It is too soon to joke about a tragedy that left twelve people dead and 58 others injured. But not for comedian Dane Cook. In his performance at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles on Thursday, the 40-year-old Cook said:

“So I heard that the guy came into the theater about 25 minutes into the movie,” he said. “And I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie, but the movie is pretty much a piece of s–t. Yeah, spoiler alert.”

He continued, “I know that if none of that would have happened, pretty sure that somebody in that theater, about 25 minutes in, realizing it was a piece of s–t, was probably like, ‘Ugh f—— shoot me.'”

He was bombarded with angry reactions after that. He later apologized via Twitter:

“I am devastated by the recent tragedy in Colorado & did not mean to make light of what happened,” Cook tweeted this afternoon. “I made a bad judgment call with my material last night & regret making a joke at such a sensitive time. My heart goes out to all of the families & friends of the victims.”

Listen to the audio: