Gilbert Page #8

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- [Gilbert] Yeah.

- And now you kinda, there's

nothing to fall back on.

- It's like Hyman

Roth in Godfather.

This is the business

we've chosen.

(laughing)

- Oh, you mean talk

to them regular?

- [Neil] Yeah.

- [Gilbert] No I still feel

uncomfortable with that.

- Yeah.

It's too late for it now.

(gentle music)

- Oh wow.

These are the tweets that

got him fired from Aflac.

I guess I printed them.

We took 'em down,

we deleted them from Twitter

and I guess I found

them somewhere online

and I printed them just to have.

- Japan is really advanced.

They don't go to the beach,

the beach comes to them.

- No.

I was talking to my

Japanese real estate agent.

I said is there a

school in the area?

She said not now but just wait.

What do Japanese

Jews like to eat?

Hebrew National tsunami.

I mean it's so cheesy you know.

He didn't mean anything wrong,

he didn't mean anything bad.

- Good evening, the nation

of Japan has suffered

a colossal, historic earthquake

that has caused massive

damage, massive loss of life.

- [Reporter] Literally

just being washed away.

13 foot tsunami

engulfs that country.

- [Reporter] Farmlands

quickly disappeared,

entire major road,

bridges and homes gone.

- [Reporter] Gilbert Gottfried,

making things even worse

after a string of offensive

tweets regarding the disaster...

- [Reporter] Many were

offended by the tsunami jokes

comedian Gilbert

Gottfried tweeted.

- [Man] I think he went too far,

I thought they were offensive.

- You did.

- Gilbert's career

will not survive this.

- You don't think so?

- Okay let me read you,

let me read you--

- I think it's done.

- A well-known comedian

is no longer the voice

of Aflac's duck today because--

- Gilbert Gottfried

controversy, he made some pretty

tasteless jokes

about the tsunami.

And Aflac stepped in and said

no, not funny, and canned him.

- [Woman] Inappropriate

is one thing but I'm going

when you got lives lost,

to make jokes like this,

it's inappropriate.

- Here's one but I need you

people who are watching this

to understand, this

is not my joke.

- You feel you have to read it?

Maybe it's--

- Well I don't think you'll

understand unless you know.

I think you need to--

- You have to read it.

- You got to read it.

- I just broke up

with my girlfriend

but as the Japanese say

there'll be another one

floating by any minute now.

- Okay that was just one of

them, he said it's like...

- [Man] Gilbert, oh

no, fired, bummer man.

- I remember when it happened

I thought well this is

the entire earth talking

saying they hate me

and they want me dead,

and I remember my agent

saying to me, I got you booked

in some club in so and so.

And like I always ask and I

said how's the pay on this one?

And he goes I don't think you

can ask about the pay anymore.

I think you just take it.

(pensive music)

- You know in my opinion

everything has a context

and too soon, uh, it's

your feeling, you know.

- In this world I think

everything is too soon now.

Like no matter what you say

people have a comment on it

but I think that also for

Gilbert he could have waited,

you know, not to take away

from Gilbert's art, but

he could have probably waited.

- In days gone by when a

comedian got up on stage

you did it and it was

done, it was over,

you didn't have

to worry about it.

And unfortunately the

internet has changed all that.

- If a bunch of us were

sitting around a table

and he told these jokes, we

might say oh that's awful,

but it's funny.

- Right.

- But you don't tweet them.

- It's the fact that

it's in writing I think

is one of the issues, right?

- Right.

- But that's a good

lesson for everybody.

Just be a little more

thoughtful before

you put your tweet out.

You know?

It might be fine.

Just be more

thoughtful, that's all.

- I guess because you put it

out there publicly like that

it's almost like

you're going to church

or you're going over to your

mom's house or something.

I guess you have

to look at it like

you're talking to

everybody now so there's

a new behavior.

Gilbert kinda showed like

is that how Twitter works?

You can get in

trouble like that?

I didn't know.

Somebody had to be the

first to run off the cliff.

- I just felt like shellshocked.

And I remember everybody

was kind of like that

and I remember thinking

like, God, okay,

I've had a nice little

run and now it's gone.

Of course it's a lot worse

when you have a wife and kids.

- [Dara] He cried.

He felt horrible.

He was innocent, he didn't

mean anything wrong.

That was really hard.

- Well yeah, he felt like

he let the whole family...

But no, he really didn't think

he was doing anything wrong.

- Is it appropriate?

No.

Is it hurtful to

a lot of people?

Yes.

If you take it literally, if

you read the minutes of it.

But if you know Gilbert and

you know the intention of it,

he's thinking I'm

gonna joke about it

'cause it's the only

way I can deal with it.

- What people don't

understand about humor is

it doesn't mean you don't care.

A lot of times what it is,

it's a defense mechanism

'cause you don't

want to see the pain,

you don't want to feel the

pain or you're feeling it

and you need to diffuse it.

So you make a joke.

- He doesn't really

filter himself and I think

that's why people are

drawn to him in this

politically correct

world we live in

to have a loose cannon

running around in the world

is refreshing.

I mean if someone doesn't

say it nobody will.

But why do you hire

him as your spokesduck

if you didn't know what he does?

- The way he deals with

tragedy is through humor.

That's his way of

dealing with bad things.

When my grandmother passed

away and I was so upset,

I said to him I can't

call her, you know,

I used to call her

every single day and now

she's not alive and

I can't call her.

He's like you could call her.

She just won't answer the phone.

(laughing)

And you know what,

it made me laugh.

And you know what, it made

me feel this much better.

It feels good to laugh.

- I think I told you this

before 'cause we haven't met

that many times but I told

you when I got out of college

I was at one of the

comedy clubs, and I think

it's the Improv

but I don't know.

And it was 12 o'clock,

you were the last guy on.

You talked about it before

that you're the okay,

let's put him on at the

end, everything like that.

You were defiant

to the audience.

Nobody was laughing.

(laughing)

And you kept going and it was--

- [Frank] I remember those days.

- Simply the funniest thing

I'd ever seen ever ever.

That's why I can't be a comic.

That's why I can't do standup.

I'm funny, I'll do it, but if

I'm not pleasing the audience

it's me and you are not that.

You're defiant to the world.

It is the greatest gift

you could ever have.

You just, you are true to

yourself so that's why I think,

that's why I admire you,

that's why we all admired

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