Musical parodist and political commentator Randy Rainbow, whose latest viral video celebrated Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, shared an interview with Good Day LA on Monday in which he apologized again for a series of offensive and racist tweets from 2010 that resurfaced last week.
Said Rainbow to the show’s hosts Tony McEwing and Araksya Karapetyan: “I have apologized for these jokes. They were a decade old and I apologize again happily, thank you for the opportunity.”
“First of all, I am in no way racist or transphobic,” said Rainbow. “I am quite the opposite of those things. These were jokes that were tweeted a decade ago at a time when politically incorrect humor, for better or worse, was mainstream and I was an aspiring comedian in my twenties. I was searching for my comedic persona. I was emulating styles that I saw on television and in the comedy world around me. I was trying very deliberately to be provocative and edgy and it was a mistake.”
“I quickly evolved with the times and began using my platform the way I do now and have for many years which is to call out actual racism and bigotry and speak truth to power and shine a light on issues that I feel demand our attention,” Rainbow explained. “So these were really crappy, offensive jokes from 10 years ago and they do not align with my integrity, they do not align with my real body of work and they are certainly not a reflection of who I am.”
“I am known for doing satire,” Rainbow added. “This was the kind of satire at its lowest form that I was experimenting with in those days. There’s no place for that kind of humor and that’s why I have stopped expressing myself in those ways. I stopped many years ago and would never choose to put humor like that out today.”
