STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Jason Biggs made a joke on Twitter about the Malaysia Airline crash on July 17
- Some people sent tweets back that they found the comment offensive
- Biggs defended himself at first, but has since deleted the tweets and apologized
Deadly airline disasters
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Breasts, babies and Jason Biggs
The "Orange is the New
Black" actor stirred a Twitter storm after news reports confirmed that a
Boeing 777 crashed in Ukraine with almost 300 people on board. Biggs
joked, "Anyone wanna buy my Malaysian Airlines frequent flier miles?"
The backlash came quickly with some saying the remark was too soon, and the event too sensitive, to joke about.
"Not cool, Not funny Mr. @JasonBiggs," @jorgemps wrote.
Sharliq Grant @SGofDaRuSH said, "too soon to joke man."
Biggs originally blasted back at his social media critics, unleashing an expletive-ridden tirade.
"Hey all you 'too soon'
a--holes- it's a f--king joke. You don't have to think it's funny, or
even be on my twitter page at all."
"Truly- you losers are literally trying to find s--t to get angry about. Channel your issues elsewhere," he continued.
"The idea that I wouldnt
have any empathy 4 the victims or their families because I make a joke
is absolutely ridiculous. U know that, right?"
"It's saddest for the
victims and their families, obviously. But Malaysia Airlines is
apparently a GREAT airline. Gonna be tough to recover."
Then in the evening, Biggs' previous comments about the incident were deleted and he issued a four-tweet apology:
1) Hey all- ok, so- I am
deleting my previous tweets. People were offended, and that was not my
intent. Sorry to those of you that were.
2) This is obviously a
horrible tragedy, and everyone-including myself- is sad and angry about
it. Sending positive thoughts to the
3) victims and their
families. P.S. No one is making me send these tweets- I simply
understand that my comments might have come off
4). as insensitive and ill-timed. For that, I apologize.
Biggs, who first became famous in 1999's "American Pie," has a long history of controversial tweets,
including a series of sexually explicit comments directed at Republican
politicians and their wives during the 2012 election, which he defended
at that time, too.
Blogging for Esquire last year, Biggs explained why he loves his Twitter haters.
"You know what really
gets me off? The hate. Oh, how I love the hate. Weird? Perhaps. But to
me, watching people get riled up over the most trivial things is pure
fking gold."