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Michael Richards (Kramer) in Racist Outburst Shock

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  • 21-11-2006 1:06pm
    #1
    ixoy
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,988 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Saw this article on Zap2It:
    Michael Richards has made many enemies after he lost his temper and issued a shocking racist tirade last Friday, Nov. 17.

    The comedian was performing at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood when he took offense at a group of people who were heckling him. In a crude video seen on TMZ.com, Richards can be heard using the N-word several times.

    Audience member Kyle Doss claims that he was only "playfully heckling" Richards when the comdian suddenly turned on him and his friends.

    Richards' attack was ugly from the very beginning, when he screamed, "Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your a**." At this point, the audience still wasn't certain what was going on, and thinking it was part of the act, they laughed and clapped.

    As the former "Seinfeld" actor continued, however, more people in the audience could be heard whispering shocked comments and several stood up to leave.

    "You can talk, you can talk, you're brave now motherf**ker," said Richards at one point. "Throw his a** out. He's a n****r! He's a n****r! He's a n****r! A n****r, look, there's a n****r!"

    When people in the audience responded that his language was unfunny and unnecessary, Richards was unrepentant. "Well, you interrupted me, pal," he said, adding, "They're going to arrest me for calling a black man a n****r."

    Later, Jerry Seinfeld issued the following statement about 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."

    Richards, 57, is best known as the loose-limbed, wacky neighbor Cosmo Kramer on "Seinfeld."
    Well that one's going to be hard to come back from. Given I've only recently started watching the show (just kicked off S3 yesterday), I hope it won't seep into my enjoyment of his character.


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    #2
    mcgarnicle
    Registered Users Posts: 779 ✭✭✭mcgarnicle


    Bear in mind that Richards wrote nothing of the character. It was Larry David that created Kramer and he even poked fun at the perceived racism and lack of ethnicity in Seinfeld in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.


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    #3
    Kingsize
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,101 ✭✭✭Kingsize


    It's a shame alright Micheal Richards is such a brillaint actor & comes across as sich a nice & unassuming man in his interviews.
    It wont spoil my enjoyment of the shows (or the DVDs).
    The character is based on Kenny Kramer a freind of Larry David's but I think Michael Richards brought so much into the role.
    Larry david incidentally was notorious for losing the head with his audience when he was a Stand-up,famously walking off & calling them C_nts!
    I wonder if richards was just having one of those moments.
    The "N" word (I hate the phrase but thereyou go) is such a sensitive issue in America .I don't condone it's use but i do think its bizzare that(for example) you can make a movie based on the hilarious consequences of being conjoined twins but you'll never work in this town again if you say "NIG__er" ( unless of course you are a millionaire gangster rapper)


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    #4
    Basq
    Registered Users Posts: 43,774 ✭✭✭✭Basq


    Video of it here!

    .. and an apology on Letterman


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    #5
    mcgarnicle
    Registered Users Posts: 779 ✭✭✭mcgarnicle


    Kingsize wrote:
    It's a shame alright Micheal Richards is such a brillaint actor & comes across as sich a nice & unassuming man in his interviews.
    It wont spoil my enjoyment of the shows (or the DVDs).
    The character is based on Kenny Kramer a freind of Larry David's but I think Michael Richards brought so much into the role.
    Larry david incidentally was notorious for losing the head with his audience when he was a Stand-up,famously walking off & calling them C_nts!
    I wonder if richards was just having one of those moments.
    The "N" word (I hate the phrase but thereyou go) is such a sensitive issue in America .I don't condone it's use but i do think its bizzare that(for example) you can make a movie based on the hilarious consequences of being conjoined twins but you'll never work in this town again if you say "NIG__er" ( unless of course you are a millionaire gangster rapper)

    He didn't just say the n word, if that was all it was he could probably weasle his way back from it. I think his rant about how "fifty years ago you would be hanging from a tree with a pitch-fork up your ass" was what really clinched it.


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    #6
    Kingsize
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,101 ✭✭✭Kingsize


    yeah having just seen the clip i'm completely blown away,
    I'd love to know what the content of his act was like up to that point - He seems to be trying to do a Lenny Bruce (very badly admittedly)
    The pitchfork comment ( bad as it was) actually had the audience laughing??
    Cant help feeling that if he left it at that & said nothing else he'd have gotten away with it (if thats the right term to use)
    Its only when he starts calling the guy a N___R that the crowd seem to be shocked & the hecklers really turn against(or actually notice) him


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