Tony Blevins, a top executive at Apple has been fired after he delivered a vulgar joke in a viral TikTok video.
Here is everything you need to know.
Apple VP is leaving the company after he made a vulgar remark
An Apple spokesperson recently confirmed that Apple’s vice-president Tony Blevins was on his way out.
The news comes after Blevins made a raunchy remark when he was stopped by TikTok and Instagram creator Daniel Mac.
Mac approached Blevins while he was parking a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren for his popular series where he asks fancy car owners what they do for a living.
The content creator asked, ‘Good sir, your car is awesome. What do you do for a living?’
Instead of saying he works at Apple, Blevins responds with, ‘I race cars, play golf, and fondle big-breasted women. But I take weekends and major holidays off.’
Moreover, Blevins’s comments might be a reference to dialogue in the 1981 movie Arthur. In the film, the billionaire protagonist Arthur Bach says a line about his career which goes, ‘I race cars, play tennis and fondle women, but I have weekends off and I am my own boss.’
According to reports, the video was filmed during a car event in August. But Mac shared it on his social media handles in early September. Nevertheless, the clip has been liked by more than 40,000 users on Instagram.
Social media users react to Tony Blevins’s sexual joke
Netizens expressed their disappointment after news broke out that Tony Blevins was being fired for making a joke.
A user wrote, ‘Apparently, this video was the reason Apple fired their procurement VP, Tony Blevins. It’s off-color but it’s also a loose quote from a movie. It seems overly ‘wokey-cokey’ to fire someone for this. I worry cos I’ve made stupid jokes like this before.’
Furthermore, another chimed in saying, ‘Firing Tony Blevins after 22 yrs for a joke in his spare time. For citing an old movie! Apple is really playing the woke “safe space game.” Horrible!!’
A different user shared, ‘I love apple products, but I’m super disappointed the company would fire Tony Blevins for quoting the movie Arthur outside of work. A black eye for Apple.’
Meanwhile, Blevins issued an official statement for his joke.
He said, ‘I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my mistaken attempt at humor.’