Steve Martin has apologized after tweeting a racist joke and offending many of his fans on Twitter.
The star of Father of the Bride was having some fun on Twitter, answering questions about grammar rules, in what was one of his usual hilarious social media schticks. Then, things took a bad turn.
One of his followers asked him, "is this how you spell lasonia?"
In a tweet that the 68-year-old actor has since deleted, Martin responded tin a way that is just...baffling:
"It depends. Are you in an African-American neighborhood or at an Italian restaurant."
A user on Twitter caught a screengrab before it was deleted:
I love Steve Martin; he's one of my lifelong comedy idols. But gross. Seriously, just gross.
Faced with some pretty harsh blowback on Twitter from his fans, the comedian quickly deleted the offensive tweet. He offered an apology:
So first the Justine Sacco debacle and now this? Damn, y'all. Remember when Twitter was just used for when you wanted to tell people you were standing in line at the bathroom at the Bon Jovi concert #peebreak?
Image via Getty Images
DISCUSSION
Look, comedy is one of those sacred arenas where I think political correctness should have some flexibility. If the context, the delivery, and the joke itself are all funny and expertly executed, it doesn't really matter if it's perfectly PC. In fact, I think that sometimes humor in all of its brazen and insensitive candor, is the best way to break down walls and get people to smile *together* about our differences. It can get us to laugh about truths that we're sometimes to uncomfortable talking about. That said, this joke was not clever, nor funny, and was generally stupid. BUT (and hear me out here) BUT comedians are artists who work on their feet, whether it be handling hecklers at a standup show or doing improv, comedians (good comedians) will take a chance with a joke that just popped into their head, because that's what they do. George Carlin? Sarah Silverman? Richard Pryor? They all said offensive shit and took chances because at least a fraction of the time, it ended up being FUNNY AS HELL. Even if they're making fun of their own gender, race, orientation, etc. Jezebel. Jezebel, please. Lighten up?