A US comedy show has apologised after it unknowingly mocked a student with aggressive brain cancer for his “Nazi hair”.
On Wednesday night, TBS programme Full Frontal with Samantha Bee ran a report ridiculing young conservative men for their haircuts - including university student Kyle Coddington.
Focusing on an image of the 20-year-old, reporter Michael Rubens said: “This year, the bow ties were gone, replaced by Nazi hair, Nazi hair, Nazi hair.”
But just hours after it aired, Coddington’s sister hit back at the show on social media, revealing that the sides of her brother’s head had been shaved because he is a cancer patient.
Megan Coddington wrote on Twitter: “When @iamsambee makes fun of your brother for having ‘Nazi hair’.
“He actually has stage 4 brain cancer, but whatever floats your boat.”
Coddington also responded on Twitter to the segment - which has now been removed from the show - asking producers to delete the episode because “I look like a balding potato”.
The show quickly issued an apology, with host Samantha Bee tweeting: “We deeply apologize for offending you and @_that_kyle. We only learned of his condition today & have removed him from the piece.”
The programme has also donated $1,000 to Coddington’s family to help pay for his medical expenses.
But in a statement, the student, who says his cancer is thought to be incurable, wrote: “Samantha Bee tweeted an apology for ‘offending’ me, but I want to make it clear that half-apologising for offending someone is not apologising for making baseless accusations against people because of the way they look.
“This kind of behaviour should be rejected by both sides of the aisle.”
He continued: “With that being said, thank you to Full Frontal for donating $1,000 to my GoFundMe page.
“I am overwhelmed by the support received in that account, an am grateful to everyone who has contributed.”