Kramer goes off Mel Gibson style

[andyrichter]

WOW.    
 
 http://www.tmz.com/2006/11/20/kramers-racist-tirade-caught-on-tape/

[Firebutt McGee]

That was just ugly.

[Relaxer]

I've read that it's supposed to be an Andy Kaufman/Borat style of thing, and that if you're offended, then the joke is on you. but... who cares. It's still a rich white guy saying some really ugly shit, and I'm just not seeing the joke there.

[chief wiggum]

Maybe it's just the fact that I'm a middle class white guy, but after seeing that video, I'm not terribly upset by this.  First off, I'd love to hear what "gentle heckling" was being thrown at Richards.  Every time I've heard heckling, especially alcohol-fuelled heckling, it's been anything but playful and gentle.  Also, at the end of Richards' rant he makes comments about words still having the power to shock and offend, which leads me to believe that he may had a bigger agenda than just race baiting.  I never bought into the "it's okay for me to say a word, but not you" practice, and I think that in some part (perhaps completely by accident) Kramer is making us contemplate that.  I, as a goyim, could never get away with making the same jokes that Borat, or whatever the hell his real name is, is getting millions for making.  That hypocrisy has always bothered me.
 
 PS:  Feel free to call me honky or hunky in any replies.
 
 Cheers.

[TheREALHunter]

Looks like the heckler could dish it out but couldn't take it when it was returned.

[Relaxer]

Originally posted by chief wiggum:
  Maybe it's just the fact that I'm a middle class white guy,  

It is.

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

SOME people think that a white person using the "n" word is worse than all murders, rapes, and war atrocities combined.
 
 These people are ALWAYS self-righteous middle class white people.

[Relaxer]

Originally posted by Steny Hoyer, Pubic Destroyer:
  SOME people think that a white person using the "n" word is worse than all murders, rapes, and war atrocities combined.
 
 These people are ALWAYS self-righteous middle class white people.

Do you have a source for this? Or did you pull it out of your ass?

[Barcelona]

Just yesterday I was watching the Trip part I and II and thought he was so funny, the images on the auditions were hilarious. But now, it's a complete different story. Right now I couldn't watch a Seinfeld episode.
 
 I heard he was apologizing today in Letterman, I hope he truly aplogizes.

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

That's horrifying.  It is true that we really ought to know the context -- was he doing some kind of Sam Kinnison-like psychotic schtick?   Because it is possible he was already doing a psycho rant before that incident.  
 
 If he wasn't, it looks like he totally went off the deep end.  But no matter what, it's very very ugly.  The heckler may have been being a dick, but you just don't talk to people like that.  No matter what.

[sweetcell]

Originally posted by Barcelona:
  I heard he was apologizing today in Letterman, I hope he truly aplogizes.

yup  
 
 LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- 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 in a clip from the show played on CBS before "Late Show" aired Monday night.
 
 (...)
 
 Comic Paul Rodriguez, who was at the club, said he thought Richards' remarks crossed the line.
 
 "Once the word comes out of your mouth and you don't happen to be African-American, then you have a whole lot of explaining," he said. "Freedom of speech has its limitations and I think Michael Richards found those limitations."
 
 Rodriguez, also at the news conference, said: "I kept expecting a punch line. It didn't come."

[Reod Dai]

Apparently the hecklers referred to him as a "dumb cracker".  I suppose that's perfectly fine.
 
 I honestly think he was trying to make a point.  I don't really agree with the way he did it, but I can understand why he did it.  I really don't think the things he said were out of racism.

[bikerchickdc]

I think he's a moron. If you're going to do stand-up, you need to learn how to deal with being heckled. If you can't deal with being heckled, you need to learn how to shut the hecklers up without looking like a total stooge.  He's been in comedy for such a long time, you'd think he'd know better by now, but obviously not. I'm not saying the heckler was right; no idea what happened before the YouTube bits.  But I'm really tired of watching famous people act like morons then get all defensive or apologetic when they find out the cameras were rolling. I hope his career is over because he's just proven that he's too dumb to deserve to be successful.

[palahniukkubrick]

Originally posted by sweetcell:
   

Originally posted by Barcelona:
  I heard he was apologizing today in Letterman, I hope he truly aplogizes.

yup  
 
 LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- 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 in a clip from the show played on CBS before "Late Show" aired Monday night.
 
 (...)
 
 Comic Paul Rodriguez, who was at the club, said he thought Richards' remarks crossed the line.
 
 "Once the word comes out of your mouth and you don't happen to be African-American, then you have a whole lot of explaining," he said. "Freedom of speech has its limitations and I think Michael Richards found those limitations."
 
 Rodriguez, also at the news conference, said: "I kept expecting a punch line. It didn't come." [/b]

Further explanation:
 
  Richards -- "I'm Really Busted Up"
 
 Michael Richards publicly apologized for his racist tirade in an appearance on "The Late Show," but acknowledged that such sentiment had the potential to "come through and fire out of me." He tried to find an awkward parallel between his ugly rant and conflict that has arisen between blacks and whites since Hurricane Katrina.
 
 Looking sallow, drawn, and speaking in halting fragments, Richards explained via satellite from Los Angeles to David Letterman and friend Jerry Seinfeld in New York, that he had lost his temper after some members of the audience interrupted his act and that he "took it badly," unleashing the racist invective that TMZ first aired this morning. He apologized to the people who took "the brunt" of his abuse, saying he was "really busted up," but then went on a strange tangent on race relations, saying he was "concerned about hate and rage" and about a "great deal of disturbance between blacks and whites" after Hurricane Katrina.
 
 Richards did not say whether any other factors contributed to his actions, adding only that he would be doing "personal work" in the aftermath of the incident.
 
 Audience members in the Ed Sullivan Theater, who were watching Richards on a screen, began laughing at Richards at first, thinking that the interview was a comedy skit, until Seinfeld admonished them, saying, "Stop laughing. It's not funny."

Originally posted by Reod Dai:
  Apparently the hecklers referred to him as a "dumb cracker".  I suppose that's perfectly fine.

And all along I had thought he was a "dumb sheeny".        
 
 On the plus side, maybe now he'll qualify for the Blue Collar redneck comedy circuit..?  "If you use the 'n' word to refer to hecklers of the Afro -American persuasion, you might be a redneck".