After Jacqueline Woodson accepted the National Book Award in young people's literature for her memoir Brown Girl Dreaming last night, host Daniel Handler shared a "joke" about her with the audience: she's allergic to watermelon. Get it? Because she's black. You can feel the tension in the room through your screen.

Handler—better known to most readers as the man behind Lemony Snicket—followed the racist anecdote with a disclaimer of sorts that just made the whole thing even shittier:

"I told you. I told Jackie she was going to win, and I said that if she won, I would tell all of you something I learned about her this summer, which is that Jackie Woodson is allergic to watermelon. Just let that sink in your mind.

And I said, "You have to put that in a book." And she said, "You put it in a book." And I said, "I'm only writing a book about a black girl who's allergic to watermelon if I get a blurb from you, Cornell West, Toni Morrison, and Barack Obama saying 'This guy's OK. This guy's fine.'"

He apologised:
https://twitter.com/DanielHandler/st...74608724787200
https://twitter.com/DanielHandler/st...74801469837312

I am so disappointed, not one of my favourite writers... A Series Of Unfortunate Events is amazing

Read more here:
http://gawker.com/lemony-snicket-mak...nal-1661096744

So she's actually allergic to watermelon? Then how is that racist not his fault she's allergic.

I loved series of unfortunate events as a kid

lol its okay people, it's pretty much a racist comment but even Jacqueline Woodson was okay with the comment.
He probably should of kept his mouth shut however.

he was saying it as if its funny... because she's black and black people like watermelon according to racist stereotypes.

The stereotype already existed though, her allergy is a coincidence, obviously people may find it funny I don't think Lemony Snicket is a racist. Nobody accuses comedians like Larry David or Seth McFarlane of racism, so why Lemony?

So, because the stereotype already existed, Snicket's comment wasn't racist? What exactly are you saying? Regardless of his intent, a white man trying to crack wise about a black woman being allergic to watermelon is not cute.

But she was allergic, it's not like he just made it up. He only pointed it out. I see worse jokes on EVERY comedy which features "people of colour" so why aren't people attacking those too?

I'm sorry, but I can't help but feel like "all black people like watermelon" is pretty goddamn low on the offensive stereotypes scale. Yes, it's a stereotype and his joke wasn't particularly funny, but it's also pretty harmless.

His following comments were a bit off-putting, though.

Not really racist but okay

I'm 100% not being racist when I say that when I worked at a grocery store, African American customers purchased twice as many watermelons as white customers. Facts not opinions!

And he got so many of my coins when I bought his books when I was a kid.

I agree with you. This is so silly.

eh whatever

And you felt the need to say this because.....?