There are two stories in the news today, and this is one of them. Michael Richards, best-known as Kramer on Seinfeld, was doing stand-up last Friday night for a crowd of 300 at a comedy club called The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. Persistent heckling from two black men in the audience erupted into the video above, which was captured on a cell phone. Now everyone from the black comedian Sinbad, who was present, to all variety of black leaders are saying Richards needs to go beyond the apology he gave during Jerry Seinfeld's appearance on the David Letterman show Monday night and really, really get down on his knees and beg forgiveness, or else lose that huge black following Seinfeld always had.

I think Michael Richards is catching a load of shit he doesn't deserve. Yes, he stepped on the panic button big time, but what every TV news report I've seen thus far has missed is that these two guys were butting into his show, calling him a has-been, not funny, on and on and on almost from the second he had stepped onto the stage. "He's supposed to know how to handle hecklers," you might say. Sure, but after awhile I'm sure every prepared comeback he had was used, and these guys kept coming. So he searched for the largest verbal club he could find to beat them into submission, so they would feel like they were making him feel, and unfortunately he clubbed the sensitivities of the audience along with them.

The Laugh Factory can say "we are so embarrassed," but what I think they should be embarrassed by is that after awhile it had to be apparent these two guys were causing a major disruption and should have been escorted out to the sidewalk before this had the chance to escalate into what we see. Instead the club let the two Def Jam wanna-be's stomp all over the act of an established attraction, maybe for fear they would get a lawsuit for racism for putting two troublemakers out on the curb.

Now Paul Rodriguez (who was also there) and Sinbad have seen a chance to grab another 30 seconds in the limelight and are turning up on every news show to say how disgusted they are by Michael Richards. Comedians are supposd to be a brotherhood who understand the "fight" they're all in against a hostile audience. When the scene spun out of control why didn't they, who are infinitely more experienced stand-ups than Richards, get up and help snuff out the trouble? No, they stood by and watched him drown in the verbal assault of two assholes who were shrouded in darkness while "Kramer" had to stand in the spotlight and try his best to endure whatever shit they were throwing at him.

I just love the part where one of the goons says, "That was uncalled for!" Oh, and trying to ruin a man's act, and the evening of the other 298 people, was called for?

I've seen a scene similar to this. I used to go to the Comic Cafe every Monday night to watch the amateurs. One night a couple of girls in the front never failed to say something shitty to the MC every single time he stepped out onstage, keeping it up until he could hardly get a word in edgewise even with the microphone in hand. Finally he got off the stage and was screaming at the lead offender just inches from her face. Someone stepped in to break them up and another aspiring comic finished up the MC'ing for the night while the other guy towelled off. Funnily enough I recall the club owner telling one of the guys who was heading to L.A. soon, "You won't see this stuff in Hollywood!" No, you might see even better!

The other big story of the day is FOX's withdrawal of their sweeps-time O.J. Simpson interviews and book. O.J. Simpson got away with murder because, you know, Mark Furman once said "nigger," and that's much worse than sawing two people's heads off. And maybe for that Michael "Cosmo Kramer" Richards will also find his head in the public opinion guillotine.

3 Comments:

 Anonymous said...

Maybe it was the part about "hanging upside down with a pitchfork up your ass" or "That's what Happens when you interrupt a white man" that was over the line. I personally thought the viciousness of his attack was enough for scrutiny, but its your opinion.

Michael Richards could've asked them to stop or leave or ask management to have them escorted out. He did not. Maybe they were out of line, but he wasn't a victim as you try to make him.

If you don't get why people are upset, replace Michael Richards with Dave Chappelle. Now picture yourself in the audience. Dave gets mad at you and starts bashing your heritage and calling you the derogatory term for your race in the tone that Michael Richards did. I'm pretty sure you'd be upset regardless of what you did.

Also, relating this to the OJ trial is completely irrelevant. I guess you wrote that for shock value, but it just came off lame.

OJ was proven not guilty because the cops screwed up the evidence, and his lawyers were better than the prosecution. He's not the first person to get an innocent proclamation because of those things, he's just the first "Black" person to get an innocent proclamation because of those things. Mark Fuhrman was a side show amongst a lot more evidence.

If anything, this is just like Mel Gibson bashing the Jews.

If he wants to ba a racist, I'm fine with that. I just won't support him.

5:03 PM, November 22, 2006  

 Anonymous said...

Richards was way over the top. What really got to him, in my opinion, was the realization that the two black guys were right - he isn't funny.

I am not offended, but his audience was and had every right to be. What really was lame was his "apology" where he talked about blacks being upset because of Katrina. That is so obviously an attempt to draw the fire away from him that all blacks must be insulted.

This will hurt the Seinfeld franchise immeasurably.
Who knew Kramer was a deeply rooted bigot?

11:53 PM, November 22, 2006  

 Mr. Radio said...

In his apology on Letterman, he referred to blacks as "Afro-Americans."

In light of that fact, I'll simply file Richards under the category of "fucking moron."

10:51 PM, November 23, 2006  

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