Michael Richards lost more than his temper last week.
If you haven’t heard, Richards, aka “Kramer” on the 90’s series, Seinfeld, was doing his stand-up act at a L.A. comedy club when several hecklers began taunting him.
The hecklers, by the way, are black. Michael Richards, by the way, is white. Anyhoo, Richards jumped the shark. Which is to say, stalking the stage like a caged lion, he launched into a tirade, screaming epithets; not just epithets, but alluding to lynchings while screeching the culturally unacceptable “n-word” over and over again. You could almost see the blood dripping from his teeth.
Was he “doing a Lenny Bruce” or an “Andy Kaufman” referencing the two late comedians noted for their shocking and irreverent styles? Or did Michael Richards just flip out and reveal his racist soul?
Doesn’t matter—apologies on Letterman with Seinfeld in tow and phone calls to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton aside. He broke the rule.
The rule, described by Ojibwe writer Drew Hayden Taylor as the “Ladder of Status,” which he discussed recently in an interview. “In essence, I break it down into the world of geometry. Humor works from the bottom up; racism works from the top down. We can make jokes about people higher up on the ladder than we are, whereas people higher in the culture, white people, cannot. That’s racism.”
That’s racism. And Michael Richards, no rookie to the comedy scene, should understand that concept better than most. But he didn’t last week when he stood onstage and verbally vomited his loathsome bile to a paying audience that, yes, tittered nervously at first, but soon after walked out in unison—no matter their race, no matter their background.
It’s not funny anymore to call people “niggers” or “spics” or “squaws;” it’s not acceptable, especially from some mega-wealthy white dude making a crude attempt to trash talk with da’ little people.
Michael Richards isn’t African-American. Michael Richards isn’t Latino. Michael Richards isn’t Native.
Was he “doing a Lenny Bruce?” Did he “flip out” or simply reveal his racist soul? Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter at all. All the phone calls and mea culpas and charity work on behalf of the NAACP won’t fix it.
Michael Richards lost more than his temper last week. He broke the golden rule of racial comedy. That’s a fact that can’t and shouldn’t be forgotten.
Comments (1)
Right on Carole. But I saw an interview on CNN with the "victims" and their ambulance chasing lawyer and I don't know who's worse Richards and his bad mouth or the hecklers looking to get some money out of it all.
Posted by Phil Sedelheim | November 24, 2006 12:16 AM
Posted on November 24, 2006 00:16