Gilbert Gottfried fired for his Japan tsunami tweets

As thousands of bodies wash up on the shores of Japan amid fears of a meltdown at nuclear power plants and as scientists warn that a second major earthquake and tsunami might be on it’s way, Gilbert Gottfried probably picked a bad time to go on twitter and make tsunami jokes, or at least he did in the eyes of his bosses at Aflac, who earn about three-quarters of their total revenue from Japan. Jokes like these…

– 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.”
– Japan is really advanced. They don’t go to the beach. The beach comes to them.
– What do the japanese have in common with @howardstern? They’re both radio active.
– Japan had put out this urgent plea….” PLEASE SEND US A FEW BIlLION RUBBER DUCKIES!!!!!”
– Japan called me. They said “maybe those jokes are a hit in the US, but over here, they’re all sinking.”
– What does every Japanese person have in their apartment? Flood lights.
– My Japanese doctor advised me to stay healthy I need 50 million gallons of water a day.
– I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, “They’ll be another one floating by any minute now.”

Needless to say Aflac fired him today…

Disability insurer Aflac Inc. fired comedian Gilbert Gottfried as the voice of its iconic duck on Monday after a series of Twitter jokes about the earthquake in Japan, Aflac’s most important market.
Since 2000, Gottfried has voiced the duck in the insurer’s TV ad campaign in the United States, quacking “Af-LAC!” in the comedian’s famously abrasive voice.

Gilbert has since taken the tweets down, but he never should have posted them in the first place. I wouldn’t care if this was happening in one of those shitty countries, but Japan is cool, and has tons of incredibly hot women who make shockingly deviant porn. It’s not funny when the jokes hit so close to home.