American comedian Anthony Jeselnik received death threats from New Zealanders after using Adam Strange’s shark attack as material on his show.
The 'Shark Party' sketch was uploaded to YouTube in March by The Jeselnik Offensive, a show on US network Comedy Central that claims to offer a "dark and twisted point of view" to each week's "must-see 'train wreck' news", and "rip the veil of sanctity from off-limit topics".
The sketch has drew a number of comments from offended New Zealanders and shocked Muriwai locals.
"Americans loved it but New Zealanders got furious and there was a backlash," Jeselnik told talk show host Conan O'Brien yesterday.
"In New Zealand, they got so mad there were, like, death threats online, and then someone posted my Mum and Dad's address and phone number online."
Jeselnik had to call the Police department to protect his parents and get them to change their phone number.
Tim Jago, surf lifeguard at Muriwai, told the New Zealand Herald locals were "disgusted" at the time.
"The fact that it's in incredibly poor taste isn't in question. I couldn't find where the humour was in it for a start, so it was pretty lame in that respect," he told the paper.
"I thought it would be funny, and it was, if when a guy got killed by a shark we would do a shark party," Jeselnik said.
He said the problem was that New Zealanders did not know who he was. If they knew his style they would have understood it was just "classic Jeselnik".
"When I say it it sounds bad, but when you see it it is amazing."
3 News
source: newshub archive
