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Family Guy writer apologises for tsunami tweet

A scriptwriter for Family Guy has apologised and deleted an inappropriate Twitter gag he made about the Japanese earthquake.

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A scriptwriter for Family Guy has apologised after an inappropriate comment on Twitter about the Japanese earthquake and disaster.

Scriptwriter Alec Sulkin wrote: “If you wanna feel better about this earthquake in Japan, google ‘Pearl Harbor death toll.’”

It was a reference to Japan’s 1941 attack on Hawaii, which killed around 2,500 people.

He later apologised and deleted the message, explaining that he wrote it when he believed the death toll was lower.

“Yesterday death toll 200. Today 10,000. I am sorry for my insensitive tweet. It’s gone,” he wrote.

Sulkin was not alone in referencing Pearl Harbor via Twitter, and indeed may not even have been the originator of the tasteless gag.

Disappointingly, “Pearl Harbor” became a trending topic on Twitter as well as being a line some were pushing on Facebook.

Rapper 50 Cent made a number of similar Tweets: “Look this is very serious people I had to evacuate all my hoes from LA, Hawaii and Japan. I had to do it. Lol.”

But others used Twitter to criticise the tone of such negative remarks. Many called the ones responsible for the tasteless tweeting “the reason why the world hates America.”

A few even said it made them wish they were from Canada.

Meanwhile CNBC host Larry Kudlow also had to apologise for an on-air remark when he said: ‘The human toll here looks to be much worse than the economic toll, and we can be grateful for that.’

He later apologised via Twitter, saying : ‘I did not mean to say human toll in Japan less important than economic toll. Talking about markets. I flubbed the line. Sincere apology.’

Source: AFP, Celebrity Cafe, Daily Mail

25 Responses

  1. These types of comments are usually the result of wannabe comedians(usually drunk or affected)attempting some cutting edge humor,taking it a little too far and then regretting it.
    Making negative comments about a Country or individual or making a negative comment about the person making the negative comment is just childish.
    Nothing to see here folks….move along,move along.

  2. just a bunch of under-educated americans just making delusional links between a true natural disaster and something that happened in war time. hey, did anyone speak of the death toll that america did in retaliation? how much bombs where dropped on japan? how much people died? Just dont bother making such links, and view this as what its worth. A Natural disaster.

  3. Bloke from the Sticks, Jaye & Brisvegas (who ironically uses half a US capital’s name in his/her own title), why do you love the “reason why the world hates America” line? That kind of comment just excuses people around the world for their irrational anti-US feelings. People who make sweeping generalisations about Americans (good or bad) are no better than others who have non-white racist or xenophobic feelings, so why should people hate a whole country?

    We shouldn’t assume that the likes of Alec Sulkin & 50 Cent speak for all Americans.

  4. The issue is, it’s not funny.

    It’s fine to make jokes. You don’t have to like them, they may be insensitive, but there’s never a topic you can’t or shouldn’t be allowed to joke about. Doesn’t mean it isn’t a major tragedy and heart breaking.

    He should have posted alone the lines of “If you wanna feel better about this earthquake in Japan, watch ‘Pearl Harbor’ the Michael Bay film. Now there’s a disaster.”

  9. What an insensitive comment. Doesn’t he realize that this is the worst disaster to hit Japan since WWII, and they didn’t even start this one.

  14. im a big Family Guy fan, so i wasn;t suprised at this tweet.
    it’s very set-in-there-ways ideas of comedy over there.

    might explain why the new season sucks balls.

  15. All of these morons who remember Pearl Harbour conveniently forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Pearl Harbour killed 2,400 (57 civilians), the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed at least 150,000 (almost 100% civilians)

  16. When will we learn… us humans are pathetic…. all we can think of is what religion, side etc etc…. we never look at it from a humanity point of view.

    Unacceptable.

    BTW Bass… Good going… you just smashed an insensitive comment with another one of your own, you are in the same boat my friend.

  18. I think what some US individuals chose to write on their Twitter accounts and what was trending on Twitter are two separate situations.

    Did some US people tweet anti-Japanese sentiments, obviously, so would others be doing the same thing, Australians included, Australians can be as anti-Japanese as the next person, and as nasty as the next person.

    With the trending, it wasn’t actually trending as Pearl Harbor, but instead Pearl Harbour, with a U, which says to me it’s origins were more likely to of been found in Aust, NZ, UK, or Canada. All who have there fair share of anti-US feelings, and would find it fun to use Japan to do their little anti-US stand, and think it really funny to do so. They probably even had anti-Japan feelings as well, so it served a dual purose for them.

    The trending to me felt like someone having fun at US&Japan expense, and lets face it there is a huge audience out there just waiting for such things to entertain themselves with, or any nasty talk to entertain themselves with.

  21. so the trend here is that people can vilify or make insensitive remarks as long as they can just immediately apologise after and everything will be sweet again…

  22. This sort of commentary is quite disgusting and more something I would expect from a terror group in the Middle East not educated (or non educated by the sounds of things) people in the United States.

    Having been lucky enough to visit Japan in 2008, I found the people there some of the most warm, generous, caring people and look forward to visiting again soon. Glad to also report my friends who are mainly around the Tokyo area were not affected by this horrible tragedy.

  25. I guess the memories of WW2 haven’t entirely faded. If this had happened 30 years ago, there would have been far less sympathy for Japan then. One would like to thionk that we’ve moved on since then (and we have) but apparently not entirely

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