Kramer Channels the Dice Man

[stray]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15816126/

LOS ANGELES -- Michael Richards stunned a comedy club audience, shouting racial epithets at people who heckled him during a stand-up routine.

The 57-year-old actor-comedian, best known for playing Jerry Seinfeld's eccentric neighbor Kramer on the hit TV show "Seinfeld," was performing at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood Friday night when he launched into the verbal rampage, according to video posted on TMZ.com.

The tirade apparently began after two black audience members started shouting at him that he wasn't funny.

Richards retorted: "Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f------ fork up your a--."

He then paced across the stage taunting the men for interrupting his show, peppering his speech with racial slurs and profanities.

"You can talk, you can talk, you're brave now mother------. Throw his a-- out. He's a n-----!" Richards shouts before repeating the racial epithet over and over again.

[stray]

Video (unfortunately at AOL)

Damn he flipped out.

[schild]

Gotta love the Flushed Away ad before it. He was definately more pissed off at their interruptions than the fact they were black. But then, a black crowd is completely different than a white crowd. Ever sat in on a horror movie? Anyway, I think he went the direction he went for shock value, but I've been wrong before on this shit since I'm completely desensitized.

Either way, bad taste.

[HaemishM]

Wow, that's a great way to shoot your career in the foot. Yeah, they interrupted him, but I think he went way too far over the top on that one. That was Mel Gibson territory.

[Fabricated]

He wasn't funny on Seinfeld, he wasn't funny afterwards. What a surprise.

[stray]

He wasn't Buster Keaton or Peter Sellers, but when Seinfeld was airing, he was the only game in town as far as physical comedy goes. I'll appreciate him for that.

[Sky]

He was also pretty funny on Fridays, but I was very stoned when I was a teen.

[Merusk]

He was great in UHF, too.  But then it wasn't his own material, much like Seinfeld.

[Cheddar]

He was great in UHF, too.  But then it wasn't his own material, much like Seinfeld.

I was under the impression he mostly used improvisation during his work in UHF.



edit.  Clarity.

[Miasma]

Since the hecklers seem to be up on some balcony all I can think of are the two old guys from the Muppet show cracking wise, Kramer is Kermit.  That's probably just me though...

Tomorrow he'll probably take a page from the terrible PR handbook and claim he was drunk/high and check into some rehab center.

[Nebu]

Hickory Dickory Dock...

[Trouble]

Here's a YouTube mirror of it. Sorry for some reason it requires you to register.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgHj_YxyhGc

[Rasix]

Gotta love the Flushed Away ad before it. He was definately more pissed off at their interruptions than the fact they were black. But then, a black crowd is completely different than a white crowd. Ever sat in on a horror movie?

With the possibility of taking this to a bad place (the politics forum), how is that an excuse? I guess you consider it a mitigating circumstance for someone launching into a disgusting, racially charged rant; for someone's that been a similar situation it just tends to illuminate a person in a new light and reveal character (or lack there of) previously unknown.

When I went to college at Tucson, my friends stayed at to go to ASU or the local community colleges.  One time I came back for a weekend, we decided to see a really crappy movie: Mortal Kombat 2.  Behind us, a group of black kids, were laughing and cracking up over how bad the movie was the entire time.  Hey, they were right, it sucked, but they were a little out of hand.  I honestly didn't care that much; I wasn't watching anything worth getting upset over.  My best friend from high school was livid. Of course, he did nothing, said nothing.

On the ride home, he was visibly upset.  None of us cared, we were joking about some of the crappy dialog. He turned around from the back seat and shouted (and I'm paraphrasing, it's been what.. 8-9 years?); "Why the fuck didn't you tell those fucking niggers to shut up?  The niggers kept yapping and you didn't say a goddamn thing.  You fucking pussies. Goddamn niggers." I had NEVER heard this person say anything remotely like this. 

Disgusting moment from a person I thought I knew.  Richard's outburt was like a bad case of deja vu.  Seemed rather genuine from the perspective of one who's seen it "live". 

[Righ]

There's a key difference - your friend was using charged racist language while addressing you. This goon was using it directly at people, to offend them. Judging by tonights contrite apology on the Late Show, I suspect he isn't a racist, but just an asshole who went way over the line in his fury.

Perhaps its a black thing 'over here', but he'd have been heckled in Scotland or the North of England too, and if he couldn't handle the hecklers, they'd have kept it up. In a similar vein, people in this part of America sit through rock concerts if they are given seats. Depending on what part of Britain you're in, people will sit til the band comes on then stand up, or stand on the chairs, or in extreme case break them and use them as projectiles - but sitting through a rock gig isn't an option unless you like looking at the arse of the guy in front of you. When I stand up in NE US gigs, people tend to yell at me to sit down. It's not always racial, not always cultural, and not always regional, but audiences vary, and performers (and other audience members) need to compensate for that.

[Engels]

I feel sorry for these sheltered people who revert to racism when they feel their small little world is threatened. Sure, I would have been livid in Rasix's example if the movie had been Syriana or some other flick where, you know, paying attention actually helps. But Moral Kombat? Kudos to the black kids who decided they were probably more entertaining than the movie. Anglo culture teaches us to be quiet and introspective whenever we're in a seated environment with a stage or screen. Other cultures don't. Not only African American culture, but many other cultures.

I once attended a Spaghetti Western flick showing in some small village in the hills of northern Spain. The way the audience acted during the movie, you'd think it was the Weather Channel. The audience talked, they joked, they even pulled out a small table and a few played dominos throughout the movie. The lights in the theatre weren't even dimmed all the way. At first I was 'shh'ing my friends who were just as raucous, but then I got into the grove and just went with the flow. I had a much better time watching my friends monkey about than actually watching the movie. In the end, it was sort of refreshing to know that they really didn't consider the movie a big deal at all, and that they, after all, were themselves the real entertainment in their lives. A healthy attitude, I thought.

Don't get me wrong; the guys who upset Richards were jackasses, no question. But Richards just should have left the stage and gone home. His panic and his attack were a sad testament to the continued incongruity in our divergent cultures within this country. In the end, its not about racism; its about two cultures refusing to accept the other.

[Margalis]

Um...he is a standup comedian. What are you guys going on about? Standup comedians try to shock. He was getting laughs at first. He just went too far.

With lines like "This is what happens when you interrupt a white man" it was clear he wasn't 100% serious.

A comedian on stage is not the same as your random friend on the car ride home. I think you guys are reading way too much into this. Offensive attack humor is part of stand-up comedy. He let it go on for too long and it wasn't terribly funny. (Although the line above is pretty funny I have to say) But I wouldn't go crazy trying to make this into some commentary on society or even on Richards.

If you don't want to be offended by a stand-up comedian don't go see him. That's the rule.

[Ironwood]

I would have been offended at loud talking during Mortal Kombat 2 as well.  Reason being, I had a few jars and slept through it....

[stray]

It had nothing to do with being a comedian (seriously, that's a bullshit excuse..). He had his back in a corner, got pissed, and wasn't "comedic" enough to think of something clever.

Richards Apologizes

LOS ANGELES -- Michael Richards said Monday he spewed racial epithets during a stand-up comedy routine because he lost his cool while being heckled and not because he's a bigot. "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."

"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. A clip from the show played on CBS before "Late Show" aired Monday night.

Richards described himself as going into "a rage" over the two audience members who interrupted his act Friday at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. Richards responded to the black hecklers with repeated use of the "n word" and profanities.

Comedian George Lopez told Los Angeles television station KTLA that he thought Richards' lack of stand-up experience may have been a factor.

"The question is you have an actor who is trying to be a comedian who doesn't know what to do when an audience is disruptive," Lopez said. "He's an actor whose show has been off the air, he shouldn't ever be on a stand-up gig."

[Roac]

With the possibility of taking this to a bad place (the politics forum), how is that an excuse? I guess you consider it a mitigating circumstance for someone launching into a disgusting, racially charged rant; for someone's that been a similar situation it just tends to illuminate a person in a new light and reveal character (or lack there of) previously unknown.

I think that in some cases, it's much less about racism or being racist, and more about looking for the biggest stick to hit the offender with.  It's the same reaction that causes people to vent at men, women, fag, geek, meathead, out of state driver, or whatever is at hand to make it a "them" issue that somewhat plays on stereotype.  The main difference is the level of offense the targeted group takes, not necessarily the intent of the speaker.  Maybe he is racist, and maybe he was just venting anger.  I don't know which it is for him, but I don't think it matters because no one is going to ask.  It's just a matter of culture that, for better or worse, some forms of stereotype are ok and some are not.

[Xilren's Twin]

The main difference is the level of offense the targeted group takes, not necessarily the intent of the speaker.

Bingo.

Which is also why trying to place objective evaluations on speech like colleges often try to do (i.e. banning "hate speech") is bound for failure.  You can't objectively determine someone's intent unless they themselves tell you (and of course they could be lying).  So instead the "crime" is determined purely by the reaction of the "victim".  Yeah, that'll work.

I wonder is this case, were the guys he was yelling at offended, amused, or something else.  Once this became news, it's easy to imagine the "victim" of this sort of action to see a potential payday and decide "you know what, I really WAS offended and traumatized! Gimmie cash for therapy."

And I think we can all agree, Michael Richards is not a good stand up comedian... though this does remind me a little of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry was trying to deny being a nose picker.  "Not picking, scratching!" :)

Xilren

[sinij]

Racial slur is a tool to offend people sensitive to it, harmful side of racism is often quiet discrimination not loud ranting.

[HaemishM]

As a gourmand of profanity, I can safely say that no matter what, there are just some words you don't use in anger, most especially in public. The N word is one of those words (unless you are black). It's one of those words that just cannot be used right because of the emotional scars behind that word. It does not have the same power as a racial ephitet like cracker because they just really aren't equivalent at all. There is no way to get out of saying it, especially with such obvious venom-filled rage as he showed.

It's one thing to say it among friends. It isn't right, but it likely won't get you shot. Saying it in a public place when your job is to entertain the people in that place, is going to get you shot, either in the head or the career. Guess which area they hit him in.

[Merusk]

He was great in UHF, too.  But then it wasn't his own material, much like Seinfeld.

I was under the impression he mostly used improvisation during his work in UHF.

Really?  I'd just assumed he was working from a script. Interesting.


Anywho.  He's white. He's not allowed to be offensive or mock anyone except rednecks and other white folks.  Racial slurs are right-out.

Fucking whites, who do you think you are?

[stray]

Correct. White people do not have the permission to call black people niggers. Simple as that.

It'd be nice if no one used it, for that matter.

[Fabricated]

This is how you deal with hecklers: http://youtube.com/watch?v=0S4nSzE4N-o

I'm glad this unfunny zilch bombed and then shot his career to death. If only the rest of the Seinfeld cast could do it and somehow create an unfunny black hole that reached back in time and made that fucking awful overrated show not exist.

[schild]

What?

[tazelbain]

Apparently, Fab hated the 90's.

[Fabricated]

What?

Seinfeld was bad.

It was a bad show and you should feel bad for liking it.

[stray]

Puddy says you're going to hell.

[Strazos]

At the absolute least, Seinfeld was better than the vast majority of other shows on TV, and still is.

[Paelos]

At the absolute least, Seinfeld was better than the vast majority of other shows on TV, and still is.

Seinfeld always had it's moments where it could be really funny, but at the same time all the characters are just so damned unlikable I can barely stomach a whole episode. The early episodes are in fact, complete shit. You can blame that on the obvious poor production values or the show feeling itself out, but it just wasn't good early on at all.

I mean really, most shows just boil down to watching how selfish, paranoid or detached that each character can be coupled with an onslaught of random misunderstandings.

[Nebu]

I loved Seinfeld and still watch it in syndication.  Different strokes and all that.

[Krakrok]

Roac has it right (I may faint). Humans single out the biggest difference between people and use that as a label. Take a basketball game with two teams where one is wearing red and one is wearing blue. People think of them as the red and blue team even though there are whites and blacks or whoever on the same team. The uniform color becomes the biggest difference between the two people and becomes the label. It's a tribal instinct or so said some article I read on the interweb some time ago.


And, Seinfeld is ass IMO.

[Cheddar]

Pretentious assholes.  Seinfeld is love.  You people have become jaded into insanity.

[Miasma]

Seinfeld was, and still is, the best sitcom ever made.  Especially once they started making all the plotlines interweave.  I really enjoyed how the main characters were somewhat unlikable, it was like a breath of fresh air from all the other canned sitcoms.

Season seven should be coming out on DVD soon.