A racially charged tweet from “The Colbert Report’”s Twitter account has sparked outrage on the social messaging service and spawned a hashtag urging Comedy Central to #CancelColbert.
On Thursday, @ColbertReport tweeted, “I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.”
The offending tweet, which has since been deleted, referenced a segment on Wednesday’s episode that satirized Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder’s attempt to quell critics of his team’s name by establishing a foundation that provides assistance to tribal communities. In the bit, host Stephen Colbert revived his “Ching-Chong Ding-Dong” character, which he has used since his first season, to make fun of Snyder’s effort.
Without the context of the TV segment, many found the tweet to be racially insensitive and started the hashtag campaign (which is still trending on Twitter) to oust the satirist host.
Colbert eventually responded to the outrage, posting on his own account @StephenatHome early Friday that he agreed with the criticism of the tweet and directed people to the full video clip of the segment.
“The Colbert Report” Twitter feed also clarified that the account is controlled by Comedy Central, not the host or staffers of his show, and apologized for the confusion.