GOTTFRIED DIED SQUAWKING OVER DUCK GIG
CAUSTIC comic Gilbert Gottfried went to his grave bitter over losing the most lucrative gig of his career — portraying a TV duck! Loud-mouthed Gilbert, who died at age 67 on April 12 after a long illness, was best known as the grating voice of the Aflac duck on more than 200 commercials over an 11-year span.
But he got dumped by the insurance giant after making insensitive jokes about the tragic 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami that left more than 15,000 people dead.
“Japan is really advanced. They don’t go to the beach. The beach comes to them!” the comedian tweeted just days after the disaster, drawing immediate outrage.
Instead of apologizing, Gottfried doubled down, tweeting: “Japan called me. They said, ‘maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they’re all sinking.’” Aflac— which does 75 percent of its business with
Japan— axed him within hours.
“Playing that duck for so long was what fed Gilbert’s family for years,” notes a source.
“He was devastated when they let him go and felt the company should have known what kind of comic they had and backed him up.”