(Photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)Signs drawn on fabric are seen hanging from a tree at a memorial for victims behind the theater where a gunman opened fire on moviegoers in Aurora, Colorado July 24, 2012. The man accused of killing 12 people in a shooting rampage at a midnight showing of the new "Batman" film in a Denver suburb made his first court appearance on Monday.

Dane Cook has apologized for a "Dark Knight" joke he told last week which has received strong backlash. His joke offended many people connected to the Colorado shooting tragedy and scores took to social networking sites to label Cook "insensitive."

The furore kicked off when Cook told a joke to an audience about the shootings in Aurora, Colorado,suggesting that people would find the new Batman film so bad that after a while they would be begging someone to shoot them.

Cook joked, "I know that if none of that had happened, I'm pretty sure that somebody in that theater, about 25 minutes in, realizing it was a piece of crap, probably was like, 'Ugh, f*****g shoot me.'"

The audience at the stand-up show at The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles was split in their response, with some laughing, but many others giving a groan of dissatisfaction at the taste of the joke.

The joke about Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises" immediately sparked a backlash on the Internet. Many called the joke distasteful, others ranted at how insensitive Cook had been, but not many had expected Cook to make an apology.

However, that is exactly what Cook has come out to do. The comedian took to his Twitter account to issue his apology and admit that he did not mean to offend.

"I am devastated by the recent tragedy in Colorado and did not mean to make light of what happened. I made a bad judgment call with my material last night & regret making a joke at such a sensitive time. My heart goes out to all of the families and friends of the victims," Cook posted on his Twitter account.

Since the apology many of his fans have come out to offer their support to Cook, saying they appreciated his humility to admit his mistake.