An attempt at a joke backfired on comedian Steve Martin last week, as Twitter followers accused the star of being racist.
According to the Daily Mail, Martin was fielding light-hearted questions about word usage from his followers, when someone asked “Is this how you spell Lasonia?”.
Martin responded by saying: “It depends: Are you in an African-American restaurant or at an Italian restaurant?”
One of the comedian’s followers quickly took him to task over the racist nature of the tweet and Martin promptly wrote “I’m sorry” and deleted the offending post.
But by then, the tweet had gone viral.
“Are you going to act like that tweet doesn't exist @SteveMartinToGo? We all saw it. Very disappointing,” wrote one follower, who then also added: “An apology would go a long way. He deleted the tweet.”
Martin then issued a second apology.
“I did apologize. But again, a second later I realized what an offensive thing I'd done. Deep bow.”
Some of Martin’s fans came to his defense, claiming that those who were offended were over-sensitive.
One user, however, reminded Martin that he needed to be more careful in the future.
“I know a woman in PR who could help you out. Real expert in this stuff. Her name is Justine Sacco,” a reference to the PR woman who caused a major stir with her tweet about africa and AIDS last week.