Always assume the microphone is on. It is THE golden rule of politics. Well, the golden rule of life is fast becoming always assume the someone has a camera or phone. The private is now public. Fuck up… and whole world is going to know! Which brings us to Michael Richards. As Kramer, he was… well… Kramer! Now, some ten years since the end of Seinfeld, he’s back in the news. This time, though for all the wrong reasons. On Friday night (17/11), Richards got a little upset at being heckled during a stand-up show in LA. He railed at several African-American audience members for heckling his act, using racially charged epithets, to a point where many audience members walked out and he himself simply dropped his microphone and walked off the stage.

In response to the heckling, Richards responded by launching into this amazing diatribe:

Shut up! 50 years ago, we’d have you upside down with a fucking fork up your ass! You can talk, 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! Oooh, ooh! All right, you see? This shocks you. It shocks you to see what’s buried beneath, you stupid motherfuckers?

The full video is below… insert warning and stuff for sensitive type people here…

As we all know, some 40 odd years after the civil rights movement, race and race relations is still an issue in the United States. Can anybody in the class say “Hurricane Katrina”! It is therefore no surprise that the preverbial has hit the fan over this one. Michael therefore decided it would be a good idea to apologise. The venue he chose was… The Late Show With David Letterman. In one of the most awkward moments in the history of late night television, a shamed Michael Richards appeared to apologise for his racist rant. As Jude Brennan, an executive producer of “ The Late Show With David Letterman,” put it, “It was one of those things that are a little difficult to watch, but you can’t stop watching.” It wasn’t meant to be funny, but the audience laughed anyway. Richards agreed to appear on the show at the request of his good friend and former co-star Jerry Seinfeld. Jerry was there to promote “Seinfeld” Season 7 on DVD. As Richards began explaining his actions, the audience couldn’t help but chuckle. Seinfeld, immediately scolded the crowd, saying “stop laughing, it ain’t funny.” But the crowd couldn’t help themselves.

The confused fans continued to chuckle, and Richards seemingly blamed Letterman for the awkwardness. “I’ve already heard you make some jokes about it and that’s OK, but I’m really busted up about it.” Richards admitted that he may have acted without thinking. “I’m hearing your audience laugh … and I’m not even sure that this is where I should be addressing the situation.” Accoring to Brennan, “This was all Jerry’s doing. He came to us and said: ‘I’d like to be able to do this for my friend. I know he’s just shattered by this’.” The producers took the proposal to Dave Letterman, who is also a longtime friend of Seinfeld. Letterman approved the plan, “mainly because Dave knew how important this was to Jerry.” Letterman was actually taping two shows on Monday (21/11), one that would be saved for this Friday night. The earlier show, with Mr. Seinfeld, was taped earlier than usual, at 4:30 p.m. Many of the audience members were not even aware of the incident with Richards at the comedy club, according to Brennan. When Seinfeld appeared and began talking about the situation with Michael Richards and how he wanted to give him a chance to come on the air and apologize, much of the audience still seemed to think it was part of a comedy bit. Indeed, during the first part of Richards’s comments, even though he was clearly distraught and expressing abject regret, some of the audience reacted with laughter, until Seinfeld gently mentioned that the interview was not meant to be funny.

Richards made his apologies and said he had some “personal work to do.” After the interview, Seinfeld said he loved Richards and wanted him to find a way to deal with this issue. When he finished, he thanked DAvid Letterman for allowing him the chance to bring Michael Richards on the show. Brennan said he thanked Letterman again off the air. “He could not have been more sincere,” she said. The video of the segment on Letterman can be viewed here, or alternatively on YouTube by doing a search for Michael Richards. Compelling stuff.

As an aside, Mel Gibson must be sitting at home in Malibu going “Thank You Michael”!

Seems that everybody is interested in Michael Richards again!

New York Times article can be found here.
TMZ article can be viewed here…
Also check out Damo_Suzuki’s interesting take on the situation…

“Am I Crazy? Or am I so sane that I just blew your mind!?”
— Cosmo Kramer