Dane Cook's comic timing could use a little polishing.
Just under a week after a gunman killed 12 and injured dozens of others at an Aurora, Colorado, screening of "The Dark Knight Rises," Cook joked Thursday night that the movie was so bad that the victims were likely hoping to be killed anyway.
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"This movie is pretty much a piece of crap," Cook opined at Hollywood's Laugh Factory, before launching into his joke. "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 crap, was probably like, ‘Ugh fucking shoot me.'"
Cook's wisecrack was met with a mixture of laughs and groans from the audience.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Cook's joke has likewise met with a lukewarm reaction online.
"Wow, Dane Cook. Please be more pathetic and desperate for attention," one tweeter wrote.
"Too soon? Too soon," BuzzFeed opined.
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Cook has not yet addressed his controversial choice of humor on his Twitter account, but he did write yesterday, "I've got a feeling something really bad is about happen but I'm gonna stick around to see if I'm right."
Yeah, no kidding.
Cook's comedy pilot "Next Caller," starring the comedian as an alpha-male DJ, received a six-episode order from NBC earlier this year. NBC had no comment on Cook's joke for TheWrap.
Listen to Cook's Aurora shooting crack below.