shortformblog:

thedailywhat:

End Of An Era of the Day: Following Gilbert Gottfried’s series of ill-conceived tweets poking fun at the devastation in Japan, Aflac informed the comedian, who has voiced the Aflac Duck for over a decade, that his services would no longer be required.

“Gilbert’s recent comments about the crisis in Japan were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac,” the company said in an official statement. “Aflac will immediately set plans in motion to conduct a nationwide casting call to find a new voice of the iconic Aflac Duck.”

[reuters / tmz.]

AGAIN, this is the shaky ground you tread upon if you try to make light of the crisis in Japan. Good God, how can people be so stupid?

I’m not sure how much of it is stupidity and how much of it is just a lack of empathy or sensitivity. I have a theory that may apply here, if I may be so bold.

I was just talking to my son about how the majority of people seem to forget (or not care) that their actions affect other people. I’m sure many of these people are perfectly intelligent in conversation, but you release them into the wild and they appear stupid because their actions make no sense to people who do have common courtesy. If my theory is true, then one could even say that this is probably the main problem with the world today.