Thursday, November 30, 2006

RANT: Kramer's Craziness Has Become Fuel For A Witch Hunt

By now everyone knows about Michael Richard's outrageous, comedy club tirade. Come on, even more than a week later it seems to be all anyone cares about. But when is enough enough? Is this still about Michael Richards being out of line, or has it turned into a fevered witch hunt?

It's as if lame opportunist activists like Jesse Jackson have caught a sort of racial crusading bloodlust. Was Kramer completely out of line? Hell yeah, and even he knows it. He's been everywhere apologizing to anyone who will listen. Is the guy a racist? Maybe, but somehow I doubt it. It's more like he has a serious rage problem. Ever been mad at someone? I mean really mad, the kind of anger that almost drives you right out of your head. You want to hurt them. You'll say anything to hurt them. I think Michael Richards was so insanely mad he said the most hurtful things he could think of to get back at his hecklers. The result was a racial tirade guaranteed to piss just about anyone off. He was trying to piss them off. He was trying to hurt them. Does that mean he's a racist? Idunno.

In the end, it doesn't matter. This is Michael Richard's problem. Should it hurt his career? Of course. Should he be forced to apologize to save his ass? Definitely. But now we've gone waaay beyond that and tripped into an entirely new realm. This thing has become a crazed crusade which goes way beyond some stupid, nasty remarks from a once popular television star.

First and foremost there's the aforementioned, well-known idiot Jesse Jackson. Richards went on his radio show to apologize, but apparently that didn't do it for Jesse. He's been calling on all Americans to boycott Seinfeld's latest DVD set, as a way of punishing Richards. Huh? Wait, so to get back at Michael Richards you're going to punish people who had nothing whatsoever to do with ANY of this? Michael Richards isn't the only person making money off those DVDs Jesse. What have you got against Jerry? George Costanza never hurt anybody. Sorry man that just doesn't make sense, and the American people agree. Reports are that sales of the seventh 'seinfeld� season have so far been just as high as expected.

Jesse isn't stopping there. He's using this incident to gain political clout and going after television networks and movie studios. His aim? To get them to ban the word which cannot be mentioned anywhere from all television and film. Because if we pretend like no one in the real world says it, then it'll just go away. Right? That's worked great for smoking. Whoops. No it hasn't.

Then there's The Laugh Factory, the comedy club where Kramer completely lost his mind. They're using this as an opportunity to stand up on a soap box and set themselves up as the new moral compass of America. The club's owner is demanding that Kramer pay out a million dollars for each time he used the "n" word in their club and hand it over to charities. That�d mean a $6 million dollar check from Michael Richards. Huh? So wait, we're now fining people for making insensitive remarks? Doesn't freedom of speech protect racial insensitivity? Richards must face the consequences of what he said, but this is almost like writing out some sort of massive traffic ticket.

The guys at the Laugh Factory aren't done there. They're also banning all comedians from using the "n" word in their club. Period. Did you hear that? I think Lenny Bruce just rolled over in his grave. Aren't comedy clubs supposed to be the one place where people can speak their minds? What the hell were people like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin fighting for? Are we really ready to take that big a step back, just because Kramer lost his freakin head?

Sorry, this is going too far. Cool it people. Yeah, it's a loaded word. But words only have power if you give it to them. Kramer's incident has somehow given that "n" word more power than ever. Hell, look at me. I'm afraid to even type it. This could have been an opportunity for people to come together, instead it has become a game of who can stake out the most self-righteous, politically correct stance. It's as if everyone's trying to one-up each other.

Count me out. I'm sick of hearing about it. Michael Richards is a nut, the guy needs help. That should be the end of it. Just shut up. Everyone.

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