# Gilbert Gottfried out as AFLAC duck due to Japan-related tweets **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-gottfried-out-as-aflac-duck-due-to-japan-related-tweets/574731 "2011-03-15T01:49:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-gottfried-out-as-aflac-duck-due-to-japan-related-tweets/574731/101 "2013-09-07T03:03:42Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > :dubious: > > :rolleyes: That certain percentage being more than zero but less than 0.00000000001% of the population of the planet. Still, I find your ideas almost as intriguing as a certain percentage of potential customers and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Ouch, I am truly zinged! But seriously, Gottfried was scarcely an unknown when he started doing the AFLAC commercials (in 1999 or 2000, apparently). He’s been a legend among both stand-up comics and fans of stand-up since the 1980s, at least. Thus the reputation among that infamous Certain Percentage (all of whom, no doubt, have an eye for ‘authenticity’). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-gottfried-out-as-aflac-duck-due-to-japan-related-tweets/574731/102 "2013-09-07T03:16:40Z")
I kind of doubt Gottfried’s reputation had a lot to do with him getting that job. It’s not like he ever got to do anything funny in the commercials- he just screamed the name of their company over and over. They hired him because of his voice. The duck wasn’t even his first bird voiceover role. But considering what his jokes are like it’s probably true that Aflac should have realized it was inevitable he was going to say something they weren’t going to want to be associated with. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-gottfried-out-as-aflac-duck-due-to-japan-related-tweets/574731/103 "2013-09-07T03:39:42Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I’m surprised that Aflack used him in the first place. Same with Disney and the parrot in Aladdin. Even on television his act has to be mostly bleeped out. He is stunningly offensive. Yes and no. At the end of his set, after the Hurricane Sandy bit, he did a sort of coda consisting of “Dirty Jokes,” also the title of a video he did in 2005, probably with the same or similar jokes. But that me realize - and my wife independently picked up on it - that the whole set previously had been almost completely clean. There might have been a word or two that would have to be bleeped on network television, we couldn’t remember for sure, but really the entire set’s offensiveness was totally concept-driven. You see him on roasts, whose origin in the Friar’s Club was specifically to tell the dirtiest material to one another that they couldn’t do on the road, and he’s as filthy as the language allows. That’s not his act, though. He’s a pro; he knows what the audience is and pitches his material accordingly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-gottfried-out-as-aflac-duck-due-to-japan-related-tweets/574731.md?page=5)