‘This Is 40′ Child-Murder Joke Stays In Film

"This Is 40" director and writer Judd Apatow says that in spite of the recent murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, a joke about murdering children will stay in the movie when it is released this weekend.

In the scene, a father, played by comedian Albert Brooks, sprays a set of triplets with a hose and jokes, "Line up! Line up for murder! Come on! Who wants to be killed?" before one child responds, "I do!", after which another shouts, "Murder me!"

Brooks' character then adds, "All right. The kids are murdered. That will save us some money."

Apatow defended the line by telling TheWrap, "I wrote this script two years ago. That line is spoken by a sarcastic father kidding with his children. In light of recent events, I understand if some people might make an unfortunate association or put it in a context in which it was not intended." (Uh, ya think?)

"This Is 40", starring Paul Rudd and Apatow's real-life wife Leslie Mann, hits theaters this weekend.