Too Soon Gilbert Gottfried: Fired Comedian Tells History's Forgotten Disaster Jokes (VIDEO)

When Gilbert Gottfried got fired as the Aflac spokesman for tweeting jokes about the Japanese tsunami, most people who read the jokes could understand why. But some people came to his defense, saying you can't fire a comedian for being a comedian.

If you can't decide whether Gottfried's punishment was sufficient, over-doing it or not enough, perhaps this latest video from Funny Or Die will put things into perspective.

In it, Gottfried details all of history's forgotten, tasteless post-disaster comedy. He goes after everything from Abraham Lincoln and JFK's assassinations to the Hindenberg and Challenger disasters, to something called the "Snarlington Attack On Sector 5." Too soon? Now you can decide.

WATCH:

Too Soon Gilbert Gottfried - watch more funny videos

Comments

[Momklok]

12:51 PM on 05/03/2011

This man is not funny, his stuff is just stupid.

[Nikki Trivette]

10:27 PM on 04/26/2011

He should change his name from Gilbert Gottfried to GottFIRED!

[KDMac]

12:46 PM on 03/30/2011

IMO, anyone commenting on whether or not someone is funny should preface their remarks by saying "In My Opinion," as 50% of the people will probably disagree with you.

[robert horwitz]

07:22 AM on 03/30/2011

In my opinion Gilbert Gottfried has done some really fantastic comedy. He can set a scene in my brain and I can actually visualize the play unfolding. I believe great comedy is a poetic expression that is used to educate through entertainment. Though tragedy often well may be the wine and cheese of comedy most wines and cheeses are much better and safer to serve after they have aged.

[imatoz]

06:59 PM on 03/29/2011

For those of you appalled by Gottfried's jokes I recommend reading Elliott Oring's "Jokes and Their Relations". Chapter 3 is an academic analysis of disaster jokes. He spends a lot of time discussing the Challenger disaster - which is appropriate given his name. His discourse is very interesting though and places this type of humor in a variety of specific categories to help understand its role in society.

[gregory57]

02:22 PM on 03/29/2011

Too soon! I mean gilbert should have waited 'til he had better jokes for this bit.

That said, I still think that AFLAC was looking for a reason to cut Gilbert loose long before his tsunami jokes. Gilbert is one of the best at what he does. Which dark comedy with a goofy voice. A million Shoe-Dini users can't be wrong!

[jason9045]

08:27 AM on 03/29/2011

I'm glad I have a cadre of HP commenters to tell me who is and is not funny. I can't imagine the embarrassment of accidentally laughing at Gilbert Gottfried, who I have just learned is not funny. I've been wrong all this time.

[Earth Resident]

06:05 AM on 03/29/2011

The jokes he got fired for were a lot better than most of those.

[pixiepotpie]

12:01 AM on 03/29/2011

The only thing that's changed about Gottfried's comedy over the years is the audience. People have always used humor to deal with events in our lives. We've just gotten too uptight and "politically correct" to have a good laugh anymore. Honestly, no matter how horrible a joke is the worst it can do is cause discomfort or hurt someones feelings, and five minutes online provides plenty of proof that we aren't really that concerned with all that.

[WTxIndependent]

06:01 PM on 03/28/2011

Gottfried has always been funny, but really more of a comedian's comedian. One of my favorite part of "The Aristocrats" was the story of Gottfried at a roast making a 9/11 jokes that wasn't taken well by the crowd, so he went into his own rendition of "the Aristocrats" and brought down the house.

Takes guts to push the envelope and genius to not get burned.

[mheister]

08:09 AM on 03/29/2011

Gilbert's is the best rendition of the Aristocrats joke EVER!

[leftybass]

04:45 PM on 03/28/2011

The funniest was the trail of tears, because I'm sure it's happened plenty of times. Poor, poor girls....

[Tulka2]

02:36 PM on 03/28/2011

Too soon for this shtick.

[Rich Heimlich]

02:35 PM on 03/28/2011

Not funny. Just simply not funny.

[Max Shaw]

02:27 PM on 03/28/2011

Well there were only two roads for him to take--the high road the apolgize; which would only make him look guilty and careless...Or to keep forging ahead flying the banner of comedy freedom. He clearly chose the latter.

[amaraya]

04:24 PM on 03/28/2011

He actually apologized first

[Hopethisworks]

02:26 PM on 03/28/2011

Desperately trying to hang on to his celebrity.

Lame !