Hugh Laurie has apologised for a "drunk" brutal outburst over someone criticising House.
The 66-year-old actor, who played grumpy doctor Gregory House in the medical drama, responded with a scathing retort after freelance journalist Janet Murray poked fun at the show's formulaic episodes, which the journalist claimed led to her being heavily trolled online.
In response, Laurie wrote on X: "I'm sorry if people have been having a go at you because of my tweet.
"Not at all the plan. I was very slightly drunk and already upset about something that had nothing to do with you.
"If it's any comfort, I got it in the neck too. I'm a thin-skinned twat, apparently, even though it wasn't my skin. I was sticking up for the writers who I adored.
"Obviously I shouldn't have cited Bach/Kahlo/Moore - asking for trouble - and would have done better to go for the 10,000 blues songs written around the same 12-bar chord structure.
"I've listened to most of them and will keep doing so. Because we love what we love."
In her original post, which has been viewed more than two million times, Murray revealed she had just started watching the first season of House.
She wrote: "Same narrative every episode: Patient has mysterious illness. Hugh Laurie (House) gets diagnosis wrong. Patient nearly dies.
"Hugh Laurie gets diagnosis wrong again. Gets threatened with being fired. Patient nearly dies again. Hugh Laurie has last minute leftfield idea. Gets diagnosis right. Doesn't get fired. Eight seasons of this?"
Laurie caught wind of the tweet, and issued a brutal response, including claiming that her critique could apply to "other art forms".
He commented: "Thanks for your critique, Murray. We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Laurie Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only 6 minutes long. NBC weren't happy.
"Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn't happy.
"One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??
"The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn't meant for you.
"Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel."
House ran for eight seasons between 2004 and 2012, with Laurie getting six Emmy nominations for his role, while the show also got nominated for outstanding drama series on four occasions.