This Weekend Steve Martin Also Apologized For A Racist Tweet


This weekend, the world was out to get Justine Sacco fired for her ignorant tweet and failed to notice what Steve Martin was up to.

Martin was having some fun on his Twitter page, discussing the merits of grammar.  Fans of his would ask him questions about wording and he'd fire back a funny comment until one particular comment struck people the wrong way.  @BethanyWedel wrote: "Is this how you spell lasonia?"  And Martin wrote back...





Moments later, unlike Sacco, Steve Martin had the wherewithal to delete the comment but it was too late.  People started calling Martin out for his remark, which honestly I don't even understand.  Is he making a joke about how an African American would say lasagna?  Or is he commenting about how they wouldn't know how to spell it if it were written in a menu.  I have no idea.

After many of his fans started calling him out, he wrote:





Many of you like to compare Justine Sacco to the scenario of "What if Chris Rock or Sarah Silverman said that!".  Well here is a similar scenario presented to you from the same exact weekend starring Steve Martin, an extremely accomplished comedian.  And yes, he too had to apologize.  Unfortunately for Sacco, she's not a comedian for hire, and her bosses had the right to remove her for her grossly inappropriate comment. 

In 2004 Gilbert Gottfried made comments about the Tsnumi victims while hired to be the recurring voice of the Aflac duck.  He tweeted 12 jokes, one of which was "Japan called me. They said "maybe those jokes are a hit in the US, but over here, they're all sinking."  He was then fired from his job.  That's right.  A comedian was fired...from his job.





But the question is was Steve Martin's tweet harsh enough in your eyes to warrant an apology or should he just quit spending so much time on Twitter and write a sequel to The Jerk already. (I love this movie)

- Todd Spence (twitter)


Um_ok User

Just to see, I asked my black friend to repeat Steve Martin's words and I play the part of the stupid person and everyone around us laughed. Then I switched it up and I said it to my black friend around a new group of people and suddenly I was told that was rude and insensitive. Sorry people but the day you all play stupid and start seeing that black neighborhoods tend to have lower IQ levels and the inhabitants have a lesser grasp of the english language then other areas. This isn't me being racist, its simple fact. Go ahead and "axe" somebody. Ebonics came about through laziness just like the Southern Drawl has existed...but we just called it dumb rednecks. Steve made a factual comment that italians would likely know how to spell a dish they have been served all their lives and black families might not. Don't like it? easy, every time you hear another black person speak with terrible english, correct them and tell them they perpetuate a bad stereotype and should learn to use proper english to set better examples for their community. Or, just live with the fact that so many black neighborhoods are just lower on the IQ scale and will never learn...just like so many other poor ethnicities have equally low IQs. Honestly, race makes no difference because we could be speaking about poor white, mexican, or any race for that matter and they all tend to se english as a second language with their primary being their own version of slang.Â 

Trey-Evitt-16 User

I think we're overly sensitive. I am white-as my Saxon Sutton Hoo helmet avatar might be a clue-and from South Carolina. I have joked about pronunciation of certain words with black friends since....ever. "Ask/Axe" being the most common. Where I'm from, near the Geechee/Gullah regions, the "Str" consonant blend is pronounced "scr", so, "Straight" is pronouncedÂ  "Scraight". I once said, "Depending on your neighborhood, 'indiscreet' is either an adjective or a preposition"and friends both black and white cracked up. And...get this. We were in jail. Yes it was low-security, classified among minor misdemeanor offenders from traffic violations to small amounts of marijuana, but if you've been locked up, you know jail is no place for a whiteboy to be perceived as "racist", even among non-violent offenders.

The real quandary is, "Is my intelligence being questioned, or are we joking around about colloquialisms and pronunciation".Â 

"1bigfatcat" 's point is well-taken, that, on a serious level, anti-white hate/discrimination goes challenged for the most part; it is rare for an act of black-on-white violence to be classified as a "hate crime". And it awakens my "inner skinhead" that neither Nelson Mandela's memorial services, nor First Lady Obama's previous trip to South Africa, afforded a dialog about white victims the Boer Genocide.Â 

Black comedians seem to get more leeway;Â 

"Gynecologist" is correct Cris Rock would never feel the need to apologize for the same remark Steve Martin made.Â 

Any idiot thinking Steve Martin is racist would have to read this tweet, Google his image and see him with "a banjo on his knee"Â  His agnostic free-thought, his description of himself as "born a poor black child" in "The Jerk", and his beginnings as a Second-City/SNL comic in the subversive counterculture of the 60s and 70s should speak volumes. Racist atheists are few and far between.


joedoaks User

Oookay.... I'd only give that a 3.Â  That's for both comedy and racism.Â  You everÂ READ how horrifically some supposedly educated people can spell nowadays?

TacoLoco User

that was probably the funniest thing steve martin has said in 20 years, i guess only black people can make race based jokes in america

LMNT115 User

I don't get it....why is it a black comedian can stand on stage and tear into ' Whitey ' and everyone laughs...but a white comedian throws down something like what Steve Martin's unacceptable ?

Xzelick User

Todd Spence thinks that Japanese Tsunami happened in 2004, what an idiot. Â Gilbert Gottfried was fired after the Tohoku earthquake/tsunami in 2011!


Would have been funny if Chris Rock said it.

BigBlueMouse User

" he commenting about how they wouldn't know how to spell it if it were written in a menu.Â  I have no idea."

That's not surprising, since you've used the word "reocurring", which doesn't even exist.


It's an obvious joke, dummy. Lasonia sounds like a black woman's name.

1bigfatcat User

I'm a white male and therefore it's legal to hate on me and discriminate against me.

Every day, people treat me with prejudice because I am a white male.Â Â 

How about this:Â  Instead of taking offence, take "tolerance!"

Comedy is comedy.....unless you don't like it, then it's "racist."

Either black, islamic, Japanese, american, etc., comedians ALL tell jokes on each other, or NO one tells jokes on each other.

Be fair, and tolerant!

Matt-Kim-806 User

it's not a double standard you just think the cases are the same because you're stupid

Needles_Malloy User

@1bigfatcatÂ Since you admitted you are white, you are hereby immediately (at birth) guilty of white privilege. Every word you have ever spoken, is literally, the most racist statement uttered since a Hitler speech. The only way to assuage your much-deserved guilt is to vote for Obama, twice, and then tell all of your other white-guilted Obamadrone friends that you have begun step 1 of your 123,698 step journey to make amends to the blacks.Â