It Pays The Doctors. Boy.

You may have heard about the recent search for a new voice to squawk forth from the Aflac duck's infamous beak. Or maybe, since you undoubtedly have a life, you haven't. You might not even know that the original voice-over-er of said duck, Gilbert Gottfried, was recently let go because of some Twitter-based remarks. Well, there was, and he was. Which brings us to the decidedly un-historical unveiling of the new commercial.

We found ourselves laughing, unexpectedly. Because, readers, the star of this commercial is not the Aflac duck. Oh no. Its the Major Medical pigeon. This pigeon, who obviously hails from the mean streets, challenges the duck to a dance off in front of a peaceful park bench with two broken-legged citizens as witnesses. The pigeon is then soundly defeated, but that doesn't change the fact that we want, and would wear every day, a t-shirt with the phrase, "pays the doctaz, BOI!" and the Major Medical pigeon. With wings tauntingly outstretched, of course.

Whimsical nature of the commercial aside, the behavior of the dancing fowl does raise an interesting point. Gottfried was fired from what we assume is the best (and practically only) work he's had in years because of a couple of jokes about Japan's situation. Said jokes have been called racist; we're of the mind that they lean more towards callous and insensitive.

The question is this: are the jokes made in this commercial any better? The comedy does play on racial stereotypes to a degree. It appears harmless, but it could be said that the pigeons are behaving like stereotypical Black people. It could also be said that it wasn't just that group of people that became swept up by the break-dancing fad of the 80s, and the joke was made at the expense of that culture rather than Black people. We're of the mind that it behooves anyone who thinks the former to acquire a sense of humor and/or cram it, but don't let that influence your opinion if you feel differently; we'd love to hear from you.