Washington:
A writer for the US animated comedy program "Family Guy" has apologised after a joke linking Japan's massive quake-tsunami disaster to the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
In a message on Twitter about Friday's earthquake, scriptwriter Alec Sulkin wrote: "If you wanna feel better about this earthquake in Japan, google 'Pearl Harbor death toll."
The reference to imperial Japan's sneak attack on US forces in Hawaii, which killed around 2,500 people, set off a storm of criticism over the Internet.
Sulkin apologised on Sunday and deleted the message, explaining that he wrote it when he believed the death toll was lower.
"Yesterday death toll = 200. Today = 10,000. I am sorry for my insensitive tweet. It's gone," he wrote.
He then quipped: "If you wanna feel better about the floods in New Jersey, google 'MTV's Jersey Shore," a reference to the popular reality television show which is
often the butt of jokes.
"Family Guy," an animated series about an American family, is known for its controversial humour including story lines about incest.