Michael Richards Meltdown

[Big Wheel]

This is a secondhand story, so take it for what it's worth. I never really could fathom before that Michael Richards was just kind of a douche, but this story is now a whole lot more plausible in light of this latest incident IMO:

Around 1998 this guy I know - let's call him Seppo - was playing a solo piano gig at a famous cafe on Miami Beach. Seppo was a visiting student from Finland and for this story to make sense, you have to understand that he did almost nothing else but practice. He ate, breathed, and slept piano, to the exclusion of just about everything else in his life. Seppo was a badass, but his complete obsession with music meant that he got poor grades in every other subject and knew almost nothing of American pop culture despite having lived in the States for at least a couple of years.

Anyway, Seppo is playing cocktail piano one afternoon outdoors, and this lanky guy comes up to him. He lounges against the piano, looks at Seppo, and says:

"Do you know who I am??"

Seppo just stares at him. "Uh..."

The guy doesn't wait for a guess. "I'm Kramer."

Still a blank stare. "You know, on Seinfeld."

Sure enough, it was actually Michael Richards.

Seppo pauses for a second and says:

"Ohhhhh. Is that like Oprah?"

Edited November 21, 2006 by Big Wheel

[Soul Stream]

I would just like to add that the part of the video that isn't being shown is at the end as the hecklers walk off and call Richards "A cracker, whitey-mother-fucker" in response. So, I would have to say the racism went both ways in this instance if we put it to the 'if it ain't in you, it don't come out' test.

Having said that, I just can't imagine what Richards was thinking. To have the N word come out of your mouth even to your closest confinant just isn't fathomable to me. We all have at least a seed of racism in us. To admit that and confront it is important. Spewing the N word to an audience full of people? Wow, unless he was doing a bad attempt at a Lenny Bruce-style go for the bleachers comeback gone horribley wrong....I'm not sure what could be the answer. Anger, Mistake or Brain Fart just don't make a whole lot of sense. I just can't imagine he thought calling the heckler the N word as a comeback would be a good idea.

[Free For All]

Remember the show "Fridays"? It was ABC's short-lived attempt to rival SNL. Once when Andy Kaufman was a guest there was a skit with him and Richards where Andy suddenly broke character and he and Richards got into a staged fight. I remembered that when I was watching the video of Richards' rant and for a minute was wondering if it was a staged event. If it indeed was staged (and I don't think it was) it showed a total lack of a comic sensiblity reminiscent of John Kerry's "botched joke".

I loved the Kramer character but never have thought of Richards as a stand-up type of comedian. That world is brutal, and I sense (from watching some of the Seinfeld outtakes) that Richards was too much of a perfectionist to be able to deal with the spontaneous improvisatory scenario of the live act. Of course I'm just speculating, what the hell do I know!

That being said, it makes me very sad to see someone with Richards' talent dealing with a bad situation so poorly. It was pathetic to watch and frankly I was surprised to see him melt down like that.

No chance of him running in '08 now.

[trane_fanatic]

Taken in context, Richards's comments, in 2006, should not be considered "racist" -- whatever that word means these days. He went a bit over the top, but black people have far larger problems than what Kramer says in a comedy club to hecklers. I don't believe that he is a racist. He just reacted poorly to hecklers and did what a lot of people do in many arenas (especially the media) these days -- resorted to the lowest common denominator.

The biggest story for black people today should be the story reported on cnn.com concerning the black people egging on 6-year old black children to fight like dogs or chickens -- to toughen them up for the "streets." That is what should be the major topic of discussion and outrage amongst black people and everyone else today concerning race in general and how black people are f'ed up and need to fix a lost of s*it culturally in particular, not Kramer.

"Reacted poorly"? Uh, he went on a 3 minute racist rant about how they should be lynched and used the slur repeatedly. White folks who are not racist do not do that, no matter how they are provoked.But, uh, black people are f'ed up, in your words, so I guess it's OK. Stop defending this dickhead. Goodness!

Edited November 21, 2006 by trane_fanatic

[Peter Johnson]

You, Larry, and many other people are saying this--"he's not a stand up comedian, he didn't know how to deal..." But I saw him doing standup in LA in 1991, and have a lot of LA friends who have seem him at the Improv and other places in the years since, and when I, and they, saw him, he was completely brilliant. He's been at this game a long time. I don't know why he snapped, and I'm certainly not trying to excuse it, but I think it needs to be said that he was no novice at this game. Doesn't excuse a damn thing of that nasty shit he spewed, but, fwiw....

Perhaps the gist of this -- at least in terms of how and why it happened -- is that AFAIK Michael Richards is not really a standup comic but a sketch comic and thus probably has little or no experience of how to deal with hecklers. That plus the knowledge that his career was already on a steep downslope would do it. Of course, that doesn't explain why he went where he did when he lost it, but that's probably because he's both an ---hole and bat----. In any case, dealing with hecklers -- how to control your own emotions and how to dish out reasonably effective comebacks -- is the FIRST thing any standup learns how to do.

[Free For All]

I saw him doing standup in LA in 1991, and have a lot of LA friends who have seem him at the Improv and other places in the years since, and when I, and they, saw him, he was completely brilliant.

I didn't know that, and would be interested to know what his act was about. Was it Kaufman-like?

[trane_fanatic]

What did you guys think about his apology to "Afro-Americans" on Letterman? Do you think it was sincere?

In Richards defense, the clowns laughing in the audience were morons too.

BTW, if you think cracker and the n-word carry the same weight and are equally offensive, you have your head in the clouds.

Edited November 21, 2006 by trane_fanatic

[Joe G]

I think we've gotten into a habit in this country of just jumping on a beating the shit out of celebrities or any other public figure who fucks up. Personally, I'm finding the whole course of events a little tiresome. In this day and age of cellphones that record video, this sort of stuff will just become more and more of prevelent.

That was the basis for my sarcastic one-word post earlier.

[7/4]

I would just like to add that the part of the video that isn't being shown is at the end as the hecklers walk off and call Richards "A cracker, whitey-mother-fucker" in response. So, I would have to say the racism went both ways in this instance if we put it to the 'if it ain't in you, it don't come out' test.

I wonder what they said to get him going.

[Larry Kart]

You, Larry, and many other people are saying this--"he's not a stand up comedian, he didn't know how to deal..." But I saw him doing standup in LA in 1991, and have a lot of LA friends who have seem him at the Improv and other places in the years since, and when I, and they, saw him, he was completely brilliant. He's been at this game a long time. I don't know why he snapped, and I'm certainly not trying to excuse it, but I think it needs to be said that he was no novice at this game. Doesn't excuse a damn thing of that nasty shit he spewed, but, fwiw....

OK -- guess that why AFAIK means "as far as I know." Sorry if my speculations misled anyone.

BTW, IIRC the Kaufman "fight" episode on "Fridays" (or "Friday") was between Andy and the show's director, former comic Jack Burns (of Burns and Schreiber). The deal was that only those two, plus perhaps a camera man or two, were in on what Andy was going to do -- break character, say that he couldn't keep spouting this lame schtick any more, and then stalk off the set, where he would be confronted by Burns, and a very realistic mock struggle would ensue. None of the cast members in the sketch was informed of what was up, and their consternation was something to see. Again IIRC Melanie Chartoff looked like she might faint.

Edited November 21, 2006 by Larry Kart

[Dan Gould]

to complete Larry's thought, the fight on Fridays was not "staged". Kaufman decided to have fun and break character. Richards went to the cue card man and showed Kaufman his line. It degenerated from there into real fisticufs.

Edit:

I posted this when Larry accidentally hit enter in the middle of a sentence, so I thought I'd be helpful to the elderly (you know how forgetful they are).

Well, I learned my lesson. Don't try to help, and if you do, use the Quote function or else you'll look like the mentally addled instead.

Edited November 21, 2006 by Dan Gould

[Alexander]

to complete Larry's thought, the fight on Fridays was not "staged". Kaufman decided to have fun and break character. Richards went to the cue card man and showed Kaufman his line. It degenerated from there into real fisticufs.

As I understand it, Richards *was* in on the joke when Kaufman broke character, but no one else on the stage was.

[Joe G]

Dan's post should have started, "to completely alter Larry's thought..."

[Brad]

People make mistakes. Who amongst us hasn't said anything they'd like to take back a second after it came out of our mouth. That being said, no matter how contrite his apology, that may have finished him.

[Alexander]

Can we watch Seinfeld and Kramer's entrys with pleasure ever again?

I think we can. We can read T.S. Eliot with pleasure even though we know he was anti-semetic. We can listen to Stan Getz with pleasure even though we know he drank heavily and abused his family. We can listen to Bird with pleasure even though we know he was a junkie who exploited and stole from his friends. We can listen to Miles with pleasure even though he treated women badly. The list of talented people who were jerks in their personal lives goes on and on and on. Now, I know what you're going to say. T.S. Eliot never went off on Jews in the middle of a reading of "The Waste Land." Miles didn't actually treat women badly on stage. As far as I see it, Richards had a bad night. Who knows what was going on in his head BEFORE those guys pushed his buttons? Maybe his girlfriend dumped him or he found out that he was being audited by the IRS. It doesn't excuse his behavior, not by a long shot. And there are ways he could have gone off on the hecklers that wouldn't have involved racial slurs. But it doesn't mean that we can't appreciate his talent and enjoy him when he employs it.

I guess I was most reminded of the time when Elvis Costello got into a fight with Stephen Stills and called Ray Charles "a blind, ignorant n-gger." There was an enormous shit storm at the time, yet Costello seems to have been completely forgiven in the public eye. I'm willing to bet that most people have either forgotten about this, or never knew about it in the first place. Can you listen to Elvis Costello the same way now, knowing what he said?

Edited November 21, 2006 by Alexander

[Jim Alfredson]

I guess I was most reminded of the time when Elvis Costello got into a fight with Stephen Stills and called Ray Charles "a blind, ignorant n-gger." There was an enormous shit storm at the time, yet Costello seems to have been completely forgiven in the public eye. I'm willing to bet that most people have either forgotten about this, or never knew about it in the first place. Can you listen to Elvis Costello the same way now, knowing what he said?

Well, there goes any lingering respect I might have had for Costello (never liked his music anyway).

[sheldonm]

I guess I was most reminded of the time when Elvis Costello got into a fight with Stephen Stills and called Ray Charles "a blind, ignorant n-gger." There was an enormous shit storm at the time, yet Costello seems to have been completely forgiven in the public eye. I'm willing to bet that most people have either forgotten about this, or never knew about it in the first place. Can you listen to Elvis Costello the same way now, knowing what he said?

Well, there goes any lingering respect I might have had for Costello (never liked his music anyway).

I enjoy Elvis and never knew about the above......poor judgement and lack of class on his part for sure!

m~

[clifford_thornton]

"Kramer" will now just be the name of the dude in Bongwater.

[robviti]

"Reacted poorly"? Uh, he went on a 3 minute racist rant about how they should be lynched and used the slur repeatedly. White folks who are not racist do not do that, no matter how they are provoked.But, uh, black people are f'ed up, in your words, so I guess it's OK. Stop defending this dickhead. Goodness!

exactly when did say blacks should be lynched? he lost control, no question about it. but to label him a racist based on this solitary incident is wrong imo. he used hateful, racial language to express his anger and frustration, and i find that offensive. but you'd be surprised how many seemingly decent people are capable of lashing out angrily in stressful situations, saying horrible things. listen, richards sincerely apologized in public shortly after the incident. that counts for something in my book. our political leaders could learn a thing or two from this example of how to accept responsibility instead of spinning and covering up.

[md655321]

How many non-racist white people scream nigger repeatedly? None that I know of. How many say ""Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your ass." ? Thats pretty damn close to lynching language.

I don;t understand the whole 'he might not be racist because of this one isolated incident.' Its like saying Kobe might not be a rapist because of one isolated incident where he raped someone.

[Evonce]

I can often overlook certain unattractive truths about artists or entertainers, but this racist name calling is too far over the line and too direct. If he just flipped out, that's forgivable, but to throw logs on that particular fire...well, I'm afraid my lingering fondness for Seinfeld just stopped lingering. It's not something I'm going to be able to "forget" any time soon.

I always knew that tidbit about Elvis Costello, but I never liked his music anyway. Nowadays, his name calls to mind birthday cake and how much I admire Gary Peacock.

[Free For All]

Here's one account of the Kaufman appearance on "Fridays"........

[Noj]

Its like saying Kobe might not be a rapist because of one isolated incident where he raped someone.

Inaccurate comparison.

[Randy Twizzle]

This 1993 magazine cover carries new meaning. Yes he can break free...it's taken 13 years but by god he's done it!

[Guy Berger]

How many non-racist white people scream nigger repeatedly? None that I know of. How many say ""Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your ass." ? Thats pretty damn close to lynching language.

The lynching language seals the deal here. Like Mel Gibson, he didn't settle for saying one or two racial slurs.

Guy

Edited November 21, 2006 by Guy