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Colombia Plane Crash Leaves 76 Dead, Comedian Decides To Make A ‘Sick’ Joke About It

By Tito Ojo-Medubi
Published on: 07:33 PST, Nov 29, 2016

Comedian Adam Rozenbachs caused plenty of outrage with a sick joke about the tragic plane crash in Colombia that left 76 people dead.

The callous comedian, who is described as “one of Australia’s funniest and most consistent performers,” posted his controversial joke just hours after the plane carrying a Brazilian football team, officials, and journalists crashed into a hill.

According to the Daily Mail, the Australian had tweeted, “Plane carrying Brazilian soccer team crashes in Colombia, survivors heard screaming, ‘Penalty, Penalty!'”

The stand-up comic was hit with an avalanche of insults and criticism with many calling him for people to boycott his shows. A Twitter user, Lawrie, said that he had never supported trolls on social media, but would understand anyone who came for the comedian because he had taken a joke too far.

Daryn McCleave called Rozenbachs an “utter buffon” for his caustic comment. Another Twitter user, going by the name of Mateusz, told the comic to delete his account because he had simply destroyed his career with the statement that he made.

Adam, who is a popular personality on the Melbourne stand-up comedy circuit, apologized for the tweet by saying that he only reacted to a headline and did not know the full gravity of the story. Many social media observers were not buying his story. Twitter user Simon Harrison said the comedian’s use of the word, “survivors” was a pointer that he did know the gravity of the situation and still tried to make a joke out of it.

“But you said ‘survivors’, so you thought it would be funny despite knowing there were casualties? Hope you lose work from this.”

The Avro RJ85 plane was carrying 81 people when it crashed outside Medellin, Colombia. The plane had plummeted into a hill and split in two, but six people were pulled out of the wreckage alive. The survivors were three players, two crew members, and a lone journalist. Two of the survivors were in critical condition. The soccer team was headed to Bolivia to play in the biggest match of their history: the final of the Copa Sudamericana tournament, which is a second-tier championship for South American clubs

Aviation authorities revealed that the plane had encountered electrical problems and declared an emergency. According to Colombia’s civil aviation director, the aircraft had been given a quick pass to land before the ground tower lost contact with the plane.

The soccer team based in southern Brazil was the pride of Chapecó, a city with a population of 210,000 people. Robert Panarotta, a professor of media studies, revealed the small population of the predominantly agricultural city made the tragedy personal for everyone. The 44-year-old professor said he lost a childhood friend in the tragic crash, a team official, adding that everyone knew someone on the plane.

“This is a relatively small city, so everyone knows somebody who was on that plane…everybody is shocked, and nobody really knows how to react…nothing like this has ever happened here.”

Adam Rozenbachs is not the first comedian to draw public outrage with a controversial joke.

In 2015, Louis C.K. host of Saturday Night Live opened the show with a joke about child molestation, saying that a pedophile lived in his neighbor during his childhood years, saying “[H]e didn’t like me—I felt a little bad.” Also in 2015, Amy Schumer was forced to tender an apology after a tweet surfaced about her unsavory comment about dating Hispanic men.

The Trainwreck star had said, “I used to date Hispanic guys, but now I prefer consensual.”

In 2011, Gilbert Gottfried lost his job as the voice of an insurance mascot when he made jokes about the Japanese tsunami in March that killed over 15,000 people.

The comedian, who voiced the parrot, Lago, in Aladdin, said “Japan is really advanced. They don’t go to the beach. The beach goes to them.”

In 2012, Dane Cook cracked a joke about the Colorado movie theater massacre saying ” I am pretty sure that somebody in that theater, about 25 minutes in, realizing the movie was a piece of crap, was like,’ Ugh, f***ing shoot me.”

[Featured Image by Fernando Vergara/AP Images]

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