Bean dad says his story was ‘poorly told’ and child was laughing, claims antisemitic slurs were ‘sarcastic’

Musician John Roderick says he is sorry for ‘insensitivity’ and his ‘legacy of hurtful language’

Bean dad says his story was ‘poorly told’ and child was laughing, and claims anti-Semitic slurs were ‘sarcastic’ (Musician John Roderick performing for KNKX Public Radio (KNKX Public Radio/YouTube))

The musician behind the Bean Dad controversy says the  viral story about his daughter was ‘poorly told’ and that old anti-Semitic comments were ‘sarcastic.’

John Roderick found himself at the heart of an Internet storm after a Twitter thread about his daughter struggling to use a can opener went viral.

Mr Roderick described in the thread how he let his daughter struggle for six hours to open the can of beans without helping.

And he said he only gave her vague hints as he let her figure out for herself how to use the utensil.

Now Mr Roderick, who is a podcaster and also performs with the band The Long Winters, has apologised and clarified his actions.

He admitted he deleted his Twitter account “in a panic” when old tweets resurfaced.

"I had to reflect on what I’d done and the hurt I’d caused, and my mind was clouded by an unprecedented flow of new information," wrote Mr Roderick.

"I want to acknowledge and make amends for the injuries I caused. I have many things to atone for.

“My parenting story’s insensitivity and the legacy of hurtful language in my past are both profound failures. I want to confront them directly.”

He became known as Bean Dad after he wrote that when his nine-year-old daughter asked for lunch he suggested she make baked beans.

Mr Roderick was then criticised for seemingly letting the youngster go hungry as she tried to achieve the task, which he has now denied.

"My story about my daughter and the can of beans was poorly told,” he added.

“I didn’t share how much laughing we were doing, how we had a bowl of pistachios between us all day as we worked on the problem, or that we’d both had a full breakfast together a few hours before.

"Her mother was in the room with us all day and alternately laughing at us and telling us to be quiet while she worked on her laptop.”

Mr Roderick added that he understood how his brand of comedy had lead to suggestions his actions had been “abusive".

"I was ignorant, insensitive to the message that my 'pedant dad' comedic persona was indistinguishable from how abusive dads act, talk and think," he wrote.

“I reread the story and saw clearly that I’d framed it so poorly, so insensitively.

“Bean Dad, full of braggadocio and d***head swagger, was hurting people. I’d conjured an abusive parent that many people recognised from real life.”

Mr Roderick also tried to explain his past offensive tweets.

“As for the many racist, anti-Semitic, hurtful and slur-filled tweets from my early days on Twitter I can say only this: all of those tweets were intended to be ironic, sarcastic,” he wrote.

“I thought then that being an ally meant taking the slurs of the oppressors and flipping them to mock racism, sexism, homophobia, and bigotry.

“I am humiliated by my incredibly insensitive use of the language of sexual assault in casual banter. “

And he admitted he should not have deleted his Twitter account, but faced the criticism.

"I am deeply sorry for having precipitated more hurt in the world, for having prolonged or exacerbated it by fighting back and being flippant when confronted, and for taking my Twitter feed offline yesterday instead of facing the music," he wrote.