Kramer Loses It

If a well-known Hollywood conservative says something racist or bigoted, you can rest assured it will be all over the news. Mel Gibson, for example. If the bigot is a more typical Hollywood pagan, well, they just pretend it never happened. Consider this story about Michael Richards, better known for playing "Kramer" on the Seinfeld TV series. (Warning: harsh language.)

Richards, who played the wacky Cosmo Kramer on the hit TV show "Seinfeld," appeared onstage at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. Kyle Doss, an African-American, told TMZ he and some friends were in the cheap seats and he was 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 we'd have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your ass."

Richards continued, "You can talk, you can talk, you're brave now motherf**ker. Throw his ass out. He's a n****r! He's a n****r! He's a n****r! A n****r, look, there's a n****r!"

The crowd is visibly and audibly confused and upset. Richards responds by saying, "They're going to arrest me for calling a black man a n****r."

One of the men who was the object of Richard's tirade was outraged, shouting back "That's un-f***ing called for, ain't necessary."

After the three-minute tirade, it appears the majority of the audience members got up and left in disgust. FULL STORY AND VIDEO

Hat Tip to The Curt Jester for this heart-warming story about the tolerant, compassionate Hollywood Left.

UPDATE 11/21/06 - Ok, so I was wrong. The story is in my left-wing hometown paper, the Austin American-Statesperson. Even CNN is covering it. I'm changing the title of this post, which was originally called "A Story You Missed."

Mr. Richards appeared on David Letterman last night to apologize and said he is not a racist. Fair enough - I'll take him at his word, in the absence of other evidence. Nevertheless, there is a point to be made here about liberal hypocrisy. Fr. Jay Toborowsky of Young Fogeys said it better than I can:

It wasn't too long ago that something similiar happened to Mel Gibson, and Hollywood went ballistic about an uncontrolled tirade full of bigoted comments. Only some things were different: Mel's comments were included word-for-word in every journalistic account of the story, while Michael's are being asterisk'ed out and described with an ambiguous "racist remarks". Mel was documented to be intoxicated, while Michael was essentially "at work". Gibson has been the target of late-night comedic jokes and insults, while Michael was given free airtime on David Letterman and a sympathetic forum from Dave and Jerry Seinfeld to publicly express his contrition. Gibson has been called "The Most Frigid" Hollywood personality because Hollywood as a corporate body has decreed Mel needs to be punished for his deeds. Season 7 of "Seinfeld" comes out tomorrow on DVD; think anyone will suggest a boycott to show the same attitude towards Richards?

Both men deepy wish they could turn back time and lose their respective 15 minutes of infamy. But for now, why does it seem that Mike is in nowhere as much hot water as Mel? Hmmm, guess it's a good thing Mike never made a Jesus movie.