Dear celebrities,

First of all, thank you for being so entertaining. Following you guys on Twitter brings such joy to my day when I waste time on the Internet or need to look busy on my phone.

Having said that, you need to be a lot more careful. You can’t just post anything up there. You could get yourselves in a lot of trouble.

A prime example of this is what happened with Gilbert Gottfried a couple of weeks ago. The comedian and voice of the duck for Aflac Insurance made some pretty tasteless posts to his Twitter account, @RealGilbert, following the earthquake and tsunami disasters in Japan.

Exemplifying the very definition of “too soon,” Gottfried tweeted jokes such as “Japan called me. They said ‘maybe these jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they’re all sinking.'”

Your jokes are sinking here too, Gottfried. Similar jokes were posted, and all were later deleted from his Twitter account. Unfortunately, this had little effect, seeing as how nothing on the Internet is ever truly deleted. The posts quickly spread, and tempers flared. Public relations officials for Aflac soon responded by distancing themselves from Gottfried and announcing a nationwide casting call for his replacement.

Of course, Gottfried isn’t the only offender in recent Twitter feeds. Kenneth Cole, an American clothing designer, recently sparked controversy by starting his trending topic, “#kennethcoletweets.”

During the 18-day protests in Egypt, Cole tweeted, “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online.” The tweet was followed by a link to the designer’s online store.

Using a civil uprising to promote your clothing line when hundreds have died for its cause? That’s not very classy, Kenneth Cole.

Not surprisingly, the post captured the attention of the Twittersphere and #kennethcoletweets became a trending topic. Cole quickly became a laughing stock after several other users posted fake tweets referencing other historical events meant to point out how offensive Cole’s shameless plug really was.

Any good comedian will tell you that a huge part of humor is timing. Sometimes, when an appropriate amount of time has passed, jokes similar to these can be funny — possibly even a way of boosting morale by making light of something sad. It’s all part of the collective mourning and healing process; there is a time and a place for comments like these. But some things, like international tragedies that just happened and, in fact, are still happening, will never be funny.

So, to all you celebrities who tweet every thought that passes through your famous heads — I’m looking at you, Kanye West and Charlie Sheen — think twice before you type those 140 characters. Nothing spreads faster on the Web than a well-known person saying something stupid.

Sincerely,

Wendy Cawthon