Former Seinfeld goofball Michael Richards is hoping to recover slightly from his career-ending racist heckler tirade at a comedy gig last November. He used the dreaded “N” word repeatedly and made an outrageous serious lynching reference to some people talking in the audience. Multiple apologies and attempts to make amends to the black community couldn’t erase the public’s memory of his angry outburst.
Comedian Bernie Mac, a friend of Richards, is going to hold a Friars Club comedy roast of the unfunny bigot with a team of four other African American comedians. He hopes it will help bring him back in the good graces of the public:
The 57-year-old former “Seinfeld” star – who was publically skewered for berating hecklers with the “n” word during his comedy club routine last year – will be put on the hot seat in a celebrity roast hosted by Bernie Mac.
A huge fan of the classic Dean Martin TV roasts, Bernie has lined up Michael to be the first “guest” grilled by fellow comedians for a new series of Friars club Roasts, which will air on cable and be released on DVD.
“Bernie and a panel of four other black comedians are preparing to verbally torch Michael for his past work and the public furuor he caused with his racist tirade,” said an insider.
Michael’s actually looking forward to the embarassing evening, said the insider.
He’s hoping the public humiliation will help improve his tarnished reputation….
Although you can be sure the remarks by Bernie and other comics will be cruel and merciless, Bernie is actually a friend of Michael.
[From The National Enquirer print edition, April 2, 2007]
That’s nice of Bernie and all, and I think that Richards does need to get a public lashing, but at the same time the guy doesn’t deserve another chance at a comedy career. He blew it royally.
Comedians are supposed to know how to handle hecklers and talkers, and if they don’t keep their cool the least they can do is to swear and throw shit like a normal person having a freak-out. Richards didn’t just use the “N” word, he brought up the shameful strange fruit past of the South as if murder was justifiable punishment for talking a little smack over his act. He said “50 years ago we’d have had you up a tree with a fork up your ass.” 50 years ago a little 14 year old boy was murdered in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman. You don’t joke about things like that, and the way Richards said it, it wasn’t a joke.
Richards needs to go away for good and live in comfortable shame off the Seinfeld royalties.
come now, you’re being way too hard on the man. he’s not a racist, and not a bigot… although i freely admit that he’s not funny either. he was great in seinfeld, but obviously isn’t cut out to be a stand-up comedian. i’ve seen the video footage, and he was trying to shock the audience, he was winging it and tried to get shock laughs. it was stupid of him, and it wasn’t funny on any level… but he didn’t mean any harm. if he’s good friends with bernie mac than he’s obviously not a racist! if he was a bigot than he wouldn’t want to be close with bernie, nor would bernie want to be close with him. cut him some slack. besides, the 1st amendment, freedom of speech, is what makes america so great, and if gloria aldridge has it her way, that will go out the window… it’s a slippery slope. what’s next, not being able to make stupid unfunny jokes about president bush?
What Richards did was like joking about murdering the president. Of course you can make fun of the man, but if you joke in a public forum about murdering the president, the Secret Service will show up at your door soon afterwards. We’re not talking about the use of a forbidden word to get laughs or make a point, he made a reference to killing people for a minor offense because they’re black, and he meant it.
Oh please. Its not as if the man raped children or anything. He’s a funny sitcom comedian but he obviously isn’t a talented stand up comedian and his lack of experience showed in his reaction to a heckler.
It’s so easy to point fingers at other people’s faults and mistakes. Every everyone who is trying to bury this man should learn a little forgiveness.
it’s called white privelege…and sure he and Bernie Mac are ‘friends’…they hang out together at the Country Club. sounds my mother-in-law calling her maid Ruby her good friend but she still makes her come in through the back door. I’m sure this is a business arrangement and Bernie Mac is all too happy to ‘roast’ MR.
you know, he didn’t call all black people niggers, he only said it to one specific guy. at the time, he was trying to say the worst possible thing he could to this man, and that word was “nigger”. name me a worse word to use against a person of african decent if you’re trying to actually demoralize the man.
that said, he’s only been funny as Kramer, and Kramer was only funny because of Seinfeld.
I agree with rat, he was mad and came up with the worst thing he could think of to call that guy, who deserved to be retaliated against. Kinda like when I called my step father a goddam mother fucking son of a bitch. It was the nastiest thing my brain could spit out on short notice.
I don’t anger easily or often but I’ve certainly said things I didn’t really mean when angry. I’ve called someone a faggot before, and I love gay guys. He was an asshole and it fit him. Doesn’t make me anti-gay, just anti-that guy.
Sort of reminds me of Mel Gibson telling a woman in his audience to “f” off. Not exactly done tactfully. What Richards did was loose his cool and become a spectacle. He made a mistake but nowadays you cannot get away with anything, we all should learn a lesson from this. That said, get over it.
Hear, hear, celebitchy – the lynching reference was particularly horrific. Why are all you people apologizing for him?