First, he apologized for being part of the potty-mouth banality that passes for prime-time entertainment these days.
Then actor Angus Jones turned around and apologized Tuesday for any offense that his first apology might have caused.
“If you watch ‘Two and Half Men,’ please stop,” Jones told fans Monday in a video posted on-line by a California church.
“Please stop filling your head with filth.”
Jones has played the “half a man” role of Jake on the CBS show for the last nine years.
It took him that long to realize that his hugely popular -- and notoriously raunchy -- sitcom is the cultural equivalent of tobacco smoke. Addictive, perhaps. But noxious.
It took less than 24 hours to realize that you can’t go around bad-mouthing a show that reportedly pays you $350,000 an episode.
Jones didn’t exactly retract his original comments, but he seemed to regret how they were received.
“I apologize,” he said, “if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues.”
Cut him a little slack for being 19 years old and still trying to figure out what to do with his newfound Christian beliefs.
Theologians have been trying for centuries to reconcile the ideals of faith with the demands of daily life. You can’t expect a fresh-faced convert to get it right overnight.
But now that Jones has offered his apologies, it seems that a few people might owe him one.
First, the church leaders. They shouldn’t have put him in the awkward position of condemning a show publicly while he was still involved with it privately.
Quit first. Criticize later.
Second, the producers, who squandered whatever talent Jones might have by giving him a role that he is now rightfully embarrassed to play.
And most of all, his parents. How could they let Jones spend his most impressionable years working on a show that kids shouldn’t even be allowed to watch?
