From Reuters:
Disability insurer Aflac Inc fired comedian Gilbert Gottfried as the voice of its iconic duck on Monday after a series of Twitter jokes about the earthquake in Japan, Aflac’s most important market.
Gottfried fired off a dozen jokes on [Twitter] over the weekend, all riffing in one way or another on the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami. One joke suggested Japan needed an urgent shipment of rubber ducks, though many tended toward the crude and sexual.
The company said his comments “were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac.”
I think you could have left it at “his comments were offensive, disturbing, and we don’t want to be associated with him.” Way to go that extra mile, though.