Randy Rainbow celebrates the release of his Christmas CD “Hey Gurl, It’s Christmas” at Sardi’son November 11, 2019 in New York City. (Glikas/Getty)
Randy Rainbow has apologised for his past transphobic and racist tweets, insisting that “there is not a racist or intolerant bone” in his body.
The gay comedian is known for his song parodies, usually targeting Donald Trump, including “No Rules for Donald”, “Just Impeach Him” and “The Mueller Blues”.
But this week, a spreadsheet began circulating on social media archiving more than 60 racist and transphobic tweets, including multiple uses of the slur “tranny”.
One, from 2010, read: “If I coulda been, I woulda been. And that’s transgenderism.”
In 2016, Rainbow posted a photo of a Garbage Pail Kids trading card, and wrote: “Here’s how we tackled transgender issues when I was a kid.”
Many of his past tweets used Black, Latinx and Asian people as a punchline.
In a tweet from 2010 he said: “Just told a huge African American man busting my chops at the post office to ‘shut the hell up’. By the time you read this, I’ll be dead.”
“The smell of fried chicken. [Fade to black],” he wrote in 2016.
In 2011, he tweeted: “This snow is like all the guys I sleep with: Looks all white & pretty now but by morning it’ll seem more Hispanic & my wallet will be gone.”
Not only was Randy Rainbow racist, he even reused his racist jokes. The one about putting a Chinese person in your fridge didn’t go over well the first time so he tried again two years later pic.twitter.com/w0M4svos5u
— Noah (@SmellyCandle42) August 17, 2020
of the randy rainbow “let’s say a slur!” tweets, this one stands out because I genuinely have no fucking idea what it means pic.twitter.com/ZGQl5HXDN1
— lily osler (@fake_minnesotan) August 18, 2020
Randy Rainbow apologises for derogatory tweets.
Randy Rainbow has now apologised for the tweets in an interview with Advocate, saying that the comments were a part of his “maiden quest to be funny”.
He insisted that he is neither racist nor transphobic, adding: “I tweeted some jokes that were completely offensive and insensitive to look back on them now, especially with no context or nuance and through the prism of where we are in 2020 with racial inequality and the fight for social justice, which I’m proudly a part of.
“In light of issues that are now at the forefront, which I’m passionate about and have spoken up about over the years, these tweets just sound racist and awful. I’m embarrassed by them.
“They make me sick to my stomach, in fact, and I deeply apologise to anyone I offended.”
He added: “I’m a gay Jew who was brought up in a very open, accepting family.
“There is not a racist or intolerant bone in my body. When I say that I have evolved with the times, I mean that my comedy has.
“I did not need to be taught not to be racist or transphobic because I never was.”