<< BAN VIOLATED ~ MAIN ~ CROSSES WORN >>
RACIST ONLY WHEN ENRAGED
Ex-Seinfeld star Michael Richards claims not to be racist, and that rage drove his anti-black tirade. What a very puzzling excuse.
It wasn’t me…I was selling latex all day.
*psst* Professor Van Nostrum might have had something to do with it.
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2006 11 21 at 08:21 AM • permalinkIgnore this worn-out and irrelevant Jew. Westerners who are hateful, hurtful and offensive have hijacked the beliefs of moderate Westerners who are kind and tolerant and beneficent.
It is written. Jihad is the way of peace, with prizes, honey-nut pastries and virgins for everybody to share.
Oh Lions of Islam, remember there is no compulsion in religion. Subsume and protect the infidels who live to resist, and make their women your prophet’s wives.
I wonder if the audience member who called him “cracker” and “white boy” noticed the double standard?
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 11 21 at 09:47 AM • permalinkpache, after reading your profile, shouldn’t you be happy not living in ‘polite society?’ just askin…
Never liked the show, don’t like it today. “Actors” were highly overrated & not worth the heavy breathing they seemed to cause in my neck of the woods at the time (Puget Sound area of Washington State). Seems to have repaired that ‘not much career after Seinfeld’ problem, hasn’t he? Bleh.
OT, I honestly thought this article would be about nuclear winter: Nukes ‘would stop global warming’.
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 11 21 at 10:45 AM • permalinkNext he’ll be saying that it was all part of his act and he only did it for shock value. This really ought to be (yet) another lesson about the new media-with cell phone cameras and YouTube, you had better watch what you say. Go and idiotically shoot your mouth off and you will not be able to hide from what you have said.
The video provides a rare opportunity to observe an entertainer hitting rock-bottom.
Sad. But like passing a car wreck, it’s hard to avoid staring.
Pray for the man. He appeared to be out of his head.
Posted by Rittenhouse on 2006 11 21 at 11:14 AM • permalinkDid anyone else feel like vomiting when he dragged out the Katrina/Race-Relations analogy.
Sort of a, “Hey, at least I’m no George Bush ” angle delivered to his Hollywood masters.
“SEINFELD” syndication makes the careers of untold numbers. They are likely the ones who rolled Mr. Richards in front of the camera last night.
Doubt it helped. Watch for a Dianne Sawyer appearance next.
It was a show about nothing
Which is what he had left in his apartment after the n*****s broke in! Hello? Is this thing on?
Posted by Jim Treacher on 2006 11 21 at 11:20 AM • permalinkI wonder if the audience member who called him “cracker” and “white boy” noticed the double standard?
That would destroy the “victim” myth! Can’t have that, now, can we?
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 11 21 at 11:37 AM • permalinkI wonder how big a head start the heckler/s might have had before the video recording started and what reasons there might have been for the interjections. Premeditated, strategic ego assassination perhaps?
On the other hand, I guess the whole Seinfeld shtick was always about the silly nothings that make life irritating.
His best bits were on the old ABC show Fridays. Ken the Monster, in particular.
Mmmm. Melanie Chartoff.
Posted by Rittenhouse on 2006 11 21 at 12:24 PM • permalinkRichards was just going Muslim—his passions were enflamed, so he went nuts.
Had he just yelled “Allah-u Akhbar” and lopped off a few heads, all would be forgiven, and understandably so.
Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2006 11 21 at 12:42 PM • permalinkBeing an actor (and even worse, a comedian) this guy probably has never had much impulse control. And being on the edge of the limelight now after all the glory years on Seinfeld (never understood that show), he’s probably feeling washed up. When the hecklers came right out and said it, that probably set him off and he couldn’t control himself, he just hit back with the worst thing he could think of. He might even have surprised himself, because in his daily life he probably isn’t a racist.
But I don’t care, because I never liked him (or the show, or Jerry Seinfeld himself, who I think is kind of a creepy pseudo-pedophile).
Hmmmm.
I might be in the minority here but I thought that video was funny as heck. It’s been a long time since a comedian has just simply gone off on people. A lot of them pretend to, but you know it’s not really there.
And yes, as an asian I’d still think that video was funny if Richards had been using “chink” instead.
Posted by memomachine on 2006 11 21 at 02:24 PM • permalink37. ed
And yes, as an asian I’d still think that video was funny if Richards had been using “chink” instead.
I think the black guys would have been surprised.
BTW, I assume you’re Chinese? It’s not quite the same if you’re, say, Japanese. ;p
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 11 21 at 02:30 PM • permalinked again:
I might be in the minority here
As an Asian, yes, you are.
(Two bad jokes in a row. I’m sending myself to bed.)
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 11 21 at 02:31 PM • permalinkOn Seinfeld related news, Larry David has become a committed environmentalist. If you search youtube, you can gag while he goes on and on and having a Prius and changing lightbulbs, etc.
Posted by boxofmatches on 2006 11 21 at 03:06 PM • permalinkHmmm.
BTW, I assume you’re Chinese? It’s not quite the same if you’re, say, Japanese. ;p
Actually I was born in South Korea. Technically that makes me a Gook but I’ve found that the term “Chink” is generally used as a generic asian description that can apply to many different groups in addition to the Chinese. Particularly since so many of you crackers claim to have so many problems in figuring out who is what when dealing with asians. :)
Gook Gook Gook Gookity-Gook.
*shrug* it’s all in the delivery I guess.
Posted by memomachine on 2006 11 21 at 03:19 PM • permalinkI notice from the reaction of someone interviewed regarding Richard’s comedy routine and the use of the word nigger (I was surfing the web last night and cannot find the link) that the use of the word nigger would not be deemed offensive if used within the black community. I find that interesting. That’s all, have a nice Wednesday!
In other racist idiot news-moron calls for white people to be exterminated on C-SPAN.
OK, OK-so he’s not a famous racist idiot. Still, he felt confident enough to get up and spew his garbage at a conference on Hurricane Katrina.
Where was all of the media gnashing of teeth when the white liberals’ were generating those Condi Rice cartoons in 2004 or 2005(I forget)? Remember those “Brown Sugar” cartoons? Funny, I didn’t see those cartoonists being forced to explain themselves on late night TV(tele)?
I’m just asking, you understand.
My first thought on hearing of this tirade was Michael Richards has to work?!?
Really, he didn’t get as much as Seinfeld did outta the series, but he musta got some really bad financial advice if he has to be slumming in the stand-up clubs!!!
Posted by nofixedabode on 2006 11 21 at 03:58 PM • permalinkIt was Global Warmening what done it.
Posted by JJM Ballantyne on 2006 11 21 at 05:12 PM • permalinkAfter watching the video, I’m not sure Michael Richards really is a racist. We don’t know what the hecklers said before the tirade, but Richards’ started out describing a lynching. The audience members laughed at this. It makes me think that they thought it somehow was an appropriate/humorous retort to what had come before.
It was only after he kept going that it wasn’t funny anymore. Richards seemed perplexed—the audience liked his shock-comedy at first but the n-word was apparently too shocking for them.
He should have just showed up at their place of work to heckle them.
“I thought that video was funny as heck”
“what a non-story”Shut up! Fifty years ago we’d have you upside down with a f———fork up your a—...he’s a n——r”.
Yeah, that’s real funny.
Posted by pommygranate on 2006 11 21 at 05:36 PM • permalinkAnyone who listened to a Richard Pryor standup or most of today’s black comedians would wonder about the double standard of someone talking in a racist way to them. I have found many black comedians to be vile and their racist remarks about whites not funny.
That said, I do not excuse them or Richards just astounded at one more case of reverse discrimination.
I’m with RK. The impression I got was that he was more taunting the crowd with their own cowardice over the n-word and their ‘shock’.
All those people getting up and leaving.
Maybe it’s because I’m Aussie and we don’t have the whole slavery guilt collective hanging over us white people all the time, but I just didn’t get what all the fuss was about.
What a pack of namby pambys was my thought.
Than again, maybe I’m just a racist cracker myself.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 11 21 at 06:49 PM • permalink60 Gibbo:
Cracker, per Wikipedia.
I had heard that “cracker” referred to the vulgar habit of making one’s chewing gum crack with each bite.
Posted by Rittenhouse on 2006 11 21 at 06:49 PM • permalinkA stand up comedian who can’t handle interjectors? Gimme a break!
I don’t give a stuff about the language, the appalling fact is that he didn’t have a humourous riposte which would have both belittled the interjector and drawn a laugh from the rest of the audience.
Unprofessional. And to lose your cool like that…
Clearly, this man is not ‘master of his own domain’.
Posted by Apparatchik on 2006 11 21 at 06:51 PM • permalinkAustralia to stand firm over ‘racist’ sign
By Kathy Marks in Sydney - 26 April 2003
The Australian government is preparing to flout a demand by the United Nations for it to intervene to remove the word “nigger” from a sign on a sports stadium in Queensland.
The ES Nigger Brown Stand at the stadium in Toowoomba, near Brisbane, was named after the town’s first international rugby league player, Edward Stanley Brown, who toured Britain in the 1920s. He was nicknamed Nigger Brown not because he was Aboriginal – in fact, he had fair skin and blond hair – but because he used a brand of shoe polish, Nigger Brown, that was popular in that era.
Aboriginal activists mounted a legal challenge in an attempt to force Toowoomba to change the name, which was given to the stand in 1960. The case was thrown out by the Federal Court, and rejected twice on appeal.
Activists then took their fight to the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which ruled this week that nigger was offensive and insulting and said the sign should be taken down.
The Canberra government has yet to respond formally, but the Attorney General, Daryl Williams, said the matter had already been thoroughly considered by the Australian courts. He added that the committee’s views were not binding and said it did not employ rigorous judicial standards.
Stephen Hagan, the driving force behind the activists campaign, hailed the UN’s decision as “a huge victory”. He said: “It would be appalling to think that this sign can stand the test of time. South Africa and Mississippi have removed all racist public signages. A lot of Aboriginal people experience this derogatory term, and if you can’t address issues such as ‘nigger’, what hope is there for our children in the future?”
Mr Hagan also spearheaded an unsuccessful legal challenge against an Australian brand of cheese called Coon. The cheese was named after the man who developed it in the 1920s, Edward William Coon, and the name has been retained over the years despite its racist connotations.
Nigger Boy Liquorice has, however, disappeared from Australian supermarket shelves.
John McDonald, the chairman of Toowoomba Sportsground Trust, said he would not remove the sign unless compelled to do so. “We’re still happy to honour one of the leading citizens of Toowoomba,” he said.Peter Beattie, Queensland’s Labour premier, also defended the word nigger, saying: “He was called that name in a different time and a different generation.”
Source:The Independent UKCommon sense sometimes prevails in Asutralia.
Now if you want to see a comedian who knows how to offend and still be funny, rent a Sam Kinnison video/dvd.
I had the priviledge to see Kinison live in his hometown. He was truly a master.
Heck, I even remember where I was when I heard he died.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 11 21 at 07:53 PM • permalinkPolly & Rob Crawford
Now if you want to see a comedian who knows how to offend and still be funny, rent a Sam Kinnison video/dvd.
That’s for damn sure.
He was truly a master.
You beat me to it…but yes, Kinison was a master.
Sam Kinison
Comedian
1980s comedian Sam Kinison sold out concert halls and earned raves from other comics with an over-the-edge stage act of absurdly angry rants punctuated by loud screams. Raised in Illinois in the family of a Pentecostal minister, Kinison spent some time as a preacher himself before finding his way to stand-up comedy. Kinison was short and rotund and kept his long straggly hair covered by scarves and berets, and in his drug-fueled diatribes he gleefully stomped past the lines of what was considered polite, decent, or otherwise socially acceptable.Michael Richards had a talent, but it was a one dimensional talent, as Kramer. The proof is that he failed in other avenues.
While I completely disagree with what he said, where he said it, why he said it, whom he said it about and how he came to say it, he still has A right TO say what he did. He also now must bear the consequences, which is everyone else’s right.
Just as in the case of Mel Gibson, the Dixie Chicks and God knows how many others, that have taken foot and inserted into mouth.
I just think it’s funny that a guy as weird-looking as that is named “Michael Richards.”
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 11 21 at 08:30 PM • permalinkPeople seem to be easily shocked these days- they’ll stomp out of a venue if some idiot uses a fairly innocuous and very old racial epithet, yet they’ll sit enthralled when some pillowbiters prace about the stage with their todgers out.
All seems a little precious to me.
BTW, I’m an equal opportunity misanthropist, I hate everyone- especially any fuckwit who had anything to do with the production of Seinfeld, one of the most tiresome, pointless, unfunny and pretentious wastes of videotape ever inflicted on the viewing public. I’d say a lot of the mouth-breathers who attended this gig would be fans, so being offended is the least of what they truly deserve.
Meh. Watched Seinfeld, thought it was all right, didn’t particularly like Kramer. Still, given that he was responding from the audience, I don’t think this guy deserves to be tarred and feathered.
Favorite comedian remains Denis Leary.
Posted by Tungsten Monk on 2006 11 21 at 08:43 PM • permalinkO/T but relevant to racism, sorta.
It was just on the news. A group of “muslim scholars” was denied entrance to an aircraft. That muslim organization that fronts for our enemy is taking up the case and pushing for a law suit and protective legislation.
This is a pretty solid indicator that the enemy has not given up on using our air transport system as a weapon against us and is working to defeat the security system by turning our laws against ourselves.
#73 and #75
If its about sex, however crude, its socially acceptable; but if it could be even remotely perceived as racial, it must be vehemently opposed.s beyond polite society.
If the PC wankers get their way, the good burghers of Toowoomba could be sitting in the Tugger Brown Memorial Stand, which would be kind of fitting.
I understand Richards is considering running for Congress in Maryland…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 11 21 at 09:28 PM • permalinkOT But there is a poll over this-a-way about whether or not Australia should go nuke.
I hereby call on Timbonauts to take a moment to think about our fragile earth, and in particular the vast reserves of uranium that are poisoning our environment when they would be probably be better put to use in power stations.
Nuke! Nuke! Nuke!
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 11 21 at 09:39 PM • permalinkRe: “Cracker”
There are two theories as to the origin of this word. One refers to a class of poor whites who lived in the South, and ate cracked corn i.e. chicken feed, because that was all that they could afford. They were too poor to buy grits. When used as a pejorative, it means “poor white trash.”
The other refers to Florida cattlemen of years past who drove cattle to the sound of long bullwhips. As a native Floridian I am proud to call myself a Florida Cracker. I have a 10-foot whip in the trunk of my car, and I can make that sucker sing.
Cracker is a racial pejorative for white people, it implies a rural, racist Caucasian redneck person.
Anyway ... I think he just had pent-up rage from not being master of his domain in too long. I get the same way!
Posted by Shaky Barnes on 2006 11 21 at 09:58 PM • permalink#60, 65
That Wiki re Cracker has evaporated.From http://www.etymonline.com—
“Southern U.S. derogatory term for “poor, white trash” (1766), is from c.1450 crack “to boast” (e.g. not what it’s cracked up to be), originally a Scottish word. Especially of Georgians by 1808, though often extended to residents of northern Florida.”As transient, brutish and ignorant whites, their social status was adjacent to freed slaves, with whom they later had to compete for manual labor jobs, so won a reputation for racism as well as ignorance and violence.
Modern usage extend the range from the Appalachins to E. Texas, congruent with “Redneck”.Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2006 11 21 at 10:13 PM • permalinkProbably rules him out as being a guest speaker at the NAACP any time soon.
Posted by Hank Reardon on 2006 11 21 at 10:20 PM • permalinkIt was just on the news. A group of “muslim scholars” was denied entrance to an aircraft. That muslim organization that fronts for our enemy is taking up the case and pushing for a law suit and protective legislation.
Easy solution: Assign a guide dog to each cockpit crew and have him patrol the plane during the flight.
Nobody move, or the cracker gets it! [While holding gun to own head.]
Posted by andycanuck on 2006 11 21 at 11:10 PM • permalink#17 Auntie KC,
Heh - depends what you mean by “polite society”. I was thinking more in terms of actions than words, hence to my mind Richards, or the KKK or Black Panthers, are still being polite while they’re not taking action on their beliefs.
that said, all three are probably severely cutting back their potential client/supplier base by being offensive to significant portions of the community, which is fundamentally against their self interest & hence kinda stupid… especially in industries where you rely on popular acclaim.
No link, but I believe Peter Jackson’s working on a remake of Dam Busters. He’s wrestling with the issue of Nigger the dog.
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 11 22 at 12:18 AM • permalink#74. Michael Richards while Ginger Rodgers?
Posted by curious george on 2006 11 22 at 12:59 AM • permalink#90, I think Auntie KC is an excellent judge of character.
Since you crave conflict, allow me to characterise your remarks as those of a pretentious, pseudo-intellectual egoist; seemingly taking inordinate pride in your inability to distinguish between the relative power of words and deeds to do harm.
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 11 22 at 01:08 AM • permalink#94 mentalfloss
Erm.. I’m not entirely sure where you’re coming from. I quite specifically differentiated between actions & words. Allow me to phrase the same thing differently: if you’re saying something offensive, you’re alienating people & all you harm is your own interest (and to link back to my original comment at #8, the more people you alienate the harder you make your life)... if you’re doing something offensive, then you’re making it impossible to live in a polite/civil society.
as far as the pretentious pseudo-intellectual egoist goes.. i suspect you may well have summed me up well there, although it’s probably a matter of opinion.
i’d have thought auntie was of the opinion my societal ideals have some potential gaping flaws - which I’m inclined to agree with - rather than anything personal, which is what you seem to be tipping over into.
That said, I don’t think this is really the ideal place to go through the pros & cons of anarchocapitalism or libertarianism. Despite that, I can’t help myself but point out that competition certainly has its place in the interests of meritocracy, even if outright conflict is routinely counter-productive. It’s a question of shades of grey & being able to differentiate between the philosophical tradition of argument and an argument (which tends to escalate and have no practical ‘return on investment’ so-to-speak).
“Cracker”. From “Georgia Cracker”. Farmers and/or mule drivers, whose whips make a distinctive ‘Cracking’ sound. Originating about the same time as “Redneck” (Farmers and/or laborers whose necks bore a workingman’s sunburn.)
Atlanta used to have a minor league baseball team called The Georgia Crackers.
Posted by nofixedabode on 2006 11 22 at 03:42 AM • permalink#95, Well you’ve certainly cleared that up nicely. I can’t imagine what I was thinking!
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 11 22 at 04:09 AM • permalinkJatz Crackers. Also rhyming slang for testicles.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 11 22 at 04:23 AM • permalinkCritics of Ex-Seinfeld star Michael Richards are niggardly with their understanding.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2006 11 22 at 05:21 AM • permalinkYes, why are they trying to blacken his name?
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 11 22 at 05:39 AM • permalink#92 Muzzie,
Jackson will be producing, One of his wonderkids will direct it. Polls suggest he will be dragged from his home and lynched if he changes a single thing. This film is gonna be sweeet.Posted by Daniel San on 2006 11 22 at 07:03 AM • permalinkJust another example of a long term media creature being dimmed from reality and believing they can get away with stuff you and I can’t.
Posted by Dennis, Doncaster East on 2006 11 22 at 09:52 AM • permalinkI don’t think that words like the N word or “Chink”,“wog”, or any other racial term are acceptable unless the particular group uses them about themselves.
I stand guilty of using the word “pom” in postings which I NEVER use in everyday life.
The aboriginal whom the stadium is named after must have had a first name..why not use that?The West would be safe if everyone used a Mac? Heh!
A Mac? Are you some kind of global warming looney?
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 11 22 at 11:17 AM • permalinkNow if you want to see a comedian who knows how to offend and still be funny, rent a Sam Kinnison video/dvd.
I prefer the master, Don Rickles. But Sam was pretty good.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 11 22 at 12:16 PM • permalinkThat’s right, yojimbo, I’ll give MZ a real pounding if he does.
Posted by andycanuck on 2006 11 22 at 01:19 PM • permalink#111: I prefer the master, Don Rickles.
I second that. The great thing about Rickles was that, even though his schtick involved insulting people, everybody expected it, everybody was thus in on it. I remember the following from his show (the part where he would step into the audience and grill people).
Don: Here, you! What do you do?
Nervous audience member: I write.
Don: Home?#111 & #113- paco & andycanuck - Don Rickles is MY kind of comic.
Sarcasm is a high art. Why it doesn’t affect me the same way as the stuff spewed by most ‘comedians’ these days, I don’t know, but there it is, anyway. Maybe because I see the best ‘insult comedy’ as inclusive, not meant to be belittling and mudslinging but to say ‘been there, done that, I see Life that way, too.’
What passes for comedy these days is just name-calling nasty meanness, a cover for homophobia, racism, mysoginistic (sp?) or religious hate. When the one on stage lets it get that personal, he’s lost something of the craft.
#107- the leaguey in question was in fact white- “Nigger” was a nickname. His real name was Edward Stanley Brown, and was Toowoomba’s first league international (‘21 Kangaroos). It appears that he may have been so named becuase of his anaemic, almost nosferatu-like palor- in any case the option was “Leech”, and he preferred “Nigger”.
Findings of the Qld ADC here (and what a pathetic waste of public money- the case was brought by the same dingbat who launched an action on Kraft over its racially villifying bung’ole Coon).
I’ve never heard of “nigger” being used in the context of Aboriginies- the bloke is a fuckwit with too much time on his hands, like so many other members of the perpetually outraged.
CHORUS:
Jim crack corn an’ I don’t care
Jim crack corn an’ I don’t care
Jim crack corn an’ I don’t care
Th old Master’s gone awayVERSE 1
We buried him by a cimmon tree
I placed th headstone there to see
Beneath th stone where he had to lie
Th victim of a blue tail flyCHORUS:
Jim crack corn an’ I don’t care
Jim crack corn an’ I don’t care
Jim crack corn an’ I don’t care
Th Master’s gone awayVERSE 2
The old man died an’ gone to rest
They say things, is for th best
I’ll never forget, till th day I die
The ole Master an’ th blue tail flyVERSE 3
Well, th bees are swarmin’ around your eyes an’ nose
They once kept by th rual clothes
The grasshoppers flies up so high
They missed them, th blue tail flyCHORUS:
Jim crack corn an’ I don’t care
Jim crack corn an’ I don’t care
Jim crack corn an’ I don’t care
Th Master’s gone away
Page 1 of 1 pages
Members:
Login | Register
| Member List
I blame uncovered meat.