They should call him “Teabag Tommy Tiernan,” as he is frequently in hot water.

Here’s the quote from the Herald article that kicked it all off:

In an interview with Hot Press at Electric Picnic he had waxed lyrical on what he would have done in the Holocaust.

“These Jews, these f *cking c***s come up to me, Christkilling bastards. F*cking six million? I would have got 10 or 12 million out of that, no problem. F*ck them. Two at a time, they would have gone. Hold hands, get in there. Leave us your teeth and your glasses,” he said.

Here’s the apology from that same article:

As a private individual I am greatly upset by the thought that these comments have caused hurt to others as it was never my intention.

And here’s the video. (Scroll down the page, it’s at the bottom. And, if you want to save yourself some time, the quote in question is at the end of the video, so hit “play,” go make some tea and come back near the 27-minute mark.) The remark is made during a Q & A, and it is said in answer to the question, “Have you ever been accused of being anti-semitic?” Tiernan hems and haws, stops and starts, talks about Jewish people for a few sentences, then drops the controversial statement.

We were hipped to the controversy when it first exploded on Sept. 22 by FOS Rabbi Bob Alper, who was quoted in the (UK) Herald as saying that he does not accept the statement as an apology, and he suggests that the comedian says outright “I’m sorry.”

We looked into the whole mess at the time, but we held off posting about it as Tiernan said he would issue a longer apology/explanation on his website. (We don’t recall seeing that happen… in fact, there’s no mention of the controversy on his site.) So we never did get around to posting about it.

Then we got an email from a Canadian comic that contained a link to a Toronto Star article about how Tiernan has been kicked off the lengthy and lucrative Just For Laughs tour.

Just for Laughs has dropped Irish comic Tommy Tiernan from an upcoming national comedy tour in the aftermath of highly controversial comments he made about the Jewish community.

Tiernan had been part of the Montreal-based company’s “all-star edition” tour and was scheduled to perform from Oct. 28 to Nov. 15 at events across Canada, including a stop at Massey Hall on Oct. 29.

Company spokesperson Lisa Lee confirmed Tiernan, 40, is “not on the tour anymore. Both parties agreed that it’s better that he (Tiernan) not be on this tour.”

The email was soaked in paranoia and the author was fearful that the same dark forces that strongarmed JFL into dropping the Irish comic from the tour might come after him/her were they to find out he dropped a cyber-dime on them.

We don’t see anything sinister here. We do see JFL making a business decision to drop a controversial comic from a national tour and not giving a reason and not returning inquiries.

And we see that, prior to dropping him from the roster, they lauded him on the JFL website for “tackling topics of sex, family and religion with intensity and honesty that’s as thought-provoking as it is funny. That honesty has led the Irish Senate to accuse him of blasphemy.”

Outside of that, the only thing one might conclude is that Jewish groups have more juice in Canada than do Catholic groups. Or those who look out for those with Down Syndrome. Those are just some of the folks that Tiernan has angered over the past couple years. It’s like clockwork– Tiernan appears on television or does a Q&A or jokes live about some group and the requests for an apology fly.

Tiernan traffics in outrageousness. He is regularly called upon to apologize. This is his modus operandi. His apology should consist mainly of saying to those who are offended, “Stand in line.” The offended have every right to ask for an apology, but the whole dance seems kind of pointless.

And it seems as though each time he trips one of these land mines, his popularity grows and his fans admire him all the more. It all makes perfect sense.

Is he going to be dropped from the occasional tour? Certainly. Will he be banned from the occasional TV show or network? Yes. But we would think that he acknowledges that this kind of thing is all part of the cost of being a controversial comedian.

Oh, sure, he could take the apology route. (He contends that he already did… but apparently, it wasn’t enough of an apology.) But, he chose not to amplify or augment the first apology. We suspect that, were he to apologize too much, he might lose some of his fans. So, it’s a clash of business decisions– Tiernan’s vs. Bruce Hills’.