U.S. insurance companly Aflac fired Gilgeret Gottfried, best known as the voice of the duck in the now-famous Aflac commercials, for his tweets making fun of tsunami victims and the situation in Janpan following the massive quake.

"Gilbert's recent comments about the crisis in Japan were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac," Michael Zuna, a senior VP and chief marketing officer, said in a statement Monday.

"Aflac Japan -- and, by extension, Japan itself -- is part of the Aflac family, and there is no place for anything but compassion and concern during these difficult times."

Gottfried removed the offensive tweets, but too late, as they were picked up by a number of blogs, of note, and The Huffington Post.

Here are the Twitter tweets of concern:

I just split up with my girlfriend. But like the Japanese say, "They'll be another one floating by any minute now." Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them.

With three quarters business in Japan, Aflac is Japan's No. 1 insurer based on policies in force. On Friday, it donated 100 million yen -- a little more than 1.2 million dollars -- to the International Red Cross toward recovery efforts.

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