Comedian Artie Lange has been banned from ESPN after ESPN reporter Cari Champion became the target of his racist sex fantasy rant on Twitter, TMZ reports.

Lange started tweeting @CariChampion on Tuesday. “The chick on ESPNs First Take is so Fu–in hot,” Lange tweeted. His tweets became increasingly graphic.

“Hey @CariChampion lets me and you get busy,” the comedian tweeted.

At one point, according to USA Today, Lange wrote: “I’m T Jefferson & she’s my slave.”

Although Artie later tried to defend his tweet, claiming that he “thought it would be funny to tweet jokes” about his “observation” that Cari is attractive, ESPN wasn’t amused, offering the following statement to Sports Illustrated magazine:

“His comments were reprehensible and no one should be subjected to such hateful language,” ESPN said in a statement. “They objectify and demean one of our valued employees under the thin guise of ‘comedy’ and are offensive to all of us. We will not dignify them with any other comment.”

Lange took to Facebook to offer the following apology to Cari:

“I would rather load trucks for a living then ever apologize to one of these awful PC groups ruining the country. So that’s a NO. But if it upset the lady in question that’s another story. Let me say to Cari Champion if this hurt u in any way I’m sorry. I’m a comedian. Sometimes I’m funny! For the record my moms disgusted w the tweets. But if I based my humor on my mom I’d be broke.”

ESPN wasn’t the only network to punish Artie for his racist tweets. According to FOX Sports’ @TheBuzzer, Comedy Central yanked Lange from a scheduled appearance on the network’s “Midnight” Wednesday.

What do you think of Artie’s tweets and ESPN and Comedy Central’s reactions? Start a conversation by sharing your thoughts in the comments section.