Seinfeld's Jason Alexander Apologizes for 'Cricket Is Gay' Remarks

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) isn't a group one wants on his or her bad side. Take, for instance, actor Kirk Cameron, who GLAAD launched a crusade against a few months ago. His offense? Stating his opposition to homosexuality. Then there was CNN's Roland Martin, who GLAAD called out after some allegedly anti-gay Super Bowl tweeting. Rather than becoming the group's newest target, Seinfeld's Jason Alexander, who played "George" on the popular sitcom, quickly released an apology following some perceived anti-gay sentiment in an interview he gave on Friday.

Alexander's controversy happened on Craig Ferguson's "The Late Late Show" last week. During his appearance, the actor repeatedly referred to cricket as a "gay sport." The cricket pitch, too, he deemed "queer" and not, in essence, manly, The Huffington Post reports.

"You know how I know it's really kind of a gay game? It's the pitch," Alexander, 52, said. "It's the weirdest… It's not like a manly baseball pitch; it's a queer British gay pitch."

Watch his comments and his demonstration of the "gay" pitch, below:

It didn't take long for controversy to commence and for bloggers and gay and lesbian media outlets to condemn Alexander's words as "homophobic." Perhaps learning from those public figures who have come before him, the former Seinfeld comic quickly apologized for statements that caused controversy and offense.

Alexander released a statement through Twitter (it was picked up by GLAAD), during which he made his swift apology. Here's a portion of the long-winded commentary that the actor offered surrounding the matter:

...When Craig mentioned cricket I thought, “oh, goody – I have a comic bit about cricket I can do. Won’t that be entertaining?”. And so I did a chunk of this old routine and again referred to cricket as kind of “gay” – talking about the all white uniforms that never seem to get soiled; the break they take for tea time with a formal tea cart rolled onto the field, etc. I also did an exaggerated demonstration of the rather unusual way they pitch the cricket ball which is very dance-like with a rather unusual and exaggerated arm gesture. Again, the routine seemed to play very well and I thought it had been a good appearance.

Shortly after that however, a few of my Twitter followers made me aware that they were both gay and offended by the joke. And truthfully, I could not understand why. I do know that humor always points to the peccadillos or absurdities or glaring generalities of some kind of group or another – short, fat, bald, blonde, ethnic, smart, dumb, rich, poor, etc. It is hard to tell any kind of joke that couldn’t be seen as offensive to someone. But I truly did not understand why a gay person would be particularly offended by this routine.

However, troubled by the reaction of some, I asked a few of my gay friends about it. And at first, even they couldn’t quite find the offense in the bit. But as we explored it, we began to realize what was implied under the humor. I was basing my use of the word “gay” on the silly generalization that real men don’t do gentile, refined things and that my portrayal of the cricket pitch was pointedly effeminate , thereby suggesting that effeminate and gay were synonymous.

Alexander went on to apologize for his jokes, reiterating that it was not his intention to make anyone feel isolated or hurt as a result of his quips. He went on to say that he wishes for a society in which everyone can accept one another and laugh at one-liners like these, knowing "that there is no malice of diminishment intended."

You can read the entire apology on the GLAAD web site.