Gilbert Gottfried Adds To Storm Of Inappropriate Ray Rice Jokes
Domestic violence has been a topic of conversation in every corner since video emerged of Ray Rice assaulting his then-fiance in an elevator. Rice was kicked off the Ravens and indefinitely suspended from the NFL, while on news and social media, there’s been a steady discussion of domestic violence.
Janay Rice has been called a gold-digger and people have said that since she still married Ray after the incident, she deserves it. Others have spoken out to explain what it’s like to be a victim, and how hard it can be to leave.
Of course, there have been some astounding examples of misogyny and some inappropriate reactions to the Rice incident. For instance, DiGiorno has apologized for misusing a twitter hashtag campaign that was intended to focus on victims to promote their pizza.
Still, to see a prominent comedian respond to Ray Rice’s behavior with a tweet that not only mocks domestic violence, but alludes to sexual objectification of women as well, was somewhat shocking to many viewers.
Obviously Ray Rice misunderstood me when I said “She’s hot, you should definitely hit that!”
— Gilbert Gottfried (@RealGilbert) September 10, 2014
Gottfried wasn’t alone. Followers joined in.
@RealGilbert agreed! Ray Rice’s wife is quite a knockout — Ryan Labbe (@RyanFL80) September 10, 2014
The Ray Rice tweet isn’t Gottfried’s first time stepping into a sensitive area. According to CNN, he was fired as the voice of the AFLAC duck back in 2011 when he tweeted jokes about the natural disasters plaguing Japan.
Of course, Gilbert Gottfried is far from the first to respond to the situation with an inappropriate joke. The New York Daily News reported yesterday that on Fox and Friends, hosts were joking about the video of Rice hitting Janay, saying that the lesson was that elevators have cameras and suggesting that Janay Rice ‘sent a bad message’ by staying with Rice after the incident.
The Fox and Friends hosts responded to the issue on a later episode of the show, still falling short of an actual apology for victim blaming and mocking a violent incident.
Then too, there was the #BeatByRay hashtag, and the jokes that accompanied it.
Gonna cut my ray rice jersey into a wife beater #BeatsByRay
— Jack Bauer (@JustinDiscepola) September 9, 2014
The storm of Ray Rice jokes and backlash are shocking, if not surprising, but after the tsunami jokes lost him a job, Gilbert Gottfried might be expected to know better.
[photo credit: Stephen Dyrgas via photopin cc, U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Benjamin Hughes/Released [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons]
