public outrage, take 2
Yes, Virginia, there is a "Seinfeld" curse.
Season 7 of the celebrated comedy series came out today, though I'll confess I wasn't waiting in line at Best Buy to purchase the DVDs. My parents were fans of the show when I was in high school, so I've seen a good number of episodes, but it wasn't my favorite or anything.
Seinfeld's lines were always so stilted, and he always had the same "I'm being funny but I'm not supposed to laugh at my own jokes" smile on his face. Elaine was grating and annoying, but at least Julia Louis-Dreyfus could act. Jason Alexander was probably the genuinely funniest of the bunch, but Michael Richards as crazy neighbor Kramer definitely stood out for all the outlandish things he did.
Life, it seems, is imitating art. Richards has eclipsed all his previous attempts at being funny with a whopper: He verbally attacked hecklers during a live appearance at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood on Friday night, and he attacked them not with wit or with humor, but with racial slurs.
He used the N word a whole lot and made positive references to racially motivated torture, then mocked the audience for being shocked in an apparent attempt to pass his behavior off as funny.
The entire incident is viewable on TMZ.com and, to quote the hecklers, "it's not funny."
"It's not funny — that's why you're a reject," one of them said amid Richards' onslaught. "Never had no shows, never had no movies — just 'Seinfeld,' that's it."
"You're right," a sarcastic Richards replied. "I'm just a wash-up."
Well, if he wasn't then, he certainly will be. Richards is no Mel Gibson, who has enough money and Hollywood clout to get projects made despite this year's anti-Semitic incident.
But Richards doesn't have that kind of clout. Which means that instead of us forgetting or overlooking his racism, we'll instead end up forgetting and overlooking him. What studio exec would consider casting him when there are other comedians out there — comedians who, hopefully, won't alienate fans?
The "Seinfeld" curse has struck again. And this time it took the form of actual cursing.