Kramergate
By Mitch Berg
Michael Richards’ Krama’ culpa trudges on:
Michael Richards said Monday he spewed racial epithets during a stand-up comedy routine because he lost his cool while being heckled and not because he’s a bigot.
“For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I’m deeply, deeply sorry,” the former “Seinfeld” co-star said during a satellite appearance for David Letterman’s “Late Show.”
“I’m not a racist. That’s what’s so insane about this,” Richards said, his tone becoming angry and frustrated as he defended himself in a clip from the show played on CBS before “Late Show” aired Monday night.
I think it closes the circle. Long before Seinfeld, Richards was desperately un-funny on the old ABC Fridays SNL knockoff. He was the least funny part of Seinfeld. And he’s apparently a terrible standup.
We can be done with this, now – right?
November 21st, 2006 at 9:36 am
He might not have been funny in Seinfeld and on Fridays, but he was quite amusing as Stanley Spadowski in that cult classic, UHF, starring Weird Al Yankiovic.
November 21st, 2006 at 10:25 am
Forgot that one!
November 21st, 2006 at 10:49 am
You can rag him for “Fridays” but to say that he wasn’t funny as Cosmo Kramer (or that he was the least funny part of “Seinfeld”) destroys all comic cred. Physical comedy is oft underappreciated, but is truly an art.
November 21st, 2006 at 10:51 am
Wow, someone else remembers that steaming pile of crap? I still remember that horrible episode just before the Reagan/Carter election where they did this god awful musical showing what a racist, violent, hell hole this country would become if Reagan was elected. Oh, and no one would have any money or jobs. I was outraged then as a 19 year old viewer and I have never liked Michael Richards since. It was such blatant leftist propaganda, and they were all so proud of themselves afterwords. Who knew that would become common place 20 years later? Frankly, after hearing from him 26 years ago how racist I am voting for Reagan it gives me no end of satisfaction seeing him put himself in this predicament.
November 21st, 2006 at 10:51 am
No, physical comedy is fine. The Kramer character just rubbed me the wrong way. I got the occasional giggle, but all in all couldn’t stand him.
November 21st, 2006 at 1:18 pm
Chad said,
“Physical comedy is oft underappreciated, but is truly an art.”
My wife is quite possibly the worlds most devout Charlie Chaplin fan and every 12 months or so, she comes home with another Chaplin anthology. That’s physical comedy and it’s brilliant. A few odd quirks might be funny but it doesn’t make you a physical comedian.
I never thought the Kramer character was funny but to suggest that Richards was a physical comedian is like saying William Shatner is a Shakespearian actor.
That being said, if you’re a comedian doing stand up, you’d better be able to handle hecklers. It goes with the territory.
November 21st, 2006 at 2:05 pm
As unbelievable as it may seem – from William Shatner’s bio on Wikipedia:
“Trained as a classical Shakespearean actor, he performed at the Shakespearean Stratford Festival of Canada in Stratford, Ontario— in later years generations of Canadian high school students were startled to see[citation needed] photos of William Shatner (as well as actor Lorne Greene) in their Shakespeare texts playing a wide range of Shakespearean roles at the Stratford Festival.”
November 21st, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Good Work Kel, that is hilarious!
November 21st, 2006 at 2:32 pm
kel,
Please see, William Shatner – The Transformed Man. We have an original vinyl copy and we occasionally resort to breaking it out when we have company who don’t know when to say goodnight.
It’s like Ashley Simpson claiming th be a singer.
November 21st, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Doug
>>William Shatner – The Transformed Man.
is that the one with Mr Tambourine Man? I’ve seen that bring a drunken party to a dead stop more than once – some friends of mine used to put that on the box when they thought it was time for people to leave.
November 21st, 2006 at 3:17 pm
That would be the one kel…
Also, check out Andy Griffith’s “house of the rising sun…”
November 21st, 2006 at 7:40 pm
Doug said:
“That being said, if you’re a comedian doing stand up, you’d better be able to handle hecklers. It goes with the territory.”
And if you’re a good comedian, you can make the heckler part of the act.
About fifteen years ago, I saw a comedian do just that. (Can’t remember the club or the comedian…he was a local guy.) Some guy in the middle of the audience started heckling the comedian; the comedian stopped and said “Oh. A heckler,” which started to draw snickers from the rest of the audience.
He drew a small notebook from the breast pocket of his sports jacket, opened it up, and proceded to flip several pages at a time as if looking for something. A few more several-page flips brought forth more laughter. Stopping and bringing the notebook close to his face, he stared at a page very closely; then as a satisfied look spread across his face, he faced the audience again.
“F**k you” was all he said. It brought down the house.
As for William Shatner, for a guy who can’t act, he has what might be the longest resume on IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000638/
The guy has been constantly employed since 1951. Unbelievable.
November 21st, 2006 at 10:17 pm
I’m certainly glad he didn’t lend his racist views to a political website devoted to smearing an independent candidate…Oh wait.
Never mind.
November 21st, 2006 at 11:04 pm
Bill C’s right about UHF although I think it had to do more with the comic genius of Weird Al Yancovic who is ten times more the comedian than the entire cast of Seninfeld put together.
As far as Shatner’s acting ability. As Paul pointed out, he’s been steadily employed for over 50 years as an actor and is probably more popular now than ever. And if you think Shatner singing “Lucy and the Sky with Diamonds” was bad, I’ve got two words for you “Bilbo Baggins.”
http://members.aol.com/smartkid88/BilboBagginsBetter.mov