Racism is alive and well in America. That's not news. What's news is when it is spewed out of the mouths of the rich and famous. Names from Jimmy the Greek to Mel Gibson to Rush Limbaugh have been lambasted for racial comments. Now we can add Michael Richards to the list. Click the title for the full story, but apparently Richards was doing a stand-up routine and was being heckled by a couple black gentlemen. His racial tirade is recorded in print in the article, but let's just say he used a word that rhymes with "trigger."
First of all, this is clearly disappointing. Richards was the actor behind one of the most memorable characters in TV history as Kramer on Seinfeld. Second, don't heckle. If someone's not funny, just leave. Heckling is just a punk thing to do unless you're enduring a standup routine by Osama Bin Laden, reserve your comments for yourself and your inner circle. Or else someone will drop a racial slur on your punk butt.
Monday, November 20, 2006
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6 comments:
First off, I'm not saying this is/was the right thing for him to do, but it doesn't surprise me all that much.
If you ever saw the extra stuff on Seinfeld DVDs, he's the kind of actor who takes his performing very seriously. It's sad that it happened, but I'm not surprised. The more surprising aspect of this is that he's doing stand-up. I didn't know that he did that kind of thing.
This makes two racists in the Seinfeld cast. We all know that Jerry is a rabid anti-dentite.
bratch, I got the same read of him when I saw him interviewed. Didn't seem like a very funny guy off the cuff. Seemed more like an actor who played a role.
picc, that's good.
That anti-dentite bastard.
You can now see the video online. Yet another day I'd love to have speakers on my work computer.
I saw Michael Richards on Letterman last night and he looked to be extremely torn up over all this. He was very sincere in his apology. He tried to explain how this happened and kind of put it down to being on the edge as a comic.
As Bratch said, if you have any of the first six seasons of Seinfeld on DVD and see some of the docs or bloopers of Kramer, you see that he takes his craft very seriously and does seem on the edge. He also gets vry upset if someone screws up a scene. I'm sure if this were Andrew Dice Clay this would not make a ripple, but it's Kramer, someone everyone knows and loves.
I hope people can give Richards another chance and I hope Richards can keep his act on the edge without crossing over it again.
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