Michael Richards loses it

[Nathans_Dad]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amjUNF_R_PY

Completely uncalled for. The guy obviously lost his cool in a major way. His Kramer stuff was really classic, but I'm not sure he has much more left in the comedic tank.

Of course, I think it is ridiculous that if the comedian was another black man instead of a white man everyone would have thought it was perfectly fine....

[Steve Carlton]

Unbelievable. I understand he's on Letterman tonight to apologize.

[dd74]

Local morning entertainment news was all over it. I think he's lost his bearings.

As an aside, I wonder, divided among ethnicities, who in The Laugh Factory was laughing and who was whistling with distaste.

[TheMentat]

Wow... he totally lost it! Kinda sucks that we didn't see what set him off though.

[dd74]

Originally posted by TheMentat
Wow... he totally lost it! Kinda sucks that we didn't see what set him off though.

Hecklers, some have said.

[TheMentat]

Originally posted by dd74
Hecklers, some have said.

I'd say definitely hecklers... unfortunately for him, it seems that the cameraperson had edited the film to maximize the negative portrayal of the comic (not that he needed any help).

[dd74]

Originally posted by TheMentat
I'd say definitely hecklers... unfortunately for him, it seems that the cameraperson had edited the film to maximize the negative portrayal of the comic (not that he needed any help).

Yes, I agree. Richards is in a world of hurt right now. Anything racial in H'wood, is just not cool. In fact, Hollywood tries too hard in the opposite direction.

I mean Will Smith as Jim West from "Wild, Wild West" was just...I don't know...strange for the sake of being different and PC.

I asked a British friend if we'd ever see a black James Bond, and he said Ian Flemming would do backflips in his grave before that happened.

[Sonic dB]

If you listen to his voice, it doesnt sound like he is all that angry...

It sounds like he is trying to be like "Lenny Bruce",
similar to what Dustin Hoffman did in the movie "Lenny" and the N word...

But it was not clever, did not come off well, and was very offensive. His career is Toast for now....

[jluetjen]

Now if that had been Richard Pryer -- it would have been called edgy.

Personally, I'm pretty offended by most of the terms thrown around on that clip. I just don't find calling someone an insult particularly clever comedy. If a comic wants to refer to themselves in those terms and make it funny, good for them. But to use them on anyone else is just pretty ugly. And that whole clip was ugly.

[dd74]

Originally posted by jluetjen
Now if that had been Richard Pryer -- it would have been called edgy.

And isn't that odd? That once this sort of behavior was acceptable, even if edgy? Look at All In The Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and all the stereotyping then.

My question is, did we become so self-aware, or did Hollywood push into being so self-aware?

I mean, now, a Quentin Tarantino movie like "Pulp Fiction" would kill a career - and that movie is only ten or fifteen years old.

[slow&rusty]

I'm disgusted...and I always held Michael Richards in high regard even since since days with Weird Al on the movie UHF (and before that).

I always thought of him as the "life" on Seinfeld.

If you are going to get up infront of a live audience and try and make them laugh, heckling, talking and even people being rude and wise asses is part of what you signed up for. If not leave in a blaze of glory like the Seinfeld days and give people something good to remember you by not this crap that.

A REAL good way to ensure you stay unemployed and work every seedy, musty basement comedy club in every tiny town from coast to coast oh and travel by Greyhound.....maybe a good way to eventually get an "E-True Hollywood" story 20years from now.

And no amount of Letterman apology is going to help...too late partnuh...your clock is now officially cooked.

Yasin

[Sonic dB]

See the movie "Lenny" and then watch the Richards clip...

Im convinced that he was trying to emulate Lenny Bruce...
he almost quotes him exactly... but he didnt know the routine...
and it came off very very badly.

[CJFusco]

Originally posted by dd74
I mean, now, a Quentin Tarantino movie like "Pulp Fiction" would kill a career - and that movie is only ten or fifteen years old.

I'm not sure what you mean. I don't think PULP FICTION would be a career-killer in any contemporary era. Sure, we are overly PC now, but I don't think it was THAT much different 10 years ago.

It seems to me that this was a deliberate attempt by Richards to attack questions of racism (hence his ending the tirade with "those words, those words"), quite possibly emulating Lenny Bruce. I don't think it's difficult for a guy like Richards, semi-washed-up, to see the popularity of proto-bigotry satires like SOUTH PARK, Dave Chappelle, Sara Silverman, etc. and want to get a piece of the action. I think he just underestimated the power/stigma that the "N" word still carries if uttered by a white man, as opposed to, say, Prior or Chappelle.

[M.D. Holloway]

Naw, that Lenny Bruce bit at the end was a cover. He was spiraling down and tried to recover. He lost his line years ago. Sad but the only thing he was or will ever be is a bit man that supports rather than leads. Lewis without Martin, Costello without Abbot, Curly without Moe.

[on-ramp]

what's the apology gonna do, I would just go hide under a rock for the next 20 years, like Pee Wee.

[CJFusco]

Originally posted by LubeMaster77
Naw, that Lenny Bruce bit at the end was a cover. He was spiraling down and tried to recover. .

Yeah, that's a distinct possibility.

[speeder]

Anyone who does not understand the difference between using a racial slur against your own people and another group is just (???)

Pulp Fiction ruin a career? How so? Tarantino is in love w/ the word nigger, but let's face it; he's a juvenile talent to the core. I do not really equate this "comedy" routine w/ Tarantino, though, more like just a meltdown of a really unstable entertainer. Is he a racist? Who knows; sure isn't very smart or funny. That audience member cut him to the quick w/ the *has-been* remarks, a pro comic is never supposed to let a heckler get the better of him like that.

I used to go see a lot of stand-up and spoken word performance in L.A. and have known a lot of comics over the years. Shock is definitely a big part of comedy and sometimes we laugh hard when we know it's a little wrong, but I cannot imagine how this tirade could have "worked", he was just losing it on an ostensibly rude audience member or two who talked through his routine. The Laugh Factory normally has a pretty black audience, he must have gone in there w/ a chip on his shoulder about the way that room treats his boring act. Pretty freaking sad, really....

[ZAMIRZ]

Okay, here's what I got from an eyewitness friend who was there.

Apparently there was a black guy and an asian guy sitting on the balcony. The asian guy was talking to the black guy loudly and obnoxiously from the beginning of the segment. Michael Richards yells up there "Can you guys shut the **** up up there?", followed a brief moment later by "Hey, he doesn't think you're funny" (meaning, the black dude doesn't think what you're saying is funny, to the asian guy), to which the black dude responds to Michael Richards "you're not funny." And the rest of what you see in the TMZ video is what happened. The black guy also said to him before he walked out "I'll wait for you outside."

Apparently afterward, Michael Richards insisted on going outside to apologize, but the security wouldn't let him. He said "I don't want everyone to hate me, I know I went overboard, but that happens, you know?"

Either way, I laughed at the whole thing. It's pretty f'ed up, but I thought it was funny. If I was sitting up there being an obnoxious ******* and then said that to him while he's doing his segment, I wouldn't be surprised or really even mind if he started calling me a sand-n!gger, towelhead, dune-coon, whatever...I'd probably just laugh along and let him go crazy.

[ed martin]

I don't think the guy is a racist per se. I think he just had a complete meltdown. I mean coming from the height of success with his Kramer character to the grind of trying to establish himself as a standup act and really suching at it must be brutal. Maybe if he said " Twenty years ago YOU would have been swinging upside down from a tree with a fork in YOUR arse." I thought it was pretty funny when Paul Rodriguiz said " If your going to say n... you better damn well be a, uhh, ahh- I almost thought he was going to say N... That would have been funny. OK maybe not.

[dd74]

Originally posted by CJFusco
I'm not sure what you mean. I don't think PULP FICTION would be a career-killer in any contemporary era. Sure, we are overly PC now, but I don't think it was THAT much different 10 years ago.

Really? Come out to L.A., and pitch a plot with a lot of black on white tension - no not black on black, but black on white, just like Tarantino, and see how many doors slam in your face. It won't matter what your intent is; all that will matter is how the script/outline/synopsis reads.

If read wrong, it won't be pretty. And you won't be allowed to come back.