Jaffe

Sticks and stones...

Last Friday, Michael Richards, who most of us know as Kramer from Seinfeld, lost his mind on stage while performing at a comedy club in Los Angeles. Two people from the audience had been talking and heckling him during his show, and the result was something I'm sure nobody was expecting.



Last night, Richards appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman to apologize.



Too little too late. Nobody is naive enough to believe that racism no longer exists, or that names don't hurt. But in this day and age, when many people have phones that can take videos, and clips can be posted on sites like YouTube and viewed by people all over the world, Richards' outburst is a very public reminder of the hatred that exists just beneath the surface.

This outburst by Richards comes less than four months after Mel Gibson verbally abused a police officer after being pulled over for drunk driving, shouting anti-semitic statements at the deputy.

Should Richards be made an example of? Is this the end of his career? According to IMDb, Mel Gibson has two movies in production, and both are due to be released in 2008. So is the fallout from this sort of tirade less than 4 months? Or would the consequences for Gibson be more severe if the video of his outburst had been posted on the internet?

posted by Aron @ 8:57 AM