It’s not hearsay and Aflac made the announcement:
As for the commercial itself, it may have been shot in advance, but it wouldn’t have taken any time to insert a card at the end announcing the search for a new voice.
AFLAC put out a press release on March 14th that Gottfried was toast because of his remarks. They began inviting people to audition to replace him at 6:00am on March 15th, on one of their Facebook marketing pages.
The new “Silent Movie” ad used footage from a serendipitously-produced commercial from 2006. The new material is just the bit with the duck being hit by the train and the title card, both elements which could be knocked together in a couple hours. This seems like a perfectly reasonable timeline for a multinational corporation in full-on damage control mode.
I predict a major disaster involving the Japanese High Speed Rail System shortly. Likely involving an impact with a duck as the initial cause.
…
I thought it was brilliant. Everyone knows AFLAC’s fired the actor who voices their corporate mascot, but has no plans to rebrand with a different mascot. So what do they do? A silent movie. One that shows the mascot run over by a train. And then announces a search for a replacement voice actor. They might as well have ended with a giant raised middle finger, followed by a sign reading, “What? Too soon?”
Too subtle. They should have had the duck washed away by a tsunami. THEN they could have used a “Too soon?” sign.
Yeah, he has that glow around him.
I’m bumping this old thread because I went to see Gilbert Gottfried tonight.
He walks out and without any introduction starts talking in an amazed voice about how the Japanese took time out from fleeing a tsunami to check the internet for tweets from Gilbert Gottfried. And then had to spend time translating the tweets into Japanese.
For the rest of his act he veers off into surreal offensiveness that is so far over-the-top offensive that it becomes a satire on the concept of offense. People are howling. The most offensive joke is also the funniest. And suddenly he mentions that he lives in New York and was there at the time of Hurricane Sandy. The city is going dark around him. He knows people whose houses are being destroyed. Then he gets a phone call from the Prime Minister of Japan. “Not so funny now, is it?”
A brilliant original. He made me laugh out loud more than any other comedian in many years. He’s that good. If you haven’t seen him, he does shows every weekend. Find someplace near you and go.
So is that his attempt at apologizing? Because my entire problem with the guy has been that he refused to apologize. He didn’t have to apologize for the joke itself, just state that he didn’t mean to offend. By refusing to do so, you are telling the people involved that they understood your intent perfectly. I do not buy the bullshit about comedians not needing to apologize–I think its their humanity that lets us know they are truly just kidding.
And I don’t see how being over-the-top offensive is funny. You need something more than that. Anyone can just come up with the most offensive things to say. The question is, is he anything like Carlin or Pryor or even Chappelle? Is there an underlying joke or meaning to what he is saying?
Wow, that’s a ringing endorsement. As a lover of stand-up, I’m going to take your advice.
Then don’t watch/listen. The Aristocrats!
No. In no way does it even resemble something that could be construed as an apology by anyone, no matter how drunk or confused. It looks like he’s making a joke about the pointlessness of being offended by his jokes.
:rolleyes: Gilbert Gottfried Apologizes for Offensive Japan Tweets
Since I said so specifically, there probably is. Thanks for the careful reading.
Refused? He apologized immediately. Way to get it wrong, BigT.
And yeah, GG is freaking hilarious live. Did he do the dinner-plates-as-mouse-ears bit? I love that one.
Actually- that’s not totally true. It’s about the pointlessness of being offended but it does sound like a surreal joke at his own expense, too. But not an apology.
This is so wrong that it’s difficult to know where to begin. I have rarely seen such a misread on anything in my life.
NewsFlash: Different people have different senses of humor.
I would love to see him live someday. He’s hilarious, and usually the funniest one, in the Comedy Central Roasts.
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.
His reputation was a part of his value to AFLAC.
A certain percentage of potential customers WOULD have been aware that Gottfried has long had a reputation as being an unconstrained-by-convention, un-corporate kind of guy. This lends a certain aura of “authenticity”—a nebulous, yet highly prized, quality that all advertisers aspire to.
: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.