Cable TV comedian Samantha Bee backtracked Thursday after her show apparently mocked a cancer patient.

Her attempt at an apology was a decent gesture, but, really, something like this was bound to happen eventually.

Bee's comedy program, and ones like it, focus a great deal of energy on mocking private citizens. One hopes for her sake that this embarrassing episode will help her reflect on the bigger lesson, which is: "Be decent. Always."

Bee's TBS program, "Full Frontal With Samantha Bee," did a segment recently mocking attendees at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. Part of the segment featured a montage of attendees sporting a hairstyle known more commonly as the "undercut." For Bee and her crew, however, it's not called an "undercut." It's called "Nazi hair."

"This year, the bow ties were gone, replaced by Nazi hair, Nazi hair, Nazi hair," the video's narrator can be heard saying.



Though the recent popularity of the "undercut" can be traced back to well-known pop-culture figures, including Macklemore and Brad Pitt, the hairstyle is now associated more commonly with an obscure alt-right leader named Richard Spencer, whose notoriety is due entirely to the press' fascination with him. Hence, the term "Nazi hair."

One of the people featured in the TBS segment, however, is a teenager named Kyle Coddington, who wears his hair extra short on the sides because he has stage-four brain cancer, according to his sister, Megan.

When @iamsambee makes fun of your brother for having "Nazi hair." He actually has stage 4 brain cancer, but whatever floats your boat. pic.twitter.com/ULJC8nA3IX — Megan Coddington (@meg_kelly16) March 9, 2017



A GoFundMe page was launched on Dec. 22, 2016, reportedly on behalf of Coddington, to help the teen cope with the expenses normally associated with brain cancer.

"It seems that I have stage 4 glioblastoma. It's a very aggressive type of brain cancer. Currently, there is no cure, but there is a chance. The doctor said it all depends on how hard we go after it, and how my body responds to the treatment. I fully believe that God is still in the miracle-making business as well!" a statement on the GoFundMe page read.

"I'm putting complete trust in God and I know regardless of the outcome, I'll be healed one way or another! Please continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks ya'll!" it added.

After Megan Coddington's initial tweet on the matter caught attention on social media, Bee and her crew moved fast to address the issue.

"We deeply apologize for offending you and [Kyle]. We only learned of his condition today & have removed him from the piece," Bee said in a note of apology on Twitter.

Her show's official Twitter account added, "We deeply apologize for offending [Kyle Coddington] in our CPAC segment. We only learned of his condition today & have removed him from the piece."

The response is nice and all, but one hopes Bee is not missing the larger takeaway from this.

The lesson isn't just that you shouldn't mock cancer patients (though, really, you shouldn't mock cancer patients). The lesson is: Stop being a jerk to strangers, especially teens and private citizens.

Bee and her producers know nothing of the people featured in that montage, and mocking their appearance as "Nazi hair" is a lousy move. Sadly, but Bee is not alone in this style of entertainment. Comedy Central's Trevor Noah does this sort of thing regularly, as did his predecessor and Bee's former boss, Jon Stewart. Fox News even has its own man-on-the-street "gotcha" segments. Some of it is funny, but most of it is lousy, especially the stuff that's designed to make participants look stupid

Bee could've avoided the embarrassment and shame of apparently mocking a cancer victim if she took her own advice.

In January, just weeks before then-President-elect Trump was sworn into office, Bee made a call for decency.

"We're facing a new reality after the election. These next four years are going to require a broad coalition of straight-up decency," Bee said in a freewheeling interview with the New York Times.

"And we're going to need to be able to talk to people who would normally feel alienated by my show," she added.

Sounds like a good plan. When does she start?