2008 Woodie Awards
Is Kramer's career over?
Head-to-Head
Issue date: 12/1/06 Section: Opinion
Originally published: 11/30/06 at 9:25 PM EST
Last update: 11/30/06 at 9:33 PM EST
- Page 1 of 1
Richards crossed line, career is over
By Nick Kelley
I want to give Michael Richards a cross - will he hang himself on it, or burn it in front of a church?
So he says he's not a racist.
Apparently "Fifty years ago we'd have you upside-down with a f------ fork up your ass" isn't racist.
Well, words like those don't come from the mouth of someone who isn't a racist.
I watched the live video of the segment online when it was first posted, and I was in shock.
Here's a man who had a great career in television. "Kramer" basically set him up for life - and a good shtick doing stand-up at clubs -what happens? He let's a few slurs fly and he's blackballed?
Well, he should be. The first rule of speaking is to not alienate your audience.
Richards did just that - and he did it smashingly. He, without provocation, screamed disparaging remarks again and again - using the N-word several times.
That's not the sign of the most diversity-friendly individual.
And he's not the only one, either.
Tom Cruise spouted off about how one of his fellow celebs was defective because she sought treatment for post-partum depression - something tragic that he doesn't have the right to attack.
Mel Gibson was pulled over and started in with his anti-Semitism a few weeks ago in California.
Granted, he was drunk out of his mind and not in complete control of his faculties.
There is an expression: "In vino veritas" - it means that in wine, there is truth.
I wonder how much wine it took for Mel's "truth" to come out. Quite a lot, if you ask the police.
But Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise now mean "Joke" in my language.
I honestly can't take anyone seriously after he or she insults women who have post-partum, or insults Jews because he blames them for putting his god on trial two millennia ago.
Michael Richards is the same way.
I can't take him seriously for what he said at that club. Hell, I can't even take him humorously anymore. I just don't want to look at something like that and know that beneath the whimsy and fun is a man who has serious issues with people of a different skin color.
To me, it's not worth it to ignore what a bigot he is because he can make me laugh at times - he lost his license to offend when he suggested that half-a-century ago lynching was okay.
The man's career is over.
Unless he starts doing stand-up in Texas for the KKKlub, he's finished.
Even his tawdry mea culpa on "Today" doesn't change my mind.
In fact, that he felt he needed to apologize on live network television doesn't impress me: I'm as fake as they come, and would I use "Today" to mend fences if I could?
Definitely.
I doubt his sincerity: he's an actor and he lies for a living.
His apology on Letterman could've been a border-line disaster if he didn't have his clean-cut ex-employer, Jerry Seinfeld, standing up for him on the program.
As Richards apologized, Seinfeld was hushing the crowd so they wouldn't laugh at him.
That he's in anger management counseling doesn't inspire much confidence in the idea that he's well-balanced but having a bad moment onstage, either.
His credibility is wrecked, and that's suicide for a performer. He has little choice now but to pack up his show and throw in his dirty, white sheets.
OR
He will always be known as Kramer
By Todd Costello
Mel Gibson hates Jews. I'm not saying that from personal beliefs, I'm saying that from all the media coverage, jokes, videos, and fake news coverage that I saw after his public relations blunder.
Do you know what happened to Mel Gibson?
He continued making millions and has a new movie, "Apocalypto: Mysterious Fall of the Maya Empire," coming out that is definitely on my must-see list.
Why would I want to see this movie put out by a Jew-basher?
Because Mel Gibson is in the business of entertainment and despite of his image, he can still make a damn good movie when he wants to.
I have been a loyal Seinfeld fan since day one. I own all the seasons up-to-date and plan on getting season seven in the near future since it just got released.
Why would I want to buy season seven of Seinfeld, even after this ridiculous display of racial ignorance by Kramer?
Because Michael Richards is in the business of entertainment and he plays a damn good Kramer.
What I'm getting at is the people who say that his career is over and he'll never get work again, are wrong.
First off, have you ever seen his stand-up routine?
You probably haven't and the reason for this is because he is not a good stand-up comic.
He is Kramer. He played the role of an outlandish, off-the-wall neighbor better than anybody in sitcom history.
People act like because of this outburst he is going to be broke, living on a street corner.
Richards can live a comfortable life off his "Seinfeld" syndication royalties for the rest of his life.
I don't think what he said was right or, in any way, could be justified. But, if anything, it might help his career.
Before this incident I forgot Michael Richards was a real person. I just knew him by Kramer.
For all I knew, he could be doing stand-up every night and I wouldn't care because he literally fell off the face of the earth after the last episode of "Seinfeld".
Now, if I hear the name Michael Richards come up in the next few weeks, you better believe I'm going to turn it on.
I don't know if he'd ever get a job offer for a sitcom, but right now his name is marketable for interviews, speeches, assemblies and any other public gathering.
There is another man who went through public criticism and actually had a whole career based around the public's hatred toward him.
His name is Andy Kaufman. He wrestled girls, called everybody from the South rednecks, and played characters that were so ahead of his time, people didn't laugh.
In my opinion, he is one of the funniest men in history.
I doubt that Richards planned going on a racial rampage during a stand-up act, but I'm sure that you've heard the expression, "Any publicity is good publicity."
By one way or another, Richards is back in the press.
What is still to be seen is how he handles himself after a few more public apologies, and which direction he will take.
When people say that he will be remembered for his racial remarks for the rest of his career, I disagree.
In a few years, this will blow over.
However, I will still own every season of "Seinfeld" and see Michael Richards as the crazy neighbor who barges through doors, wears outdated clothes, loves cigars, is unemployed and who is always getting in situations with his chubby postal-service buddy, Newman.
By Nick Kelley
I want to give Michael Richards a cross - will he hang himself on it, or burn it in front of a church?
So he says he's not a racist.
Apparently "Fifty years ago we'd have you upside-down with a f------ fork up your ass" isn't racist.
Well, words like those don't come from the mouth of someone who isn't a racist.
I watched the live video of the segment online when it was first posted, and I was in shock.
Here's a man who had a great career in television. "Kramer" basically set him up for life - and a good shtick doing stand-up at clubs -what happens? He let's a few slurs fly and he's blackballed?
Well, he should be. The first rule of speaking is to not alienate your audience.
Richards did just that - and he did it smashingly. He, without provocation, screamed disparaging remarks again and again - using the N-word several times.
That's not the sign of the most diversity-friendly individual.
And he's not the only one, either.
Tom Cruise spouted off about how one of his fellow celebs was defective because she sought treatment for post-partum depression - something tragic that he doesn't have the right to attack.
Mel Gibson was pulled over and started in with his anti-Semitism a few weeks ago in California.
Granted, he was drunk out of his mind and not in complete control of his faculties.
There is an expression: "In vino veritas" - it means that in wine, there is truth.
I wonder how much wine it took for Mel's "truth" to come out. Quite a lot, if you ask the police.
But Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise now mean "Joke" in my language.
I honestly can't take anyone seriously after he or she insults women who have post-partum, or insults Jews because he blames them for putting his god on trial two millennia ago.
Michael Richards is the same way.
I can't take him seriously for what he said at that club. Hell, I can't even take him humorously anymore. I just don't want to look at something like that and know that beneath the whimsy and fun is a man who has serious issues with people of a different skin color.
To me, it's not worth it to ignore what a bigot he is because he can make me laugh at times - he lost his license to offend when he suggested that half-a-century ago lynching was okay.
The man's career is over.
Unless he starts doing stand-up in Texas for the KKKlub, he's finished.
Even his tawdry mea culpa on "Today" doesn't change my mind.
In fact, that he felt he needed to apologize on live network television doesn't impress me: I'm as fake as they come, and would I use "Today" to mend fences if I could?
Definitely.
I doubt his sincerity: he's an actor and he lies for a living.
His apology on Letterman could've been a border-line disaster if he didn't have his clean-cut ex-employer, Jerry Seinfeld, standing up for him on the program.
As Richards apologized, Seinfeld was hushing the crowd so they wouldn't laugh at him.
That he's in anger management counseling doesn't inspire much confidence in the idea that he's well-balanced but having a bad moment onstage, either.
His credibility is wrecked, and that's suicide for a performer. He has little choice now but to pack up his show and throw in his dirty, white sheets.
OR
He will always be known as Kramer
By Todd Costello
Mel Gibson hates Jews. I'm not saying that from personal beliefs, I'm saying that from all the media coverage, jokes, videos, and fake news coverage that I saw after his public relations blunder.
Do you know what happened to Mel Gibson?
He continued making millions and has a new movie, "Apocalypto: Mysterious Fall of the Maya Empire," coming out that is definitely on my must-see list.
Why would I want to see this movie put out by a Jew-basher?
Because Mel Gibson is in the business of entertainment and despite of his image, he can still make a damn good movie when he wants to.
I have been a loyal Seinfeld fan since day one. I own all the seasons up-to-date and plan on getting season seven in the near future since it just got released.
Why would I want to buy season seven of Seinfeld, even after this ridiculous display of racial ignorance by Kramer?
Because Michael Richards is in the business of entertainment and he plays a damn good Kramer.
What I'm getting at is the people who say that his career is over and he'll never get work again, are wrong.
First off, have you ever seen his stand-up routine?
You probably haven't and the reason for this is because he is not a good stand-up comic.
He is Kramer. He played the role of an outlandish, off-the-wall neighbor better than anybody in sitcom history.
People act like because of this outburst he is going to be broke, living on a street corner.
Richards can live a comfortable life off his "Seinfeld" syndication royalties for the rest of his life.
I don't think what he said was right or, in any way, could be justified. But, if anything, it might help his career.
Before this incident I forgot Michael Richards was a real person. I just knew him by Kramer.
For all I knew, he could be doing stand-up every night and I wouldn't care because he literally fell off the face of the earth after the last episode of "Seinfeld".
Now, if I hear the name Michael Richards come up in the next few weeks, you better believe I'm going to turn it on.
I don't know if he'd ever get a job offer for a sitcom, but right now his name is marketable for interviews, speeches, assemblies and any other public gathering.
There is another man who went through public criticism and actually had a whole career based around the public's hatred toward him.
His name is Andy Kaufman. He wrestled girls, called everybody from the South rednecks, and played characters that were so ahead of his time, people didn't laugh.
In my opinion, he is one of the funniest men in history.
I doubt that Richards planned going on a racial rampage during a stand-up act, but I'm sure that you've heard the expression, "Any publicity is good publicity."
By one way or another, Richards is back in the press.
What is still to be seen is how he handles himself after a few more public apologies, and which direction he will take.
When people say that he will be remembered for his racial remarks for the rest of his career, I disagree.
In a few years, this will blow over.
However, I will still own every season of "Seinfeld" and see Michael Richards as the crazy neighbor who barges through doors, wears outdated clothes, loves cigars, is unemployed and who is always getting in situations with his chubby postal-service buddy, Newman.
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