Howie Mandel is walking back his on-air clapback to Kelly Ripa over his physical appearance. "I have been debating for 48 hours whether I should make this post or not, and I don't know if I'm doing the right thing," Mandel, 70, said in a Saturday, March 28, Instagram video. "Philosophically, I don't believe that somebody who's a comedian needs to apologize for a joke. It is a joke, it is meant as a joke, and it's not meant to offend." He continued, "You can not like it and, in all my years in the business, I haven't ever publicly apologized for [a joke].