Adam Carolla - Controversies

Controversies

Carolla has occasionally stirred up controversy due to sweeping generalizations about various groups. For example in a late-2003 Loveline episode, Carolla said that Hawaiians are "dumb," "in-bred," "retarded" people who are among the "dumbest people we have." These comments were met with anger in Hawaii, and resulted in Loveline's cancellation on Hawaiian affiliate KPOI.

On the April 4, 2010 episode of The Adam Carolla Show, Carolla referred to Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao as a "fucking idiot" and derided Pacquiao's home country of the Philippines, saying, "They got this and sex tours, that's all they have over there. Get your shit together Philippines." The comments angered many Filipinos, and a spokesman for Filipino president Gloria Arroyo called Carolla an "ignorant fool." Carolla subsequently apologized via Twitter.

In August 2011, Carolla attracted the ire of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation after a podcast in which, referring to transgendered people, he asked, "When did we start giving a shit about these people?" The segment was in response to a proposed initiative to have the puppet characters Bert and Ernie, from the children's television show Sesame Street, enter into a "gay marriage." He went on to say that the LGBT moniker ought to be replaced with "YUCK," and that LGBT activists ought to "shut up," and that they are "ruining life." GLAAD also referred to previous offensive remarks by Carolla, including an assertion that, "all things being equal," heterosexual parents are better than homosexual parents. Carolla responded, "I'm sorry my comments were hurtful. I'm a comedian, not a politician." GLAAD called the apology "empty."

In June 2012, Carolla became the target of charges of sexism due to his remarks during an interview published in the New York Post:

The lesson you learned from a sexual harassment seminar was “Don’t hire chicks.” Do you hate working with women?
No. But they make you hire a certain number of chicks, and they’re always the least funny on the writing staff. The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks. If my daughter has a mediocre sense of humor, I’m just gonna tell her, “Be a staff writer for a sitcom. Because they’ll have to hire you, they can’t really fire you, and you don’t have to produce that much. It’ll be awesome.
The “are women funny” debate has grown very contentious. You’re not worried about reactions to this?
I don’t care. When you’re picking a basketball team, you’ll take the brother over the guy with the yarmulke. Why? Because you’re playing the odds. When it comes to comedy, of course there’s Sarah Silverman, Tina Fey, Kathy Griffin — super-funny chicks. But if you’re playing the odds? No. If Joy Behar or Sherri Shepherd was a dude, they’d be off TV. They’re not funny enough for dudes. What if Roseanne Barr was a dude? Think we’d know who she was? Honestly.

Carolla's comments were reported as Women Aren't Funny, resulted viral criticism from a variety of individuals concerning the perceived innate sexism underlying these statements. Carolla himself criticized the viral reports as overly simplistic and misleading.