Tim Allen Discusses ‘N-Word’ Phrase, Says It’s Worse Than The Actual Word

Tim Allen is best known for his family friendly TV shows, but that doesn’t mean he shies away from controversy. The former Home Improvement star and prison resident recently talked about the phrase “The N-Word.”

According to the 60-year-old comedian in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, saying the “N-Word” is worse than saying the actual uncensored racial slur.

The Last Man Standing actor who has also appeared in the popular family movie series The Santa Clause, claims that keeping non-black comedians from using the actual N-Word is a step backwards from the days of Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce. Those comedians, of course, purposefully used the N-Word to get their points across.

Tim Allen’s thoughts on the use of the actual N-Word were just published this week, but he actually began discussing the word following the Paula Deen racial meltdown.

Following his recently interview, the Tim Allen N-Word controversy took to Twitter where he received a talking to from fans and non-fans alike.

Since his interview, a statement from his spokeswoman said Allen did not mean to offend anyone with his remarks.

Here is Allen’s remark about the Paula Deen deposition:

“In Webster’s old dictionary the word “n—–” means unemployed and indigent dock worker. That’s one definition. So I said, (to my brother) in that case … he lives in Boston and he’s not employed … so you’d be a nigger. And he goes, yeah. If my brother told me not to call him a dingleberry in front of my mother, ’cause I knew it pissed him… pisses me off. As soon as Mom left, and I wanted to piss him off? I’d say ‘dingleberry, dingleberry, dingleberry.’ So if you’re around a word to be problematic for you and low intellect or uninvolved people find that out, they’re gonna call you n—– all day long ’cause they know you don’t like it. And I said, so this debate rages in the public, but when it gets to the comedy world, we’re not even allowed to say it, and I gotta refer to it as the N word, F word, B word … it gets all the way down the line. It gets really intense; we’re running backwards.”

Do you think Tim Allen is right, should white comedians use the N-Word to make a point or is it fully out of bounds?