Former 80s star Scott Baio, 48, stirred up a sh*tstorm by posting a nasty, unflattering picture of Michelle Obama on Twitter with the caption “WOW He wakes up to this every morning.” The insults then began flying from both sides, with at least one person threatening Baio with death and Baio reporting them to the authorities. Baio was also accused of being racist, to which he posted photos of himself posing with his wife’s best friend and wrote “Do I look like I’m racist? This is Renee’s BEST frd. STOP USING THE RACE CARD!!!” That’s an incredibly typical and overused response. “I can’t be racist, I have a black friend!” I don’t think it’s necessarily racist to criticize someone’s looks if they’re a different race, but it’s sure mean to post a very unflattering photo of someone and express fake sympathy for their spouse. How would he feel if someone did that to his wife?

There aren’t too many people on Twitter wishing happy days for Scott Baio right now.

The former sitcom star’s is being reamed by fellow Twitter users after posting a highly unflattering photo of Michelle Obama with the accompanying comment, “WOW He wakes up to this every morning.”

Very ungentlemanly behavior toward the first lady, yes, but probably just a douchey attempt at a joke from an avowed Republican with issues.

“People need to relax and laugh a bit,” a probably startled Baio wrote when the onslaught began of people calling him everything from racist to a-hole to irrelevant. “Life is too short no matter what party you are with. A joke is just that, a joke.”

The tweeters who say they want him dead aren’t seeing the humor, however.

“PLEASE NOTE: The FBI has been contacted & we have a file number for the threats, along with twitter support. Thx,” Baio wrote at about noon today in response to posts like this one:

“Timafi: ‘easy to find your house Scottie boy and finish YOU. I am a republican and I love Mrs O.'”

Ishatonu “wonders how long until @RealScottBaio realizes his career is dead. Resorting to insulting Michelle Obama will only further his irrelevancy.”

“LOL @RealScottBaio got called out for being a racist mean spirit asshole and now he is having a meltdown via twitter,” wrote an apparently tickled windycitywatch.

“One bad picture of a woman & everyone wants to bash me? If it had been of Palin ppl would have prob. cheered. I am NOT making fun of any1,” countered a baffled Baio, who earlier today posted a photo of him and a woman he identified as his wife’s black best friend as further defense against the racism accusations.

But informing Twitter users that he had contacted the authorities didn’t stop the bum rush.

“Do everyone a favor @realscottbaio, and KILL YOURSELF!” user TrendZ86 wrote on Baio’s page at around 3 p.m.

“I love you to @TrendZ86 Waa Wa Wa.. LMAO,” the Charles in Charge star responded. “Funny thing is I’ve jumped to almost 5000 because ppl like to hate. You’d think they wouldn’t follow. I block’em & play golf.”

[From E! Online]

This touches on something that truly bothers me about the Internet. I realize this is ripe coming from a gossip blogger, but the personal attacks have got to stop. Yes we are very guilty of talking smack about people’s looks too. The thing is, people say the cruelest things online and are willing to take it many steps further than they ever would in person. Also, just because one or two people on the other side are out of line with their response doesn’t mean that your original post was justified. Just because people on the other side use similar rude tactics doesn’t mean that you should do it too. This is basic gradeschool etiquette but somehow it seems to have escaped many Internet commenters.

I hate flame wars, I really do. It’s a waste of time and there’s no reason to get all worked up over some stupid sh*t someone says online. Yes it was dumb, immature and petty to post a photo of the first lady and make a dig about her looks. So let’s just call it for what it is and let it go. It’s probably the most press Scott Baio has received since he was on Charles in Charge.

To be fair to Baio, I did hear about a foundation he started to help other families dealing with infant metabolic disorders. His daughter Bailey, 2, initially tested false positive for a disorder and is now doing fine. See, I said something nice when I didn’t have to. It made me feel better at least.