Michael Richards, who played Jerry Seinfeld’s crazy neighbor Cosmo Kramer on the hit TV show “Seinfeld,” exploded in anger as he performed at a famous L.A. comedy club last Friday, hurling racial epithets that left the crowd shocked.
Richards was performing at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood, when two guys, both Black, playfully heckled him. Richards lost it.
As in so much of life nowadays, a video camera was present. See for yourself as Richards begins screaming at one of the men, “Fifty years ago we’d have you upside down with a fucking fork up your ass.”
Richards continued, “You can talk, you can talk, you’re brave now motherfucker. Throw his ass out. He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! A nigger, look, there’s a nigger!”
After the tirade, the majority of the audience members got up and left in disgust.
Ironically, Richards uses words all too commonly uttered by Black people to other Black, but clearly demonstrates that put in their historically accurate context, they carry the same weight as originally intended. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned here for everyone about the continued use of the word.
It will be interesting to see if this generates as much publicity as Mel Gibson’s recent anti-Semitic comments, as well as if Richards ever works again.
4 comments ↓
oh my freakin’ God!
I’m speechless. I just can’t believe he would cut loose like that. I mean, even if he’s a racist, one would think he’d be wise enough to censor himself. Or, being a comedian, he’d be witty enough to insult the heckler without going down the ‘N’ road.
Maybe he’ll confess to a ‘drinking problem’ now.
I’m surprised, but not surprised. Maybe we give celebrities too much credit in never expecting them to be prejudice. Richards probably won’t end up on TV again. But he won’t get the same backlash as Mel Gibson.
Me.
Oops! Now the whole world knows he’s an asshole. I’m waiting to see how this plays itself out.
I heard about this. I’m not that surprised.
I am not a fan of Black people calling each other the N-word because I think it is a very ignorant thing to do. I don’t believe Black people change the connotation of the N-word by using it “affectionately” with each other.