Zach Braff Calls Pharrell Williams A ‘Monkey’, Apologizes After Twitter Controversy
Yikes! Zach Braff is dealing with a ton of backlash after comparing Pharrell Williams to a monkey. Apparently, Braff wasn’t exactly thinking when he was tweeting during Sunday’s Grammy awards.
During Pharrell Williams’ performance of the song “Happy,” which saw the performer in a bellhop outfit, Braff decided to send out the tweet that caused massive controversy.
Braff shared a photo comparison of the CGI monkey he played in Oz: The Great And Powerful, next to a picture of Pharrell singing at the Grammys. Although Braff’s character did wear a bellhop uniform in the film, it’s still considered extremely racist and very insensitive to even make the comparison.
In the now deleted tweet, Braff said, “Grammys are time-delayed in LA (?!) but someone just sent me this: #IWoreItBetter.”
Zach Braff compares Pharrell to a monkey in an amazingly racist Grammys tweet http://t.co/P0HEISATtT
— Claire Brooks (@violentdaylight) February 10, 2015
We don’t know who sent him “this,” but Elite Daily also tweeted out a similar comparison.
When you let the dumbest intern in the office do the live tweeting for the night pic.twitter.com/weZ1ez1qez — Sara Benincasa (@SaraJBenincasa) February 9, 2015
When Zach Braff decided to share the picture showing off the “resemblance,” Twitter exploded in rage.
@zachbraff DID YOU JUST SAY PHARRELL LOOKS LIKE A MONKEY?
— MØM (@HOMOMOYOUTH) February 9, 2015
@zachbraff comparing a black man to a monkey. Ok scrub. — Lana-Del-Bae (@TaviBenet) February 9, 2015
@DynaMoChen @zachbraff @Pharrell random? still offensive. comparing black people in america to monkeys is no good there’s a #history
— John (@metspride) February 10, 2015
@zachbraff I was disappointed ire your comment.#Pharrell @TheGRAMMYs was brilliant and spoke legions about an issue, Scrubs a favorite — Paulette C Talley (@Scarsdaletalley) February 10, 2015
Braff took his apology to Twitter after he deleted his insensitive tweet, simply stating, “I love Pharrell. I thought the outfit he wore was similar to that of my bell hop outfit in Oz. I apologize.”
Will the internet forgive Zach for making such an error? There seems to be some hope.
@zachbraff you should not have apologized. You weren’t being racist, just making an observation.
— zipper-man (@peacewithmeself) February 10, 2015
@zachbraff He did look like the bell hop monkey from the Oz….It’s not racist… #DontApologize #ComingFromABlackPerson — DJ Craig Rasta (@CraigGottaDoIt) February 10, 2015
@DayOldDonuts If Zach Braff hadn’t voiced the character, it could be construed as racist. But in your heart, you know it’s not.
— Simon Agirlandaboy (@Simon_the_boy) February 9, 2015
What do you think? Should Zach be forgiven?
[Image via Featureflash / Shutterstock]
