“Comedian” and shrill-voiced human Gilbert Gottfried was fired on Monday from his job as the voice of the Aflac duck, after tweeting jokes about the Japanese disaster. As of Monday night, the offending tweets were taken off of Gottfried’s Twitter feed, but included, “Japan called me. They said ‘maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they’re all sinking.’” And: “I was talking to my Japanese real estate agent. I said ‘is there a school in this area.’ She said ‘not now, but just wait.’”

Aflac was not happy. “Gilbert’s recent comments about the crisis in Japan were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac,” said Aflac senior vice-president Michael Zunda in a statement. Given that the extent of his character was shouting out the word “Aflac” over and over, we’re pretty sure the insurance company will carry on.

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried fired as voice of Aflac duck [CNN]