WTF?: "Seinfeld"'s Michael 'Kramer' Richards in Weird-o-Rama Onstage Meltdown

Kramer newstory teaser comes on TV
30ish dude: man he must have been waiting to say that for years
me: yeah dude snapped but there's a lot behind that
barberlady2: "If he had done that to me I would have given it right back, cracker this and cracker that, it's on". I would have started laughing cause it's funny.
30ish dude: "cracker" is weak though anyway, they don't care about that shit. cracker comes from the crack of the whip from the overseer. that's like glorifying them.
barberlady1: yeah, ok that's cracker but what about "honkie"? where does that come from?
30ish dude: from the Jeffersons (laughs)
old dude, science dropper: no it's from when white guys came into black neighborhoods honking at black women thinking they were prostitutes.
everybody: oh shit i didn't know that!
old dude, science dropper: yeah i started looking up this stuff in wikipedia when i think of it.

later, actual news story comes on, including quick flash of the black heckler saying he was offended or something generic like that

someone, forgot who: oh that dude could have broke Kramer in half
barberlady2: see I wish they would just come out with it like that instead of lying and being all sorry
30ish guy: they talk about us in the south but at least you know damn well who the racists are, and you know not to deal with that person. It's different out here(California)

news story touches on the inopportune timing with the Seinfeld dvd release, white lady interviewed on the street says she's not buying it:
Several: Aw you know she lying, she's on her way to get one
old dude, science dropper: they just gained sales in the south
someone: Seinfeld sticking up for him, let the dude speak for himself
30ish guy: I can't stand that show anyway
barberlady1: you didn't like it? It was funny, he was the funniest one too.
30ish guy: I bet you be watching Friends too
barberlady1: naw I don't fuck with Friends
me: (nods in agreement)
30ish guy: How you gonna have a show set in NY with no black people? Or latinos or nothing?(not sure if he was referring to Friends or Seinfeld. uh)
someone: all them shows are like that(names a few, gets to I Love Lucy)
barberlady2: Oh you know you weren't going to see none back then. They did all they could bringing Ricky on there.
barberdude: I saw this thing last week where Lucy was dogging him though, said he wasn't a real man and all this.
someone: yeah I saw that, Barbara Walters or something
barberlady2: naw but she was mad at him womanizing, she still loved her some Ricky, she loved her some Ricky
old dude, science dropper: She was vain, only liked to be photographed from one side
barberdude: probably had to, her cigarette smoking ass
30ish dude: Just cut my hair so I can get out of here. You coloreds sure do take a long time doing stuff.
everyone: (laughs)

I didn't say much more than that, trying to hear the story over the black people talking is hard enough. badump bump. I'd much rather hear what white people have to say anyway.(only half joking; some whites are more privy to the pathology of white supremacy on an up close and personal tip than the average black person, especially the type of white person that like to intone earnestly: "y'know everyone is racist anyway". More of that plz.)

There are certain things (like, for example, "racism is bad") that I think everyone SHOULD be blindly convinced to believe.

It is a tricky one though, granted. The US pride in "we are free to express whatever we believe" smacks up hard against the KKK and other such evil gits saying they truly believe blacks/jews/women/etc are rubbish and should all die.

I like that better than outlawing racist speech.

rofl

i love this

The hell?

Blindly!?

I'm 49 and I've never lived in a place where this would pass without comment (extreme comment in most cases). I've never lived in the south, but as an Air Force brat I did live in a lot of places.

And I remember a Barney Miller episode where Dietrich (the kind of intellectual white guy) said "honky" was derived from the nasal speaking tone of Caucasians. The Wiki thing sounds more believeable.

correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't moving towards some kind of common set of beliefs and opinions a good thing? not that it'll ever happen, of course, but this does seem to be reductio ad absurdum in excelsis, so to speak.

dan OTM.

A few years ago, the KKK requested a permit to speak on the capitol steps. The authorities held their noses and granted them the permit. 20,000 of us showed up an shouted them down. I was in the front row and I couldn't hear them, even with their P.A. system.

I like that better than outlawing racist speech.

yes, me too. and superb: you took a stand, you shouted them down, you won the battle. problem is (and remember: i'm a brit so i'm not hearing much chat about this story; it's more "WTF, crazy forgotten seinfeld racism dude" than big analysis time) are people making their voices heard about richards? are pundits/presenters/columnists/"opinion-formers" (euch) denouncing what he did, or are they all looking for ways ("regrettable outburst, remorse etc") to get him off the hook?

http://www.mobhitz.org/mediac/400_0/media/Funeral~home.jpg

-- Trayce (spamspanke...), November 22nd, 2006 2:49 AM. (trayce) (later)

jon was never this good.

correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't moving towards some kind of common set of beliefs and opinions a good thing?

that, my friends, is fascism personified.

yes, me too. and superb: you took a stand, you shouted them down, you won the battle. problem is (and remember: i'm a brit so i'm not hearing much chat about this story; it's more "WTF, crazy forgotten seinfeld racism dude" than big analysis time) are people making their voices heard about richards? are pundits/presenters/columnists/"opinion-formers" (euch) denouncing what he did, or are they all looking for ways ("regrettable outburst, remorse etc") to get him off the hook?

stfu, dickcheese.

"but isn't moving towards some kind of common set of beliefs and opinions a good thing?"

don't think anything's been personified here.

if, however, you think that humans should concentrate more on what binds them together than separates them ... well, by your logic you're obviously a fascist. and i'll give you the benefit of the doubt - your astonishing rhetorical skills notwithstanding - and say yes, i appreciate where you're coming from: imposition of belief systems is never desirable.

however, as dan rightly says, in some cases: why is there any argument?

you "dickcheese" :)

crosspost

i dunno, 1 image per post is a pretty rubbish way of trying to stop other people posting. i have images turned off so it's not gonna annoy me unless it's css or huge reams of text pasted over and over.

thread should probably be locked anyway.

just like aol.

or btinternets.