Over the weekend, Micheal Richards,(Kramer from Seinfeld) performed at LA's Laugh Factory. I absolutely love that club. We had a blast there 2 years ago. Anyhoo...when you go to a comedy show, normally the audience is allowed to heckle and join in on the fun. Well, when an audience member did so, Mr. Richards spewed out a slew of hate words and insinuations towards the the audience member. Including using the "N" words more than 20 times in his less than 3 minute tyraid. Audience members were disgusted and left the show. Mr. Richards also left the stage. Now I know I love going to comedy shows. But when was it "okay" to become racially belligerent and obscene in the name of comedy. I have been to shows were the language just takes away from the act and it is no longer funny. It is awful when comedians make slurs about their own race, and awful when they make fun of others. Even sexual orientation or about women and sex. I paid for my parents to go to a comedy club last year for Christmas, and my mother said it was sweet of us, but that the language by the comedian was grotesque. Should we start giving the shows ratings, instead of PG we have "NR" for no racial slurs or "NB" not a bigot and I don't even want to touch the rating if they do...has it really come to that?
14 comments:
Maybe he is jealous of all the attention that Mel Gibson received this summer....
I think they should have a rating - and I think it's even worse when the performer directs such comments at someone who PAID to see their performance.
I never was a "Seinfeld" fan (I've never watched an entire episode in my life), and this just adds to my anti-"Seinfeld" sentiment.
I think Mel Gibson is going to be thankful that this loser took the attention off him.
I for one, was a HUGE Sienfeld fan. I would have paid to see him in a show. I have actually watched the video of his tyrant and chose not to post it b/c it was too vulgar. But I think the crowd let him off easy.
I loved Seinfeld too!
CA---Stan--ZA!!!
what a shame hey???
NEWMAN....said with snotty sneer....
Jerry was quoted responding to the incident:
"I am sick over this. I'm sure Michael is also sick over this horrible, horrible mistake. It is so extremely offensive. I feel terrible for all the people who have been hurt."
Mistake...whatever..I say it's true colors shining through.
ellie, I would have to agree. You don't just start saying things like that without having thought and/or said them before.
Follow up:
He was on the late show last night and this is what took place:
David Letterman: "Why don't you explain exactly what happened for the folks who may not know."
Michael Richards: "I lost my temper on stage. I was at a comedy club trying to do my act and I got heckled and I took it badly and went into a rage and said some pretty nasty things to some Afro-Americans, a lot of trash talk, and uh..."
Letterman: "And you were actually being heckled or were they just talking and disturbing the act?"
Richards: "That was going on too."
________
Richards: "...You know, I'm really busted up over this and I'm very, very sorry to those people in the audience, the blacks, the Hispanics, whites - everyone that was there that took the brunt of that anger and hate and rage and how it came through, and I'm concerned about more hate and more rage and more anger coming through, not just towards me but towards a black/white conflict. There's a great deal of disturbance in this country and how black feel about what happened in Katrina, and, you know, many of the comics, many of performers are in Las Vegas and New Orleans trying to raise money for what happened there, and for this to happen, for me to be in a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, you know, I'm deeply, deeply sorry. And I'll get to the force field of this hostility, why it's there, why the rage is in any of us, why the trash takes place, whether or not it's between me and a couple of hecklers in the audience or between this country and another nation, the rage - "
Letterman: "But Michael, let me interrupt here for a second and ask a question about had the people doing the heckling or the people who were not paying attention, had they been white or Caucasian or any other race, what would have been the nature of your response then?"
Richards: "It may have happened. It may have happened. You know, I'm a performer. I push the envelope, I work in a very uncontrolled manner onstage. I do a lot of free association, it's spontaneous, I go into character.  I don't know, in view of the situation and the act going where it was going, I don't know, the rage did go all over the place. It went to everybody in the room. But you can't - you know it's, I don't - I know people could, blacks could feel - I'm not a racist, that's what so insane about this, and yet it's said, it comes through, it fires out of me and even now in the passion that's here as I confront myself."
I don't think you say those types of things b/c you are 'just' angry. I think you say those types of things b/c that is they way you truly think. Just like Mel Gibson, I think that he is a racist as well. No getting around it.
Pow to you all who thought he would remain totally irrelevant.
And who would pay to see him at a comedy club? I never thought he was funny to begin with. Did he run out of money or did he just feel the need to exhibit his craft?
Finally, I’ve been to a few comedy clubs, but between the smoke and the endless array of masturbation jokes, I wasn’t that enamored with the experience.
I loveeeeeeeeeeed Micheal Richards character on Sienfeld and have watched him for many years with joy. Hearing him blurt out racist remarks really really hurt. I am African American and never thought I would hear such hate from his mouth. Instead of attacking an entire culture(I do not use race because there is only 1 race-THE HUMAN RACE) of people, he could have addressed this guy by talking about his clothes or something. I've seen other comedians do this successfully in the past. I am not sure if I will ever be able to watch Sienfeld again.
I loveeeeeeeeeeed Micheal Richards character on Sienfeld and have watched him for many years with joy. Hearing him blurt out racist remarks really really hurt. I am African American and never thought I would hear such hate from his mouth. Instead of attacking an entire culture(I do not use race because there is only 1 race-THE HUMAN RACE) of people, he could have addressed this guy by talking about his clothes or something. I've seen other comedians do this successfully in the past. I am not sure if I will ever be able to watch Sienfeld again.
I agree, I don't think I will be able to watch him anymore.
I find it ammusing, in a bad way, that we let freaks like West call the President of the United States a rascist and pay him for the 'pleasure' while we bash a stupid comic (I hated Seinfeld) for using Nigger. It's a word, it ONLY has power if you give it power.
I've been called some nasty shit in my life, but I don't give those words power over me. I'm not harmed by what some blowhole thinks of me, or my life. "Sticks and Stones can break my bones, but WORDS will never hurt me."
I think his "jokes" were in very poor taste but not a crime. I think Spike Lee's little "movie" about the 9th Ward was rascist but I won't censor it. I'll just call him a moron that's feeding into the "rascism everywhere" mentality.
Just because I don't like someone doesn't mean I'm a homophobe, rascist, conservative, Christian, etc. I think everyone is entittled to their own opinions, as vastly different from mine as they can be - and as strongly as I'm against their opinions, they hold no weight for me.
If people don't like his jokes, they won't go see him. Like Gibson, who I think is a rascist, I won't watch his movies and perpetuate his hatefulness but I don't see any reason to continously bash him over the head for it if we're going to let other people call women "ho's, bitches, etc" and other Americans "whitey, honkey, spik, kike, nigger, slant-eyed, camel jokey" and etc.
When did Americans start givin' a rat's ass what someone called them? When did we as a nation buy into the "everyone has to act nice" falacy? You can't make me a victim unless I let you - I refuse to let you.
I agree with you Rhianna, that is why I thought that maybe the content of comedians shows should be rated. That way I have a choice of whether I wanted to see it. The use of the "n" word was not in a joke however, he blatently called an audience member a nigger, it was not apart of the act. The thing is, I have a problem with someone that is in the public eye being so careless. Mel Gibson did a movie about the persecution of Jesus Christ, then goes on a tyrant about how the Jews caused every war in the world. Don't send a message, if you don't believe in it.
The only show I've seen in person is the Blue Collar Comedy Tour way back, when we lived in Colorado Springs - pushin' 5 years. They weren't what I'd deem vulgar, but I do like Carlin and old Robin Williams stuff. Some folks were offended though, so to each their own.
I don't think you need to rate it, what I find offensive in movies is sex but it's okay in the PG catagory - and G in a Disney now gets you sexual underthemes and language Walt would die over. I think it best to put "adult language" or "adult comedy" and leave it to chance - some will be offended, some won't.
I haven't seen a comic in a long, LONG time that I deemed family friendly. I'm sorry your folks had a bad experience but we see in others (humor wise, action wise, etc) what we want or don't want. I don't think ratings systems take into account that variability of human senses and selectiveness.
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