Kramer’s a racist!
No, probably not, but you’ve heard the story by now: Michael Richards recently mouthed-off to some hecklers at a comedy club, calling them “niggers,” among other things. CNN was covering the story this morning — since he made a public apology on Letterman last night — and what I found most remarkable wasn’t his infraction; it’s that they were interviewing Sinbad and Paul Rodriguez for a response.
I’m sorry — Sinbad? Paul Rodriguez? What is this, Comic Relief ‘86? [Editor’s note: upon further research, Sinbad wasn’t even invited to Comic Relief in 1986. How pathetic. JNY]
Seriously, these two are speaking on behalf of African-Americans and Hispanics? Even more incredibly, they’re speaking on behalf of comics, on the whole? What, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, and Bill Cosby were otherwise engaged? (And doesn’t that say something in itself?)
Look, he shouldn’t have said what he said; it’s deplorable — and, really, if you’ve made a career of performing before an audience, you should know better than to take the bait, or to take the stage after a bad day. Richards is probably trying to salvage his career — but whose career would that be, exactly? Matt LeBlanc’s? More importantly, he’s probably trying to salvage his character.
If that was, in fact, his intent, then he should apologize directly to those he offended; if I, as a corollary, also took offense? Then that’s my own problem. Seriously — march back down to that comedy club, speak your piece (peace?), and respect the response it engenders. Too many people assume that the gesture of making an apology implicitly demands forgiveness, whereas rarely will the two share a room.
In the meantime, when’s the rest of the Comic Relief crew going to weigh in? Or — oh — I guess we don’t care what Jews, women, and white guys might think of his behavior. Lord knows, they have their hands full with Mel Gibson.
