Ebay has found itself caught up in the ongoing row over Jim Carrey's recent pro-gun control comedy skit, in which the Canadian-born comic riffed on former NRA chief Charlton Heston's famous "cold dead hands" speech.
The online auction site has reinstated a listing for an autographed photograph of Carrey that it removed when the seller said they were hoping to raise cash to buy a gun. The sale by a user named "astrobuzz" is one of many that have sprung up on eBay since Carrey released his Funny or Die sketch online, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The skit saw Carrey appearing as the singer of a band featuring dead gun victims Gandhi, John Lennon and Abraham Lincoln, as well as Heston himself. When the Carrey version of Heston realises he is being mocked, he attempts to fire his gun at his tormentor, but it fails to go off. Carrey-Heston finally ends up shooting himself in the foot.
Heston was president of the NRA (National Rifle Association) between 1998 and 2003. The speech in which he told gun control advocates "you can have my guns when you take them from my cold, dead hands" was made in 2000 at an NRA convention in reaction against Democrat candidate Al Gore's decision to opt for a pro-control position ahead of the presidential election.
The eBay listing by "astrobuzz" was laced with anti-Carrey rhetoric, and also mentioned a recent crime to which the user claimed he had been victim. The seller said he wanted to auction off the photograph to raise money for a firearm to help him protect his family. Bids had reached $860 before eBay pulled the auction temporarily last week. Other eBay users have since followed suit, with one promising to send proceeds from sales of Carrey Blu-Ray discs to the NRA and an organisation that sends care packages to members of the US military.
The "Cold Dead Hand" skit has seen Carry vilified in the US right-wing media, but the actor does not seem all that bothered. On Friday he released a statement describing Fox News as a "media colostomy bag" after host Greg Gutfeld called Carrey "the most pathetic tool on the face of the earth", and added: "I hope his career is dead."
Carrey's statement reads: "Since I released my 'Cold Dead Hand' video on Funny or Die this week, I have watched Fux News rant, rave, bare its fangs and viciously slander me because of my stand against large magazines and assault rifles.
"I would take them to task legally if I felt they were worth my time or that anyone with a brain in their head could actually fall for such irresponsible buffoonery. That would gain them far too much attention, which is all they really care about.
"I'll just say this: in my opinion Fux News is a last resort for kinda-sorta-almost-journalists whose options have been severely limited by their extreme and intolerant views; a media colostomy bag that has begun to burst at the seams and should be emptied before it becomes a public health issue.
"I sincerely believe that in time, good people will lose patience with the petty and poisonous behaviour of these bullies and Fux News will be remembered as nothing more than a giant culture fart that no amount of Garlique could cure. I wish them all the luck that accompanies such malevolence."
