Jason Alexander Calls Cricket A ‘Gay Game,’ Apologizes [VIDEO]
Jason Alexander apologized for calling cricket a "gay game" during an appearance on the "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" last week. (Check out the full interview below. Alexander's ill-advised cricket bit starts at the 5 minute mark.)
"It's a gay game," Alexander said. "There's a lot of people wearing white, people wearing helmets for no discernible reason, people not wearing helmets that look like they should have a helmet. Everybody breaks for tea.
"It's the pitch," he added, demonstrating the way cricket players hurl the ball. "It's the weirdest... It's not like a manly baseball pitch; it's a queer British gay pitch." He then proceeded to prance and daintily swung his arm around.
The remarks garnered a lot of flack for the Seinfeld star on Twitter, and he initially argued people needed to lighten up.
"And 4 the record, tho I don't follow the rules of cricket, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching it played. But if we can't laugh, we r doomed," he tweeted.
But the continuing anger forced him to issue a lengthy, 1,000-word apology Monday.
"During the last appearance, we somehow wandered onto the topic of offbeat sports and he suddenly mentioned something about soccer and cricket," he wrote in a blog post. "Now, I am not a stand-up comic. Stand-up comics have volumes of time-tested material for every and all occasions. I, unfortunately, do not."
He thought the gay cricket bit would go over well, but Alexander miscalculated.
"Shortly after that, however, a few of my Twitter followers made me aware that they were both gay and offended by the joke."
Alexander, who played George Costanza on the sitcom "Seinfeld," wants all to know, he's still a friend of the gay community.
"And the worst part is -- I should know better," he wrote. "My daily life is filled with gay men and women, both socially and professionally.
"So, I can only apologize and I do. In comedy, timing is everything."