Former NFL quarterback and sports commentator Terry Bradshaw managed to stick his foot in his mouth twice in the span of mere seconds during the Fox upfronts this past Monday. Per Variety, when he recounted his brief appearance on Fox’s celebrity singing competition The Masked Singer, Bradshaw stated that he was “kicked off by Alan Thicke and the little short guy from Japan.”
If you’re able to stop cringing for just a moment (but only a for a moment, because holy shit), you might be able to discern who he was actually attempting to reference, which were judges Robin Thicke – singer and son of aforementioned Alan Thicke, who died in 2016 – and actor/comedian Ken Jeong, who is actually from Detroit and Korean-American. Bradshaw received justified backlash from many who correctly cited the comment as racist and thoughtless. In response, he has apologized for his words about Jeong in a statement:
“I made an insensitive remark today about Ken, who I’ve known for some time. I’ve spoken to him about the importance of cultural respect and apologized for my offensive comments. I would like to also apologize to the Asian-American community for my insensitivity.”
Jeong, who was also present at upfronts, has not publicly commented on Bradshaw’s gaffe.
102 Comments
well that is not a bad apology, though if we’re quibbling, it would have been better if he had just straight up called his remarks racist instead of just insensitive
Terry Bradshaw in an insensitive buffoon? I never would have guessed
Whether I was a buffoon or not, if Terry Bradshaw was inside me… I’d be glad I was insensitive.
Whereas if Ken Jeong was in you, you might not know.
He still managed a better apology than Louis CK.
Isn’t Bradshaw trump scum?
he is a 70 year old white guy, so probably.
Not sure about his broader political positions, but he did (along with Howie Long) criticize Trump for criticizing NFL players kneeling during the anthem. Kinda faintly I guess: both pointed out that they personally wouldn’t kneel, but they respected other players’ right to protest and the president should shut up about it. Bradshaw also much less faintly criticized the Steelers for keeping Roethlisberger around despite Roethlisberger pretty clearly being a sexual predator.
He’s CTE-addled.
You should hear what I call Ken Jeong….
Doctor Ken?
Chang?
Late for dinner?
Mom?
Brussels sprouts? Wait, I did it wrong…What are regionals?
Shirley, while suggesting he can’t be serious?
I know, right! Like the other day, somebody said I was from Alabama when I’m really from Louisiana, and I was like OUTRAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
huh?
DON’T MINIMIZE MY TORMENT!
Well that sure was an embarrassingly stupid comment.
So’s your face.
Followed by another. At least you’re consistent.
So’s your face.
The problem is you’re from either of the two states.
Regionalist!
Of all the rancid shit a 70 year old white man could say about Asians, mistaking a Korean person for Japanese is honestly pretty low on the scale.
Seriously, I was expecting some Pearl Harbor reference.
It’s not even really racist, just inaccurate.
I mean, it’s kinda racist, assuming that an American is from Japan because he’s Asian.
My parents are naturalized citizens in their 70’s and refer to Asian people (including my Vietnamese brother in law) as Chinos (spanish for Chinese). They’re not racist they’re just kinda dumb about stuff like that.
that IS racist tho. i’m sure your parents have been told he’s Vietnamese since he’s your brother in law, they choose to keep calling him Chino. my parents and a lot of my family do the same. i did the same for a while too cuz that’s how our people refer to Asian people. that doesn’t make it not racist tho. they aren’t all Chinese. just like we’re not all Mexican as many in this country like to refer to us (or my more hated “spanish” people). its our responsibility as the younger (and more aware) generation to correct our elders.
I see your point, that said my other brother in law is Irish, he’s El Guero Not El Irlandese.
ya but guero or guera is just light skinned or white looking. its not necessarily to denote nationality or race. and cuz of colorism it has a better connotation than the blanket nickname of chino. idk… our people need to come up with better nicknames probably
It is racist, though. That’s a common racist trope. You need to go through life knowing that and so do the 11 other dummies and/or “excited to be seen” racists who starred you.. Jesus christ.
It’s pretty bigoted cause he’s essentially saying, “They all look alike.”
Is that racist? Can you tell a Norwegian from a Russian by their faces? Because I certainly can’t.
Lol, seriously? It’s both inaccurate AND racist.
More dismissive than racist. Not that being dismissive is OK.
Maybe it’s not capital “R” hate-crime racist, but it’s still definitely small “r” ignorant racist.
Was about to say this. If you’ve seen Terry on some other shows (Better Late then Never), he’s the idiot goofball. That’s his thing. The comment was sure stupid and uncalled for, but lets not add ‘racist’ tag to everything.
While I agree that there may be a spectrum of offensiveness in all of this, I’m pretty sure that when you add the “little short guy” trope on top of the “all Asian-Americans are from another country” suggestion on top of “all of Asia is Japan,” you’re moving pretty quickly toward the wrong end of that spectrum. I can think of worse things he could have said, but there’s a lot to work with here. (I know you’re not suggesting otherwise — just saying.)
And given that Bradshaw, by his own admission, has known Jeong for years, it feels like he’s making a show of mistaking his nationality as an attempted joke, not as an honest mistake.
Ken Jeong is 5’5″.
Reminds me of this
Aha! So he’s the casting director for the new Cowboy Bebop series.
At least he didn’t say, “Oriental.” I have to have that conversation with my dad like three times a year.
I was actually surprised that he gave an appropriate apology, not some “sorry if I offended” or some other garbage. Sounds like he was trying to make a joke and realized what he said was super offensive.
(To be clear, this is not excusing him from saying some racist shit. Obviously, the best practice is to not be racist/say racist shit from the start.)
I thought we all assumed Bradshaw was Dale Gribble from King of The Hill:“So are you Chinese or Japanese?”
You might want to ask the Koreans how they feel about the Japanese…
That’s a pretty low bar for “offensive”. More like foolish and a bit rude, I’d say.
Like it or not, in 2019 America, comments from white people about another person’s race or ethnic background receive a closer level of scrutiny (from some quarters) than, say, comments solely about that person’s height. The irony is, if we were really living in the delightful almost-post-race Obama-inflected era some dumb white people (me) momentarily thought we were in a few years ago, then the heightened sensitivity might just be annoying, instead of annoying but also deserving of respect/attention. But we’re not in that era, we’re in an era of, among other things, presidentially-sanctioned bigotry. So the rest of us who aspire to non-bigotry have to work harder. I guess what I’m trying to say is “offensive” is often code for all of the above.
I think that maintaining a sense of perspective is as important now as ever. Overreaction – in all directions – may be fashionable, but it drives polarization. (Also, why should anyone give a shit about what Terry Bradshaw says about anything?!)
“I think that maintaining a sense of perspective”If you’re white, you can kindly shut the flying fuck up right now, thanks. If not, you’re still a massive thundercunt and moron to boot.
I give a shit, because I was crossing my fingers he had said something awful enough to finally get him taken off of TV completely!
Out of curiosity, what is the overreaction here? He publicly said something offensive (though not to an extreme degree), got criticized for it and apologized. What is the overreaction that isn’t described here?
Maybe Bradshaw knows his demographic and he’s playing to his audience. Most big Bradshaw fans do tend to be stupid assholes.
How the eff did you think we were post-racial when a bunch of conservatives were claiming the black guy wasn’t even a real American?
Did you see where I said “dumb”?
Dumb is thinking Obama was going to make race relations better. Thinking he’d end racism was unfathomable
I didn’t quite say that, but whatever. Was trying to own some previous blindness, don’t need to endlessly analyze it with you.
It’s rude and mean. If he had just make a blanket statement like “all Asians are terrible reality show judges,” I’d just write him off as old and racist and wait for him to die. The shitty part is Bradshaw knew Ken Jeong, knew his name, and still ran with the lazy short Asian joke.
It’s offensive. Get the fuck over yourself.
Get your Thickes right!
Not defending him at all here – but if you have ever listened to Bradshaw talk for more than a few seconds, he clearly has alzheimers/ general softheadedness/ CTE or something else wrong with his noggin… He probably just couldn’t remember/ make a coherent sentence. That being said, he sucks for all kinds of reasons and I hope he is off TV and out of the public eye very soon.
Ken Jeong’s a Dook fan. Nobody should ever have to apologize to him.
Maybe he should have said ‘the little short guy from Asia’? I can totally understand him not knowing the dude is of Korean descent and not Japanese…but man that’s super nitpicky in my opinion.
How about just don’t refer to people by their race?
Pretending to ignore what is many times the most obvious thing about a person is denying reality. Don’t refer to a particular race in a derogatory manner, or don’t denigrate a person because of their race, sure, but never referring to a person’s race is stupid.
LOL what world do you live in where no stereotypes exist? You might not feel like you’re being racist, but lots of people feel like you are.
I specifically addressed not referring to a race in a derogatory manner or denigrating a person because of their race.Simpler words, maybe? Stereotyping someone because of their race, or stereotyping a race in general, is bad. Referring to someones race as a physical fact is not. Completely ignoring the most obvious fact about someone is something only an internet virtue signaler would think is useful or even possible.
Don’t even bother with this retarded troll. They think they are the ONLY EXPERT AND ULTIMATE AUTHORITY ON EVERY-FUCKING THING which HEY!!! makes them EXACTLY like Trump.They don’t even know what does and does not constitute an antonym and they also shriek and fart and bleat that if you think smoking cigarettes and cigars is bad and dumb and stupid that you are a Trumper.Just let your eyes slide on by whatever rotting vomit they barf out here or any other Kinja site.
God, please, let this be what it takes to get Terry Bradshaw off my fucking television on Sundays in the fall/winter.
That was so minor that his PR people probably handed off writing that apology to one of its interns.
“I’ve spoken to him about the importance of cultural respect”Clearly none of it took hold.
Terry Bradshaw’s an old fart who maybe needs to retire and Ken Jeong is hilarious.Unfortunately for Ken, there’s no way I cannot read a story of him getting treated like this without reflexively thinking:BUT DID YOU DIE?I know, I know, totally inappropriate.
To be fair, Bradshaw can’t spell “cat” if you gave him the “c” and the “a”, according to some guy on America’s Team.
So…are ya Chinese or Japanese?
Some other footballer once said that Terry “couldn’t spell ‘cat’ if you spotted him the c and the t”, so this tracks. Why are we shaming a mentally handicapped person?
Is a certain media corporation about to get out of a huge contract for free?Stay tuned.
It was pretty low on the offensive scale, and it’s clear Terry hasn’t been all there for a while, but thumbs up for a really good apology. It clearly states “I apologize for what I said” and not some some mealy “I’m sorry if I offended someone as it wasn’t my intent…” non-apology. Everyone, just copy this and cut and paste where needed and at least you’ll get that part right. Louis.
He apologized by saying that he was velly solly.
Wow, the old fat guy who played for Cleveland sure botched that one.
Oh, Gran Torino 2 has a new lead?
Ken Jeong’s a shoe-in!
Oh I meant Bradshaw could be the new Eastwood
Too late! Ken nailed the audition!
Ignorant and thoughtless? Yes. Racist? Probably not, or at least not intentionally. He is 70, played football for many years at a time when safety was an even lower priority than now. He has brain issues from playing football, and is an old man.
So you’re saying the idiots who keep putting him on tv are truly to blame? I could agree with that
Calling this kind of thing racist just works to completely desensitize people when truly racist shit happens.
You forgot to add “and this is why Trump won the election.”
I like the idea that we become “desensitized” to ideas through repeated exposure to them. It reminds me of gradeschool, when I became “desensitized” to reading and math. If I had just ignored those things, I would know more about better. That’s how it works, right?
Racism isn’t a competition, and there’s no finite limit on what can be racist- we’re not going to use up all our “racism citations” by calling out all the little stuff as well as the big stuff, especially since the little stuff is what feeds into and allows for the big stuff to happen.
Much like how you can be an asshole with this comment you made here just as much as someone who throws a brick through someone else’s window is an asshole. Sure, that guy is a much, MUCH bigger asshole, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re both still assholes. It’s a spectrum. Get it now?
There’s no need to excuse any form of racism unless you yourself are a vile, shit-sucking, racist dipshit. Simple as that.
The victims of bigotry are the real racists, right asshole?
No, the real victims are actual victims of racism. Bradshaw being slightly insensitive doesn’t even register.
Actually, it’s part of a culture where the majority of white people make excuses for dehumanizing and meaning ethnic minorites and vote for a man whose a proven bigot because he hates the same people they hate
No, no, you have to set the bar for “actual racism” so high that only the most violent abuses count. That way when you see “actual racism” you can throw up your hands and say, “There’s nothing I can do about it! It’s too big a problem!” And when you see acts of “insensitivity” like this one, you can ignore them. You know, for the good of society.
Oh, so you get to decide what is and isn’t offensive to other people?
Clearly he’s as good at comedy as he was at singing.
“I made an insensitive remark today about Ken, who I’ve known for some time. I’ve spoken to him about the importance of cultural respect and apologized for my offensive comments. I would like to also apologize to the orientals for my insensitivity. Oh, and to all the canucks, too.”
I’m sure in his head he’s thinking this shit used to kill with Mel Tillis and Dom Deluise.
Somehow, white folks here saying what should and shouldn’t be offensive to Asian Americans is so 2019.