Comedian Adam Carolla on Monday apologized for a homophobic rant in which he said gay people should get married and shut up because they are ruining his life.

“Oh, shut up,” Carolla whined during last week's episode of The Adam Carolla Show. “Can the gays shut up? Just get married and please shut up. You're ruining my life.”

In the episode, Carolla discussed an online petition calling on the producers of Sesame Street to allow puppets Bert and Ernie to marry.

“Yeah, Bert and Ernie butt fucking are going to save a lot of lives. It's going to be awesome.”

“And what does the BLT stand for?” he added, referring to the acronym LGBT, and later suggested “YUCK” would be more appropriate.

Carolla also joked about transgender people: “When did we start giving a shit about these people?” (The audio is embedded in the right panel of this page.)

The humor escaped the folks at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) who called on Carolla to apologize.

“Given his history of anti-gay and racist comments, networks and advertisers should know what their money is supporting if they choose to hire Adam Carolla,” said Herndon Graddick, senior director of programs at GLAAD. “The gross intolerance that he tried to pass off as comedy should not have a place on our airwaves.”

Carolla did apologize, telling celebrity website TMZ.com: “I'm sorry my comments were hurtful. I'm a comedian, not a politician.”