The Quick 8: Eight Tweets that Ended in Pink Slips

Newsflash: Tweeting stupid things can cost you your job. You probably already knew that, but these eight people didn't - they spewed forth 140 inappropriate characters or less, and ultimately got fired for it.

1. Just in case you haven't heard the news the past couple of days, Gilbert Gottfried made some insensitive jokes about the catastrophe in Japan. Aflac certainly didn't find them funny - Gottfried provided the voice of the Aflac duck before the insurance company caught wind of his caustic comments, which is when they promptly fired him from the gig. "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,” said the company's chief marketing officer.

2. Gilbert certainly isn't the first comedian to make a tasteless Tweet and pay the price. Australian comedian Catherine Deveny let loose with a few offensive Tweets last spring. She started in April with Anzac Day, then moved on to an unlikely target, 12-year-old Bindi Irwin, who had just attended an awards show: "I do so hope Bindi Irwin gets laid." She was fired from her job as columnist for The Age magazine two days later.

After a long and storied history of sordid Tweets like "Good morning. How was everyone's weekend?" and "If you were rolling up to the red carpet, what Chrysler vehicle would you like to be stepping out of?", the official Chrysler account said,

"I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f***ing drive."

Turns out the guy who was Tweeting for the company thought he was signed into his own account. That's Chrysler's response to the left.

4. Cisco Fatty is one of the first incidents of Tweeting-before-thinking resulting in a pink slip - in this instance, before the employee had even officially started. Upon getting a job offer, a grad student Tweeted, "Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work." Her heart probably dropped right out of her chest when she got this response: "Who is the hiring manager. I'm sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web."
Her identity was figured out, thanks in part to other Twitterers who were outraged at her lack of gratitude, and the job offer was rescinded. Citizens of the Internet have since recounted the tale, referring to the sacked student as "Cisco Fatty."

I'm sure waitstaff in the L.A. area could tell all kinds of horror stories about the thoughtless celebrities they encounter, but perhaps it's best not to do it in such a public forum.

When a waiter at Barney Greengrass was stiffed on a tip from actress Jane Adams (pictured), he complained about it on his Twitter account.

She somehow came across it about a month later and returned to the restaurant a month later with $3 and a printout of the Tweet sullying her name. The waiter was fired.

6. Mike Bacsik, a former MLB pitcher, was working for Dallas radio station The Ticket when he Tweeted this comment about the San Antonio Spurs' win against the Mavericks: "Congrats to all the dirty Mexicans in San Antonio." Although he Tweeted an apology for his racist remarks the next day - a tactic Gilbert Gottfried also tried - the damage was done and he was fired from The Ticket.

7. Even CNN analysts make mistakes. Octavia Nasr was CNN's Senior Editor of Mideast affairs until this Tweet in July 2010: "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot." CNN fired her, concerned that the statement had compromised her credibility.

8. When one California Pizza Kitchen employee expressed his unhappiness with the chain's new uniforms - "@calpizzakitchen black button ups are the lamest s*** ever!!! #CaliporniaSkeetzaKitchen" - the company tracked him down and fired him. The thing is, he's a YouTube user with a pretty huge following, so you can guess what he did. Check out his video retort here.

You can read all of my inappropriate Tweets, too, if you follow me on Twitter.