UPDATE: Gilbert Arenas' Twitter account has disappeared.
Comedian Joe Mande is known for using his Twitter account to not-so-subtly respond to public figures with sarcastic, barbed jokes that highlight perceived hypocrisy or stupidity. But after he went after Gilbert Arenas, the NBA star hit back -- and he was not happy.
Mande has made a name for himself as a rising star in the comedy world. Best known for his blog and subsequent book "Look At This Fucking Hipster," he was most recently seen opening for John Mulaney at the taping of Mulaney's Comedy Central Presents special. He is also one of the youngest comedians to appear on "WTF with Marc Maron."
In a post on Mande's blog entitled "Can we talk about Gilbert Arenas’ twitter profile pictures?", Mande drew attention to the fact that Arenas had evidently scrubbed his Twitter profile clean, speculating that an NBA higher-up asked him to remove sexist content from his public Twitter account.
From JoeMande.com:
My guess is, Gilbert got a call from his agent sometime this weekend, who said, “Hey Gil, would you mind deleting that tweet you wrote about how you kick women out of your bed when you’re done having sex with them? And the other one about how you want those women to drive themselves home after you’re done having sex with them, even if they might be drunk, because you’re too busy sleeping alone in your king size bed? Oh, and also the one about the box of stolen female toiletries you keep in your bathroom? Actually… just delete all the tweets you’ve ever written ever. Is that cool? Thanks, buddy.”
But Mande had been monitoring Arenas' Twitter for a while, and had saved several of Arenas' Twitter profile pictures that Mande deemed offensive and crude. (Most of the images are the type once found littered on MySpace profiles.) He posted 25 of the images on his blog.
Apparently the post got Arenas' attention, and he was not pleased. Arenas engaged with Mande on Twitter, denigrating his qualifications as a comedian and attacking Mande personally. Mande responded true to his style, by retweeting Arenas' insults, and offering a pointed joke in return.
Arenas has since deleted his responses to Mande (although Mande's account is one of the two accounts he now follows on Twitter). However, modified versions of Arenas' responses are saved in Mande's retweets, seen below.
What do you think? Was Mande wise to mock an NBA player known for pulling a gun on a teammate in a locker room? Or is this all just a harmless Twitter spat?
WATCH: Mande's set from Just For Laughs in 2010.