Comedian Artie Lange took his admiration of ESPN anchor Cari Champion too far yesterday and now he has been banned from the network for it.
In a series of tweets, Lange detailed a racist, sexual fantasy with the First Take anchor where he’s Thomas Jefferson and Champion is his slave.
It started off with the semi-innocent post “The chick on ESPNs First Take is so f—-n hot!” to lewd tweets like “Here’s the scenario I’m using to j###### to chick on First Take I’m T. Jefferson & she’s my slave. She beats the sh-t out of me & runs free” and many other inappropriate tweets followed.
When he realized he was receiving criticism for his twisted fantasy, the former MAD TV funnyman posted a slew of tweets defending himself but did say sorry to Champion.
“So that’s a NO. But if it upset the lady in question that’s another story. Let me say to @CariChampion if this hurt u in any way I’m sorry,” Lange posted.
ESPN has since issued a statement addressing the matter.
“His comments were reprehensible and no one should be subjected to such hateful language. They objectify and demean one of our valued employees under the thin guise of “comedy”and are offensive to all of us. We will not dignify them with any other comment.”
A spokesperson for ESPN told TMZ that “there will be no future bookings with the comedian.” Champion has not made a comment about the ordeal yet but many came to her defense on Twitter with the hashtag #iSupportCari.
Lange was also removed from Comedy Central’s show @midnight.