After Rosie and her hack’s haughty refusal to admit that it was mean to mock asians in sing-song gibberish, her inevitable “oh yeah, I was wrong” apology seems fake and forced. She said that she asked her asian hair and makeup person, who obviously cannot work miracles, if it was wrong to use that “Ching Chong” crap, and the woman said that it’s the oldest trick in the book and she heard it when she was a kid.

After running a clip of the offending segment, which originally ran Dec. 5, she said, “This apparently was very offensive to a lot of Asian people. So I asked Judy, who’s Asian and works here in our hair and makeup department. I said, ‘Was it offensive to you?’ And she said, ‘Well, kinda. When I was a kid people did tease me by saying ching-chong.’

“So apparently ‘ching-chong,’ unbeknownst to me, is a very offensive way to make fun, quote-unquote, or mock, Asian accents. Some people have told me it’s as bad as the n-word. I was like, really? I didn’t know that.”

O’Donnell said that her joke was “never intended to hurt anyone, and I’m sorry for those people who felt hurt or were teased on the playground,” but added that in the future, “there’s a good chance that I’ll do something like that again … Not on purpose.”

If someone were to mock gay people with a limp wrist and lisp, would it be ok if they said they had no clue, and that uh, apparently, it’s offensive? No, Rosie should have fessed up right away and not had her rep initially that say no one got her dumbass humor. At least she’s apologizing now, but it seems less than sincere.

Here’s what asian activist Angry Asian Man says about Rosie’s apology:

It’s a joke. The entire thing is played for laughs, like it was no big deal—a case of some offended people overreacting. Elisabeth Hasselback leads in with this bit about what sounds like acupuncture, and they give some background about what happened (replaying the original clip). Rosie does this whole, “Oh, I had no idea about your pain” thing. Listen as the audience is completely incredulous when they find out that saying “ching chong” is apparently offensive to some Asian people out there. Sorry to burst your bubble. Though you had it all in check, huh? Of course, this whole apology is completely negated by the fact that O’Donnell goes on to say, “Hey, I still think it was funny!” and encourages everyone to still laugh along with her about the whole thing. But the part that infuriates me the most is when Joy points to two Asian women in the audience who are nodding in agreement. I guess if these two women say it’s okay, it must be cool! Oh, it hurts. Betrayed by two of our own, on national television. What a pathetic excuse for an apology.