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Seinfeld's Kramer freaking loses it!

The more I look at this, the more I'm wondering if he didn't "Andy Kaufman" all of us here. Pretty damn bad judgment with the subject matter. But he might just think it's pushing the envelope.

Columbo said:
The Seinfeld box sets are gonna get hammered.

That's not the natural progression in something like this. There will be more sold after this. As surely as people slow down as they pass a car crash site.
 
shotglass said:
The more I look at this, the more I'm wondering if he didn't "Andy Kaufman" all of us here. Pretty damn bad judgment with the subject matter. But he might just think it's pushing the envelope.
It sounded "act-ish" the whole time, to me.
 
The only thing I was thinking during the actual routine that might contradict that was the feeling that he was nervously trying to "intellectualize" it toward the end of his time on stage. "Those words ... those words ..."
 
shotglass said:
The more I look at this, the more I'm wondering if he didn't "Andy Kaufman" all of us here. Pretty damn bad judgment with the subject matter. But he might just think it's pushing the envelope.

Columbo said:
The Seinfeld box sets are gonna get hammered.

That's not the natural progression in something like this. There will be more sold after this. As surely as people slow down as they pass a car crash site.

Shotty, my own $0.02 on the Kaufman theory, adding that I am far from an expert...

Ever since one of my neighborhood friends pilfered his older brother's copy of Eddie Murphy Raw when I was eight, I've loved standup comedy. I've got almost as many standup bits as I do songs on my iPod, I wear the heck out of various standup DVD's, and my XM Radio is pretty much stuck on the uncensored standup comedy station when I'm on the road (unless I'm listening to the Canadian indie rock station because I'm weird.)

Personally speaking, I've always been able to sense when a comic is trying to push things as part of his performance. I can't put a finger on why or what exactly, but there's always a general feeling that this is part of an act in some way.

I didn't get that from Richards.

What I got from Richards was an end-of-the-rope explosion, one that, I will agree, he tried to rope in and intellectualize near the end.

But there was as much acting and art in his initial blowup as there is in a toddler tossing his funnel cake after one too many trips on the Tilt-A-Whirl.

Then again, never have I found Andy Kaufman funny.
 
Is it possible he was trying to say NIGER! NIGER! like the country? Maybe it was a stand-up act and geography lesson.
 
The hecklers were sitting in the cheap seats. Richards was simply calling them niggardly.
 
ifilus said:
The hecklers were sitting in the cheap seats. Richards was simply calling them niggardly.

He did call them cheap motherf*ckers at one point. ;)
 
Black can use the term all they want, why? Because they are the ones subjected to the negative connotations and who bear the weight of the derogatory term. Their use is a way to lessen the impact.

In contrast, when someone who is not persecuted or subjected to its negative connotations, there is a whole different meaning.

Double standard? Yes. Fair? Yes, because its so easy for someone who has never felt the burden of the derogatory term to use it, not so easy for someone who has felt that burden. That's the fact.
 
qtlaw said:
Black can use the term all they want, why? Because they are the ones subjected to the negative connotations and who bear the weight of the derogatory term. Their use is a way to lessen the impact.

In contrast, when someone who is not persecuted or subjected to its negative connotations, there is a whole different meaning.

Double standard? Yes. Fair? Yes, because its so easy for someone who has never felt the burden of the derogatory term to use it, not so easy for someone who has felt that burden. That's the fact.

Gone over that ad nauseum in here. It's understood, I think...
 
Killick said:
I was one of the people snickering at the beginning of the apology. It was like I was still waiting for this to be some gag... like behind him on the satellite feed, the two hecklers were going to pop up with Jerry Lawler and challenge him to a wrestling match. Then, settled in to the completely uncomfortable stretch run.

I'm with you. I was watching the show when he came on and I kept waiting for the punch line. I still wasn't sure it wasn't a gag even after Seinfeld said, ``Don't laugh, this isn't funny.''

The whole thing was astoundingly bizarre and uncomfortable.
 

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