Offensive Whitney Houston Greeting Card Pulled from Target Shelves

When a celebrity dies, skeletons can and do come out of the closet; but, despite whatever sort of sordid past that individual might have had, jokes at the deceased individual's expense are quite taboo. That is why a Whitney Houston greeting card has been pulled from the shelves at target for its offensive nature.

The Whitney Houston greeting card poked fun at the singer's downward spiral after hooking up with notorious bad boy Bobby Brown. Inside, the card read: Next time you think of dating the bad boy, consider Whitney Houston. That's all I'm going to say.

The card was produced and distributed long before the singer died, reported TMZ on Wednesday. However, since the 48-year-old suddenly died on Feb. 11, the card is no longer funny. It is downright offensive.

Target has decided that the greeting card's message goes too far and has decided to pull it from store shelves.

A representative for the store told TMZ: The card was in our stores prior to Ms. Houston's death. As soon as this was brought to our attention, we began the process of removing the card from all applicable stores.

A photo of the Whitney Houston greeting card began circulating on the social news Web site, Reddit. You can click here to see the image of the card, posted on TMZ.

Everyone's favorite crass funny-lady Joan Rivers has even acknowledged that making jokes about Whitney Houston is inappropriate. According to KPTV, E! had to pull an episode of Fashion Police in which Rivers makes fun of Houston. WE also had to edit a future episode of Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? for the same reasons.

Up until she was dead, everybody was [making drug jokes about Houston], Rivers said on Bravo's Watch What Happens: Live with Andy Cohen. Winona Ryder -- you do stealing jokes. Whitney Houston -- you did smoking jokes and broke jokes, so of course we pulled it.

You don't want to [do a joke] once somebody's dead. That's why I don't do a Betty White joke, she SAID. You don't know!