Joe Jackson has a unique ability to put his foot in his mouth. Well more than that really, because putting your foot in your mouth implies it was unintentional or you at least take a normal level of care about what you say. Joe does not. He says whatever he feels like, regardless of how it’ll likely come across to others. That’s how we get to today’s example. Joe says his deceased son Michael is worth more dead than alive. How thoughtful.

Joe Jackson says that Michael is making a bigger impact than ever since his June death from an apparent drug overdose.

“He’s worth more dead than when he was alive,” Joe, 80, tells “Extra” in an interview that airs Thursday night. “I’d rather have him alive.”

As Michael’s movie “This Is It” rakes in $2.2 million in the box office, Joe adds, “When he was living, they didn’t show this.” Joe admits he wasn’t on board with the flick at first, which documents Michael rehearsing for his comeback tour of the same name.

“I didn’t know what ‘This Is It’ meant,” says Joe, who spoke to “Extra” in Las Vegas at the unveiling of a celebrity star honoring him and his famous family. But the movie allows him to remember Michael “as I knew him best: performing and dancing on stage. Entertaining people,” he says.

Hearing Michael’s songs make Joe “very emotional,” he admits. He sometimes sheds tears “when I’m off to myself and I start thinking about things that we went through,” he says. “No one will ever see me, though.” He has harsher feelings for his son’s doctor, Conrad Murray, who is currently under investigation on manslaughter charges.

Joe says if he saw Murray, he’d “knock him out.”

[From Extra]

You know Joe has never seen his children as anything other than dollar signs. And he’s not going to bother to clarify what he meant, which I think was that Michael has received a huge amount of renewed interest since his death. Joe chose to phrase it as cruelly as possible of course. But it’s true that Michael has gotten more public sympathy and people have been much more curious about him since he passed away.

But really, all Joe Jackson cares about is how much money he can make off Michael. And I’m sure he’s getting a lot more now that Michael is dead than when Michael was alive. I’d like to say that maybe Joe isn’t in full possession of his faculties anymore, but he’s always been this way, by most accounts. Michael’s memory deserves to be honored, instead of Joe plundering it.

Here’s Joe Jackson being “honored” with a Brenden Celebrity Star at the Brenden Theatres at the Palms Resort Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas last night. Sickening. Images thanks to WENN.com .