#CancelColbert: Comedian Stephen Colbert Under Fire for Racially Offensive Tweet from His Comedy Central Show’s Account
Sara Malm, Daily Mail (London), March 28, 2014
Comedian Stephen Colbert has been provoked a storm on Twitter with calls for his show to be cancelled after the official account for his Colbert Report show posted an offensive joke.
The line was taken from a skit about the offensive nature of the name of the Washington Redskins, but was interpreted as a racist joke poking fun at Asian people when taken out of context.
The ‘joke’ was quickly deleted after an online backlash saw the post go viral and the hashtag #CancelColbert began trending on Twitter.
The tweet was posted by The Colbert Report, an account run by Comedy Central to promote the comedian’s show, on Thursday.
It read: ‘I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.’
Suey Park, a freelance writer and online activist, was quick to pick up on the post and, believing Mr Colbert himself to be behind the tweet, demanded the show be cancelled.
She wrote: ‘The Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals has decide to call for #CancelColbert. Trend it.’
Hundreds backed up Ms Park’s request, accusing Colbert of being racist and oppressive.
However, Mr Colbert himself had nothing to do with the post, and later tweeted from his personal account: #CancelColbert–I agree! Just saw @ColbertReport tweet. I share your rage. Who is that, though? I’m @StephenAtHome’
Shortly after #CancelColbert began trending, the tweet was deleted and the account posted a disclaimer which read: ‘For the record @ColbertReport is not controlled by Stephen Colbert or his show. He is @StephenAtHome Sorry for the confusion #CancelColbert’.
A disclaimer was later posted which read: ‘This is a Comedy Central account, with no oversight from Stephen/show.’
Others were outraged over the outrage, posting that the joke had been taken out of context and that the full segment on the show was the complete opposite of racist.
Cap’n Jack LaCroix wrote: ‘#CancelColbert is what happens when people confuse real racism with context-sensitive humor.’
Tom Brennan added: ‘Finally looked into #CancelColbert–don’t make fun of racism or you’ll be called a racist apparently.’
Others hit back at Ms Park, and began using the anti-‘anti-Colbert’ hashtag #cancelsueypark.
