Seinfeld's Kramer freaking loses it!

"Held responsible for their actions" = "There but for the grace of god..."

 

I think he was trying to do a bit, trying to make it funny. It's why he said 'There's always those words, those words...' but he couldn't quite figure out how to get the audience back.

I think it was just a tragic misjudging.

 

I agree -- a REALLY "botched joke." Horrifyingly botched.

 

"Jerry, I know myself. When I'm out there, and it starts to go down, I'm not gonna back down 'til it's over."

 

So is he now to be referred to as KKKramer?

 

The point is, it's going to be hard to look at Seinfeld reruns now without thinking of him running around on stage shouting vile, racist garbage. Hard to laugh with that image in the back of your mind.

 

It shouldn't be that damn hard not to look at and separate what he did on Seinfeld and what he pulled off the other night. It isn't hard for me to watch Seinfeld get a chuckle out of it and look in disdain at what Richards did in his rant.

On a sidenote away from the thread, those two guys heckling him were in the minority. It's been said in the past that most minority viewers didn't get Seinfeld and that Jackie Childs was the only black actor on the show, thus their reasons for not watching and feeling that it wasn't a funny show to them.

 

I remember Nielsen numbers late in its run had Seinfeld at like 30- or 40-something in popularity of shows watched by blacks and some random show on UPN as 1 (Not that there's anything wrong with that). White America, and media, definitely take their/our views as gospel as what's popular.

Edited:

GRANDPA (to Anna): I thought you said you was bringin' a white boy home! I don't see a white boy! I see a damn fool!

(Kramer stands there, grinning foolishly.)

 

The presser was a joke. All of a sudden Rodriguez sounded like a guy pissed off that someone came and stuck their dick in his mashed potatoes. Comedians strike a nerve: since the beginning of time the punchlines of jokes have been at the expense of whites, blacks, Mexicans, homosexuals ... everyone. We all laugh. Now what? I'm tempted to believe Richards was trying a shtick way out there on the ledge and he just couldn't reclaim balance before falling off. I don't see his rant as a sign he's racist. It'll be interesting to see the Chris Rock's and Martin Lawrence's of the stand-up world telling vulgar and/or race-related jokes that involve whites, blacks, lesbians, whatnot. It just seems like it's OK for a comedian to make really derogatory (but funny) jokes that make people laugh yet doesn't make said joke-teller a racist, because we're all laughing.

 

Good for you. A lot of people wouldn't feel the same way. If somebody you really don't like tries to make you laugh, you probably won't, no matter how funny he is. If Richards had done this while Seinfeld was still on the air, he might be out of a job.

And I wouldn't compare Richards to Martin Lawrence or Chris Rock or even Andrew Dice Clay. Those guys are/were clearly trying to be funny with their racial material, whether they succeeded or not. There was no sign that Richards was trying to be funny, he just got pissed at some hecklers. He may try to pass it off as some Andy Kaufman-like weird comedy, but it sure looked and sounded real.

 

I thought he was just channeling Kramer, and his rant was in character.
It's funny...when Chris Rock goes off about white people or Sasha Baron Cohen gets misoygenist, we usually laugh.