'Seinfeld' Star in Ugly Racist Tirade
In a supremely stupid move, former Seinfeld star Michael Richards bitterly ranted onstage at the Laugh Factory Friday in West Hollywood. During his stand-up routine, two African American audience members reportedly taunted Richards, stating the comedian wasnt funny. Richards didnt take the teasing well and responded with offensive racial epithets directed at the men. TMZ.com posted a video of the horrendous three minute meltdown in which Richards made Mel Gibson look like a boy scout.
Richards, who played the wacky Cosmo Kramer on the hit TV show Seinfeld, appeared onstage at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. It appears two guys, both African-American, were in the cheap seats playfully heckling Richards when suddenly, the comedian lost it.
The camera started rolling just as Richards began his attack, screaming at one of the men, Fifty years ago wed have you upside down with a fucking fork up your ass.
Richards continued, You can talk, you can talk, youre brave now motherfucker. Throw his ass out. Hes a nigger! Hes a nigger! Hes a nigger! A nigger, look, theres a nigger!
The crowd is visibly and audibly confused and upset.
Richards responds by saying, Theyre going to arrest me for calling a black man a nigger.
One of the men who was the object of Richards tirade was outraged, shouting back Thats un-fucking called for, aint necessary.
After the three-minute tirade, it appears the majority of the audience members got up and left in disgust.
Richards left the stage, but returned the following evening, completing his performance without incident. He refused to comment about the incident on-camera to CNN, but allegedly told a reporter off-camera he was sorry for his behavior.
Meanwhile, his old boss, Jerry Seinfeld, felt sick over the incident.
In a statement released by Jerry Seinfeld, the comedian said, "I am sick over this. I'm sure Michael is also sick over this horrible, horrible mistake. It is so extremely offensive. I feel terrible for all the people who have been hurt."
I hope Richards saved his Seinfeld money; hes probably never getting a paying gig again.
Check out the video here.
UPDATE: Richards appeared this evening on The Late Show with David Letterman, and allowed Dave to question him about the incident.
David Letterman: "Why don't you explain exactly what happened for the folks who may not know."
Michael Richards: "I lost my temper on stage. I was at a comedy club trying to do my act and I got heckled and I took it badly and went into a rage and said some pretty nasty things to some Afro-Americans, a lot of trash talk, and uh..."
Letterman: "And you were actually being heckled or were they just talking and disturbing the act?"
Richards: "That was going on too."
________
Richards: "...You know, I'm really busted up over this and I'm very, very sorry to those people in the audience, the blacks, the Hispanics, whites - everyone that was there that took the brunt of that anger and hate and rage and how it came through, and I'm concerned about more hate and more rage and more anger coming through, not just towards me but towards a black/white conflict. There's a great deal of disturbance in this country and how black feel about what happened in Katrina, and, you know, many of the comics, many of performers are in Las Vegas and New Orleans trying to raise money for what happened there, and for this to happen, for me to be in a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, you know, I'm deeply, deeply sorry. And I'll get to the force field of this hostility, why it's there, why the rage is in any of us, why the trash takes place, whether or not it's between me and a couple of hecklers in the audience or between this country and another nation, the rage - "
Letterman: "But Michael, let me interrupt here for a second and ask a question about had the people doing the heckling or the people who were not paying attention, had they been white or Caucasian or any other race, what would have been the nature of your response then?"
Richards: "It may have happened. It may have happened. You know, I'm a performer. I push the envelope, I work in a very uncontrolled manner onstage. I do a lot of free association, it's spontaneous, I go into character. I don't know, in view of the situation and the act going where it was going, I don't know, the rage did go all over the place. It went to everybody in the room. But you can't - you know it's, I don't - I know people could, blacks could feel - I'm not a racist, that's what so insane about this, and yet it's said, it comes through, it fires out of me and even now in the passion that's here as I confront myself."
Antisemitic cartoon contest - we have a winner!
Well it's been a tense few months since my previous article on the contest, but I'm pleased to say that the results are in, the judges are happy and we have a decision!
The winner of Iran's "Gratuitous Jew-Hate" cartoon contest is....Mr Abdollah Derkaoui from Morocco.
If gambling wasn't haram, I reckon you'd have got good odds at any Tehran bookies for Abdollah's entry. Most people's money would surely have been on one of the many entries featuring Jewish vampires.
But perhaps such classical motifs are now considered too "obvious", or maybe even a little passé, in the increasingly sophisticated world of Judeophobia.
The cognoscenti were possibly rooting for this hilarious cartoon of Adolf Hitler raping Anne Frank.
In fact, the judges surprised everyone and went for Derkaoui's more subtle entry -a work featuring Israel's infamous security barrier being compared to Auschwitz.
Although the wall in question has saved hundreds of lives since its construction, I doubt the cartoon was picked for its irony.
More likely, they just sifted through the mountains of racist crap until they came to an entry that would appeal to political antisemites sorry - my bad - "antizionists" in the West.
However, on announcing the winners, Iranian Culture Minister Mohammad Hossein Saffar-Harandi couldn't resist adding
"The Holocaust is a myth and this issue has finally made waves thanks to the action of President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad in daring to express himself on the subject and break the Holocaust taboo"
The contest was held in retaliation to the Danish Mohammed cartoons, but rather than asking people to contribute work derogating Danish heroes, bacon, little bronze mermaids or Norse gods, participants were invited to send in their "Holocaust Funnies".
You'd have to have black belt in radical Islamism to see the connection. Certainly Denmark lost Jews in the holocaust, but these days the country is overwhelmingly Lutheran.
Perhaps, I'm looking at this too deeply. The organizers said they chose the holocaust angle for its "shock value". Sure - it was just "Springtime for Hitler" reworked. The Iranian regime aren't just a bunch antisemitic motherfuckers.
"...a gay romp with Adolf and Eva in Berchtesgaden . Fantastic!"
Finally, a big "mazeltov" to Derkaoui, pockets $12,000 for his work. I wonder what he'll spend it on.
George Allen Macaca's His Way Out of Lead in VA Senate Race
One of the more bizarre political stories of this election season centers on Virginia Senator George Allen and his racist remarks made to college student S.R. Sidarth following Allen's campaign trail. Unfortunately for Allen, the remarks were captured on digital video, and have been floating around the web via YouTube:
Whoops! First of all - what the hell is a Macaca? Apparently it's a.... mohawk?
[Allen campaign spokesman Dick] Wadhams said, however, that the name was a variation of "Mohawk," the nickname he said Allen campaign staffers gave Sidarth because he had a Mohawk haircut.
Whether the University of Virginia senior's haircut -- closely cropped around the temples and above the ears, but otherwise full -- qualifies as a Mohawk is open to interpretation. Sidarth said he does not consider it a Mohawk.
That's just about the lamest excuse I can think of. And even if it were an appelation for a hairstyle, it doesn't make saying "Welcome to America," a pretty obvious presumption because of Sidarth's skin color, any less offensive, especially considering that Sidarth is a US native.
What really matters is that this particular scandal's popularity and availability via the internet seems to be having real implications for Allen's campaign, as his lead went from almost twenty percentage points above Democrat Jim Webb to a measly three point margin. Was it just a slip of the tongue or is Allen really a racist? He has been accused of it, even before this whole debacle.
Campaigning for governor in 1993, he admitted to prominently displaying a Confederate flag in his living room. He said it was part of a flag collection--and had been removed at the start of his gubernatorial bid. When it was learned that he kept a noose hanging on a ficus tree in his law office, he said it was part of a Western memorabilia collection. These explanations may be sincere. But, as a chief executive, he also compiled a controversial record on race. In 1994, he said he would accept an honorary membership at a Richmond social club with a well-known history of discrimination--an invitation that the three previous governors had refused. After an outcry, Allen rejected the offer. He replaced the only black member of the University of Virginia (UVA) Board of Visitors with a white one. He issued a proclamation drafted by the Sons of Confederate Veterans declaring April Confederate History and Heritage Month. The text celebrated Dixie's "four-year struggle for independence and sovereign rights." There was no mention of slavery.
None of which constitutes a smoking gun, but at the very least, an intense insensitivity to issues that hold a lot of weight for racial minorities. His latest gaffe may have been more of the same, but at the moment the polls suggest people can't discern any difference.
If You're Going to San Francisco, Be Sure to Take a Hezbollah Flag
Zombie has an interesting hobby. He attends rallies, taking photographs of the extremist nutcases, conspiracy freaks, racists and terror lovers he finds.
His most recent project was the "Stop the U.S. - Israel War Rally" in San Franciso and here's some of the photos he took. He makes little comment, so I'll follow his lead. The pictures speak for themselves.
