By now, you’ve probably all heard about Michael Richards’ meltdown at an L.A. comedy club last Friday. Richards, better known as Kramer from the tv series “Seinfeld”, was being heckled during a stand-up routine, and responded by uncoupling his brain from his mouth and handing control over to a blind, career-destroying rage.
(From TMZ.com — CONTENT WARNING: extremely offensive and profane. Be sensitive to your surroundings if you choose to view the video):
The camera started rolling just as Richards began his attack, screaming at one of the men, “Fifty years ago we’d have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your ass.”
Richards continued, “You can talk, you can talk, you’re brave now motherf**ker. Throw his ass out. He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! A nigger, look, there’s a nigger!”
The crowd is visibly and audibly confused and upset. Richards responds by saying, “They’re going to arrest me for calling a black man a nigger.”
There’s nothing funny about this incident, and there’s no context into which it can be placed to excuse it. He was completely over the top and out of control.
Rage is like that.
Last night, he appeared via satellite and apologized on David Letterman, who had already scheduled an appearance by Jerry Seinfeld. (TMZ story and video here, AP via Yahoonews:)
“For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I’m deeply, deeply sorry,” the former “Seinfeld” co-star said during a satellite appearance for David Letterman’s “Late Show” in New York.
“I’m not a racist. That’s what’s so insane about this,” Richards said, his tone becoming angry and frustrated as he defended himself.
You know what? I believe that he’s stunned, confused, and deeply apologetic. However, I also think he needs to take himself off the comedy circuit and go get some help — not just on anger management, but for what came out of his mouth.
Meanwhile, I’ve got to figure out how I’ll ever be able to watch an episode of Seinfeld again — a show I loved — without mentally gagging every time Kramer makes an appearance.
He an apologize till the cows come home; unleash the rage and out pours the supressed racial hatred. It reminds me of a line from a movie; “I see Racists, they’re everywhere.”
It’s exactly at those times of rage that you find out what people really think. Maybe he can go into group therapy with Mel Gibson.
He offended people, he recognized this, and apologized. Please let this be the end of the story. This wasn’t a Trent Lott moment. He isn’t an elected official or any sort of leader of a cause that his comments would be ironic to be associated with. After about a day’s worth of coverage I put this in the file with favorite foods of Paris Hilton.
I thought it was funny. Stupid ass liberals all offended but they laugh their ass off when a black comedian insults a whitey. DUMB ASSES
Annabel, your comment leaves me a tad nonplussed. Are you under the impression that Richards was delivering a comedy routine that just wasn’t received well?
No, it wasn’t.. Trent Lott didn’t stand up and shout out F-bombs and call people n*4r and talk about hanging folks upside down and inserting kitchen utensils into body orifices that were not their mouths. Sen. Lott was speaking at a celebration for an old, old, old, old, old friend and colleague, and reminisced on how things might have been different - not all that unusual a thing to do in this type of event.
For me, the difference is simple. If I were to meet Sen. Lott on the street, I would be polite and shake his hand. If I were to meet Mr. Richards, I would turn and walk the other way.
~EdT.
Well I sure didn’t — and if his tirade had sparked a riot, I don’t think that would have been too funny, either.
I also don’t think it is funny (though it is very ironic) that people seem to be willing to forgive this man his transgression, while they insist on committing people like Mel Gibson and Dave Lenihan to the bonfire - and in the case of Mr. Lenihan, there was no animosity or rage whatsoever - he simply got his tongue twisted (something that happens to a lot of us now and then.)
~EdT.
[…] An AP story via the San Jose Mercury News says that, as a result of Michael Richards’ raging madness onstage earlier this month (earlier post here), they’re calling upon the entertainment industry to ban the “n-word”: Black leaders on Monday challenged the entertainment industry, including rap artists, actors and major studios, to stop use of the racial slur that triggered the Michael Richards scandal. […]