Tuesday, November 21, 2006

I’m Getting Tired of This…
In the latest “star goes completely crazy” incident, Michael Richards, a.k.a. Kramer (for that is all he’ll ever be remembered for) has been caught on tape shouting racist comments at an audience member who heckled him at the Laugh Factory last Friday. When someone interrupted his act, he began screaming, “He’s a n****r! He’s a n****r!” over and over, and the audience actually begins laughing nervously, before talking loudly and leaving the place when they realize it’s not part of the act. You can see it at TMZ.com, where they’ve had the video running for days now. Last night Kramer appeared on Letterman, all sober and apologetic, and saying he’s very sorry that he hurt anyone, and he didn’t mean it.
Right. And Mel Gibson doesn’t have an anti-Semitic bone in his body. Remember him getting drunk a few months ago, screaming about the Jews, and ending up with his mugshot plastered all over the newspapers, looking like a looneytune? Don’t worry, folks — he didn’t mean it, either.

Then there’s Isaiah Washington, a.k.a. Dr. Burke on Grey’s Anatomy, who called a fellow actor a “fag” on the set of the show (T.R. Knight, who plays Dr. O’Malley), not realizing the guy really was gay (or at least that’s his story). Knight came out publicly, and Washington released his feeble apology, saying the comments had been “beneath” him. Give me a BREAK.

Oh, and don’t forget the two yahoos that appear in Borat when the Kazakh journalist is picked up by them and they begin to rant about women and black people, saying that it’s a shame slavery has been abolished and they wish they still had the right to own slaves. Now those two brain trusts are suing the show saying they’d gotten them really drunk and they didn’t mean a word they’d said.

I’m SO tired of this crap. Listen, I’ve been out partying with friends, and while I’ll admit I’m not a drinker, it can be just as much fun watching your friends get drunk. And none of my friends use the n-word, denigrate women, or make racist comments. Why? Because they don’t believe it. Alcohol loosens the tongue, and can act like a truth serum. The only reason you would say these things while drunk is because you’ve lost the filter that stops the little things in your brain from making it to your mouth.

Mel Gibson is an anti-Semite. Isaiah Washington is a homophobe who should be fired from the show, not just for his comments, but for the fact he said it to a co-worker, while in the middle of an argument with another one. The two yahoos should be strapped to a chair, forced to watch Borat over and over… no, wait, that’s a good movie… they should watch Walker Texas Ranger over and over… wait, they’d probably enjoy that… um… they should have leeches attached to their eyeballs.

But Michael Richards didn’t have any alcohol in his system. He chalks his actions up to being out of control with “rage” … because someone heckled him. O…kay. He’s not sorry that he hurt anyone, he’s sorry that it was caught on tape, and that he’ll now be out of work. But then again, considering the less-than-stellar career he’s had post-Seinfeld, it’s not like Tom Hanks was the one caught on tape this time. Will this incident be the one to wake up Hollywood, and make them realize they have to stop forgiving their own when they do stupid and hateful things like this?

2 comments:

The Chapati Kid said...

I agree, Niks. I saw the video, and it was just appalling. People are arguing about how Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy can make white jokes, but Richards can't make a black "joke." And I'm thinking this wasn't even funny. This couldn't be taken any way except offensively, because it was so incredibly vitriolic, and mean, and racist, and ... I can't even find words for how vindictive he sounded. At least Pryor and Murphy are funny, and they know their audience, and then know when to stop. Look, David Cross, he makes fun of everyone, gay, white, black. And you simply cannot take him the wrong way, because he doesn't cross that line.

poppedculture said...

If anything, perhaps stars (or anyone for that matter) will learn that they can't get away with this type of behaviour because somebody is going to tape it and put it up on the web. Had nobody filmed Richards' rant, none of us would have heard about it and they could have swept it under the rock he crawled out from. Not now.