write for slate, no? man, that's a pretty sweet gig. the standards are so low online. you can write anything.

The first thing my son thought of was Godzilla, but not in terms of the nuke thing - he was just hoping the big guy was okay.

wait really? that's adorable.

it's a good thing i never made my ILM parody thread about Pitchfork giving scores of 7.9 and 8.8 to albums by a band called Earthquakes in Japan

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/52/Tsunami-_A_Brilliant_Mistake.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/Adolescent_sex.jpg

so did anyone see him 'curating' on TCM last spring?

https://twitter.com/RealGilbert/status/319896388852912128

i just had a terrible vision of gg apologising for getting carried away.

― estela, Wednesday, 16 March 2011 02:30 (2 years ago)

It is sad this beautifully subtle pun was lost in the mire of joke upmanship.

" Even Gandhi loved a good nigger joke."

jesus

I listened to his podcast interview of the freshly dead Joe Franklin, which is notable for 1) IDing the most ludicrously untrue JF stories and 2) GG's impression of George Jessel.

Any other good episodes? Roger Corman?

http://sideshownetwork.tv/podcastsDetails.cfm?podcastid=104

At this stage in the game, doing an impression of George Jessel is the equivalent of dressing up as a Gibson Girl for Halloween.

yeah well there's a Rolling Stone interview w/ GG where he's told "you're a 59-year-old with the taste of a 95-yo."

Butch Patrick
Barbara Feldon

both are really great interviews, lots of good stories

Danny Aiello is great

oh nm, that already came up on the comedy podcast thread

http://www.avclub.com/article/gilbert-gottfried-his-amazing-colossal-podcast-ala-229522

Currently listening to Gilbert's interview with Chevy Chase. Gawd even around people he likes, Chase is difficult.

saw Gottfried in Toronto three months ago. a lot of shouting, bad taste without being funny, and his closing fifteen was straight-up old joke-book material. a disappointment given what an engaged guy with a distinct comedic sense he seems to be in interviews (was not familiar with his stand-up previously, aside from The Aristocrats and if he ever did five on a gala or variety show on .au TV in the '90s.)

Lots of great episodes of his podcast lately: Michael McKean, comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff, Richard Belzer.. and one incomprehensible episode with old-school comedian Pat Cooper. Plus Gilbert's recurring Alan Thicke impression.

For classic horror fans, the trilogy of interviews with Vincent Price's daughter, Bela Lugosi's son, and Boris Karloff's daughter are amazing.

yea Ive listened to most of those, tho not the horror heir ones

gilberts schtick def cracks me up. the McKean one reminded me of the older one w steve buscemi but not as great, repeatedly joking abt not knowing a guests work is funny

also gil's tic response when recalling something of "oh yes, yes [AGHHAHHAGAH] cackle/laugh" is now constantly stuck in my head

i don't ever remember seeing this guy out of character, which i think was what made him all the more frightening

buscemi episode is weird & hilarious & uncomfortable & maybe the most gilbert episode of all

oh wow, didn't know this existed. must hear asap.

I met him on the street once in NYC and he spoke like a normal human being. Was wearing a short sleeve polo shirt and khaki shorts, not squinting his eyes. I said hi, said I was a big fan, asked if I could book an interview through his management, he said yes. I never followed up on it, though.

i like when he says "yes."

He claims to have once approached Jackie Onasis at a party and asked her "do you remember where you were on the day..." only to have her walk away from him in disgust.

The only thing about the story that really stretches credibility, for me, is believing that there was ever a party whose guest list included both Jackie O and Gilbert Gottfried.

Just in case folks haven't seen this yet... Stay with it until the 19min mark or so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCk3J7gUaaw

Best comment "19 minutes in, Gilbert Gottfried realizes how easy it must've been to be hitler"

i'm listening to his podcast bc tom scharpling is a guest and ... it is delightful?

man, that's quite a pair, as i once said to Jayne Mansfield

Yeah, this was pretty good. Surprising, perhaps, because Tom and Gil seem like a pretty big mismatch of comedic styles, but the convo never felt awkward. Tom's singing, on the other hand...

It's generally just like the Scharpling episode, not always laugh-a-minute, but it's a great podcast to subscribe to.

tom is pretty clearly a big fan of the podcast, he was referencing stuff from past episodes

the one-hit-wonders episodes are so great

I like how his cohost is constantly astounded by Gilbert's perfect recall of the lyrics of ancient Top 40 songs. It's almost a savant-type power Gilbert has

ha i relate to that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d--LpVQxDo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBlukXUiiWM

I finally listened to the John Amos episode they reference constantly on later eps of the podcast. It's very good.

there's a docfilm at Tribeca showing him 'out of character'

https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/gilbert-2017

Doc trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLa3XVMfUzo

opens in NY this weekend

I'm glad to see he takes the Megabus to gigs, as I would

The doc is good, if a bit...over-scored (?!). I'm surprised that it passes completely over his SNL days, though perhaps this is to give more time to more recent career setbacks--I didn't realize that he took to the Aflac thing so hard--as well as some fairly candid family stuff (the film is dedicated to his sister, who passed away a few months ago). Mostly, though, I just want a pair of Max Gottfried's glasses.

the season he was on SNL is widely regarded as The Disaster Year, and there's only so many clips of bad sketches you can inflict on an audience (one?).

doc is good!

Doc is solid, could've done with a little less "OMG how did this misfit freak end up with an attractive wife and a family!?"

for sure

tbf like every third guest on his podcast feels the need to echo that sentiment to him on the air.

the season he was on SNL is widely regarded as The Disaster Year, and there's only so many clips of bad sketches you can inflict on an audience (one?).

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius)

clips from the 1672 season of snl are hard to come by

It had to happen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaF6NfyVqqs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftMb7wLrqsw

Still one of my favorite stand up bits. :(

Thread name change?

R.I.P💔 pic.twitter.com/KObq2B2QEd

— DoogieHowser (@MattHowserMD) April 12, 2022

got me scared that Jeffrey Ross had died too

We can always pretend that's Madeline Albright

was just watching an old Dr Katz ep last night with Gilbert & was crying with laughter. he was not playing along with the improv at all, just screaming random interruptions at Katz: "You know Gilbert, Sigmund Freud once said-" "HE SAID THIS TO YOU??? WHEN DID YOU TALK TO HIM???"

GG persisting with *that* voice is one of the greatest comedy moves ever imo

RIP Gilbert

GG’s “old Groucho Marx” impression was the best thing ever. Sad that we never got an old Gilbert Gottfried.

damn rip gil, he was great

RIP to one of the best to do it

jake fogelnest posted this great old clip

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CcQ4InClqDA

got me scared that Jeffrey Ross had died too

he would be the only one id be ok with kicking the bucket

This collection of early-ish (1985-90) Gottfried standup appearances on Letterman is insane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fii2DPoNfZo

We got to work with him once, he was everything you’d hoped he’d be. pic.twitter.com/uWT6oyw4Q7

— Jon Wurster (@jonwurster) April 12, 2022

a recap of the 9/13/01 Hefner Roast including Gottfried’s set

quite a thing

https://observer.com/2005/08/why-have-a-night-like-this-in-times-like-these/

I watched that live at the age of 15 and holy shit did it blow my mind. Was he the first comedian ballsy enough to try a 9/11 joke?

Remember when a bunch of people lost their shit over this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qTiqQz29t8

losing Gottfried makes me even sadder that Morbs isnt’t with us

shit just keeps getting less funny :(

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_foueV9OFU

Tony Curtis talking to Gavin McLeod

pure genius

Writer Eric Spitznagel on Facebook:

I interviewed Gilbert Gottfried a half dozen times over the years. I even ghostwrote a few magazine essays for him. He didn't need me. He was always hilarious, and yes, that was his actual voice. Once, the Dame was out of town and I had a call with him, and Charlie (who was maybe 3 at the time) wouldn't leave me alone so I handed him the phone and let him interview Gilbert for awhile. I still have the tape of their conversation somewhere. At the end, Gilbert exclaimed, "That kid is going places! [Long pause.] Prison, most likely. But still, places!"
He used to call me months after a story was published, and say, "Spitznagel, it's your Jewish friend. Listen, I came up with better jokes. Could you stop the presses?" I still clearly recall one of the last messages he ever left me. He said, "Spitznagel! I thought you were dead. That's not quite true, I HOPED you were dead. Anyway, call me. You said everybody at Playboy loved our first draft. Does that include Dorothy Stratten?"
To this day, his number is still in my phone, because you never knew when Gilbert might call. I see no good reason to remove it now.

the 2017 doc “Gilbert” is streaming on PlutoTV - highly recommend if you are a fan, its a very sweet snapshot of him & his family, v touching

Amazing

rest in peace to Gilbert Gottfried who has probably the best sequence in game show history on Hollywood Squares. if you're not an old hag like me who remembers the rules, both contestants needed his square to secure the 5-square win, but he decided to troll both of them pic.twitter.com/Egzyzygudd

— manny (@mannyfidel) April 12, 2022

Well I guess that leaves me...

I watched that live at the age of 15 and holy shit did it blow my mind. Was he the first comedian ballsy enough to try a 9/11 joke?

― frogbs, Tuesday, April 12, 2022 7:36 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Frogbs, did you not see 'the Aristocrats'?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAxrBrkOE8E

What a career this guy has had.

I saw Joan Rivers do 9/11 jokes right after the event, in midtown Manhattan. They were really gross jokes too, but not far out of line with the rest of her act.

Watching that Emmy footage, it's insane to think of him as like, this outre legend spending the last 20 years racking up amazing Stern appearances, headline-making dirty jokes, roast appearances, podcasts etc... and meanwhile he's had like a whole other 20-year career as like a mainstream character actor, Disney cartoon, SNL cast member, cable TV host...

on Sesame Street as Denny the Distractor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzr5JajCXZM

Huge content warning on this, but

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSqEP97hJEA

It's wild to watch this because now that Gilbert and Norm are gone (and, before them, Joan and Rickles), I think this entire style of humor is probably gone with it, a style where you could do 10 minutes of the most offensive joke imaginable and then defuse it by just your personality, a kind of academic deference to the source material and a sense of being "in" on something. The Schumer/Lampanelli/Jeselnik axis def veers more towards "edgelord" than this. Ross is close, I guess, but he's way less subtle. Note how everyone laughs at the set-ups like "here it comes." I suppose an argument could be made about how it's probably for the best that these types of jokes are going to die, but it still feels like we're losing a piece of history

Like Norm and Gilbert were probably the only guys that could still kill exclusively with material that was no newer than 75 years old

wow that sesame street clip is an accurate depiction of the inside of my head

also... i lol'd mightily at that roast clip. probably the funniest parts were gottfried attempting to explain the really illogical jokes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PZlXWekkX4

Walter Chaw: https://decider.com/2022/04/13/gilbert-gottfried-walter-chaw/

Feeling so sad that with GG’s passing we’ll never know for sure what kind of citrus fruit Cesar Romero had his boys fling at him… and we’ll never get a clear view of what was happening on Danny Thomas’s coffee table.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkjCROtJ1tk

Came across that after reading the article linked here: T/S: Lou Reed "Live: Take No Prisoners" vs. Andrew Dice Clay "The Day The Laughter Died"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOLcyPfrdac

From Gilbert's daughter Lily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQNO-mVMuzY