By now we've all heard or heard of the Michael Richards' Mel Gibson impression at the Laugh Factory in L.A. earlier this week.
TV's Kramer let fly with a stream of unconsciousness filed with racial epithets hurled at audience members who had heckled him mercilessly during his stand-up "comedy" routine.
No doubt, Richards' tirade was way out of line. As a professional, he should be able to handle hecklers in a way that makes them look stupid, not the other way around.
But to paraphrase Hamlet (author of Shakespeare, the Hollywood smash hit) "I come not to honor Kramer, but to bury him."
After his sincere apology on the David Letterman show last night, I think it's clear that he is contrite. His career is all but over and he's certainly worried about igniting some kind of Rodney King-esque race riot.
The best course of action on all sides of this is to accept Richards' apology and let the healing begin.
tagged: movie, YouTube, video, Kramer, culture, race, racism, Michael Richards, Letterman
Umm . . .
ReplyDeleteThat wasn't Hamlet you were paraphrasing but Mark Antony from Julius Caesar.
Sorry--the English teacher in me just reared his ugly head.
Wow!
ReplyDeleteI found this link on Slate --
http://www.slate.com/id/2154165/
-- congrats on the national exposure, emaw!
John, thanks for catching that. Actually I was being ironical (Hamlet didn't really write Shakespeare. I think Anne Hathaway did).
ReplyDeleteJoel,
Yeah, I saw that link coming through on the traffic log. Further proof that they'll post anything in the rag. Actually, with that many hits, I'm surprised nobody has taken issue with what I wrote.
"Cocaine's a helluva drug."
ReplyDelete