NOT Funny, guys
From Gilbert Gottfried to a coed on YouTube, it seems that there's a new way to deal with tragedy: humor.
Gottfried, once the voice of the ALFAC duck - he's since been fired, tweeted some very non-funny things about the disaster in Japan. Tweets can be read by anyone, including Gottfried's AFLAC bosses. It seems that AFLAC does most of its business in Japan. They were not amused and Gottfried was terminated- quickly.
A blond buxom (and it looked like deliberately buxom with an obvious push-up bra) coed posted on YouTube a video of herself ranting about the "Asian" students at her college library who were using their cell phones and disturbing her studying. She went on the mock their language and also "guessed" that the reason was they were trying to find out about their families. Can you say, "Ugly American"?
There are other examples of Americans mocking what's happening in Japan, but I cringe when I think of them...let alone write about them here.
What would we have done or felt if people of other countries had mocked and made jokes about September 11. 2001 or Katrina? Well, it wouldn't have been pretty.
What makes us, as Americans (it seems to be only Americans making these remarks), think this type of humor acceptable? Have we lost our sense of humanity? Is our hubris so grand that we think we're the only ones who can feel loss, pain, tragedy? Therefore, we negate these problems in other countries.
Devastation in Haiti or Japan is as bad as devastation in New Orleans.
We are all human. In fact the dog sitting in the midst of the tsunami debris, guarding his injured canine friend seems to be more human than some of us.
We are all united in this tragedy.
And it can happen here.
Gottfried, once the voice of the ALFAC duck - he's since been fired, tweeted some very non-funny things about the disaster in Japan. Tweets can be read by anyone, including Gottfried's AFLAC bosses. It seems that AFLAC does most of its business in Japan. They were not amused and Gottfried was terminated- quickly.
A blond buxom (and it looked like deliberately buxom with an obvious push-up bra) coed posted on YouTube a video of herself ranting about the "Asian" students at her college library who were using their cell phones and disturbing her studying. She went on the mock their language and also "guessed" that the reason was they were trying to find out about their families. Can you say, "Ugly American"?
There are other examples of Americans mocking what's happening in Japan, but I cringe when I think of them...let alone write about them here.
What would we have done or felt if people of other countries had mocked and made jokes about September 11. 2001 or Katrina? Well, it wouldn't have been pretty.
What makes us, as Americans (it seems to be only Americans making these remarks), think this type of humor acceptable? Have we lost our sense of humanity? Is our hubris so grand that we think we're the only ones who can feel loss, pain, tragedy? Therefore, we negate these problems in other countries.
Devastation in Haiti or Japan is as bad as devastation in New Orleans.
We are all human. In fact the dog sitting in the midst of the tsunami debris, guarding his injured canine friend seems to be more human than some of us.
We are all united in this tragedy.
And it can happen here.
posted by Mitzi at Wednesday, March 16, 2011
1 Comments:
Agreed, NOT funny. But let's remember something else. There is a post on Reddit that my daughter showed me of an American in Japan who (through Reddit) heard of a Japanese-American's worry about her grandmother. The American and his Japanese wife bought food for the grandmother and walked miles to get it to her.
We aren't all ugly. This guy was a real hero. If you would like the site just email me and I will get it from my daughter.
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