Steve Martin Is Officially A Member Of The “Delete That Tweet” Club

What is it about Twitter that turns people’s thoughts into piles of lukewarm refried beans? I feel like all my conversations begin with: “Did you read the dumb shit ___ said on Twitter today?” Well, according to the NY Daily News, I’ll be small-talking with the liquor store cashier about Steve Martin today. Steve is whipping out his best apology banjo and playing a folksy version I’m Sorry today after he foolishly tweeted a joke that should have been hashtagged #racist-y:

The 68-year-old comic apologized after being labeled a racist after an attempted joke on Twitter went wrong.

Martin, who uses the social media site to engage in witty back and forth with fans, received a setup line from one of his 4.5 million followers. Martin deleted the Tweet shortly afterwards — but not before retweets and screen grabs circulated all over the Internet.

To his credit, the Honorary Academy Award winner did face the wrath of his angry fans.

“I did apologize,” he tweeted back to a follower who accused him of acting like that Tweet didn’t exist.

“But again, a second later I realized what an offensive thing I’d done. Deep bow. My tweet was highly inappropriate.”

I’m sure you’re sitting there thinking: “Well, what was it?!?! What word did he use? Did he tweet random Spanish-sounding words?? How bad was it?” G’head and throw on your best lace collar and dress your dog/cat up as Bailiff Byrd, because I’ll let you be the judge:

Okay, so on a scale from Brad Paisley’s Accidental Racist to Justine Sacco, we’re looking at about a mid-RiRi mosque photoshoot. What I’m saying is, I don’t think Steve Martin was being racist, just inappropriate. George Clooney is reading this story about Steve Martin with smug satisfaction and bragging to the gardener at his Italian villa: “See? This is why I’m not on Twitter.” 

I feel like all of this could have been avoided if Steve Martin just stuck to the rule that white guys shouldn’t tweet shit about race. It would have really helped him out if Twitter created an algorithm or code where the second he started spelling African-American, it automatically corrected it to: NO! TWEET SOMETHING ELSE! There, problem solved. Where can I collect my Nobel Prize?

(Pics via Wenn, Twitter via Daily News)