Earlier this week, we talked about David Cross and how much I dislike him. That wasn’t the point of the story, but God, it’s good to finally have a solid reason for why I never gave a crap about him. Actress and comedienne Charlyne Yi took to Twitter this week to share her story of how David Cross was a giant racist douchebag to her when they were first introduced. She said that he made fun of her clothes (because she was poor), and then literally made a “joke” about how she didn’t speak English, and the words “ching chong” were involved. Yi said this happened ten years ago, and people figured out that it happened when she was dating Michael Cera, and Cera must have introduced them.
Cross’s first statements, in reaction to Yi’s story, were not good. He blamed her for misremembering the incident, he didn’t offer a real apology (“I’m truly sorry if I hurt her”) and claimed that it would be “out of character” for him to say such a thing. First, I don’t believe it would be out of character. Secondly, he was calling her a liar in a roundabout way. Anyway, long story short, David Cross offered another explanation on Twitter:
— )))David Cross((( (@davidcrosss) October 18, 2017
— )))David Cross((( (@davidcrosss) October 18, 2017
Ah, yes, the old “I was in character, that’s why I was a racist a–hole” defense. I’ve met many people who lived their lives Method-acting as racist a–holes, I guess. But you know what’s driving me crazy? David Cross’s defense is that Yi and Michael Cera (presumably) never said anything about it. Like, Cross thinks that’s a good defense, that you can get away with saying racist sh-t and if your victim doesn’t call you out on it, it’s not your fault, man. Anyway, this whole second statement from Cross is utter garbage.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
“Charlyne did not understand”
Fuck this guy. He did something bad and stupid and instead of owning it, he is now actually trying to act like it’s her fault and her problem because according to him she “didn’t understand” what his intention was. I have never understood how this guy got to be “famous” because he’s always been so unfunny, and now I see he’s trash in real life as well.
His explanation is that we are too dumb to understand that he was riffing and Charlene Yi, a comedian mind you, was too dumb to understand he was in character. And anyway since Cera did not say anything, what he said was fine. I think his self serving explanation is almost as bad as the original racist outburst.
An even WORSE level of mansplaining: mansplaining your offensive speech/behavior to your victim.
“Yes, I called you Ching Chong, but let me outline the ways you misunderstood”.
Yeah, all of this. I also have never liked him either, always kinda kick myself anytime I find myself laughing at him. Glad I’m not alone.
I hate when people say this. Seriously hate it. Or the “I’m sorry you were offended” stance. Ugh
Burn.His.House.Down. I didn’t hate this guy before but now my passion is incensed. Dude- being racist to someone but then telling them that you were just in character and “get used to it” cuz they were in Louisiana and it’s just racist there?! If she didn’t want to be treated poorly then she shouldn’t go to the South but if she does then David will educate her about it by being racist to her first?!
The mental gymnastics to not be at fault is a wonder to behold. F- this guy.
Whoa, he’s really making his hole bigger here. I hate ‘irony’ being used as an excuse for racist and sexist behaviour/ statements. In the UK we have a growing problem with ‘banter’ being used heavily as an excuse for everything, like it’s some get out of jail free card and you’re the one with a problem for being offended by simple ‘banter’ . Ugh. TFI Friday
OMG, I totally get what you mean by the “banter” card. I have a lot of groupchat a with foreign friends, who add their own friends, and the things they sometimes under the guise of being “witty” 🙄. Honestly, I think it stems from an inability to admit that they were being rude, and avoid self-reflection. In any case it’s ruined the word banter for me.
If I hurt her?
She said you hurt her, does she need to tattoo it on your arm? There is no if. That if implies you doubt her and her motives. Smarten up, and apologize properly.
Also, am sad Tobias blue it.
F’ this guy. I agree with all of the posters above. There is SO. MUCH. WRONG. with his statement!!! Here is a shovel for the hole that you continue to dig for yourself.
In what context does he think that it would be appropriate to “welcome” someone with a racist character? And racists only exist in the South? And while he grew up around them, and continues to live with one (himself) does he not think that as a person of color that Charlyne might have had some first-hand experience with racists and racism??? And how hard is it to say “I’m sorry”?? This guy was canceled before he even started.
Oh yeah, I just remembered a couple days later, after I pretended to apologize, that it was for a ROLE. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
He’s a funny guy sometimes, but screw this guy. And Amber Tamblyn can take a few seats for defending him.
He ends by wishing that everyone else says racist things so they can feel his pain? God, what a nut job.
he’s just confirming what a racist pompous assh*le he is. Funny thing is that his wife while rightfully saying that she is not to be hold accountable for his husband’s actions, is also defending him saying he “apologised countless times”…no Amber he did NOT. He is even doubling the offense by saying first that she “misremembered” and now even worse: he’s saying that she didn’t understand. What prick! and while all this was happening Tamblyn was righteously schooling people: she wrote regarding her friend Tarantino statements about Weistein: “All healing begins with ownership and the truth. Men; forget your crafted statements and follow suit.” Talking about having at home one of those she’s criticizing.
Hypocrisy at its best.
That’s… actually worse than his first response. So Charlyne was just too clueless to know he was “in character” (and for what movie, BTW?), and also poor him that people are being so mean to him about it. Ugh.
maybe for the movie “Run Ronnie Run” where he played a redneck always running from cops.
This is really sad. Say it aint so! I am rewatching arrested development for the maybe 5th time now, full of happiness, and Dr Tobias Funke is one of my favourite characters on there. This is the only role that I know him in so I have no real opinion on his funnyness or character. I found him awesome on arrested development.
Celebrities need to get better at apologies (or, ideally, at not being a-holes in the first place). Here’s how that SHOULD have read:
“Charlyne was right. The way that I behaved was absolutely inexcusable. I thought it would be funny to greet her in this redneck character, but it wasn’t funny and I shouldn’t have done it. Charlyne, I’m so sorry. I was an idiot, and I pledge to do better in the future by .”
Yep. That would have been fine.
BS. What kind of moron introduces himself “in character”? Then he tries to excuse himself by saying he grew up in Georgia?? I know many people who grew up in the South and are somehow able to conduct themselves without acting like racist pigs. What a dunce.
Here, I fixed it. “I am mortified that those words may have come out of my mouth in an attempt to be funny years ago. I apologize, Charlyne. No one deserves to be treated like that.”
Also good.
This is riddled with lame excuses, and really made it worse.
You don’t get to write off “I was being a character!” unless you are on stage. He was not, he was meeting her as a regular human being, and he was rude, racist, and awful. And now he’s being defensive, angry, and full of excuses, and he needs to stop.
So his first instinct when meeting a minority woman is to jump into “character” as a racist redneck? That’s still hugely problematic!!
I really don’t understand what Amber Tamblyn sees in this condecending old irrelevant douchebag. She’s a feminist and an activist, and at the height of the Women’s March he had “Grab them by the p*ssy!” on his IG bio. He had that up for the longest time. He thought that phrase was hilarious even though women were disgusted and marching against all of that. His own wife was so outspoken and angry about this and he thought it was funny. That’s peak male privilege.
He’s sexist, he’s racist and like a classic white male comedian, he doesn’t give a crap about being disrespectful to women and minorities because you’re supposed to be cool with his edgy douchery otherwise you’re not smart. What’s respect anyway right? He’s a ~~comedian~~. You just don’t ~~get it~~.
Oh my god. So his excuse for being racist is that she was just too dumb to understand that he was being racist for fun? Instead of an apology she gets a “Oh now I remember, I was too smart for everyone present.”
Dude. First you don’t remember and then you remember in THIS much detail? Eff off.
This dude is gross. It says so much that Charlyne called him out on this publicly. She obviously wanted the public to known more about him.
ah, the arrogance of white men. He just keeps on “defending” himself and digging a bigger and bigger hole, when he needs to shut up and go away for a while
F. This guy.
That is all
How was she even supposed to know that he was in character? That’s what I don’t get. He is meeting his friends gf for the first time and he chooses to do it in character but without telling her either before, during, or after that he was in character. If he was in character, and wanted to make that clear, maybe he should’ve introduced himself as Ronnie Daubs and then continued to be in character throughout his entire conversation with her and also with everyone else he met that night, continually introducing himself as Ronnie. It seems like he either didn’t go far enough with his “I’m in character” thing for her to pick up on it, or he went too far by not telling her at anytime that night, or within the next TEN YEARS that he was in character that night and that’s why he was saying racist things. It seems like he’s working on the assumption that she, who has never met him before, would somehow know him well enough to realize he was in character and not acting like his normal self. How do you tell if someone you’re meeting for the first time is acting like themselves or not? It’s ridiculous. Maybe all of this is true and the reason he first didn’t remember being racist when he met her was bc he was acting like someone else and not as himself so the memory didn’t stick as something “he” did which is why he started by denying it, Then upon further reflection he figured out he might have said those things as Ronnie bc it was around the time that he was preparing for a movie by often living in character. Maybe that’s true. So maybe the racist comments were not said in earnest, but he still screwed up horribly by 1) meeting his friends WOC gf as a racist character and 2) never thinking to tell her that he was in character and 3) not realizing in the moment that she was genuinely stunned and offended and not noticing during all further meetings the offended vibe she most likely was giving off.