Seinfeld Star Jason Alexander has been fielding calls from GLAAD since his remark regarding cricket on Friday night’s show with late night television host Craig Ferguson.
“It’s the pitch,” Alexander told Ferguson. “It’s the weirdest… It’s not like a manly baseball pitch; it’s a queer British gay pitch.”
Alexander released a blog statement through GLAAD only the very next day apologizing for the remarks and proclaiming that he has many gay friends, and that he certainly should have known better than to make a careless remark such as he did.
“My daily life is filled with gay men and women, both socially and professionally,” says Alexander. “I am profoundly aware of the challenges these friends of mine face and I have openly advocated on their behalf. So, I can only apologize and I do. In comedy, timing is everything.”
According to Alexander, when late night host Craig Ferguson brought up the conversation of cricket, the Seinfeld star had hoped to refer to a comedy bit that he had previously used in his career, saying “when Craig mentioned cricket I thought, “oh, goody – I have a comic bit about cricket I can do. Won’t that be entertaining?”. And so I did a chunk of this old routine and again referred to cricket as kind of “gay”.
After speaking with friends, Alexander added that he later realized the folly in his comedy bit saying that “as we explored it, we began to realize what was implied under the humor. I was basing my use of the word “gay” on the silly generalization that real men don’t do gentile, refined things and that my portrayal of the cricket pitch was pointedly effeminate , thereby suggesting that effeminate and gay were synonymous.”
You can view the segment in question below.
Do you feel that Jason Alexander’s remarks were extremely inappropriate?