Comedian Michael Rapaport was slammed on social media this week for a joke he made about the Thai soccer team that was rescued from a flooded cave after being trapped for more than two weeks.
I haven’t seen someone try to get a Thai boy out of a hole this frantically since I walked in on Kevin Spacey in the men’s room at Chuckie Cheese.
Anonymous Comedian 7/9/2018
— MichaelRapaport (@MichaelRapaport) July 9, 2018
“I haven’t seen someone try to get a Thai boy out of a hole this frantically since I walked in on Kevin Spacey in the men’s room at Chuckie Cheese,” Rapaport tweeted Monday, adding “Anonymous Comedian 7/9/2018.”
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The mention of Spacey was likely a reference to the sexual misconduct allegations surrounding the House of Cards actor, who was fired from the Netflix series last year and also replaced in the Ridley Scott movie All the Money in the World.
Many responded to Rapaport’s tweet with disgust.
“This just isn’t even a little bit funny. Going to be hard to take anything seriously, or for fun, from you for a while. Pretty terrible joke, all the way around and sexual abuse survivors would not find this funny,” one Twitter user responded.
This just isn’t even a little bit funny. Going to be hard to take anything seriously, or for fun, from you for a while. Pretty terrible joke, all the way around and sexual abuse survivors would not find this funny.
— Broc Bridges (@broctweet) July 10, 2018
“That’s the kind of tweet you get from a D list actor trying to stay relevant,” another said.
That’s the kind of tweet you get from a D list actor trying to stay relevant
— paul (@cobraheadtoe) July 9, 2018
“Wow! You managed to wrangle sexual assault, pedophilia, and lives in peril into one really lame ‘joke’! A real hat trick! I admire your work, sir, but you’re better than this!” another wrote.
Wow! You managed to wrangle sexual assault, pedophilia, and lives in peril into one really lame “joke”! A real hat trick! I admire your work, sir, but you’re better than this!
— WilliamRocksIt1 (@WilliamRocksIt1) July 10, 2018
Still, others argued that the joke wasn’t offensive.
“When did comedy become safe? It’s a joke people. Laugh more,” someone said.
When did comedy become safe? It’s a joke people. Laugh more.
— Michael Garcia Jr (@MichaelGarciaJr) July 10, 2018
On Tuesday, CBS News reports that the remaining four boys and their 25-year-old coach were rescued from the complex cave system, safely returning the entire team to safety and ending the nearly three-week ordeal. The team members, who range in age from 11 to 16 years told, and their coach were stranded after they explored the cave and were blocked in by monsoon flooding.
Thai Navy SEALs confirmed the news on Facebook, writing, “12 wild pigs and coaches out of the cave. Safe everyone. This time, waiting to pick up 4 Frogs.” The term “wild pigs” refers to the name of the soccer team, the Wild Boars, and “Frogs” denoted the divers and medics who had been in the caves with the boys.
“We are not sure if this is a miracle, a science, or what. All the thirteen Wild Boars are now out of the cave,” the SEALs added in another post.
The boys were rescued over the course of three days after being trapped since June 23. They are now being treated in hospitals, where they have been secluded to an isolation ward “due to fear of infection,” said rescue operation head Narongsak Osottanakorn.
“The next step is to make sure those kids and their families are safe because living in a cave has a different environment which might contain animals that could transmit any disease,” a hospital statement said after the second set of four boys were rescued Monday.
CNN shares that each boy was accompanied by two divers while being rescued, with the boys attached by a thin line to the divers, who held the boys’ oxygen tanks in front of them in order to fit through the cave system’s narrow and dangerous passageways.
