Two And A Half Men Co-Creator Issues Twitter Apology After Bashing Female Comedy

After setting off a firestorm of angry responses – mostly from females around the world including actresses, Two and A Half Men creator Lee Aronsohn issued what came across as a forced apology via Twitter today. His brief apology is unlikely to reverse the opinions of him that many women likely formed in the wake of the initial female-comedy-bashing.

Aronsohn made clear his opinion regarding what is apparently a few too many female-based comedies on television, saying “Enough ladies. I get it. You have periods.” He then went on to make some comments in even poorer taste, referencing female genitalia along the way. The comments took place at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference, but Aronsohn’s apology was simply posted via Twitter. "Yes, yes - it was a stupid joke. I'm sorry.” Aronsohn tweeted, giving the impression that he was more annoyed with the response than sorry.

The New York Times reported a pre-apology tweet that has disappeared from Aronsohn’s feed asking women to “look up irony”. How he went from sending the ladies to the dictionary to apologizing is anyone’s guess, but he sure irritated a lot of people.

Among the respondents to the comments were actress Martha Plimpton, who reminded Aronsohn that women make up a large portion of the television viewing audience and asked “what were you thinking?” and Daily Show co-creator Liz Winstead. Her comment was a little more amusing: “You realize that if we are at peak vagina, the prices at the pump are gonna skyrocket.”

But the winner might be Nancy Franklin, a former New Yorker TV critic, who gave out Aronsohn’s twitter handle and invited women to make their opinions known.

So is Aronsohn truly sorry? I highly doubt it. It’s more likely he realized that Two and a Half Men is not (and really never has been) in a position to alienate any viewers, least of all those female viewers it might have.