Twitter Dismisses David Sedaris for ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ Appearance

The satirist suggested citizens should be allowed to fire customer-service workers for poor performance

December 7, 2020December 17, 2020 Katie Smith 0 Comments CBS Sunday Morning, Charlotte Clymer, David Sedaris

The latest recipient of Twitter’s ire is satirist David Sedaris, whose appearance on CBS Sunday Morning yesterday left a bad taste in viewers’ mouths. Since then, Sedaris has gone private on Twitter and protected his apparently nonexistent previous tweets.

david sedaris getting ratioed and having a protected account despite having zero tweets is some of the funniest shit i've seen on here pic.twitter.com/ZEh6UNnkOg

— kim possible facts (@kimpossiblefact) December 6, 2020

“I’d like to introduce an idea for something I’m calling the ‘citizen’s dismissal.’ It’s like a citizen’s arrest, but instead of detaining someone, you get to fire them,” he says in a very ratioed bit for CBS’ Twitter account. Watch the full two-minute bit below.

.@DavidSedaris demands the right to fire others

The humorist suggests the power of a "citizen's dismissal," like a citizen's arrest, could revolutionize customer service https://t.co/bIqxoYzGs0 pic.twitter.com/fTli5vqf2F

— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) December 6, 2020

On Twitter, fans called out Sedaris’ joke as tone deaf, especially right now when everything is horrible for a lot of people.

“Uhhhh… I think many of us are fans of David’s sardonic style, and this is completely and resolutely off-the-mark,” tweeted Charlotte Clymer. “I was waiting for the punchline or a clever pivot, and none came! I don’t get why y’all thought this was what we needed to hear right now. It’s very weird.”

“I adored him – and truth be told, was deeply inspired as a writer by him – twenty years ago, but once David Sedaris got rich, I lost all interest in his writing because so much of it was about how rich he was,” wrote comedy account @TomandLorenzo.

“unfortunately I have to report that David Sedaris is no longer a humorist, I have fired him,” tweeted reporter Tori Bedford, continuing, “people are responding to this telling me that I don’t understand satire. is that also satire? this is becoming too meta even for me.”

Many fans caught the irony of the humorist’s bit, citing Sedaris’ essay “Santaland Diaries,” describing his tenure as an elf in a department store Christmas display. “She said, I’m going to have you fired.” Sedaris wrote in 1992. “I had two people say that to me today. Who do these people think they are? I want to lean over and say, I’m going to have you killed.” Writer Jon Schwarz has a good thread on the essay here.

While other fans think anyone who’s outraged just doesn’t understand satire.

“Pretty sure everyone canceling David Sedaris today would’ve believed Jonathan Swift genuinely wanted to eat babies in 1729,” tweeted user @Mellzah.