Overview
- Danson, on W. Kamau Bell’s podcast on Wednesday, June 3, issued a long-form apology for wearing blackface and using racial slurs during a 1993 roast of Whoopi Goldberg and said he will "apologize for the rest of my life."
- The roast took place at the New York Friars Club in 1993; contemporaneous accounts show Danson appeared in blackface, used the n-word, provoked walkouts and drew public condemnation from figures including then–Mayor David Dinkins.
- Danson told Bell he and Goldberg had tried to withdraw from the event as their relationship was ending, that he ran material by Goldberg beforehand, and that he chose blackface as a misguided attempt at "performance theater."
- He said the episode misfired immediately, left lasting reputational damage when clips resurfaced during the Black Lives Matter era, and led to some commercial losses though no new institutional penalties were announced.
- The case illustrates a broader change in norms about racist performance: Friars Club roasts once prized private, outrageous humor but the 1993 incident is now widely cited as an example of how past acts are re-evaluated under today’s standards.