Michael Richards

Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 8:36 am

kmisho wrote:

Based on this meager evidence, I doubt he's a racist.

The difference isn't between those who are and those who aren't racist. The difference is between those who acknowledge they're error-prone same as everybody else, and subsequently on their guard for forming racist thoughts, and those who don't care, and who'll only backpeddle under public pressure, if they do at all.

By the way. If, as an actor, you're part of either a movie or tv-show cast you have to deal with colleagues very closely, almost becoming kind of a temporal familly. It is very well possible that racist tendancies is a main reason why he isn't in popular demand for such jobs anymore.

Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 10:08 am

I don't find Chris Rock offensive at all. The racial stuff is half his act, and it does get old after a while, but I don't remember him saying anything outright offensive about white people, except perhaps for ironic effect or when he's making fun of racist black people.

Personally, I hope for a world in which anybody can use any "racial slur" he/she wants to, and nobody will give a shit. It's all fucking bullshit anyway.

But Michael Richards went way overboard. It wasn't just racial slurs, he said that stuff about hanging the guy by his toes or whatever. Hecklers are a given at comedy shows, and sometimes they can ruin the show, but the key is to shut them up somehow. What Richards did not only had the opposite effect, but it pissed off everybody else in the audience as well. I saw the video through a Shoutcast link under the heading "Michael Richards is a crazy racist" or something to that effect, and I went into it thinking, "oh, c'mon, racist comments in a comedy act; who cares?" and came out thinking "what a fuckhead."

But I don't think I'd have gone to a Michael Richards show anyway. Heck, I don't even like Jerry Seinfeld's standup.

Graduate Thinker Joined: Mar 09, 2006 Posts: 827

here's how someone else delt with someone yelling at them on stage

http://www.filecabi.net/video/bill-hicks-heckler.html

Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:17 pm

While yes, he over-reacted badly to the hecklers, this whole racism thing really is ridiculous. If you watch the event, they spent a bunch of time yelling his comments weren't called for, and they were right... up until they turned around and called him a cracker. So it's not good for Richards to call them a racist epithet, but apparently, they can call him one.

Sure, equality reigns in this country. It'll all be forgotten in a couple weeks when Brittany Spears marries a chimpanzee or something.

Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 5:58 am

For me, what it comes down to is this:

As a stand-up comic, one is supposed to be able to handle hecklers. They're part of the territory.

Richards needs more work in that area. He reacted as though he'd never been heckled before.

Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 9:32 pm

I used to watch him an a show called Fridays.

All last week, I would tell people I went to the Michael Richards School of Cultural Sensitivity, and I am appalled that they are not offended by what I do. Wink

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 11:31 pm

Now that's funny!

Thank you, m'lady Kimmie!

Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 12:16 am

It's my pleasure, JC darlin! *hugs*

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 3:16 am

my opinion is that had Dave Chapelle said it - people would've been rolling on the floor.

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:23 am

bronco2 wrote:

my opinion is that had Dave Chapelle said it - people would've been rolling on the floor.

Then again, Chappelle knows how to read an audience and wouldn't use it the way Richards did.

What it comes down to is this - Cosmo Kramer was a funny character. Michael Richards is not a funny man.

He needs to learn the difference.

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 5:17 am

I happen to think he was comin down from like a 5 day meth marathon. I don't know if any of you have seen someone after they have been binging on meth for 5 days without sleep, but they can say and do some crazy shit.

I think people are too quick to label people "racist" for stupid things they say under stress. He's obviously an idiot, but an actual racist, I don't think we can make that judgement from one emotional outburst.

Really, he was lucky he didn't his ass beat, I thought he would at least get popped in the mouth, but no.

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 6:15 am

soydios77 wrote:

I happen to think he was comin down from like a 5 day meth marathon. I don't know if any of you have seen someone after they have been binging on meth for 5 days without sleep, but they can say and do some crazy shit.

I think people are too quick to label people "racist" for stupid things they say under stress. He's obviously an idiot, but an actual racist, I don't think we can make that judgement from one emotional outburst.

Really, he was lucky he didn't his ass beat, I thought he would at least get popped in the mouth, but no.

That's why I never played that card. I just look at him as an unfunny comic who can't handle hecklers worth a rip.


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