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Trivial Pursuits => Wild Card => Topic started by: FlipConstantine on November 20, 2006, 04:41:01 pm
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Michael Richards, Seinfeld's Kramer, goes on a racist rant at his show. You can't make this stuff up folks.
Link (http://pdl.stream.aol.com/aol/us/aolentertainment/30mz/2006_11/1120_richards_2_dl.mov)
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Michael Richards, Seinfeld's Kramer, goes on a racist rant at his show. You can't make this stuff up folks.
Yiiiiiiikes.
That wasn't just racist, that was a racist nervous breakdown. It wasn't just offensive, it was sad.
Where did you go, Stanley Spedowski? An aching nation turns its eyes to you.
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Double You Tee Eff!
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I've been hopelessly under-exposed to Seinfeld, but I know this guy was great in it, and this is really a pretty good example of hopelessly sad career decline. When you're standing in front of a sign saying 'Laugh Factory', racially cussing on some black dudes for talking too loud, it's time to make a dignified retirement plan using the millions of dollars from your big break in one of the world's best and most successful sitcoms.
Basically, to paraphrase a man from the video: "It's not funny, that's why you're a reject, never had no shows, never had no movies, 'Seinfeld', that's it."
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It's just a publicity stunt for his new series in which a judge orders him to be a black dude's butler.
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Good lord, that was painful to watch. Fuckin' meltdown.
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It's just a publicity stunt for his new series in which a judge orders him to be a black dude's butler.
CAN.
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It's just a publicity stunt for his new series in which a judge orders him to be a black dude's butler.
Man, funniest thing I've heard in weeks. Many cans to you, sir.
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Hey, everybody watch or tape Letterman tonight -- I saw on Countdown that Richards issues via satellite an apology during Jerry's segment.
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Jesus, I'm getting embarrassed just reading the posts, let alone actually watching his rant. That is awful.
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His apology on Letterman, for those who haven't seen/heard yet, was terribly awkward but it seemed effortless and joyful compared to the actual rant itself. Cosmo blames his "rage" and then tries to spin by invoking the idea of Comedy Jiu-Jitsu, in which you realize that your bit/schtick is failing so you use that bad momentum against itself by going SO FAR OVER THE LINE that it's funny again.
I'm guessing some of the Letterman audience hadn't heard about the incident and must have thought Kramer's appearance last night was a gag that Jerry set up because there were little fits of giggling at the start of it as everyone involved just kind of sat there looking squirmy and uncomfortable. Jerry actually had to tell someone to stop laughing. Furthermore, it didn't sound like Kramer had any kind of damage control-preparation because he just kind of sat there speechless for a couple of seconds before Dave realized that he'd have to be the moderator. Richards seemed bewildered about the whole thing, like he was in stunned shock.
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Richards Apology (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9107547518165183938&q=Michael+Richards+Apology&hl=en).
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That almost brought a tear to my eye. I really can't explain why I found the man's apology so moving.
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Anyone seen this clip? I think Michael "Kramer" Richards could stand to take a glance!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K32JfjxUMf8
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Yea, I am kind of a huge non-racist (more so I think, just because I grew up in a racist hotbed), and what he did was unacceptable. I also like Michael Richards and Seinfeld. His apology, at least, was not all hollywood, but that does not make up for what he did. He was talking about what is underneath, or something, and while that is valid, if he lets whats underneath him (and what he would say is within all of us) be shown, that creates more rage within other people that will sometimes come out, which will create more rage in others, etc. I do think we all have some racist qualities in us, I mean I don't judge people of different races differently, and have very good friends who are decedents from Africans, Native Americans and Asians, but to some extent, inside of me I do. It may not be a conscious decision, but I am sure I do things differently in different situations.
What I am trying to say is that I like Michael Richards, but what he said is dangerous. The United States is very ingrained with racism and that is a problem (that Richards made slightly worse), but while we can condemn Richards (and maybe should) we should look into ourselves and make sure we are not capable of doing the same thing. I think I could never do something like this, but sometimes I snap in anger. Would it be any different if I was mad at a African American? No, but might I say some inexcusable things? I don't think so, and hope not, but I have never really been in that situation.
I kind of forgot about that fork part. This was horrible and completly uncalled for. I think Richards made a decent apology, well, at least better than like Gibson or someone, but should be condemned pretty stongly.
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Michael Richards is a bit of a powderkeg, and has been since those hecklers were just a twinkle in their daddy's eye. There used to be a television show that was similar in schtick to Saturday Night Live, and Richards was on it with the late great Andy Kaufman. Just to fuck with Richards, Kaufman started deliberately flubbing his lines. Richards got so pissed that he got into a fistfight with Kaufman while the cameras were rolling and the show was on.
The dude seems a little unstable. You would think that most Hollywood entertainers would have to develop a really thick skin to do stuff like standup and to resist falling prey to hecklers. By snapping like that, he fell right into the hecklers' trap and did exactly what they wanted.
Aaron McGruder of Boondocks fame has the phrase "N***er Moment" in several of his episodes. In one, Granddad got brand-new sneakers, and some mean old man came up and stomped all over his new shoes. Due to this fellow's "N***er Moment" of shit-stomping on Granddad's new shoes dance, Granddad came unglued and fell into the "Moment". It degenerated into a fistfight in the parking lot.
Were the dudes having a "Moment?" That's not my place to say, since I'm not black and therefore cannot use the N-word. Were they acting like assholes? Yeah, they were. HOWEVER, Richards should have been the bigger man and resisted stooping down to their level. Talk about a PR nightmare. Using politically charged language that evokes the centuries of black oppression in this country is not a good idea.
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I can't defend Michael Richard's actions. His outburst was inappropriate and offensive.
I do appreciate the fact that he has made an apology, which appears to be sincere and heartfelt, if sort of incoherent. I like the fact that he took responsibility for his action. He fucked up and admitted it. That doesn't excuse his outburst.
It's been a weird week. I'm sitting here thinking about the two big stories, this one and OJ's book/TV special/PR campaign wherein he implicitly admits commiting two brutal murders. Racism is a horrible thing. Murder is several orders of magnitude worse. It's fascinating to watch who gets outraged by what.
Do I agree with Michael Richards' sentiments? Absolutely not. Do his words indicate that he may not be a very nice person? Probably. But words were the only thing he threw. No punches, rocks, knives or bombs.
A lot of people's feelings were hurt by Richards' words, and rightfully so. But nobody was killed, beat up, raped or robbed. Nobody's house was burned. Nobody was run out of town. Let's be thankful for that. Michael Richards may be a contempible racist who has lost my respect, but he's committed no crime. He's taken responsibility and apologized (sincerely in my opinion) for his actions. What else needs to happen? Let's let it go.
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Michael Richards is a bit of a powderkeg, and has been since those hecklers were just a twinkle in their daddy's eye. There used to be a television show that was similar in schtick to Saturday Night Live, and Richards was on it with the late great Andy Kaufman. Just to fuck with Richards, Kaufman started deliberately flubbing his lines. Richards got so pissed that he got into a fistfight with Kaufman while the cameras were rolling and the show was on.
If you're trying to make me feel old, it worked.
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Linnea, I thought of that episode of The Boondocks when I accidentally bumped into a young black fellow earlier today. I said sorry and walked away.
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Dudes in Chicago are pretty much pussies. You can bump into them on purpose, say "Watch where you're going, asshole" and they'll apologize to you. "Oh, sorry."
They're almost as polite as Canadians (but not quite).
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Were the dudes having a "Moment?" That's not my place to say, since I'm not black and therefore cannot use the N-word. Were they acting like assholes? Yeah, they were. HOWEVER, Richards should have been the bigger man and resisted stooping down to their level. Talk about a PR nightmare. Using politically charged language that evokes the centuries of black oppression in this country is not a good idea.
As a guy doing stand-up, Richards needs to be prepared for hecklers. You gotta have a line at the ready, like "I remember when I had my first beer" or "Hey, I don't come heckle you at your job, all criticizing how you're fuck*ng the post-op trannies."
If "Look! He's a nigger!" was his pre-planned anti-heckler line... well, that wasn't thought through terribly well.
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On behalf of Linnea's case, I'd like to introduce States Exhibit - A (http://youtube.com/watch?v=AkbjvUAdKBc) in which we see Kaufman and Fridays come to blows.
If anything, Richards is pretty composed here. I remembered it like you did Linnea, but here, he seems ... well, he pops his top, but he does it in a pretty awesome way.
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Yeah, Andy Kaufman was a dick.
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Dudes in Chicago are pretty much pussies. You can bump into them on purpose, say "Watch where you're going, asshole" and they'll apologize to you. "Oh, sorry."
I don't see what's so terrible about being non-confrontational. I've always thought it wiser to just act the better man and let the guy with the need to assert his masculinity have his bottle. If it's a guy you know doing it and you don't want to back down, then say sorry anyway. It's not like you'd want a dude like that as a friend or suchlike.
By the way Jough, I wasn't accusing you of being the dude who bumps into people on purpose, just kind of confused why you'd use pejorative language to refer to guys who'd say sorry.
'Course, I'm probably just saying this because I'm a rural limey pushover very much not from the mean streets.
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Judy, i'm pretty sure that Jough was outright telling us he's a Philly prick who acts like a jerk to his neighbors in Chicago.
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Judy, i'm pretty sure that Jough was outright telling us he's a Philly prick who acts like a jerk to his neighbors in Chicago.
Alright, I guess I thought this but didn't want to misinterpret or appear offensive. Jough! That fuck*ng guy.
All this has taught me that Paul and Jough both have the bigger proverbial balls than me.
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To be fair, though, the thing with Kaufman on "Fridays" was... mostly a work, in wrestling lingo. Richards knew Andy was going to do it, it was cleared with... one or two of the creative staff, etc. Most of the cast and most of the crew and so on were unaware but Richards was in on the gag and definitely acting.
Sort of like the bit with Pam Anderson in "Borat"... she was in on it, her handlers were in on it and the higher-ups at the Virgin Megastore were in on it... but the other people in the line and some of the low-level people at Target were out of the loop so as to get maximum "real" reaction with minimal risk of things getting so far as actual injury/actual police intervention/etc.
"Fridays" had just enough people involved to get the joke off the ground and to prevent the gag from being cut away to commerical or anything like that. One of the people who runs out to "break up the fight" after all is... Andy's friend/co-writer Bob Zmuda, thinly disguised as a crew member. You'd have to imagine crew and cast started catching on right there.
My thought with Richards is... yeah, clearly, he's racist on some dark level but... there's no way a sane person would say things THAT over the top in THIS media age without having a VERY VERY clear wink or scenario or character to hide behind. Borat has the conceit that... (a.) it's a character (b.) the character's racism is consistently structured as a racism of ignorance and cultural misunderstanding, in line with the parody of central Asia he comes from, and not deeply-held and deeply-considered hate and (c.) generally, the most virulent racism he holds without being lead into it by real people or real American media culture is toward... Jewish folk... and the "real" Cohen is not only Jewish but fairly orthodox Jewish and a thoroughly-well-educated British Jew to boot.
Whereas... Richards had no character to play, no stunt to be couched within and no... record of having been involved in any sort of provacaturism in the last... twenty years, practically. Part of the point with Kaufman was that he had long established a pattern of involving himself in more and more elaborate put-ons and so nothing he said was to be taken seriously.
Even when Andy wasn't hiding behind make-up or accent, he was clearly playing... a bad guy wrestler. Or et cetera.
Richards is a comic actor, regardless of the fact that the dude is definitely racist deep down, and not a stand-up comic. The skill set is totally different and the dude clearly couldn't take a heckle... especially now with the best days of his "fame" clearly behind him. Hollywood is a weird place and... fame is a goddamned addictive drug.
Dude rode high on that hog for a long time, y'know. He's probably having a hard time... dealing with not having the adulation anymore. That's why people who made more than enough money still... write books after their glory days are gone, take parts beneath their talent, try to reinvent themselves as singers or directors... end up debasing their very humanity to get on a reality show on VH1 or Fox... come out of retirement to hit .205 for a minor league ballclub... sign photos at comic book shows.
One more run. One more round of applause. One more burst of people treating you like a god and special and never gonna die. Fill that gaping hole in your soul one more time but ram it harder this time and... ultimately... make the whole even harder.
Fame is not just a whore, my friends, but she is a jealous whore. She doesn't just make you pay and pay heavily for every pleasure she provides but as time passes and your needs for her grow stronger, she pushes away every distraction you might have from ponying up the goods for another taste of her. Good distractions... family, love, friends... bad distractions... heavy drugs, weird sex, obscene wealth... when she has her hooks in you, she'll have you cast them all aside for her.
Donald Trump is richer than Nazis and... he needs to be on the teevee. Paris Hilton is richer than solid-gold ***** Nazis and... she needs to be talked about so badly that she'll flash her cooch to the paparazzo.
There has to be... something broken inside of you to want that much, ultimately... or something inside you has to break along the way when, where you started, you just wanted to get rich or... you know... the arts were the only thing you were good at or... whatever. This is the same problem I have with the entire idea of high-profile elected office:
If you want power and acclaim so much that you'll make all the compromises and give up so much of your real life to attain them... as you have to, to become a president or a senator or a governor... that you are probably not mentally healthy enough to actually wield that power.
There are exceptions. There aren't many.
The thing is that... fame's such a jealous whore that... even after you've given it all up to be with her, your family, your real goals and dreams, your loves, your sanity... when everything is stripped away but you and her and a cheap hotel bed? She still charges.
And so Michael Richards joneses for fame so much that he tries to reinvent himself as a stand-up and... he's not very good... and he's not skilled to deal with heckling at all.
So he's desperately trying to get back to that place where everyone worships him that... he's doing this thing he doesn't really know how to do and... he's doing it in West Hollywood on a weekend, a long walk from where I am right now and... you know, he's where the decision makers are and... he's where the people who decide if he can get back to that place are and...
He's failing. Miserably. He's a giraffe on dry land, trying to get oxygen out of the air and feeling. Full-on Faith No More video.
And something snaps. The man... the peon... the nobody heckling him... taking away his shot at the warm breath of adulation again happens to be black. Everything starts pouring out, all his racism but also all his anxiety, all his fear of no longer being worshipped, of no longer being immortal, of no longer being a god without a man in the back of a chariot to tell him that he isn't one as the laurel wreaths fly in from the worshipful crowds... every one of these fears blows out at once.
And he's just screaming the worst things he can possibly think of.
A dying man cursing the gods for not letting him be one of them.
A total nervous breakdown at the collapse of his own once-and-future divinity and...
It just happens that the heckler was black and Richards has racism in his heart.
It was racist, yeah, completely and abhorrent but... we can't only see it through that prism. The racism was just the straw on the camel's back. You could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice, the hate toward African-Americans was secondary to his... hate of himself, his hate of irrelevance, of failure, of vulnerability, of knowing he was never going to go back up that goddamned whore of a mountain we call fame.
It was his Sunset Boulevard moment... and ironically... right on Sunset and Laurel.
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lfm, good post, would read again.
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Wow, great post LFM, everything I could not say but wanted to.
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A can for LMF. Nicely, and poetically said.
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Can'd. Well-spoken and eloquent.
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This sounds like a treatment. Are you gonna pitch it? Hey man, I know terms, yay!
Also, can'd.
~Paul
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One extra difference with Borat: He is there to expose racism or, with Bruno, homophobia in our society. Richards isn't.
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Speaking of Borat, I've been meaning to say, he (the actor/writer/director) is exposing racism, his own. the movie is about a kazikstani who hates jews as the movie posits all kazikstani's do, made by a jew who paints a very terrible picture of kazikstani's and christians. It's racist alright, jewish racism.
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the movie is about a kazikstani who hates jews as the movie posits all kazikstani's do, made by a jew who paints a very terrible picture of kazikstani's and christians. It's racist alright, jewish racism.
I don't know... I think that the completely ludicrious picture of Kazikstan isn't racism against Kazikstan but... part of the joke on America and Britain.
We're so ignorant of anything outside of our backyard that when our guard is down we'll BELIEVE that... oh... gays are made to wear blue hats and the disabled are kept in cages and half the economy is prostitution and so on in some magical central Asian country we've barely heard of.
That's the conceit of many of the interviews, really, that these people will buy... a dude dropping a deuce in a bag because we're so ignorant of other cultures.
It's a test of... how inhuman will these racist suburbanites believe foreigners are? And it's a test that we pretty clearly don't pass.
As for "Christians"... I dunno, I think American Protestant Christianity sorta hangs itself, livin' on Secession Drive and claiming that it's time to kill all the gays, pretty well. The Borat character is standing there selling rope for cheap, yeah, but America ties the knot and hangs itself, certainly.
That's the point of Kazikstan being so completely unrealistic. Not that Sacha Cohen is racist toward Kazikstan, rather that he's taking all our stereotypes and preconceived notions about the rest of the world, exaggerating them to an unbelievable degree and... he finds a lot of people who are still lazy/bigoted/ignorant enough to go along with them. Believe them.
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And it's a test that we pretty clearly don't pass.
I'd also suggest this is a test that the vast majority of world wouldn't pass either. Framed so as to put the test on the same terms across continents we'd find that every culture has it's bias and ignorance about the different, distant and strange.
Woopee, the US has culturally ignorant and bigoted people. It's the worldwide standard, not the exception.
But hey, if you carry a lot of white guilt around, feel free to publically punch your nuts over this.
That's comedy.
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The reason Kazakhstan is used is because if he claimed to come from Faketonia nobody would give him an interview. Kazakhstan hits the balance of "most Americans have heard of it a couple times" and "most Americans can't even spell it, much less tell you anything about it".
Every Kazakhstani I've heard say anything about Borat who wasn't affiliated with the Kazakh government (admittedly not many, but a couple) thought it was pretty funny.
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I didn't say it wasn't funny.
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There's no doubt that... the line between being racist and making fun of racism is maddeningly thin.
That's why it's so funny and profitable when you can actually pull it off, being able to walk that line and not fall over to the wrong side is kind of one of our culture's last taboos. One of the last things that can consistently shock.
The difficulty is... yeah... the difference between Borat and Kramer is only in judicious use of context.
Or, worse, you walk the line properly and it drives you crazy doing it, like a Chappelle.
Starlets are showing the National Enquirer their pu$$ys and... we're like... "oh, that's kinda funny but... eh." Wars are started and spin out of control and a lot of people just kinda don't care either way.
We're running out of shocks.