The Art of Saying "I'm Sorry"

As some of you may have heard, the otherworldly smart Benedict Cumberbatch recently proved to us that he's human after all, as he messed up on live television by using an outdated terminology and describing his fellow actors with the adjective "colored".

How this statement offends a certain group of people or not isn't the point here. This is a classic case of abusing political correctness™ in my book, but that's a story for another day. What really matters here, for me at least, is how Sherlock Cumberbatch owned up to his mistake.

So this is, word for word, what Benedict Cumberbatch had to say after his blunder.

I offer my sincere apologies. I make no excuse for my being an idiot and I know the damage is done... I feel the complete fool I am...

I'm gonna go ahead and admit that I'm a big Cumberbatch fanboy. In fact, he's on my ultra-exclusive list of guys on this planet whom I'd say there's a non-zero percent chance of me turning gay just for them. But the fact that I might be a little biased doesn't take away how awesome this apology is. Straight to the point. No excuses. No conditions. No asking for sympathy.

Kids, this is how you should say sorry.

Even if those offended by Cumberbatch aren't satisfied with his apology, I think he's done his part.

But seriously though, how much cooler can this guy get? There's still something to be learned from him even when he screws up.

Apart from learning to control what comes out of your mouth, a lesson here in this incident is what constitutes an appropriate apology. I've heard so many people in the past who said sorry to me, and right after that handing me a barrage of reasons and excuses, as if they're trying to make me feel sorry for them instead.

It's fine if you have valid reasons for messing up, but the point remains: you mess up. That alone deserves a proper apology, one that should not be along the lines of "I'm sorry, but...".

There's no "but". Just say you're sorry, and mean it. If you get an earful for that, so be it, because chances are you deserve one. Also, when you apologize to someone up front and later on explaining to them what leads to your mistake, it works much better than trying to convince them, in the heat of the moment, to forgive you.
 
By the way, my dear readers, I'm sorry for my recent two-week absence. But I do have an excu... never mind.