"Cosmo Kramer" comes unglued

Indignant wrote:
Funkenpants wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

. . . once he heard the pain and anguish that the two guys had suffered, the retired judge would decide on some amount of money for Richards to pay out.

"Have you been insulted by a celebrity? You can use your pain to CASH CASH CASH in BiG BIG BIG. Call me at 212-SHY-STER. Don't delay!"

Funken, call this guy will ya and explain to him what freedom of speech is. Laws in this country do protect your right to say whatever the hell you want. They just don't protect you from being an @$$.

So I can sue if some black comic I had been heckling puts me down by using his "White Voice" and calling me a cracker? Cool!

Just to be clear. There are two words. One ends in "er" and one ends in "a". Suburban kids might be able to get away with the "a" version, but not the "er" version.

We all clear?

Well where I grew up, a lot of people pronounce "er" like "ah". The distinction gets blurred that way. I've been called a "nigga" and it wasn't used in a friendly way.

Well, part of it, like I said, is it's history. I'll be honestly, I always bristle when I hear white people say it, for any reason. Because to me, there's always the niggling (*snicker*) question of whether or not they're saying it because they know, in this situation, they can get away with saying it. Whether their intent is something less pure but the words sound harmless, really. That's always a grey area for me.

I feel the same way.

As for Michael Richards, he's just sad. His apology on Letterman was sad. Seinfeld having to tell the audience that it's not funny was just sad. Going on about Katrina and Iraq and forcefields and jujitsu just seemed bizarre. Now I read that he hired a new publicist and is apologizing to civil rights leaders. He's just following the celebrity racist redemption blueprint that has been used so many times before.

Actually I thought about my comment a bit more. In regards to the whole racism thing, I got it pretty good, so I know my opinion's going to differ greatly because of where I live and who I am.

I think if I moved to a neighborhood populated by the Martianese, and day in and day out I was harassed by the Martianese, and these Martianese caused a great deal of strife in my personal life, I probably wouldn't have good things to say about the Martianese.

That would be my own ignorance, because if I stopped for one second to think of the real cool Martianese on the other side of town who are really nice to me, I'd realize that not all Martianese are the same, there's just a bunch of dicks on the other side of town who just happen to be Martianese.

But still, when you have your nose to the grindstone day in and day out, we don't get a lot of chances to cool our jets and stop ourselves for some introspective thoughts. Sometimes we just take the easy way out and say "F*ck those stupid Martianese, they are all a bunch of no-good assh*les"

Maybe there's a bit more to chew on then I thought? Because I can go to my Starbucks and make intelligent comments in the safety and comfort of my little world, that doesn't make me the best observationist. I'm not down in the allys, walking past the stoops, and I have no form of harassment other than my boss in my life.

And maybe dig a bit deeper and look at what causes this tension to begin with? The more miserable you are, the more miserable you're going to make others around you. Being poor can definitely make you more angry. The government giving you the shaft left and right can make you angry. Many, many things can make you angry in this world, and not all of us have it so well. Anger leads to many things, and it definitely is a catalyst for racism.

Gdawg27 wrote:
Just to be clear. There are two words. One ends in "er" and one ends in "a". Suburban kids might be able to get away with the "a" version, but not the "er" version.

We all clear?

Well where I grew up, a lot of people pronounce "er" like "ah". The distinction gets blurred that way. I've been called a "nigga" and it wasn't used in a friendly way.

Well, part of it, like I said, is it's history. I'll be honestly, I always bristle when I hear white people say it, for any reason. Because to me, there's always the niggling (*snicker*) question of whether or not they're saying it because they know, in this situation, they can get away with saying it. Whether their intent is something less pure but the words sound harmless, really. That's always a grey area for me.

I feel the same way.

As for Michael Richards, he's just sad. His apology on Letterman was sad. Seinfeld having to tell the audience that it's not funny was just sad. Going on about Katrina and Iraq and forcefields and jujitsu just seemed bizarre. Now I read that he hired a new publicist and is apologizing to civil rights leaders. He's just following the celebrity racist redemption blueprint that has been used so many times before.

He's so insignificant, though, that I haven't seen Jesse Jackson plaster his racist face all over the news, or Al Sharpton to just call him an idiot, or David Duke to... nah, forget it.

That was awesome, Swat. I have no idea what it meant.

I wouldn't be surprised if the end result of this is that he checks himself into a mental health institution. Just based on both the incident and the Letterman appearance, there's something clearly wrong with the man. All the talk of jujitsu and force fields almost qualifies as word salad.

Just finally saw the apology on Letterman clip on YouTube. He was doing really good until he started in with the forcefields and Katrina nonsense, at which time I thought it sounded like he was almost trying to justify what he did in light of the fact that there are pre-existing racial tensions in this country, as if he was an innocent victim and this happened to him. But he wasn't, it didn't, and most people are going around screaming racial epithets at people in an extremely aggressive manner.

Seinfeld's stock went up in my book, though. Sorry to repeat the pun, but he really came off as a stand-up guy. Well done.

Gdawg27 wrote:
Just to be clear. There are two words. One ends in "er" and one ends in "a". Suburban kids might be able to get away with the "a" version, but not the "er" version.

We all clear?

Well where I grew up, a lot of people pronounce "er" like "ah". The distinction gets blurred that way. I've been called a "nigga" and it wasn't used in a friendly way.

I understand. My point was simply that somewhere after Richard Prior the rules changed. Very few people, even comedians, use the "er" version in jest. I was simply trying to slyly point out that the co-opting of the word hasn't worked. It's still word that strikes raw nerves.

I once yelled at a black friend of mine (yes, I say black, not African American, a bullsh*t distinction) for using that word seriously.

That's how much I hate it. Unacceptable for it to ever be used in any way but ironic.

an Interviewed Real Kramer in Yahoo wrote:

Kramer managed to find a silver lining in the confusion.

"You know what the good news is?" he asked. "Judith Regan is now on a plane to California, trying to sign Michael Richards to a book deal: `If I Were a Racist, Here's What I Would Have Said.'"

If I Were a Racist, Here's What I Would Have Said. -- heheheee..

Proof that Real Kramer is funnier than real-actor-that-plays-Kramer-guy!

Well, looks like that old saying about whenever white people use expressions that black people use it stops being popular may have come true once again. Banning the n-word?

At the press conference, comedian Paul Mooney said he has used the "n-word" numerous times during stand-up performances but will no longer do so after watching Richards' rant.

"He's my Dr. Phil," the black comedian said. "He's cured me."

Rat Boy wrote:

Well, looks like that old saying about whenever white people use expressions that black people use it stops being popular may have come true once again. Banning the n-word?

At the press conference, comedian Paul Mooney said he has used the "n-word" numerous times during stand-up performances but will no longer do so after watching Richards' rant.

"He's my Dr. Phil," the black comedian said. "He's cured me."

That's great, I think. I'm glad black people paid attention to my post and decided to be more consistent =)

Mex wrote:

That's great, I think. I'm glad black people paid attention to my post and decided to be more consistent =)

You should take it on tour. Imagine how much you could rake in doing motivational speaking engagements.

That's interesting about Mooney and all, but I really doubt the rap community is going to take notice.

Hmm, this talk of Mooney makes me want to re-watch my Chapelle Show DVDs.

Well, this didn't take long at all. Lost Seinfeld Episode (NSFW, language obviously)

-edit-
I used a better link that doesn't get unsynced. There's like 20 versions on YouTube and it seems they all get unsynced at some point.. weird.

That was AWESOME!

Ruined by the sound getting further an futher unsynced from the video.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Ruined by the sound getting further an futher unsynced from the video.

That must be your browser... it was entirely synced up when I watched, and it was fantastic!

Vega wrote:

Well, this didn't take long at all. Lost Seinfeld Episode (NSFW, language obviously)

-edit-
I used a better link that doesn't get unsynced. There's like 20 versions on YouTube and it seems they all get unsynced at some point.. weird.

Brilliant.

Thanks, Vega, that link was much better.

I just saw that parody on compfused and was going to post, but oh so late. Freak'n great editing!