‘Bob’s Burgers’ Voice Actor Apologizes Following Racist Joke

Bob’s Burgers star H. Jon Benjamin apologized for a racist joke he tweeted on Saturday. Within minutes, Benjamin apologized for the unfunny remarks.

“Quick idea for the name of a tea shop- ‘ooh me so horny, me love you oolong time tea shop,’” Benjamin tweeted.

The message was almost instantly Ratio’d, a Twitter phenomenon where the number of responses far outnumbers the retweets. Benjamin deleted the message and published an apology.

“Sorry I offended many. I agree this ‘joke’ was lazy and incompetent and formulated quickly while making a cup of oolong tea,” the voice actor wrote. “The fact that it was a famous line in a movie does not give me license to… make light of the big picture stereotyping of Vietnamese people and Asian Americans in general. I’m sorry I ever made that cup of tea. And thanks for making me realize this in quick order.”

Benjamin’s original tweet quoted the “me so horny” line from Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam War movie Full Metal Jacket in the tweet. Since the film was released in 1987, the line has been quoted thousands of times and became an Asian stereotype. It was also infamously used in 2 Live Crew’s single “Me So Horny.”

Some fans were pleased to see Benjamin apologized.

“A sincere apology goes an oolong way. I’m Asain and before my disappointment for that joke could steep, you swallowed your pride by giving some acknowledge-mint to the bitter origins of that expression,” one fan wrote.

“You’re awesome. You didn’t mean anything bad by what you said, and don’t be sorry for making that tea. In fact have another. You never fail to make me smile,” added another.

“i found the joke to be offensive but i know your humor never means true offense – and for anyone that was really that upset over that tweet, I’m sorry but @archerfxx is really not for you,” another fan wrote.

Benjamin is a prolific voice actor and comedian. He voices the title character, Bob Belcher, on Fox’s Bob’s Burgers. His other famous characters include Sterling Archer in FXX’s Archer, Dr. Katz’s son in Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist and The Master on The Venture Brothers. He also appeared as Mitch and voiced a can of vegetables in Netflix’s Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp and its sequel, Ten Years Later.

Benjamin also recently started appearing in new Arby’s commercials, notes AdWeek. He appears in the spots as Arby’s “head of sandwiches” to point out that Arby’s sells more than roast beef sandwiches.

The ninth season of Bob’s Burgers starts on Sunday, Sept. 30 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Fox.

Photo credit: Fox