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Howard Stern, Joan Rivers stick up for sacked Gilbert Gottfried

By April MacIntyre Mar 15, 2011, 19:30 GMT

02/26/2011 - Joan Rivers - 83rd Annual Academy Awards - Rolling Stone Awards Weekend Party - Arrivals - Drai\'s Hollywood - Hollywood, CA, USA © Andrew Evans / PR Photos

Reality TV comedy queen Joan Rivers and shock jock Howard Stern have come to the defense of sacked Aflac spokesperson and fellow comic, Gilbert Gottfried.

Rivers took to Twitter, the social media spot where Gottfried's tweets cost him a paycheck. "Oh come on people-this is just outrageous! Gilbert Gottfried was FIRED from Aflac for making jokes about the tsunami in Japan," she Twittered Tuesday.

"That's what comedians do!!! We react to tragedy by making jokes to help people in tough times feel better through laughter."

In Rivers' critically acclaimed documentary "A Piece of Work,"  she is seen facing down a heckler who takes offense to her joke about Helen Keller, shouting his child was deaf. Rivers fought back and told the man that comedy was the salve that eased the sting of life.

She repeated that thought about comedy being used to assuage a tense or tragic situation with Howard Stern, who also defended Gottfried on his show Tuesday.

"Here is the guy that as long as I know has been making jokes... you couldn't ask for a more inappropriate human being," said Stern of Gottfried (via TMZ), who frequently appears on his Sirius XM show.

"When the Aflac people hired him to be the duck, they knew...his humor is offensive... There's no reason for him to be fired. But to be fired for offensiveness... he should never have been hired then."

Gottfried apologized for his remarks:  "I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my attempt at humor regarding the tragedy in Japan,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement Tuesday. “I meant no disrespect, and my thoughts are with the victims and their families." (He is among the stars who have sent out other low-blow messages via Twitter.)